ESRB Rating Parodies

About

"ESRB Rating Parodies" refers to parodies of iconography associated with the age-related ratings given to video games by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. These ratings are often ridiculed for their seemingly arbitrary nature.

Origin

In 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board was created in 1994 as a response to criticisms about the violent and overtly sexualized content of some video games. ^[1]. The rating system's purpose was to in provide age guidelines for Console and Computer games in North America. While the ESRB is a self-regulatory organization, many consoles will not license games without a ESRB rating. Similarly, many retail outlets will not sell games without an ESRB rating. The rating comes in six varieties: Early Childhood (EC), Everyone (E), Everyone 10+ (E10+), Teen (T), Mature (M), and Adults Only (AO), as well as "Rating Pending" for when the rating has yet to be given. In addition the ESRB usually summarizes why the game was given the rating in a short sentence next to the letter grade.^[4]

The typical style of ESRB ratings

Spread

An article on Dorkly^[2] was made parodying ESRB ratings and descriptions of games on February 6th, 2013. The article featured five games paired with the ESRB logo and a short paragraph of text parodying the reasons why the game was given the associated rating. On June 25th, 2015 a post was made to the /r/pcmasterrace subreddit of Glorious PC Master Race themed ESRB ratings. The post gained 4,862 points (94% upvoted) and over 500 comments.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References