Best Buy adds Common Sense ratings, but whose common sense?
Best Buy waffled on the ESRB yesterday by adding Common Sense Media ratings to their online listings. The new Best Buy page redesign also has larger ESRB ratings and reviews by GameSpot and GamePro.
As GamePolitics says, "We're not sure what prompted the move, which seems to provide Best Buy with a redundant layer of ratings. As it stands now, customers can see the entire ESRB rating on the product page, but need to click through to access the Common Sense Media information."
One can say that this Common Sense Media rating is just an alternative to the ESRB, but on the other hand, it is rather insulting to the ESRB that Best Buy doesn't think that the industry is doing a good enough job of self regulation (they trust MPAA rating for movies). The thing that really just sticks in our craw is that they are "common sense" ratings. Whose common sense? For a country clearly divided among red and blue states there isn't too much consensus on what common sense is anymore.
Update: ESRB spokesperson Eliot Mizrachi told GameDaily.biz, "ESRB ratings are just one tool among many that consumers can and should use to help them make informed video game purchase decisions. Best Buy continues to be a strong supporter of ESRB ratings, and this move expands upon the resources they've been offering their customers, including game reviews from GameSpot and GamePro. The reviews that websites like these provide are a useful supplement to the basic information that ratings convey, offering additional detail about game content that can only further help parents choose games they deem appropriate for their families."
