Cold Coffee

Buried in a ZDNet article detailing how sex sells in video games comes this quote from the sometimes difficult to read ESRB Prez Patricia Vance:

In an interview for this story, the ratings board's Vance told CNET News.com that there is little her organization can do about designating mature or adults-only ratings for games in which sexual content cannot be predicted and is based entirely on users exploiting titles' open-ended tools.

"We can't do anything, nor can publishers, with user-generated content," said Vance. "And we can't rate user-generated content. So our solution is we provide an online rating notice on (online games) that says 'Game experience may change during online play.'"

And Vance also suggested parents must get involved when there's the chance their children may encounter sexual content in online games.

"If parents are concerned about kids being exposed to inappropriate content while they're playing online," she said, "then they should not allow their kids to be playing online."

-- Adult-orientated video games prospering

Well, hell. Would it have hurt to have said that when the ESRB released their Hot Coffee statement? Hopefully publishers know that this is the stance and won't back off from creating open-ended tools for fear of what users will do with them.