Q&A with Patricia Vance - President of ESRB

Patricia is the president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). In her position, she leads the teams responsible for assigning age and content ratings to video games and apps, enforcing marketing guidelines adopted by the video game industry, and operating ESRB Privacy Certified, an FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor Privacy seal certification program.

How do you stay up-to-date on the latest trends in gaming?

As you know, this is a fast-moving industry, but ESRB sees just about every major title come through before its release, which gives me – and the whole ESRB team – an opportunity to consistently stay up-to-date on how the medium is evolving. We also have partnerships with all of the major retailers (through the ESRB Retail Council) and most online storefronts (through the International Age Rating Coalition), which gives us enormous and timely insight into what’s going on in the business. We’re also very committed to listening to parents about their challenges on a regular basis, which allows us to frame how we evolve the rating system and better serve our primary audience, parents.

How do you handle ratings for live service games (Fortnite/Roblox et al) that may have new content and modes that could affect their initial rating?

We have been addressing live service games for a long time by requiring companies to submit content to us for rating that might be inconsistent with the core game’s rating. In fact, ESRB requires that certain live service games, like Destiny 2 or Overwatch 2, get reassessed every few years to ensure that the assigned rating information is still accurate.

What’s new is that games like Fortnite and Roblox have become platforms unto themselves. In the case of Fortnite, ESRB actually rates all of the experiences within the platform – in addition to Fortnite itself. For example, Fortnite is rated T for Teen with the Content Descriptor: Diverse Content: Discretion Advised. This means that Fortnite itself has varied content, like Fortnite Festival (T for Teen) or LEGO Fortnite (E10+). Not to mention all of the user-created games and experiences on the platform – which we also rate. Roblox is similar in that it is also rated T for Teen with Diverse Content: Discretion Advised. However, they have their own guidance for individual game experiences available on the platform.

We offer parents in-depth blogs to explain these platforms so they have what they need to decide if it’s appropriate for their kids. The Fortnite and Roblox blogs are actually two of our most popular… only after Minecraft!

Beyond ESRB ratings, how can parents determine if a game is OK for their kids?

We often say that checking the ratings is a great first step, but it doesn’t have to be the only step if a parent is on the fence or wants more information. We provide additional rating information for physical games in the form of Rating Summaries at esrb.org or our mobile app – which are in-depth explanations and examples of the content in a game. These can be really helpful for parents who are on the fence about a particular game.

In recent years, we’ve heard from a lot of parents that they like to pick up the controller and preview the games themselves when they can, which is easily the best way to see what’s in a game with all of the context. That’s not always an option, so we always encourage parents to check previews, gameplay videos, and reviews – both from other parents/gamers and from the game enthusiast press. There’s a ton of great information out there on almost every game.

How do you recommend parents stay connected with their kids about video games so they don’t seem out-of-touch?

Go to the source: Your kids! We talk a lot about nurturing an open-ended, judgement-free family conversation around video games. The intent here is to help parents connect with their kids about why they love games, and which are their favorites. These conversations illustrate that video games have a lot of really positive benefits beyond the fact that they’re fun. Gamer parents may already know some of this, but parents that don’t play themselves may not appreciate the fact that a lot of online games require team-building and strategy – your kids may be natural leaders and this ongoing conversation is a great way to hear more about that! Meanwhile, offline single-player games also offer great benefits like hand-eye coordination, reading comprehension, a safe place to try, fail, and try again with a new strategy… the list goes on.

Crucially, these conversations also give parents an on-ramp to explain to their kids why there need to be household rules around video games. Parents can explain why a certain game may be off limits for now, or why it’s important that there are time-limits on how long they can play. It’s a great avenue for mutual respect, and most kids understand the importance of household rules if the logic behind them is explained.

Of course, there’s no better way to stay in-touch than by diving in and playing with them!

ESRB put together an entire Family Gaming Guide to help guide parents through some of these conversations.

Do you have a fun moment where you had to educate a parent on modern video games? For instance, letting them know that online games can not be paused.

Pausing an online game is a big one! Some parents are really surprised that their kids are being serious when they say that.

But yes, earlier this year ESRB participated in an event called Mom2.0, which was attended by parent influencers and bloggers. There was a video game lounge put together by ESA with a number of developers and publishers participating. We had the opportunity to chat with hundreds of parents – most of whom were not gamers themselves.

One gap that kept coming up for us was the breadth and depth of parental controls. Our research shows that most parents are aware of (and use) parental controls, but it was clear that these parents were surprised by how granular you can get with some of the settings. In particular, the fact that virtually every modern video game device allows parents to set full weekly schedules for when their kids can play games, and for how long they can play, was surprising to them. Even more so that they could do it remotely from their smartphone most of the time.

Another point is how many games are rated E for Everyone. We had a lot of wide-eyed parents when we explained that about half of the new games released in any given year are rated E for Everyone.

This is more general, but we also had multiple parents say to us that we convinced them to let games into their homes, that they see the upside beyond the entertainment. It was a really wonderful experience, and we were so thankful to have had the opportunity to walk parents through things like parental controls and to explain how we rate games.

What games are you playing now?

As you can imagine, my free time is limited. I’ll usually pick up something more casual on my phone if I have a few minutes to play or on a long commute. ESRB is serious about not playing favorites… but personally, Tetris and Words with Friends have always been favorites of mine.

Fortunately, I work with an office full of people that love video games, and I get to experience them vicariously!

Thank you, Patricia!