ERSB raters don’t play the games, says whistle blower

By Patrick Garratt

According to this, ERSB raters don’t play the games they’re supposed to be rating. The news comes from an article in EGM, where ex-ERSB tester Jerry Bonner made recommendations on the process of rating games after he left the organisation.

“The ESRB’s current pool of fulltime raters… does not actually play the games that they rate,” he said. “They just watch submitted videotapes or DVDs of someone else playing the game… I would strongly suggest having the raters play the games to completion and carefully log their findings throughout the playtest. I’ve already heard the ESRB’s argument on this one: ‘That’ll take way too long and it will compromise our turnaround time.’ My solution to that is simple: Hire more people.”

That’s… a shame.

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