Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. We finally wrap up our series explaining how video games got age ratings in the United States. We address the December 9, 1993, Congressional hearing about video game violence and how this led to the games industry creating a trade organization--the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA, now known as the Entertainment Software Association)--as well as a comprehensive ratings system: the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). 

Topics discussed include: How different game companies handled content before 1993, how Sega and Nintendo brought their marketing feud into the halls of Congress, and how the ratings system, in many respects, made it easier to put racy content in games.

To learn more about the creation of the ESRB, check out:
Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation (Dey Street Books, 2015): https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generation/dp/0062276700.
Blake J. Harris, "Content Rated By: An Oral History of the ESRB," Gamesbeat: https://venturebeat.com/2019/11/22/content-rated-by-an-oral-history-of-the-esrb-excerpt-doom-to-the-power-of-ten/.
Jimmy Maher's four-part series on the ESRB's creation, The Ratings Game: https://www.filfre.net/2021/04/the-ratings-game-part-1-a-likely-and-an-unlikely-suspect/.

Theme Music: Occam's Sikhwee by Sikh Knowledge (Free Music Archive: https://bit.ly/33G4sLO), used under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US (https://bit.ly/33JXogQ) 

More info, including show notes and sources at http://scandalousgamespodcast.wordpress.com.