Catholic video game rating?

[JRKH]

For many years the USCCB has had in place a rating system for movies. I remember as a teen that we were not allowed to go to a movie until mom had a chance to check the movies rating in the Catholic newspaper.

Recent discussions here on Video games, leads me to ask…does the USCCB have a similar service for video games?
If it exists, can someone point to a link?

If not, should they?
I say yes there should be.

Peace
James

 

[Plomos]

As far as i know there is not a Catholic rating system for video games. Although i could easily be wrong. That being said the ESRB already rates every game that is put out and now days they tend to indicate why it is rated say T or M ex. for blood and gore, sexual etc.

Also I should point out a couple of other things. The idea that violent video games lead kids to commit violence themselves is a myth. There have been no conclusive scientific findings to say that they cause real life violence. As someone who has played video games for years I can attest to this.

 

[JRKH]

As far as i know there is not a Catholic rating system for video games. Although i could easily be wrong. That being said the ESRB already rates every game that is put out and now days they tend to indicate why it is rated say T or M ex. for blood and gore, sexual etc.

Thanks. While an industry system can certainly be helpful, I don’t think it could replace one that is “Catholic” in orientation.
Taking the Movie ratings for comparison we have
The Catholic ratings…
A-I — general patronage
A-II — adults and adolescents
A-III — adults
A-IV — adults, with reservations (this indicates films that, while not morally offensive in themselves, are not for casual viewing because they require some analysis and explanation in order to avoid false impressions and interpretations)
L — limited adult audiences, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling (replaced A-IV classification Nov. 1, 2003)
O — morally offensive
And the Motion Picture Association of America ratings:
G — general audiences, all ages admitted
PG — parental guidance suggested, some material may not be suitable for children
PG-13 — parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13
R — restricted, under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
NC-17 — no one 17 and under admitted (age limit may vary in certain areas)
At a glance these can seem very similar…and they are, but with one very importnat difference. The Catholic rating system can and does “condemn” certain films by calling them “morally offensive”.
The industry rating system contains no such moral judgement. Likewise, with any “secular” game rating system, it can be useful, but will, by it’s nature, refrain from making any moral judgement. A Catholic system would be able to.

Also I should point out a couple of other things. The idea that violent video games lead kids to commit violence themselves is a myth. There have been no conclusive scientific findings to say that they cause real life violence. As someone who has played video games for years I can attest to this.

Accepted…
But there can be more issues involved here than simply whether they lead to “real life violence”. In the various discussions we have here on the forums, we have mentioned different aspects. This is why I think it would be highly useful for the Church to have some sort of official rating system…

Peace
James

 

[Baelor]

But there can be more issues involved here than simply whether they lead to “real life violence”. In the various discussions we have here on the forums, we have mentioned different aspects. This is why I think it would be highly useful for the Church to have some sort of official rating system…

Indeed, there are many issues. But the Church does not really employ official rating systems for any medium.

 

[Kithrus]

I have a slight problem with making a blanket rating system that just paints movies or games in one color. When you rate something a certain way you have two choices in order to do so.

You can either be very specific with multiple grades of codes and letters Example: T for teen 1-10 for level of violence and a letter code again for level of sexual content say N for none I for innuendo and so on so you get something like this for say warcraft.

T4I

Which frankly I don’t think people should need a glossary to find a rating but at the same time the existing method of Esrb of E T M and A is too general.

The other problem of rating something with a code simple or otherwise is that details fall between the gaps. A game may have a higher level of violence then most and would otherwise be ignored by parents but the core story inspires great heroism and the level of realism (within reason) gives context to the horror of the evil of war or the bad guys dirty deeds.

Every rating should be taken with a healthy grain of salt and all parent worth their salt should do more then just look at any rating system turn to their kids and say yes or no without any kind of research.

 

[Joe_5859]

There is nothing connected with the USCCB that rates video games. Perhaps there is some Catholic group out there that does such a thing, but I have not come across it yet.

I think it’s a good idea in theory. The more information people can have in their hands to make educated purchasing decisions for their children, the better.

In practice, it would be difficult to review in a timely manner. Movies are much easier. A movie is usually between 90 and 150 minutes long. You watch it, make some notes, and come up with a rating.

A video game is much more difficult. Some games can take 60-80 hours (or longer) to play through everything. And some games have multiple ways to play through the game, each of which changes the experience. Thus, you may have to play through it several times.

Further, the gamer is often in control of the experience. A moviegoer simply views what is present.

And this doesn’t even begin to touch on what happens with games that have an online component.

The ESRB (the review board that comes up with the ratings for video games) actually depends on the game developers to forward them short videos of any content in the game that might be considered objectionable. If they withhold pertinent info that would change the rating, there are penalties associated with it, so developers are motivated to be honest about it. This is the only way the ESRB can actually manage such a gargantuan task.

To come up with Catholic reviews that actually coincide with a game’s release, one would need to developers to makes such a video montage of elements that touch on Catholic teaching. Not only would the developers probably be ill equipped to pick out such things, they would have no real motivation to do so.

The only way I could see such a thing working is to have a group of knowledgeable and dedicated Catholic gamers to construct a game review website with multiple contributors. That would be no small undertaking. The USCCB movie reviews are able to get by with basically just two guys. A game review site would need many more people than that.

 

[Kithrus]

The only way I could see such a thing working is to have a group of knowledgeable and dedicated Catholic gamers to construct a game review website with multiple contributors. That would be no small undertaking. The USCCB movie reviews are able to get by with basically just two guys. A game review site would need many more people than that.

I could use help with “The Learning Curve”