BBFC launches new ratings system News
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Games Industry.biz
The BBFC has announced the launch of a new voluntary scheme designed to bring its rating system online to downloadable videogames and movies.
The new service, called BBFC.online, has already been signed up to by companies such as Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros, and 20th Century Fox. Over 600 downloads have already been given BBFC ratings certificates.
While BBFC.online will cover a variety of online content it will not, according to the BBFC, attempt to censor the internet nor will it have anything to do with rating online games such as World of Warcraft.
"We're talking to all the major players in the arena," said Peter Johnson, head of policy for the BBFC.
"If what you're doing is providing the game to the consumer and you're using the internet as a form of delivery, as an alternative to mail order or shops, then that's included in the scheme. If the gameplay is hosted online then that's not included in the scheme."
Representatives from the BBFC said that they would have to work with PEGI Online to provide better ratings for online games.
"We don't need to set up in rivalry to PEGI Online... We can work co-operatively," said David Cooke, director of the BBFC.
"My view is that we are better resourced than PEGI and, unlike PEGI, we don't have to go to the games industry to get their approval when we expand, so resources are not an issue for us."
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Comments: 1-21 of 21 in total
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Pac-man ate my wife
22/05/08 @ 12:13
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Certification != Censorship
EDIT: As Charroux said. But let's not let the facts get in the way of a good knee-jerk reaction, eh?
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 22/05/08 @ 13:14
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The BBFC is a well respected and generally fairly sensible rating body (although some will disagree) and unlike the mess that exists across the pond, its role/ratings is well understood and clear. I'm glad they are finally getting more involved in games/downloads because it is ludicrous to have lots of different rating systems.
Unlike the US, where most movies seem to end up with an R-rating, the BBFC system offers a sensible progression of rankings, and retailers/parents/politicians/Daily-Mail-Readers understand it! This is what is needed for games, because if people understand it, there's less likelihood of the usual nonesense we see reported. |
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Anyone care to guess how long this will remain "voluntary"? My guess is six months.
Depends how long it takes to change the law, as I understand it the current legislation on governs the sale of physical media and public screening and not digital downloads so that is why it is voluntary. It seems to me it is inevitable that the classification system will be extended to digital downloads eventually s more and more media is delivered to the consumer this way. I can't see the problem with that sa look as it is governed by the same rules as physical media. |
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HelloWorld
22/05/08 @ 14:25
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Classification is good, but we seem to be heading towards a world in which something that is unrated is illegal. When there are also things that cannot even recieve an 18 rating, this is a very bad thing indeed. What adults play and watch and say (provided the media is created legally) should not be restricted. Seeing as this is not a compulsory system, it's all good. For now...
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@LEmming:
>2) Why make it voluntary? No reason not to make it compulsory Apart from the reason that in order to make it compulsary, you would have to block all websites (or web services, peer-to-peer fans) potentially containing unrated content from everybody. Before you get to any concerns you may have about that being censorship (which it undeniably is) doing such a thing would be a logistical nightmare and given that it would also be prohibitively expensive it would result in higher content prices if it is paid for by the BBFC (and therefore the content providers/producers), higher internet access prices if it is to be paid for by the ISPs, or (most likely) higher taxes if it is to be paid for by the government. As well as that, given the BBFC's current relationship with the law- where unrated disc/tape-based content is illegal- the classification system represents a tax on creativity. The internet has so far provided an outlet for independent and niche creators whose market is not large enough to pay for such a tax- creators behind content like Consolevania, and all those indie games you see on sites like Manifesto Games- and this would come to an end should something like this become compulsary. |
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I did say "recently" to be fair.
And not all of us go to the USA and Oz - places like Canada, France, NZ, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa etc etc may have different experiences of intelligence levels amoung ex-pats. Maybe certain countries attract people of lower intelligence? That sounds like an interesting research topic! |
Comments: 1-21 of 21 in total
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