“Who is rating the games?

Basically, your average Joe. Almost anyone can rate for the ESRB, whether they’ve ever played a computer game in their life, or not.

To obtain eligibility to rate a game under the ESRB label, an individual must undergo extensive training, involving a wide variety of entertainment software, before becoming certified. Supposedly, upon passing this game-experience training, the individual is deemed fit to judge what is acceptable and unacceptable for the designated age groups in America; with this ability, they are queued with 100 other raters.

From this pool of raters, three are randomly chosen to judge each game. ”Raters include retired school principals, parents, professionals, and other individuals from all walks of life.” This is a group of non-gamers. Outsiders, some might say. Despite this, they are respected by various government and educational groups, and, because of this, are given virtually free reign to decide what games thousands of people should or should not play.”

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=ESRB