Penny Arcade ads for ESRB unveiled

Penny Arcade ads for ESRB unveiled

Web comic creators designed new campaign to convey to gamers how the ratings system affects them.

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot

Posted Jun 6, 2006 6:26 pm PT

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Penny Arcade artist Mike Krahulik and writer Jerry Holkins last week revealed their participation with the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) on an advertising campaign directed squarely at gamers. Today the ESRB officially announced the campaign, which will consist of five print ads set to roll out during the summer months, each featuring new characters created by Holkins and Krahulik that will correspond to a specific rating.

"In order for the campaign to resonate with the gamer audience, we sought to have a little 'edge' to the creative," said ESRB president Patricia Vance, "and let's face it, Penny Arcade comics give a whole new meaning to the term 'comic mischief!'"

Penny Arcade has plenty of "edge" to lend, having previously run strips that would likely fall into the M for Mature or even AO for Adults Only brackets of the ESRB's rating spectrum. Past strips have featured characters speculating on the possible incestuous antics of Saturday morning cartoon stars, a robot that exists to crudely violate produce in a most suggestive way, and protagonists that have been known to kill each other in cold blood, with no resulting portrayal of real-world repercussions.

The ESRB ads will not make use of Penny Arcade's existing stable of characters, choosing instead to focus on original characters designed by the comic's creators. The first two ads (pictured) will depict E-rated audiences with Sarah, a pink-haired girl "around age seven or eight," and The Andersons, a father-and-son pair enjoying a game together.

Its good to see that rating companies are branching out in the rating system to get attention of people out there that not all games are for kids. Now if we could just convine our own goverment to realise that and give us a R rating we'd be getting somewhere. Parents arent as likely to be buying GTA for 12 year olds if they had a blaring sticker tellinfg them its R18+.

Police seize violent games in shooting investigation

Police seize violent games in shooting investigation

Acting on advice of Jack Thompson, sheriff's deputies search home of suspected Louisiana killer and confiscate M-rated games.

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot

Posted Jun 5, 2006 10:06 am PT

Last week, sheriff's deputies conducting an investigation into the murder of a 55-year-old Louisiana man seized a number of games rated M for Mature from the home of a 16-year-old suspect, according to a report in the Baton Rouge paper The Advocate. The action was taken at the suggestion of controversial Florida attorney Jack Thompson.

Thompson told The Advocate that he suggested the sheriffs look for violent games in the youth's house because he felt the killings mirrored a scenario from Grand Theft Auto. The original reports indicated that the victim was beaten to death and shot in the face by the 16-year-old and a 17-year-old accomplice.

"Nobody shoots anybody in the face unless you're a hit man or a video gamer," Thompson told the paper.

While the police did seize the games, it's unclear exactly what role they will play in the investigation. West Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Captain Spence Dilworth told the paper, "I think it goes beyond video games, but who's to say?"

It looks like Jack Thompson is up to it again. You have to worry about a person who believes that the only reason someone will shoot someone else in the face is that they play video games or are paid to do it. I mean has this guy even taken a close look at the news over the past 20 years. Suddenly no one can murder anyone without either being linked to the mafia or video games. This is some of the most rediculous propositions that i have ever heard.

All he has so far to support his hypothesis that the games cause the kid to go and murder someone is that the games were in his house. Now if the game had been found on a shrine dedicated to it i might start to believe that this game had some effect on the kid.