MediaWise recently released its 11th annual video game report card, pinpointing the holiday’s safe bets for parents looking to keep violent games out of the hands of younger children and reviewing how effective the industry is in keeping inappropriate materials out of the youngsters’ hands.
The report acknowledges the strides taken by the industry, specifically noting the progress major retailers have maintained in restricting the sales of M-rated games to those younger than 17. Specialty stores, however, received a big, fat F grade, as the report notes that half of all minors as part of a survey successfully purchased an M-rated game at various specialty locations.
Ratings education and retailer policies came away with B ratings this year while big retail enforcement and console manufacturers struck gold with A ratings. On the 2006 report card, the parental involvement entry was rated “incomplete” because while parents gave “inadequate responses” for this year’s study, “it doesn’t seem fair to give parents a failing grade because parents are constantly subject to mixed messages from the video game industry.”
Other issues raised by the study include the ever-increasing gap between what parents and their children claim about the role of video games in their lives. One example out of those polled state two-thirds of parents enforced rules on how long and when their children may play video games. Only one-third of those children confirmed that assessment.
The report also details health issues involved with excessive video game playing such as the heavily focused-upon threat of obesity as well as addiction.
So what titles met the MediaWise seal of parental approval for the 2006 holiday shopping season? Included this year are Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (E10+, multiplatform), Mario Hoops 3 on 3 (E, Nintendo DS), Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (E, Nintendo Wii), Roboblitz (E10+, multiplatform), Madden Football 07 (E, multiplatform), LocoRoco (E, Sony PSP), Dance Factory (E, Playstation 2), Brain Age (E, Nintendo DS), Nancy Drew: Danger by Design (E, PC ) and Mario Vs. Donkey Kong 2: The March of the Minis (E, Nintendo DS).
Which games should parents stay away from? This year’s holiday naughty list includes the M-rated games Gangs of London (Sony PSP), The Sopranos (Playstation 2), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Sony PSP), Reservoir Dogs (multiplatform), Mortal Kombat: Unchained (Sony PSP), Scarface: The World is Yours (multiplatform), The Godfather: Mob Wars (multiplatform), Saints Row (Xbox 360), Dead Rising (Xbox 360) and Just Cause (multiplatform).
The full report card and complete details of this year’s entry can be found at the National Institute on Media and the Family Web site.
Article comments
1 - Daniel Woolstencroft
It seems odd that there's no mention of Gears of War on their list... or Viva Pinata, for that matter.
2 - Ken Edwards
It was amazing that Gears escaped the list, yes. But this is a step in the right direction, the 10th annual, last year's report, was very bad.
And by very bad, I mean it didn't sound like NIMF knew what they were talking about.
3 - RCM
NIMF doesn't know what they're talking about. Their latest release was another poorly thought out rough draft.
As far as the seemingly positive outlook on the game industry and the rating system, I don't get it. Last year they were broken, this year they're fixed?
Idiots!
4 - Matt Paprocki
I was going to rip the report line by line like I have before, but what's the point? The damn thing contradicts itself so many times it's not even funny. Anyone should be able to see right through it.