OK fair enough - there were a lot of reports of underage kids playing it, and I wasn't sure how tightly the age restrictions were being enforced.
It seems like there's general agreement that the adult aspects of the game are less problematic than the general misogyny. I can accept that - I don't have terribly strong opinions on this, which is why I wanted to open it up for discussion. And 10-year-olds probably aren't getting their VG reviews from the NYT, anyway.
It's mostly that it seems entirely plausible that random adult aunt or uncle could read this review and think "Hey, what a great present for my niece/nephew; it's just like WoW or Zelda!" and then wind up very upset when she sees her relative killing virtual hookers. So I do wonder if there's a responsibility on the part of the reviewer to highlight the potentially objectionable content aspects, not just the quality of gameplay.
One of the real problems in regulating video games is that people can't get over the idea that video games are for children. As a result, I think adults sometimes ignore the ratings in a way they wouldn't if buying a DVD; they figure that M must mean the game is appropriate for mature preteens or something.
It probably doesn't help that the rating scale is unfamiliar to non-gamers. Plus people aren't sure yet what to do about the effect of participation on the OK-ness of different sorts of material. Plus our culture's strange value set around the relative acceptability of sex, violence, and gore. I have to admit I'm sort of shocked that Diablo II is rated M. The ESRB isn't exactly keeping their powder dry there.
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It seems like there's general agreement that the adult aspects of the game are less problematic than the general misogyny. I can accept that - I don't have terribly strong opinions on this, which is why I wanted to open it up for discussion. And 10-year-olds probably aren't getting their VG reviews from the NYT, anyway.
It's mostly that it seems entirely plausible that random adult aunt or uncle could read this review and think "Hey, what a great present for my niece/nephew; it's just like WoW or Zelda!" and then wind up very upset when she sees her relative killing virtual hookers. So I do wonder if there's a responsibility on the part of the reviewer to highlight the potentially objectionable content aspects, not just the quality of gameplay.
(no subject)
It probably doesn't help that the rating scale is unfamiliar to non-gamers. Plus people aren't sure yet what to do about the effect of participation on the OK-ness of different sorts of material. Plus our culture's strange value set around the relative acceptability of sex, violence, and gore. I have to admit I'm sort of shocked that Diablo II is rated M. The ESRB isn't exactly keeping their powder dry there.