Should I buy "Death Throes 3" for little Johnny?

I sometimes get questions from friends and family members with kids along the lines of,

"Little Johnny wants a game called..."

(There's usually a protracted pause here as they try to remember the name of the game,)

"... Metal Works 4... Or something like that. Do you know anything about it?"

What they're usually asking is, "will this game scar my child and make people think I am a horrible parent for buying it?"

While I can't always give a definitive answer for every specific game, I can provide some guidelines and resources that can help you choose age-appropriate games for the kids in your life.


Look at the Game's Rating and Description

You're probably used to seeing things like this on movie posters and DVD cases:

Well, video games have a similar rating system. The ratings are called ESRB Ratings. (ESRB stands for Entertainment Software Rating Board.)

The Rating symbols look like this one.


The rating symbol for a game appears on the front of the game box or case, and gives you an idea of which age groups the game is rated for.

In addition to the rating symbol, the back of the box will have a description of the contents of the game. For example: one of the games I played a while back has this description:

Rated T for Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol.

Here is the box for the game.
If you're wondering how a game with such cute box art could contain alcohol use... well, I don't know of an easy way to find out that kind of thing, but I CAN show you how to find out more about what's actually in a game. I'll show you that and more in Part 2 of Should I buy "Death Throes 3" for little Johnny?


Additional Links

For now, here are some links to additional information about ESRB Ratings.

• ESRB Rating Symbols
• ESRB Content Descriptors
• A Parent’s Guide to Video Games, Parental Controls and Online Safety (PDF)
  

ESRB Game Rating Search

Use this search box to search for game ratings. Just type in the name of the game and click "Search".