{"id":298,"date":"2007-12-04T11:05:48","date_gmt":"2007-12-04T17:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/2007-12-04\/mediawise-isnt-07\/"},"modified":"2007-12-04T11:05:48","modified_gmt":"2007-12-04T17:05:48","slug":"mediawise-isnt-07","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/04\/mediawise-isnt-07\/","title":{"rendered":"MediaWise Isn’t ’07"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"shoppingcart.jpg\"2007<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Parental Involvement: C<\/strong>
\nRatings Education: B-<\/strong>
\nRetailers\u2019 Policies: C-
\n<\/strong>National Retailers:\u00a0D
\n<\/strong>Game Specialty Stores:\u00a0B<\/strong>
\nGame Rental Shops: F<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Video Game <\/strong>Industry: C
\n<\/strong>ESRB Ratings: C+ <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Commentary begins here:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The National Institute of the Media & the Family (NIMF) runs a site called “Media Wise” and they release a parent’s guide each year along with their annual “Report Card.” They’ve graded the video game industry for over a decade now and despite the presence of real experts and PhD’s on their board “accuracy” and “consistency” aren’t things they’re particularly good at.\u00a0 The grades have fluctuated over the past four years I’ve learned they are also completely unpredictable. Seriously. I watch the industry closely and can’t for the life of me figure out how NIMF arrives at these grades.\u00a0 Look at the past couple years to see what I mean: (Thanks to GamePolitics.com for this handy information):<\/p>\n

2006:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Parental Involvement: INCOMPLETE<\/strong>
\nRatings Education: B<\/strong>
\nRetailers\u2019 Policies: B
\n<\/strong>Retailers\u2019 Enforcement:
\nBig Box stores: A <\/strong>
\nGame Specialty Stores: F<\/strong>
\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

2005:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ratings Education: C+
\n<\/strong>Retailers\u2019 Policies: B
\n<\/strong>Retailers\u2019 Enforcement: D-
\n<\/strong>Ratings Accuracy: F
\n<\/strong>Arcade Survey: B-<\/strong>
\nIndustry\u2019s 10-year cumulative grade: D+<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The ESRB has had a couple “scandals” this year (scandals is in quotes because the actual scandal-value was greatly exaggerated at the expense of the truth, and of parents) but they’ve stepped up their “ratings education” so why the slide downward this year?\u00a0 How did Big Box Stores (Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart) go from an A to a D (assuming “Big Box” are now considered “National Retailers”).\u00a0 I’m no conspiracy theorist but are these grades arbitrary?\u00a0 Subject the the whim of politicians and the expediency of their message?\u00a0 Last year had a weird spirit of reconciliation, was that because politicians valued by the anti-video game cause like Santorum, lost their jobs at the end of ’06?\u00a0 Is the upcoming ’08 election reason for the turn back toward harsh criticism?<\/p>\n

How can anyone trust these grades?\u00a0 What do they mean?\u00a0 And these guys are calling the ESRB “vague and capricious”? \u00a0 Here’s a link to their complete report card.\u00a0 <\/a>Once again GamerDad is saying that “Mediawise Isn’t.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2007 Parental Involvement: C Ratings Education: B- Retailers\u2019 Policies: C- National Retailers:\u00a0D Game Specialty Stores:\u00a0B Game Rental Shops: F Video Game Industry: C ESRB Ratings: C+ Commentary begins here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}