Videogames 5 - Regulation of the Videogame Industry

Regulation of the Videogame Industry

• Regulation of the videogame industry is largely ineffective, due to convergent technologies.

Regulation

• One way videogames are regulated are by PEGI icons of warnings of things such as, sex, drugs and violence. There are some icons which are vague such as bad language and fear. This usually makes the parent decide whether it is suitable for their child to play the game, they are usually the main consumers.
• Previously regulation was more vague, in Britain, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) in 1989 regulated games, there were age restrictions and include some information of the game. It was usually up to the creator of the game to say whether the game was for adults or children could play too.
• In 2003, Pan European Game Infromation (PEGI) was introduced, it is similar to the BBFC but somewhat different. The age labels and content descriptors are warnings for maturity and how offensive the game is, this allows the parents to decide whether it is suitable for their child to play, there are no obligations on age restrictions and it is ony the advisory, the person working can decide whether to sell the game to the child or not.
• The BBFC would also used to sometimes regulate videogames if it had FMV (Full Motion Video), not every game featured FMV so some never gained an age certificate. For example, 'Resident Evil 2' from the 90s gained a BBFC certificate of 15 as it features FMV of scenes that could be harmful however 'Silent Hill', a psychological horror game include adult themes but doesn't have a certificate but ELSPA 18+ but would be considered more harmful than 'Resident Evil 2', also shops at that time would sell videogames to anyone who may be younger than the restriction however with the BBFC rating it would not be sold to anyone younger.
• Livingstone and Hunt - Regulation - Increasing power of global media corprations with rise in technologies and transformations in production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk.
• Consumer based content regulation - PEGI - informed choices of what it contains for audiences with age recommendations and content descriptors. This makes the consumer make a decison.
• Self regulation - For example, 'code of conduct', in digital distribution services such as YouTube, different form of regulation as it's an American company will be different to how it is in the UK, very ineffective such as a pop up box asking if you're 18+, anyone can click yes easily.
• The effective regulation of media products is largely impossible due to digitally convergent technologies such as piracy, the issues of legality and ethics, the revenue is taken away like copyright. Another issue is the issue of regulation not in just piracy but digitally downloading videogames from places such as Steam, where there are either no age restrictions or strict regulations.
• Regulation is important to protect people vulnerable to certain adult themes.
• Assassins' Creed - raises regulatory issues for the series as it includes violence and is based on murder and assassination being acceptable for usually a political goal, the game series uses a mixture of PEGI and BBFC ratings usually 18+. The regulation is then not effective with confusing ratings of a game in the AC series with a BBFC rating or PEGI rating, it also doesn't stop younger and impressionable audiences from playing the games such as digital convergence. The implications of this is regualtion of the videogame industry in the UK is highly ineffective.

Preventing harm

• Reguations are needed for protecting intellectual property or copyright and prevent harm.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - gameplay

• The material in the game that is likely to harm or offend an audience is the acts of violence especially it is seen more detailed in cutscenes such as the beginning, we see stabbings.
• I believe this game deserves an age rating of 18+ because the acts of violence can be seen as quite gory.
• I further reached this conclusion when you have to find and talk to the character 'Markos', in which you fight him and then kill him along with others in the area.
• Being an interactive videogame affects the potential harm and distress the game may cause as the audience or player controls the game and you have to assassinate and commit other acts of violence.
• The game tries to be inclusive and accessible to audiences from being available on multiple platforms such as Xbox, PlayStation, PC either in a physical copy or downloaded digitally.
• I believe the target audience of the game is young men, ages of 18 - 20s, however I could see young teenage boys playing it with regulations not being very effective from a middle class socio-background.