Current Events > If the ESRB was not formed and the state stepped in

(+) Yeah! (+)

What would have their ratings been like? Would they be legally backed or advisory? Which ratings would they have for games?

Would Mortal Kombat be rated for adults?

If it happened today, repubs would classify any games with lbgt representation as Adult Only.

Cheater87 posted...

What would have their ratings been like? Would they be legally backed or advisory? Which ratings would they have for games?

There probably wouldn't be ratings in the sense that we have them now. The stuff would be classified by the FCC and you'd have to have a license to sell stuff that the FCC deemed inappropriate for all ages and violations would cause loss of license.

They'd probably ban any game that wasn't kid-appropriate, at least in the immediate aftermath of those hearings.

There would be three principle systems in the US from major states that essentially all games would label themselves with in order to be marketable to the broadest possible audience.
Texas would rate all games with LGBT themes as for adults only and would essentially allow any level of violence while still being marketable to children. Drugs are a no no, except alcohol which is fine for all ages.
New York would heavily penalize gun violence but be pretty chill about adult themes.
California would rate all games as cancer causing.

Few other states would bother to enforce a standard and just be content with the fact that games are all labelled to be marketable in the other states.
The exception of course would be Louisiana which would have a rating system that they require all sellers to label their product with in order to market in the state, but the major game producers wouldn't bother so gamers would have to bootleg their products there.

You forgot Florida. Desantis would absolutely try to ban any game that could possibly be described as "woke".

My hunch is that the feds wouldve overstepped, broadly stated that games were for mostly for kids, declared anything with blood, nudity, booze, or drugs to be for adults-only, and criminalize the sale of such games to minors.

E for Everyone
T for Teens
A for Adults

As for if the judiciary would uphold that, fuck if I know.

They would have banned politics and hornygaming.

Australia bans games. There was a chance US could of lead in that department

Hambo posted...

You forgot Florida. Desantis would absolutely try to ban any game that could possibly be described as "woke".

That's not a rating, that's just a ban.