It seems tech careers aren't just for us humans any more!
It has always been the job of the Entertainment Software Rating Board to give video games age-appropriate ratings accordingly. This week marks the beginning of a new and improved system -- rating by machine. Starting on Monday the ratings board plans to begin introducing computers to the job of deciding whether a game is appropriate for Everyone, for Teens or for Mature gamers (meaning older than 16). 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. This new rating system comes at a time when games are beginning to be online at a staggering rate.
The system will depend largely on a questionnaire that is to be filled out by each video game maker. Additionally, there will be penalties for nondisclosure. The board says that publishers’ answers to the digital questionnaire will determine a game’s rating and that a human won’t review it until after the game is out the door.
The machine is expected to be quite accurate as it will be based not on direct human judgment but instead on a detailed digital questionnaire meant to gauge every subtle nuance of violence, sexuality, profanity, drug use, gambling and bodily function that could possibly offend anyone.
Did your dreams of being on the Entertainment Software Rating Board just get crushed? Why not search through some of the latest tech careers and find a job making robots? I predict they'll be a hit.
Bambi Blue is a freelance writer, editor, and social butterfly living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. When she's not blogging her little heart out for TechCareers.com, she moonlights as a jazz musician and most apparently a weisenheimer. Loves to cook, hates to clean, and can easily be found on Twitter. To read more of Bambi's posts, head to TechCareers.com and see additional job postings at Nexxt.
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