What parts of the content rating apply to skirmish/multiplayer?

Question

I'm what most would consider a "sensitive" fellow, enough that I don't plan on playing SC2's campaign should I decide to buy it. What portions of the ESRB content rating apply to the skirmish and multiplayer modes (not counting online interactions of course)?

Answer

I think large parts of the ESRB's rating of the game have to do with the themes of Drug Abuse and Genocide prevalent throughout the game, but that's merely a guess. I can tell you the relevant parts of the multilayer:

• Blood and Gore. A number of the units die in less than pleasant ways. Specifically being skewered or dissolving in acid. These graphics are mostly mild and the units small
• Drugs. A couple units utilized stimulants as a resource (Marines and Marauders). While you don't see them shoot up there is a sound effect
• Violence. There is the expect warfare based violence and even the use of Nuclear weapons. If you find these sights disturbing, consider yourself warned.

While these graphics are all present, they are usually small and brief. After an hour of play chances are you'll barely notice them. Then again, those little Marines do have a tendency to explode in to gibbets...

A sample can be found here, consider yourself warned.

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The official ESRB rating is Teen for the following reasons:

Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence

This is a real-time strategy game featuring armies of futuristic races in conflict with each other. Players control assorted units of humans, warrior races, and aliens through combat missions around several planets. Combat is presented from an overhead perspective: players' soldiers use machine guns, grenades, mobile tanks, lasers, and aircraft to kill enemy units. Artillery fire is depicted with realistic sound effects, including battle cries and yells from injured characters; explosions occur frequently, and can be large and detailed. Aliens and soldiers are sometimes depicted bursting into small splashes of blood; gibbing effects and small body parts can also be seen strewn on battlefields; and a few cutscenes may depict small pools of blood around characters, or alien blood spurting across the screen. The game also depicts characters smoking cigars or drinking alcohol in cutscenes. Characters use profanity such as "sh*t," "b*tch," and "a*s" in the dialogue.

You can search their database here

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Starcraft 2 — Application of content rating to skirmish/multiplayer?

Question

I'm what most would consider a "sensitive" fellow, enough that I don't plan on playing SC2's campaign should I decide to buy it. What portions of the ESRB content rating apply to the skirmish and multiplayer modes (not counting online interactions of course)?

Answer

I think large parts of the ESRB's rating of the game have to do with the themes of Drug Abuse and Genocide prevalent throughout the game, but that's merely a guess. I can tell you the relevant parts of the multilayer:

• Blood and Gore. A number of the units die in less than pleasant ways. Specifically being skewered or dissolving in acid. These graphics are mostly mild and the units small
• Drugs. A couple units utilized stimulants as a resource (Marines and Marauders). While you don't see them shoot up there is a sound effect
• Violence. There is the expect warfare based violence and even the use of Nuclear weapons. If you find these sights disturbing, consider yourself warned.

While these graphics are all present, they are usually small and brief. After an hour of play chances are you'll barely notice them. Then again, those little Marines do have a tendency to explode in to gibbets...

A sample can be found here, consider yourself warned.

---

The official ESRB rating is Teen for the following reasons:

Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence

This is a real-time strategy game featuring armies of futuristic races in conflict with each other. Players control assorted units of humans, warrior races, and aliens through combat missions around several planets. Combat is presented from an overhead perspective: players' soldiers use machine guns, grenades, mobile tanks, lasers, and aircraft to kill enemy units. Artillery fire is depicted with realistic sound effects, including battle cries and yells from injured characters; explosions occur frequently, and can be large and detailed. Aliens and soldiers are sometimes depicted bursting into small splashes of blood; gibbing effects and small body parts can also be seen strewn on battlefields; and a few cutscenes may depict small pools of blood around characters, or alien blood spurting across the screen. The game also depicts characters smoking cigars or drinking alcohol in cutscenes. Characters use profanity such as "sh*t," "b*tch," and "a*s" in the dialogue.

You can search their database here

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Why does LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars have different ESRB ratings between the DS and 3DS?

Question

What's the deal regarding ESRB ratings of LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars in the DS and 3DS formats? I ask, because I need an explanation that can get this game past a picky mom of a <10 kid.

The DS version shows as a "E" rating.

The 3DS version shows an "E 10+" rating.

The links above both say "Cartoon Violence" and "Comic Mischief", and I can't imagine that there is any real difference. I saw this game in a store, and I was certain that it said "Cartoon Violence" and "Crude Humor".

Answer

The ESRB site lists summaries for the titles they rate. There are differences in the descriptions of the game for each platform (3DS, DS, PSP, Windows PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii); specifically, the 3DS version includes:

Laser sounds, large explosions, and battle cries can be heard during the sometimes frenetic combat;

while the DS version doesn't.

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Why doesn't ESRB rate online games?

Question

Take a game like GTA IV. Why don't they give the same rating for playing on-line?

The online play is as violent as the offline play. I could understand a lower rating if you can't visit prostitutes and nude dancers in online mode. (I don't know if these "features" are accessible online.)

Take a game like Modern Warfare 2. There's no difference between playing online and playing offline. In my opinion, this game should be rated offline and online with the same rating.

Not that I'm not criticizing the violence in the game. I just want to understand why online gaming is not rated.

Answer

The ESRB doesn't rate online play because there is no way to predict what you'll hear and see online: theoretically, they'd have to rate every game with online play as AO because every game could potentially have content they'd rate that way. (Conversations about "graphic" sex, for example, or people exposing themselves on their webcams.)

The ESRB site explains it this way:

Online Rating Notice

Online-enabled games carry the notice "Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB." This notice warns those who intend to play the game online about possible exposure to chat (text, audio, video) or other types of user-generated content (e.g., maps, skins) that have not been considered in the ESRB rating assignment.

It isn't very helpful, but it's probably a precaution against legal action (for not warning people that gamers might say bad words online - there have been lawsuits filed for similarly frivolous reasons before).

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