What naughty stuff will get your video game into ratings trouble?

In a little-noticed bipartisan effort, House wow gold Republicans and Senate Democrats have agreed to press for new laws to crack down on "rogue websites" that sell pirated copies of movies, TV shows, music and video games or counterfeit goods like sportswear and prescription drugs. The little E's, T's and M's that appear on the covers of video games get there the old-fashioned way: People working for the Entertainment Software Rating Board look at the games, decide how gory, sexy or potty-mouthed they are, and bestow an age-appropriate rating accordingly. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board came up with a questionnaire today that it hopes will address the need to provide appropriateness ratings for the growing number of downloadable online games.

To do this the organization has written a program designed to replicate the ingrained cultural norms and predilections of the everyday American consumer, at least when it comes to what is appropriate for children and what isn't. Lawmakers are considering proposals that would authorize the Justice Department to quickly obtain court orders to shut down websites that sell pirated copies. Other measures would target credit card companies and advertisers that do business with the pirates. The new ratings apply to games submitted to Microsoft’s Xbox Live online game service as well as the Nintendo Wii Shop and DS Shop and the Sony PlayStation Network store. But it’s quite possible the automated system could eventually extend beyond that. The issue is an important one, as objections to game content could slow down the growth of the industry, and because the video game industry has a big case on game violence before the U.S. Supreme Court.

For video games, the www.bostontours.us/flywowgold publishers' answers to the questionnaire will determine the rating. The ratings board was founded in 1994 by the video game industry's main trade organization in an effort to mimic Hollywood's popular system for rating big-studio films. Major retailers require a video game to have a board rating before they will stock it, just as major theater chains refuse to screen films that have not been rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. In mid-November, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill to give federal prosecutors more power to charge websites with criminal infringement of copyrights, trademarks or patents if unlicensed copies or goods were being sold regularly. Developers can fabricate answers to these questions if they want, but they have to pay a $500 fee upon submission and they also have to submit a DVD disk with the images from the game on it. If they are found to have misled the ESRB in order to get a better rating, the ESRB will have their game pulled from the online store and go through a resubmission.