The Law of the Videogame.

Posted on February 11, 2008
Filed Under Games, Politics, Rants

Its sad really, that the rabid opponents of individual responsibility seem to have scored another victory in the war against grown ups making their own decisions. In an article in the Guardian on Saturday it was revealed that the government is to bring in a legally binding ratings system for games, not unlike the current film classification regime administered by the BBFC.
As things currently stand, video games only have to carry a BBFC rating if they contain content depicting ‘gross violence against humans or animals’ or explicit sexual content. However all games are subject to a voluntary system of ratings which the majority of retailers require them to submit to before being sold in stores or online. The announcement comes ahead of the publication of a report by TV’s Supernanny, Tanya Byron, who was commissioned to study the current regime and how it relates current knowledge about the effect violent games have on children. The more recent furore in the states, stirred up by Fox News, over the sex scene in Microsoft’s RPG Mass Effect, has only served to fuel the fears of ignorant parents.

Recent controversy over games such as Manhunt 2 and the Grand Theft Auto series of games has given the nanny brigade yet another baseless fear to cow the masses with. As many parents are still under the impression that games are for kids they are understandably concerned about the content of the games their children play. Thats kind of missing the point though. The point being that adults play games too, and actually make up the majority of the gaming demographic, with the average age of a gamer being around 27 and over 70% of gamers being over 18. I believe that as more and more gamers grow up to become parents, with an understanding of the medium and their own opinions of what they deem acceptabl, a ratings system such as the one proposed becomes unnecessary. Until then non-gaming parents need to be more aware of the medium and accept the fact that its not just for kids.

Games like Manhunt and GTA are just the birth pangs of a new kind of game, designed to cater for a more mature audience. An audience which, like myself at 30, has been playing videogames for the best part of their lives and has grown out of the gaming equivalent of Disney movies and hankers after something more along the lines of Kubrick and Kurasawa. Granted we also like a bit of fairly mindless entertainment, games that are the equivalent of a Michael Bay movie.

The worrying thing about this legislation is that it will serve to stifle a burgeoning art form, and prevent the free expression of game makers. Unlike the US we have no first amendment rights, no indisputable right to freedom of speech. It may be implied by our ‘unwritten constitution’ but all that means is that the government can (and does) deny us that right on a whim. No doubt filmmakers and TV execs will be overjoyed at this turn of events, anything which restricts their competition will be a good thing in their eyes. Personally I feel that traditional media has pushed for just this kind of thing purely on competitive terms. However the internet is the freedom fighter’s friend, I’m sure that any attempt to ban games will be easily subverted by some resourceful bod online, and games available freely elsewhere in the world will be easily downloadable if you know where to look.

Rate this:

2.5

Bookmark this... These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.