Huntington freshman William Berry won this year’s History of Physical Sciences Technology Award for his National History Day documentary on the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
Huntington freshman William Berry won this year’s History of Physical Sciences Technology Award for his National History Day documentary on the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
Huntington High School freshman William Berry.
Commonly known by the acronym, ESRB, the Entertainment Software Rating Board was founded in 1994. It is a non-profit, self-regulatory body for the video game industry. “Our primary responsibility is to help consumers – especially parents – make informed choices about the games their families play,” according to the organization’s website.
This year’s National History Day theme is “Communication in History: The Key to Understanding.” Participants in the competition were able to submit work in a variety of formats from individual and group exhibits and websites to historical papers and individual and group documentaries.
“I chose my topic by evaluating my personal interests and findings ways that they connected to the annual theme of Communication in History,” Mr. Berry said. “I did the research by checking the databases provided to me but there wasn’t much information to be found there. I then moved to checking old news articles from the time that have since been published digitally. I am happy with how it came out.”
Click on this link to view Mr. Berry’s documentary:
ESRB ratings have become valuable guides, especially for parents. “Our rating system was established with the help of child development and academic experts, based on an analysis of other rating systems and what kind of information is valuable to parents,” according to the group. “We found that consumers respond best to an age-based rating system that includes information about the content of a game. As games evolved, we found that parents place equal importance on understanding the ways in which some games are played, such as interacting with others online and spending money on in-game items.”