Comments on: More on the Byron Review

By: Paul Tunney

Paul Tunney — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:06:10 +0000

The PEGI rating system works perfectly, as Bruce says, good retailers make sure that it works. I had a woman approach my counter with Vice City and a 10 yr old boy by her side. I pointed out that the game was called Vice City which gave an indication of the content as did the 18 certification. Her son announced that his friend had it and so he should have it. The mother told him to go and look at some other games. I then proceeded to describe some of the game’s more adult features. Needless to say it was not purchased. The industry does not support “good” retailers. It supports ASDA and Game. Do you think ASDA would have been able to give that parent that kind of service. Needless to say. I left Video Game retail as quickly as I could once I saw the XBOX360. The writing was on the wall. Prior to owning a video game business I worked at a high level for BT and they had the same problem with premium rate phone calls. Parents calling for the phone company to nanny their kids for them.

You have forgotten to mention how BBFC rating takes time, must be done after the game is completed and will delay time to shelf compared to other countries. I see most of UK retail going to the video game wall as all users either download or purchase european versions from PLAY.COM which will mean even less income for the Chancellor of the exchequer (PLAY are an import game company, I think in the Guernsey or some tax haven and come in the UK post often avoiding VAT).

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

By: Andrew Armstrong

Andrew Armstrong — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:50:33 +0000

Alex, currently the law is only for boxed games – games sold online don’t need ratings (and games can be imported without you being arrested). Don’t give them ideas, it’d be a useless law if it seek to classify every single game on the internet – the workload alone would be unworkable.

I’d prefer PEGI. The BBFC have shown they censor content, while the PEGI countries had no problem with the same content (and before that, ELSPA didn’t have a problem either). Doesn’t putting in a BBFC rating also cost quite a bit? Painful to small developers

By: Alex Loffstadt

Alex Loffstadt — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:00:06 +0000

Pretty good but I take issue with 2 points.

Although text media does not have an age rating system like those of both movies and games it is worth remembering that there are laws that concern the context of some books and magazines and their supply to minors.

Print media also have an argument that in many cases unless you understand what the words mean they do not present anywhere near the risk level of more graphic media.

Also “all” games being rated by PEGI is a massive assumption. Yes if you go into a shop and see a package you’ll likely see a PEGI or BBFC rating. However there are loads of sites online with free flash games with fairly explicit content that I doubt have ever seen a PEGI rating, and if they have they’re certainly not advertising the fact.