ESRB Under Fire For Animal Crossing Debacle

Posted by Gwyddia on December 6, 2008

Recently, a racial epithet made its way into the speech of an Animal Crossing character. The epithet was user-created and only found in fourteen review copies of the game, all of which have been recalled and changed. Now people are pointing fingers at the ESRB and threatening to take action, saying that their ratings system is a failure for letting something like this slip through.

The ESRB warning on any game with online play clearly states that “Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB”. This is because online content can change a game at a moment’s notice, and the ESRB aren’t omnipresent. Further, this slur was found not in the retail version of the game, but in a very small number of pre-release copies. The issue was discovered and dealt with quickly and efficiently.

The ESRB could not have caught this, nor should they have. Every online content provider has an abuse notification system for cases just like this, and if the swift reprisal here is any indication, that system worked.

Finally, remember that the people who saw this “atrocity” were fourteen adults in the media – not impressionable kids. Only if players and parents take the responsibility for monitoring their own online experience can there be worldwide gaming that is open and available to the community at large.

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