So, the Entertainment Software Rating Board rolled out a new, more detailed system for informing parents about why they’ve given games the ratings they did. It’s starting to go up on the web site for newer games.

Thing is, as Gamespot noted, the description for Resistance 2 kind of gives away part of the plot.

I’m probably not going to play Resistance 2, so I went to the website to see for myself.

It’s not a “ROSEBUD IS HIS CHILDHOOD SLED”-level spoiler, but yeah, it’s definitely describes what’s supposed to be a dramatic moment. Not something I’d want to repeat here to people planning to play it, but still about a tenth as spoilery as the average Game Informer preview.

To get an idea of the new ratings system, here’s the spoiler-free version.

Resistance 2 is a first-person shooter set in an alternate 1950’s environment where the Earth has been overrun by aliens. Players must shoot their way through hordes of aliens, large-scale bosses and sometimes robots, using a variety of guns and grenades. Aliens and humans get blown up, torn apart, shot, impaled and killed in gushes of red blood and body parts. Characters use strong profanity (e.g., “f*ck” and “sh*t”) during gameplay and cutscenes.

Now, if I were a parent and weren’t already unhealthily obsessed with video games, that’s the sort of thing I’d want to know. (”Saving Private Ryan with aliens” would probably also be a succinct summary of the Resistance series, but I guess that’s not very specific.) I’d have a hard time arguing that less information is better than more information. So far the ESRB has done a decent job at shielding the industry from de facto censorship like the comics code, so keep on keeping on, I say. The games are still out there, whether or not they’ve got a stamp on the package.

I don’t think spoilers are a necessary part of this if they’re careful in the future. Plus, it’s not like these descriptions are on the box. The blurbs are written for people who aren’t ever going to play the games themselves and are sequestered away on a website.

Heck, they can spoil the whole thing for all I care. It’s not like I’m going to be browsing esrb.org in my spare time.

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