Exploding Sheep?

I recently got a phone call from someone who was worried about their seven year old son playing “Minecraft” of all things – normally it’s seven year olds who’ve been let loose on “Call of Duty” or “GTA V” - so you can imagine my surprise when this was raised.   It was evident that the caller rarely engaged with video games and I pressed them as to what was the problem exactly.  It seems that they objected to Minecraft because it allows the user to blow-up animals – sheep in particular!  Though I have limited experience of Minecraft myself, I do know that the graphics are pretty simplistic and that there isn’t exactly much to see.  I pointed this out to them and they admitted that they hadn’t actually viewed the game in action, but had ‘heard explosions followed by the sound of a braying sheep.’   Do sheep bray?  Let me know if you have the answer.

Their judgement was based solely on something they had heard and they believed that such ‘cruelty’ to animals was not something they wanted their son to engage with even in a somewhat simplistic and unrealistic video game – fair enough!  I tried to explain that rating systems tend to be something of a blunt instrument which cannot take into account each and every individual reaction to a video game.  They appreciated this, but still thought the PEGI 7 was incorrectly applied to this game.

This example typifies the lot of the regulator –  it would seem from most of the correspondents on the PEGI website that we either rate material too highly or too lowly – there never seems to be a happy medium.  However, we recognise that you can’t please all of the people all of the time which is why we provide quite a comprehensive amount of supplementary info on our website.  PEGI provides pictorial content descriptors and the Games Rating Authority (GRA) provides detailed additional consumer information – use the game search function on the website – which outlines what a game contains and how it is portrayed.  From this we hope that consumers can make an informed buying decision rather than relying on the sales patter of game store staff or even their own children.

As to our caller... we had a good chat about the kind of games that might be more suitable for their son, but it was difficult to convince them to get involved or interested in what their child is playing.  Nevertheless, they understood that it is probably easier to wrestle a greased weasel than it is to find the absolutely ‘correct’ rating for a video game.  Let’s hope the kid never discovers “Super Exploding Zoo” or “Lemmings”... I know it traumatised me and I’ve never kept a pet since!

Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Games Rating Authority.

Legal Loophole

Hello and welcome to what I hope is the first of many ratings related blogs.  I hope to be able to provide some insight, thoughts and information on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of video game ratings in respect of the GRA and PEGI.  Let’s get things right from the start; this is not a review blog – there’s enough out there already – more than enough in my view and written by more able reviewers than I could hope to be, so if you want to know how good, bad or indifferent a game is then you’ve come to the wrong place.  If, on the other hand, you want to know what makes us tick or are simply interested in the kind of stuff we deal with on a regular basis then you have most definitely come to the right place.

I can’t promise thrill-a-minute prose – some of the things we do are simply downright dull – but maybe you’ll come to understand the reasons why we do the things we do.  In return, I would be pleased to hear your comments on anything I’ve said – even if you violently disagree – but let’s try and be civilised about it, huh?  The abuse I see on so many other blogs really does nothing to advance the debate and neither will I respond to such comments.

I thought I’d start off with an issue that regularly rears its head for the games regulator and one which seems to be increasingly problematic.  As you probably know, here in the UK much entertainment media is regulated and video games are no exception.  Whilst the PEGI rating system in Europe is, by and large, a matter of consumer choice – that is to say there’s no legal enforcement governing the ratings – here in good old Britannia things are a little different. 

The PEGI 12, 16 and 18 ratings ARE legally enforceable; game stores risk prosecution if they sell such rated games to persons below the relevant age restriction.  The legislation places this responsibility entirely on the shoulders of the retailer and none on the consumer.  This means that there’s nothing which prevents mum, dad, grandad, grandma, aunt, uncle or Tiddles the cat from buying such a game and then giving it to an under-age child; no doubt you’ve worked out that this has the effect of completely under-mining the point of the legislation in the first place; protecting kids from inappropriate or downright unsavoury media.

Recently, a deputy head teacher rang us to say he had witnessed an example of the aforementioned flaw in his local game shop and wondered what we could do about it.  In the store he was quite staggered that despite the shop assistant’s best efforts to persuade the customer otherwise, the consumer insisted on buying an ‘18’ rated game for a child whom he guessed was around eleven years of age.  He was even more taken aback when I pointed out that this was entirely legal, if wholly inappropriate, and not that uncommon.  He told me that he was quite convinced that children he dealt with – primary school children – were aping the language and modes of behaviour to be found in the more popular 18 rated video games; something which he found very disturbing. 

It seems unlikely that any more legislation could prevent such incidents from happening and how would it be enforced in any case?  Others would argue that the rest of Europe seems to get by without the need for legislation so what’s the problem with Britain? Are we particularly attuned to the so-called ‘effects’ of popular media on impressionable minds, or are we like the ‘Overreaction Brothers’; leaping in horror at the merest hint that something’s threatening our kids?

Do add a comment if you have view on this.  You may think of something that should be glaringly obvious, but has simply been missed.  Sometimes you just can’t see the wood for the trees.