Gamertell

The blaring calls for tighter videogame regulations coming from lawmakers and activists around the world threaten the creative liberty that game developers enjoy. The games industry remains in favor of the advisory system currently in place instead of outright government censorship.

WhatTheyPlay is essentially a videogames review website from a parent’s perspective, offering an honest account of various in-game sequences (if any) that parents might find too obnoxious for their kids. The website is owned by John Davidson and Ira Becker, both of whom quit their job at the gaming website 1UP.com to help perplexed parents make smart videogame choices on part of their kids.

Co-owner Davidson, who is also a concerned parent himself, clarified to The San Francisco Chronicle that their job was not to prescribe games to parents for their children but just inform them about the games and leave the final decision with them.

The website features specific reviews that enlist the objectionable content in great detail. “As we started to read the feedback, we saw that they wanted to see real specifics,” Davidson explained the need for being specific. “They said, ‘Don’t tell me the language sounds like prime-time TV. Tell me if he says ‘crap’ or ‘s-’ or whatever.’ And when we started doing that, people really appreciated it.”

There is a need to improve the advisory system and make it more informative for videogame-illiterate parents. If the ratings that accompany videogames are corroborated with detailed information about the game in terms that non-gaming parents can understand then it will go a long way in educating them about games and allay their fears about videogames.

Read [The San Francisco Chronicle] Site [WhatTheyPlay]