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Games Industry
In the wake of the Manhunt 2 rating furor, several US Senators have called for a review of the ESRB's ratings process.
According to Game Politics, Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Joe
Lieberman (ID-CT), Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) sent the
letter to ESRB president Patricia Vance yesterday.
All four Senators have been critics of the videogame industry in the
past, with Lieberman generally credited with pressuring the industry to
create the ratings system after Congressional hearings in the
mid-1990's.
Brownback has legislation pending in the Senate which would mandate
that the ESRB play games to their entirety before assigning a rating.
The letter made reference to the BBFC ban on Manhunt 2 in which it
found that the game contained "unremitting bleakness and callousness of
tone." It also noted that the BBFC refused to rate a revised Manhunt 2
in October 2007.
The Senators expressed concern over the Nintendo’s Wii version of the
game, suggesting that the Wii's motion-sensitive controller "permits
children to act out each of the many graphic torture scenes and
murders."
"In sum, we ask your consideration of whether it is time to review the
robustness, reliability and repeatability of your ratings process,
particularly for this genre of 'ultra-violent' videogames and advances
in game controllers," the letter stated.