Online Game Ratings

Hello again!! This posting is about where to find ratings on online games like The Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft. Both LOTRO and WoW are massively multi-player online role playing games (MMORPGs) which means that the content of the game itself is rated by the ESRB. The first screen-shot here is from the LOTRO and it is on the LOTRO community page, which is the first page you come to when you look at LOTRO website. Notice that the rating is “T” for teen and it says that the game has “Blood and Gore” in it. It also has use of Tobacco and alcohol and violence. It also says that the online interactions are not rated, which is something that we will get into in a later post, but the content for the game itself is rated by the ESRB. 

 

 

The next screen-shot is from the WoW page on the Blizzard website. Blizzard is actually the developer of WoW, so the best way to download WoW or content for WoW is through this official website. Notice that it says that it is rated “T” and that it has Blood, Violence, suggestive themes and alcohol use. Also it has the same notice that LOTRO does that the online interactions are not rated by the ESRB. The ESRB can only rate content in the game, they cannot control interactions. 

 

Note that LOTRO is free to play (F2P) which means that one can play most of the game for free, gain Turbine (the developer) points to buy new things, and take part in many of the raids and skirmishes. There are subscriptions for this game where one can pay to get extra perks (VIP), however that is still something like $9.99 per month. WoW is very limited in free content, only allowing players to play free to level 25 I believe, and then you have to pay for it. In LOTRO you can go to the level cap of 100 for free if you want. If you would like to find out more about these games, go to the LOTRO community site here, or go to the Blizzard WoW site here. Thank you and cheers!!