Baby steps

This entire mess surrounding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has got me thinking of the bigger picture, the current failsafes and processes we have that start with the creation of the game and ends in the private use of the title.

"I tip my cap to that first step of showing responsibility, the council's executive director. Phase two needs to be absolutely getting to the bottom of this coding issue. How did it get into that game? How did it get past the ratings board?" - Tim Winter, director of The Parents Television Council

Lets review what we know.

A title is manufactured by a company, the content is submitted to the ESRB ratings board who reviews it and then they are given a rating based on that content. The game is then shipped to stores where the consumer buys it.

Now this process is punctuated by a few specifics. The first is honesty with the game manufacture and the ESRB. If a title contains hidden codes and the ESRB is not informed or those that include the code are not forthcoming with their bosses then you have a break in the chain of events. Part of this is a "good faith" system between those involved. I have no doubt some programmers thought it would be "cool" and if this addition was made to be easily accessed or just another geek underground detail to be circulated amongst those "in the know" is not totally clear at this point. Regardless, there was a breakdown in system.

Secondly, the game is being exposed to children. Why? Simple, Mom and Dad are buying it for them. As previously noted, it has been circulated that the average age of game buyers is 28 years old. Other statistics show the vast majority of children are given games by their parents.

This is the second broken link in the chain. Parents are disregarding the assigned warnings. I will not humor the argument that game rankings are "hard to understand" any further. They are not, if yo udo not then you are disconnected from common sense and the real world to such an extent that you are insignificant because you are dumb on a genuine level or you refuse to pay attention.

Someone was dishonest and others are not paying attention as is both of their responsibilities.

We do not need to "fix" anything, we need to demand honest responsibility. Rock Star did not expose a flaw in the system, merely their desire not to follow it. I find it humorous that people associate problems with "flaws" despite the fact the system as it design remains unbroken. Anyone can sneak by and break a rule, if they do, they need to be reprimanded and the systme left alone to do it's job. Laws and good faith systems are not lego bricks to be rearranged at the whim of the current political climate.

If the items were not placed in the title and parents were doing their jobs the so called "impact" would be marginal, but because people did not follow the concept, it is "broken" Funny, we approach these as if they were broken to begin with rather than owning up to the responsibility of being the ones who made the effort to remove proverbial vase from the inside of a china cabinet to break it and then dery the amount of effort it took to accomplish the task as a symptom of it's own inferiority.

Cause and effect, when you go outside the intended rules, you are at fault, not always the rules.