Survey Talks Media Response, ESRB, Serious Games

A new survey from marketing services firm Phoenix Marketing International indicates that recent news stories about violent video games may be having having some impact with regards to consumers' purchase decisions. According to senior research manager David Pluchino, when asked a series of agreement questions dealing with video games, more than one-third of both the general population and regular video games players, from a sample group of 300 North American adults, indicated that "recent news stories about video games will make me reconsider the types of video games I purchase for myself or others." Although not specified, the survey is clearly referring to controversy over the content of high profile titles such as Grand Theft Auto, as well as further newsworthy conflict over legislative restrictions on selling video games to children, though it's unclear exactly what kind of 'reconsideration' is going on in those affected. Pluchino also reveals that "more than three-quarters of households with a video game console agree that the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is doing a good job and that it is ultimately the parents responsibility to control what their children play", a good indication that the ESRB is still largely trusted among the American public. When asked about the concept of video games as training tools slightly more than half (54 percent) of video game consumers agreed with the statement "video games should be taken for what they are; entertainment, not so-called 'training tools'". Finally, more than two-thirds of the survey's respondents agreed with the statement "video games are not just for kids, adults have the right to play sometimes offensive games." Unsurprisingly, gamers were significantly more likely than non-gamers to agree with this statement, added Pluchino.