110TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION                                                              S. 3315

To prohibit the distribution or sale of video games that do not have agebased
content rating labels, to prohibit the sale or rental of video games
with adult content ratings to minors, and for other purposes.

    And that's the summary of S. 3315. It's a bill that would make it illegal to sell a video game without a rating. Here's my thoughts on it:

    This is a monopoly bill. That's all it is. It beats out indie developers. The ESRB is broken enough before, and now the ESRB is the only option. No PEGI, no other ratings. The ESRB does the rating, and they've got more flaws than anything I've ever made. The ESRB is practically sabotage of rating systems. It's not all bad, mind you, it has some good stuff, like enforcing the ratings, but those are supposed to be enforced anyways. The problems lie in a couple areas.

   First, there are no allowances for rating systems. This, shall I point out, would mean that only ESRB-rated games would be legal. This outlaws arcades, retro games, and indie games that do not have ratings. Granted, arcades do not "sell or rent" games, so may be exempt, but I'd doubt it. Retro games would just have to be traded differently, like old firearms, but I doubt they'd be outlawed. Indie games, though, are the only hope for PC games, and would be shut down. There are thousands (if not millions) of small publisher, unrated games that I seriously doubt would be deemed objectionable. However, no allowances are made for these games, and the ESRB in and of itself is broken. The ESRB is basically a board of people who play the demo for a game or watch a movie from a game, and pass judgement based on that and what the publisher/developer/presenter says. See any problems here? See, I trust my own ratings systems more than ESRB because not only do they actually work, but they are also objective, fair, and just.

    This bill should not be passed because it would prohibit minors from innocuous software. I do not believe the goal of publishers is to sell their mature audience games to minors, though I do admit that there is marketing towards that category, but not enough to warrant a bill against unrated games.

    Also, unrated games are not sold in stores, and few services distribute unrated games, so there is no problem with what the bill can enforce, and it just opens up a can of worms with trying to enforce the bill, and the bill would end up damaging or destroying innocuous services.