Games, Gamers, & Gaming: The Great (M-Rated) Debate
Oct 15, 2010Does your library offer M-rated games? Whether you are currently exploring or rethinking your policies on this issue, there are many factors to consider.
What is an M-rated game?
Most video games released in North America are rated by the nonprofit Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). Though the ESRB’s ratings system has its critics, it is widely used and largely well regarded. Last year, the Federal Communications Commission called it “the most sophisticated, descriptive, and effective ratings system devised by any major media sector in America.”
Titles rated M for “Mature” are considered by the ESRB to be suitable for players over the age of 16 and may contain “intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language.” (For the ESRB’s reasoning behind all its ratings assignments, visit www.esrb.org; for a general discussion of the ESRB ratings system and suggestions on putting it into practical use in a library setting, see “Games Ratings Rundown,” LJ 2/15/09, p. 85.)
Assessing your existing policies
Does your library offer R-rated movies, and can they be checked out by minors? Would you run an R-rated film during a library movie night that fit the overall purpose of the program? Are there restrictions on who can access music CDs with parental advisory labels? Are your Robert Mapplethorpe books behind the desk, available only to adult patrons upon request? What about racy Spanish-language fotonovelas or sexually explicit romances?
If you do not restrict access to those materials but do restrict access to M-rated games, consider revisiting your collection development policies. Professional ethics places a high expectation on us to handle all parts of our collection evenhandedly. By refusing to judge games by the same standards as you judge your movies, music, and books, you cut patrons out of reasonable access.
“They would never stand for it”
“They” might be your administrators, your community, or both. You may not be willing to go to the mat for this, or your administrators may want to avoid that minefield. Choose your battles, yes, but it is vital to understand the choices you are making and the consequences and to consider what our responsibility is as both enforcers of ratings and as librarians.
While it may be easy enough to decide that you don’t put a Mapplethorpe into the hands of a child looking for a picture book, games are a more complicated matter. Traditionally seen as “kid stuff,” today’s games are increasingly not. A recent study by ESRB reports that a record 17 percent of all video games sold in 2009 were M-rated. Yet consumers of all ages wish to, and do, play them.
Does it meet a need?
Despite the popularity of certain M-rated games—the “Halo” franchise, e.g., has sold over 34 million copies in its nine-year history—one of the arguments commonly raised against including M-rated games in library collections is that they are not nearly as popular as less controversial games.
A topic’s mass popularity in no way excuses our willful blindness to it. Our pagan and Wiccan collections speak to just under three percent of the U.S. population, yet we typically include such titles when selecting religion materials. According to the Pew Research Center, games are played daily by 21 percent of adults over the age of 18, all of whom legitimately have potential interest in M-rated games.
Nevertheless, as Sue Scott, Marlboro Free Library, NY, noted in a recent LibGaming Google Group post, there are plenty of highly acclaimed E-rated (“Everyone”) and T-rated (“Teen”) games across all platforms, “without even mentioning the ‘M’ word.”
Communicate and educate
Proactive education is always the strongest move. Inform your patrons—both parents and players—about the ESRB ratings system as well as your selection criteria and policies with regard to access, through signage and on your library’s website.
Look to other libraries for examples. The website of the Atlantic City Free Public Library, NJ, states that “all materials in the collection”—M-rated games among them—“were selected based on surveys and interactions with the community.” Patrons under the age of 17 must have parental permission to borrow M-rated games from the Carroll County Public Library, New Windsor, MD.
The Goodnight Memorial Library, Franklin, KY, recently held a one-day-only adult gaming session as part of its summer reading program, where games of all ratings were welcome, and in the designated game room of the Georgetown Library, SC, says BYTES project manager Donald Dennis, “there are ‘kids swim’ periods where we keep the games to teen- and children-friendly, and we track permissions.”
As with all potentially difficult decisions surrounding library content, the more you know, the better informed you’ll be in making—and, if necessary, defending—your decisions. Game on.
Author information: Liz Danforth (@LizDanforth), MLS, an Arizona-based part-time librarian who also works as a freelance game illustrator/designer/developer, writer, and library consultant, blogs at www.libraryjournal.com
