Still to this day certain industries and products on the market are not taken seriously. A major concern to me is the video game industry. Why is the fastest growing and biggest entertainment industry still looked at as child's play? Back when Pacman and other 2d pixel art games were popular it was understandable, but for some reason a majority of adults that loved those games will not respect the fact that the industry has evolved.

Games are no longer about a plumber that is so happy all the time when he speaks like an Italian. We have games dedicated to World War II history, games that can literally bring us into new worlds, and games that can easily rival anything the movie industry throws out during the summer. This has become a problem for several reasons, but today I want to focus on something very commonly in the news. Our ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) and how corrupt it has become because of these ignorant people not accepting change.

How common is it that we see a news report, usually right here on PS3Center even, that has some rights group or lawyer complaining that the ESRB doesn’t rate games properly? The concern a majority of the time is that the game is too violent for the audience. Browsing the shelves around game stores, I couldn’t help but realize almost every single game on the shelf was rated M. So I looked into it, what causes a game to be rated Mature and why isn’t anything Teen anymore? Fact is the ESRB has guidelines on their site on why a game receives certain ratings, the bad thing is it has all been morphed into something new over the years from all the complaints. Before a game with a gun, some action, and a cool story could actually receive a Teen rating, now almost anything with a gun and blood is brandished with a Mature rating. Kids games that should be rated E getting Teen for “comic mischief.”

This is instilling a false sense of security among parents. Look no further than EA's upcoming action title, Dante's Inferno.  The game received an M rating, and while it may be a terrific game, it is filled with nudity, sex, violence - much more than any game I’ve ever played. It's as if they packed all this gratuitous stuff into the game anyway they possibly could, and this is just the demo.

I’m not saying the game deserves a higher rating, but this is the first game I’ve played in a long while that I felt needs to be rated M. Dante's Inferno really stretches the boundaries between itself and the more timid M games, a potential problem for the unwary consumer.  I might let my little brother play Halo or Call of Duty, I might let him play Resistance, but those games are on the more mild end of the spectrum. They have some violence and fun in them, no harm done. So if I wasn’t a gamer myself, and didn’t really know a lot about Dante’s Inferno, I’d probably let him play that too. Because hey, he played the other “mature” games right?

You see, Dante’s Inferno and it's contemporaries are on entirely different playing grounds than these games. These are games that absolutely deserve to be rated M, games that parents absolutely should be looking out for, and games children shouldn’t be playing. The problem is there is no way for a parent to tell the difference between the two.

The industry has finally hit the breaking point between a Call of Duty and a Dantes Inferno. Look at the upcoming line up of games, Heavy Rain- thus far- looks to be the same mature style. And thanks to all the "changes" made to the ESRB they can no longer do their jobs for what the future has planned for us. Whats next? Give every game an AO rating for being too realistic?