Conducting Research
Conducting Research
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In my research, I will be joining the academic conversation that has been mainly populated by Thompson, Tepichin, and Haninger. Thompson and Haninger especially have conducted a lot of research in this field. Their papers on the content descriptors present in both mature and teen-rated games have shed light onto multiple instances in which the ESRB has been unable to accurately label all content within a game. Aside from this little is known about the ESRB’s rating system other than the fact that developers are required to fill out a questionnaire about the game’s content while some are also required to submit a 10-minute gameplay clip. When one tries to discern more about the system for themselves they are often met with nothing. Little information is on the ESRB’s website and all efforts to contact them as well as the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) are met with rejection.
Fifa 23 on Xbox Series X. Photo taken by Lucas Bobier.
Games rated E and E10+ have not been analyzed in previous studies.
Cult of the Lamb on Xbox Series X. Photo taken by Lucas Bobier.
I recorded by screen sharing the game to my phone and then screen recording my phone.
In order to contribute to this academic conversation I plan on expanding the knowledge base surrounding the ESRB’s rating system by playing through some of the top games of 2022 identifying content that matches different content descriptors from the ESRB’s rating system. I will then use this data to determine if the games I have played and rated fall into the same category that the ESRB has assigned to them. My research also adds to the conversation because it is the first to look at games rated everyone (E) and everyone 10 and up (E10+) along with some T-rated games. The previous studies conducted by Thompson only looked at games rated T and mature (M). My study is also the first to examine if age ratings are accurate rather than only checking to see if the ESRB missed content in their evaluation of the games.
In order to conduct my research I will be taking an approach similar to that taken in “Content and Ratings of Mature-Rated Video Games” and “Content and Ratings of Teen-Rated Video Games”. I will first take a sample of 3 games rated Everyone, Everyone 10 and up, and Teen for each rating from the list of nominees for the 2022 game awards that are available to play on Xbox platforms. Games from 2022 will be used as the ESRB states that they may have people play through games after release to confirm the rating. I will then play each game in random order for one hour making notes of aspects that can lead to content descriptors. I will compare what I found in the games to the ESRB’s ratings and analyze by assigning games their ratings based upon the highest rating given by a content descriptor assigned to the game. In order to eliminate bias in my research I created a code using the ESRB’s content descriptors. The code must be made by myself due to the fact that the ESRB does not inform you what ratings go with what content descriptors. Hence, I will combine the information on the ESRB’s website with that of the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) rating system to create my code. I will be comparing the Pegi Number rating system to the ESRB’s system to check ratings. 3=E 7=E10+ 12=T 16=M 18=Ao. The content descriptors are from the ESRB’s website and then the PEGI website was used to classify the content descriptors by using the descriptions present on the PEGI website.
Endling Extinction is Forever and Cult of the Lamb on Xbox Series X. Photo taken by Lucas Bobier.
Depictions of blood in these two games have the possibility of increasing their age ratings.
Currently, I have recorded and collected most of the data I plan to use in my research paper. Once I have finished collecting my data I will need to find a way of statistically analyzing it to see if there are any trends with my results. Getting to my current place was not without its hiccups. Espsealy in the beginning I had difficulties actually recording my gameplay as well as logistically making sure that I was able to obtain all of the games in an orderly fashion. This was because I was able to obtain some of the games digitally but others had to be mailed to me. The mailing was my main problem, especially since the first game I ordered was the predecessor to the game I was actually supposed to play. Due to this, I had to play the ordered games two hours at a time to get all of my data in the allotted time frame. In spite of this, I have still been able to collect almost all of my data and I will be able to finish as soon as my last game arrives. Over the course of my research, I have noticed that according to my code, it seems that games developed by smaller groups rather than large corporations are more likely to have content descriptors that are not in line with the rating assigned to them by the ESRB. It is my hypothesis that because games developed by smaller developers do not have as many resources that they are more often published only digitally meaning that they may forgo the need to submit a 10-minute gameplay clip as opposed to bigger developers who more often publish games physically. I will need to do some research to confirm this.
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