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Image courtesy Kotaku.

Hilary Clinton, still not satisfied with being the center of attention for several months during the presidential primaries, has come forward to support the ESRB’s new way to learn about game content. Not satisfied with just a simple “‘T’ for Teen” or ”‘M’ for Mature” and “Contains cartoon mischief and blood,” the ESRB has decided to add a short “rating summary” of games rated after July 1st to the back of it’s box where it would be easy to see and would be sure to grab the buyer’s attention than on a website on it’s website.

So what’s Senator Clinton have to say about the new changes?

“This new supplement to the ratings is a real gift for parents as we head into this holiday season. Parents need all the information they can get to make more informed decisions about what’s appropriate for their children. These new rating summaries offer more helpful information than ever before to help parents to get involved and get informed.”

Here’s an example of what you would see on the ESRB’s website:

Rating summary: Fable II is a role-playing adventure game in which players assume the role of a 10-year old orphan who grows into adulthood amidst the fantasy world setting of Albion. Players engage in a variety of quests to gain experience and skills with which to ‘level up’ their customized character. Quest objectives sometimes involve using magic and hand-to-hand combat to defeat various creatures and enemy soldiers. Blood spray is depicted when enemies are slashed or injured during combat. Players can also gains ‘points’ and positive statistics for choosing good deeds over bad ones (e.g., “Good points,” “Renown points,” and a “Good Reputation”) or based on the way they communicate with other characters: Lewd gestures/language such as hip thrusts and raising of the middle finger generate negative responses; flirting and blowing a kiss can garner positive responses from characters. With enough positive affinity, players can engage in sexual relations with males, females, or groups of characters. Players are rewarded for having multiple relations, and can choose to have unprotected sex, although sexual acts are never shown. Several characters are depicted drunk during cutscenes, while players can also consume beer and wine from various taverns. A screen-blurring effect connotes a character’s drunken state.

Although we think it’s a novel idea and a step in the right direction for more efficient ratings, we don’t think putting a summary of a game’s rating on some website, be it the ESRB’s official website or not, to be the best way of getting that information to parents

More than likely only the most diligent of shoppers/parents will actually visit the website while most will be unaware of it and see the same old “ineffective” ratings on the front of the box. But with that said, is there an “easy” solution to rate games more clearly and efficiently? Let us know in the comments!

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