Parenting in the information age is difficult; children today are exposed to things that their parents never saw at such a young age. Such as Jar-Jar Binks (who killed grandma).
Bungie tweets that they won’t be banning people for playing a legit copy of Halo: Reach online early. I’m sure the 30,000 or so people already playing will be happy to hear that.
Corny early 80s public service announcements will be rearing their kitschy head in the modern GI Joe video game, but not the ones you really want to see.
During the 9-minute or so loading screen of Metal Gear Solid IV, gamers are treated to a close up view of old Snake sucking through cigarette after cigarette as game tips, warnings and public service announcements pop-up on the screen. They’re certainly not worth sticking around to watch, but if you do you’ll get two bits of wonderful hypocrisy. The first couple of times Snake taps his cigarette ash onto the unseen ground an message shows up telling you not to litter and to use an ashtray for your ash and butts. Then after about five minutes of him smoking you get a message about the harms cigarettes.
[Smoking Warning] Cigarette smoke has detrimental effects to you and those around you, particularly infants, children, and the elderly.
Have consideration for others when choosing to smoke.
Oh, and cancer, there’s that too.
In conjunction with US Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, the ESRB is launching a new ratings awareness campaign aimed at getting parents to actually read those rating labels that are so painstakingly placed on games. The radio and television PSAs will feature Lynch and his two children in what sounds a lot like a middle America political ad, offering general information about the ESRB’s categories.
We’d prefer a campaign titled, “Get Off Your Ass And Parent,” but this will do just fine for the time being. Still, we can’t help but wonder, once again, why the ESRB didn’t adopt the movie rating system already in place and eliminate the need for such ads altogether.
