Our System
The purpose of our rating system
- To either support or dispute the current ESRB rating for a game.
- To logically take the game apart and judge it from a neutral point of view.
- To give parents another view of a game they may constantly hear about..
- To give our own opinion on the content of a certain game.
How it works.
We play through a game and logically "strip" it down into five catagories:
Graphic Violence-Images of violence(beatings, shootings, etc.)
Sexual Content-Nudity, sex scenes, sexual references, etc.
Frightening Content-How scary it is. (Issue for younger children)
Influence/Stereotyping-How influencing it is to anyone/How stereotypical it is (Our opinion)
Language-Type of language (Meaning use of obsenities, sexual innuendos, racial slurs, etc.)
In each catagory there are smaller subcatagories:
Graphic Violence
Level (The extremity of the catagory in question)
Realism
Amount
Sexual Content
Level
Realism
Amount
Frightening Content
Level
Realism
Amount
Influence/Stereotyping
Level
Amount
Language
Level
Amount
How we judge the subcatagories
We represent our opinions in the catagories using the following scale:
1=Not at all harsh / Not realistic at all / None at all
2=Not very harsh / Not substantially realistic / Not much
3=Moderately harsh / Moderately realistic / Moderate amount
4=Very harsh / Very realistic / A lot
5= Extremely harsh / Extremely realistic / A great amount.
Since we view Graphic Violence and Sexual content as worse than the other three, we place more emphasis on those catagories when figuring the final score. We do this by having their score count as double.
Lets take Silent Hill 4 for example:
Graphic Violence
Level=3
Realism=3
Amount=4
Sexual Content
Level=2
Realism=3
Amount=2
Frightening Content
Level=5
Realism=4
Amount=5
Influence/Stereotyping
Level=1
Amount=1
Language
Level=2
Amount=2.
The total amount of points possible for Silent Hill 4(Including the doubled-up GV and SC) would be 95. Silent Hill earned 54/95 points. Parents can use this number as a reference other than the ESRB. The more total points earned, the more parents should try to avoid this game.
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