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Feature Articles > Features > Mediawise Isn't - 2007
It's time again for the National Institute on the Family to make their recommendations. How do we rate them? Note: You can find the report on their website here, or you can download a PDF format from that page. We've had an ominous backslide, apparently. At least according to the gang at the National Institute for Media and the Family. All of these reports use big statistics. Numbers are stacked up like cord wood. But when you try to apply them to real life, it's not so black and white. Yes, a large percentage of kids play M rated games. What gets blurry here is how many of them are doing it out of their parent's ignorance and how many of them are doing it because their parents have made the choice to allow their kids to play. I can go on and on about the many fallacies in the body of the report regarding their study and it's methodologies, and their statistics in general. Let's just cut to the chase and address their recommendations. A universal rating system - This isn't legally possible at this time. The reason each ratings body has their own system is the ratings numbers/letters/what have you are copyrighted materials. The MPAA started off with their system, and when the others came along they couldn't use the same one. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know what it would take to get it so they could all three use the same ones. I do know I don't want the government to get into the content assessment business on any level, nor do I want them to just go in and stomp all over someone's copyright. Every year they include a list of games to avoid, and games they suggest. This is where the rubber hits the road. Let's take a look. Games to Avoid List Assassin's Creed Call to Duty 4 Conan The Darkness Jericho Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Manhunt 2 Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles Stranglehold Time Shift These games are all hard M-rated and none of them should be in the hands of kids. None of those are ambivalent, especially if you weren't going to be supervising play directly. No argument there. But their list information itself has some issues. They still can't seem to read the names of the games off the front of the box. What they have listed as "Call to Duty 4" is actually "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" (emphasis added). That may seem like a minor mistake, but if you type what's on their list into a search engine to get more information off the ESRB's website or Google, it won't return the real results on the game. And without that last bit at the end, you're going to get a list with all the games in the series which can be confusing and not all of them are M rated. For someone who thinks parents should pay more attention and research they aren't helping them out much. They don't disambiguate confusing titles like "Conan". I assume they mean the Xbox360/PS3 game that just came out. But there is also a game for the PC and Xbox360 on the way called "Age of Conan" that is a massively multiplayer online game and also rated M. That one gets a double whammy for mature content and because we don't recommend unsupervised playing of MMORG's for kids. Which game do they mean? If you were asking me here, I vote for applying it to both. They're missing some key games that were recently released with very mature content that reviewed very well and had big advertising budgets. If we were going to put together a list like this (which we wouldn't; we firmly believe in avoiding this sort of blanket statement) we would start with the list above, and add a few titles. These are games that we suggest you take great care with, and here's and a link to our complete reviews to show you why: Bioshock Gears of War (Note: the Xbox360 version has been out for a year, but it just came out for the PC) Painkiller: Overdose The Orange Box Or, you could just go to our Review Archive and search on games we gave our Adults Only seal. That way we don't have to try to telepathically figure out what games your child is asking you for, and there is a lot of good information in the articles themselves that details our concerns with them. Or you can go to our forums and ask an adult who has played the game for their input. Mediawise Recommend Games for Children and Teens FIFA Soccer O8 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour Madden NFL 08 Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Need for Speed Pro Street The Sims 2: Castaway Super Mario Bros. 3 Super Mario Galaxy Viva Pinata I really don't know what made them choose these particular games. It is a better list than last year's, but there are some headscratchers and we're missing some key information. None of them are really bad choices as far as content, but some of them aren't all that great as games. No platform is listed for the games so parents don't know what hardware these games are available for. This makes it harder for them to shop from this list. Madden is available on anything that will stand still for it, but Hannah Montana is on the Nintendo DS and the Wii and it isn't available on any other system. NIMF's other supporting materials, both in this report and on their website, contradict many of these suggestions. One of their organization's main concerns with games in general is exposing kids to a "culture of disrespect". Online situations definately fit that definition in my book, and with Madden's increasing emphasis on the XboxLive aspects I don't understand why they suggested it. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has a track list dripping with music the organization doesn't approve of. It's not like it's new music; some of the tracks are old enough I bet their parents didn't approve of them listening to them. The list really doesn't make sense from a kid's perspective. Several of these games are old -- Viva Pinata has been out a year now. Sports games are heavily represented here, but kids aren't really the audience for those. Most kids would not want to play FIFA Soccer if you paid them. And this list is skewed very young. A lot of tween/teen kids will play the games even though they're E-rated (Super Mario Galaxy is just that good) but there is not a lot here anyone over 10 would put up with as a steady diet. The teens who want to play something with action in it are the ones that are in the danger zone and this list does nothing for them. If I had to come up with some suggestions for a tween/teenage car nut that don't involve getting chased by cops at any point in the game, I'd replace Need for Speed with either "Project Gotham Racing 4" or "Forza Motorsport 2". For the real little ones I'd choose "Cars Mater National". Toss out "Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games" completely and choose the new Wii Zapper pack with "Link's Crossbow Training". For something up-to-the-minute new, go check out "NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams". The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the Nintendo DS is a must for a Zelda fan. For an teen who likes to skateboard, EA's "skate" gives you a new, T-rated alternative to Tony Hawk (for a tweener you might want to rent and take a look first). "Naruto: Rise of a Ninja" is a great selection for a teen/tween on the Xbox360. It's a cartoony fighting/action game that goes with the television series that was good enough my older kids sat down and powered through it. Even better, I'd recommend you take a look at our handy, age-appropriate 2007 Holiday Guide for a broad look at some of this year's best games. Every year we read through this report and shake our heads. There is so much misinformation here it's hard to get any real good out of it. But if it makes even one parent start looking at the covers of the games coming into their home and thinking, then I guess it's worth something. But there needs to be more. Parents need to be involved. It's not just games; it's all media. It's why Gamerdad is all about playing games with your children. EDIT: Hey, looks like we're fallible too. Colleen pegged Need for Speed: ProStreet wrong and used her experiences with the series, rather than her experience with the game. The reference has been stricken.
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Read the GamerDad 2007 Holiday Guide!
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