Mortal KombatMortal Kombat is an arcade styled video game created on October 8th, 1992. At the time it came out it was a very controversial game and topic. Many parents didn't like the game but it went really sour for the Mortal Kombat series when the sequel the game was released on home consoles. Mortal Kombat on the Super Nintendo was censored enough so it wouldn't have controversy. The blood was taken away in the game. Once Mortal Kombat got released on the Sega Genesis there was a secret cheat code that allowed blood in the game. This drew more people to buy the game. Once parents found out about the blood, they finally took action and decided to boycott the game. The game was controversial so the ESRB Rating Board was created to take action against violent games.
|
The Creation of The ESRB Rating BoardThe ESRB Rating Board was created on September 16th, 1994. It was created because of the controversial/violent video games that were being produced during the time. This board was made so parents could know if the game is good or not for their child. Some controversial games that sparked the creation of this board were Night Trap (The cover picture) and the video game series Mortal Kombat (I mentioned this above). There are also some restrictions that come with the Rating Board. One example is that you have to be 17 with a license to buy M rated video games. The ESRB Rating Board is hated by gamers but loved by parents.
|
The Howard Lincoln Court CaseHoward Lincoln for the longest time was the CEO of Nintendo of America. He was very bias towards his company and didn't give other games a chance. Since he was with Nintendo, the company always wanted a family friendly image. There would be no controversial games on a Nintendo system. While, Sega was in court for the game Night Trap, Lincoln came in to testify against Sega. He did this to make Sega look bad and to gain positive feedback for Nintendo. Overall, Lincoln wanted to cash in for his company during the time of controversial gaming. In the article on the website I searched it says "Howard Lincoln also made some comments on how Night Trap would never get released on a Nintendo console because it would not meet with Nintendo's technical guidelines. He was also not impressed with Sega's newly formed Videogame Rating Council and made comments that Nintendo would never be a part of it, as their own review system was much better. " This quote is basically saying that Lincoln didn't care about gaming in general but only cared about the image of him and Nintendo.
|