But, yeah, what a fuss over nothing.

The ESRB doesn’t rate games in the way you imagine. Videos of gameplay representing the game that also highlight the more extreme content, are sent out to a body of parents that review the content and report back. I think the BBFC in England do rate the way you imagine though.

As for who decides what pornography is, sadly, it’s those who shout the loudest infront of the camera and in the newspapers. Again, it’s a perception thing. If everyone in the media is going ‘this is horrible’ people that don’t think it’s horrible tend to keep quiet.

Everyone knows that America was up in arms about Janet Jackson’s nipple at the superbowl, but find me an American that was actually upset about it. The number of complaints the networks showing the game received about it was actually a tiny fraction of the audience.

It’s just a reflection of where the power is, more than where the consensus of the country lies.

1. Exactly how is a game rated? My assumption would be a number of people are commissioned to play through the game and rate it based on various categories and the levels of each category displayed within the game. However, the Hot Coffee and Oblivision issues clearly demonstrate that these changes in the ratings could have been avoided had a lower-level investigation of the data provided on the final game disks been performed. The follow-up question to that observation is, is that kind of detailed investigation feasible?

2. Who decides what is pornography and what is not? Clothed female elves would be viewed as being pornographic by some people and cultures given that they would undoubtably be scantily clad. Equally, however, is the image of a naked woman really that bad that we must protect our children from it? She’s naked, big deal…

3. Is there some sort of book on breast euphemisms that you are using? Seriously, one tit gag is enough in any one article but after than it tends to tire somewhat.