How a game is rated
Today I’m going to give you a 101 on the ESRB rating scale because, frankly, it’s kind of astonishing to me how many people (adults, kids, parents alike) are unfamiliar with it. It’s the simplest, high level way to gauge whether what your kid sees on screen is appropriate. Let me explain.
ESRB stands for Entertainment Software Rating Board. They assign ratings to games and apps specifically in North America. A game’s rating is usually found prominently situated on the back of a physical media game or in the description page of a digital media game. The scale is as follows:
Everyone (E): Content is generally suitable for all ages. It may have minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, and/or infrequent mild language.
Everyone 10+ (E10+): Content is generally suitable for ages 10 and up. It may include more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language, and/or minimal suggestive themes.
Teen (T): Content is generally suitable for ages 13 and up. It may include violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent strong language.
Mature (M): Content is generally suitable for ages 17 and up. It may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language.
Adults Only (AO): Content is only suitable for adults 18 and over. It may feature prolonged intense violence, graphic sexual content, and/or gambling with real money.
Rating Pending (RP): A rating has not yet been assigned.
Here’s the thing though. Take Rocket League. An incredibly popular, durable title that continues to draw players a decade later. It’s one of my favorite online multiplayer games of all time. It’s rated E for everyone by the ESRB. Yet, I gamble every single day I play it. I’m unlocking new cars and cosmetics by opening boxes and keys that I either attained by playing the game in its natural form, or bought using real money 💰, right inside the game.
If the Adults Only rating signifies potential gambling with real money, how the hell is Rocket League rated E for everyone?!
What the ratings actually mean
What ESRB rates: content.
Notice the repeating mention of violence, language, sexual content, etc. There’s over 30 content descriptors that are often used in describing what is SEEN in a game. That’s its whole job. They’re a board of eyes looking for blood and profanity displayed on screen. There’s very little depth to their consideration for what your kid is DOING in a game.
What ESRB doesn’t rate: design.
In 2020, after enough players and parents raised hell, the ESRB added a tag called “In-Game Purchases (Including Random Items).” This was created specifically to denote games with loot box, card pack, and mystery prize mechanics. It’s intended to cover anything that might be sold to the player before the player know what they’re receiving. It’s the single closest thing there is to an official gambling mechanics warning, and it doesn’t influence the rating a game recieves (at least to my knowledge).
So in other words, a game with that tag can still be rated E for Everyone.
In a 2018 survey of over 7,400 players, researchers David Zendle and Paul Cairns found that spending on loot boxes tracked with problem gambling severity more strongly than spending on any other kind of in-game purchase. Go fucking figure. The randomness of the mechanic itself, not just the money spent, was the stronger signal. There’s nothing built into ESRB ratings to flag that. And that was almost 10 years ago!
Loot boxes are just one technique (we’ll call it) that got its own “tag.” A 2021 Journal of Business Ethics study by Elena Petrovskaya and David Zendle asked 1,104 players to describe a specific moment a game’s spending felt unfair.
They catalogued 35 separate techniques across eight categories. Among them were pay-to-win matchmaking, basic quality of life features locked behind a paywall, and ads that punish you for skipping them. Many of them were seen as unfair or misleading enough that they potentially violate UK consumer protection law.
Again, the ESRB was only ever intended to surface content in games. Never to legally answer for the design of games.
🤔 What should you actually look for?
Read past the letter ratings. The Interactive Elements line beneath or beside the ratings symbol is where more risk is surfaced.
Assume the letter rating says nothing about monetization. ‘If money can move in-game’ is entirely a design question, regardless of rating.
Cross-check with a source that reviews games’ design. Common Sense Media’s reviews call out exactly the type of patterns you should be concerned with. The things the ESRB’s descriptors were never intended to surface.
Let your kid’s reaction tell the truth. An E-rated game that has your kid begging for “just one more pack” is telling you something the ESRB isn’t.
At the end of the day, the ESRB rating answers “is this game appropriate for my kid to see,” not “is this game appropriate for my kid to play.”
Want help determining if a game is truly appropriate for your kid to play? Hit reply and tell me the game. I’ll give you some direction. Additionally, check out Common Sense Media for more guidance on specific games age appropriateness.
Thanks for pressing pause with me.
– Patrick