ESRB Pull Morally Outraged Dead or Alive Content Review [Update]

The ESRB functions as a governing body to highlight and rate dubious content before titles are cleared for release. Titillation extravaganza Dead of Alive Paradise, the tenuous part sequel to the Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball series, recently appeared under ESRB scrutiny but with a distinctly un-impartial slant.

The quote in question (since pulled) read “the game also contains bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want (if given two weeks, paid vacation, island resort)’”Paradise cannot mean straddling felled tree trunks in dental-floss thongs.” Despite the title’s unquestionably male gaze, the ESRB exists to make note of, rather than criticise, a games content. A listing should stand as a descriptor of violent or sexual content rather than an opinionated discussion on the moral value of such material.

Wikipedia suggests that the ESRB occasionally sanctions “raters” to look over upcoming titles, “in essence allowing people who aren’t regular video game players, to review games as if they were the customer and receiving their first glance at the game.” Regardless of source, off the back of today’s now dissipated angry slur, it looks that perhaps it is additional content editors that everyone’s favourite ratings board should seek to employ.

The original listing in full:

[UPDATE]

ESRB spokesperson Eliot Mizrachi later issued a statement explaining the sudden retraction with reference to the “subjective” language found in the original.

The rating summary for Dead or Alive Paradise was posted to our website in error, and we have since replaced that version with the corrected one.  We recognize that the initial version improperly contained subjective language and that issue has been addressed.

Our intention with rating summaries is to provide useful, detailed descriptions of game content that are as objective and informative as possible.  However they are ultimately written by people and, in this case, we mistakenly posted a rating summary that included what some could rightfully take to be subjective statements.

We sincerely regret the error and will work to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Via: Game Politics