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Ahhh Vic, Spoken like someone whose not aloud to have M-rated games. At least your parents are doing their job.

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In what sense do you mean "do they work?" Do they work in games like Resident Evil or Duke Nukem not being sold to minors? No, because it is video games, nobody takes them seriously. Kids still buy the records that say "Explicit Language," and kids still get games that say "M" and "A" on them. Do you mean in the sense that they make people rethink their decision when they see a game's rating? No. If the gameplay is there, they buy it anyway.

Friends don't let friends buy Vizio.
I'm very mature for my age, and I think that the ESRB ratings are enforced too strongly. If everyone were just a little mature for their age, we wouldn't have ESRB ratings in the first place. They don't enforce them too strongly on me, only the AO rated games. But I can see why...

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I own like, every Mortal Kombat game. most of my collection is for the Genesis, which I had from age 6-8. I'm not corrupted...

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I feel that ESRB ratings are unfair to people like me. I'm 15, but I can't by an M rated game. Why is that? I'm not going to hear or see anything new, and there are very few people out there crazy enough to go on a shooting rampage because of something they saw in a video game. I think ESRB should give younger people a little more credit.

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Why do we have ratings at all? That's easy: There is an overt lack of personal responsibility in this country. If you do something wrong, it simply can't be your fault. It's the TV you watch, the music you listen to, or the games you play. So, in order to protect kids from the "dangers" that some games present, the ESRB was born.

Should ESRB ratings be enforced? Hell yes. If kids will not (or cannot) take responsibility for their own actions, then steps must be taken to limit exposure to potentially questionable material. If the ratings are not enforced, then games with ANY questionable content may eventually become subject to censorship, or worse-- no matter how old the target audience is. I was a kid once, too-- but there are always age limitations. You cannot legally drive a car until 16 (at least). Legal voting doesn't happen until 17 or so. Legalized drinking doesn't happen until 21 in most states. The same age goes for entrance to many adult nightclubs. Like it or not, you have to wait. Unfortunately for many teens, it's been proven that kids today, in general, act out based on exposure to violence or other questionable content. That doesn't mean that all kids fall into this category, but many do.

What a lot of kids don't understand about the ESRB system is that parents can still buy "M"-rated games for their kids if they wish. The onus falls on kids to convince their parents that they are mature enough to deal with questionable content without acting on it. If parents won't buy the game for their kids, there must be underlying reasons why.

The thing that scares me is the increasing amount of younger kids who are angry about not being able to play overtly violent games like Grand Theft Auto or even the upcoming State of Emergency because of the "M" rating. Does a game HAVE to have some kind of controversial content in order to be considered "cool"? It sure looks that way, and that's a damned shame.

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That's the spirit Vic, name calling always proves your point.

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Actually, from my first response I was having a little fun wiht him. Usually when someone posts something like he did, it's because their parent's won't allow them to play M-rated games. But when the name calling started, no more fun.

If enforced, the ESRB rating works.

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The people at the stores where I live do, but then again some just let me buy them without checking my ID. Then again, I am 20. But I never payed attention to the ESRB. I payed attention to if I liked the game or not.

Friends don't let friends buy Vizio.
I don't think the ratings work at all. Most parents don't even care what their kids play. They think they now its just a gmae. Or at least thats my parents and also i'm 14 and i play all games.

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