News
BBFC: ‘We’re ready to rate all games’
Tim Ingham Feb 18 2008, 12:53pm
Comments (7)
Classification body prepared for admin onslaught in wake of ‘cinema style’ ratings for software
The British Board Of Film Classification told MCV that it would back any move to make it responsible for rating every game – and that it recognises flaws in PEGI’s system.
However, the body told MCV that it had received no official confirmation from the Government that the widely-speculated news is in the works.
Fears have been raised this week over the BBFC’s capability to handle the extra workload if the new age-ratings system is brought in – but the body’s spokesperson Sue Clark said that it was confident it could handle the extra administration duties.
“BBFC is a rating people understand from film and DVD, so it might give parents a bit more piece of mind,” she said.
“It would mean a bigger workload – but that’s our problem, not the industry’s – and we know we could handle it.
Our own research shows parents can be confused by PEGI’s difficulty ratings. A significant proportion of distributors in games already submit much of their software to us regardless of whether it’s a kids’ game or an adult game – so this would just mean a widening of that.
“The Guardian article was a piece we had nothing to do with – and if you read it, nothing is attributed to a source. It looks like no-one has briefed The Guardian.
“We don’t know what Dr. Byron is going to recommend, but we’d be prepared to take on the role of classifying all games if that’s what’s decided.”
Comments
“BBFC Needs to be more flexible”
Posted by: ReDorDeD - Feb 18, 4:49pm
I think the current BBFC certificates are not flexible enough for games.
What are the differences in criteria between a PG and a 15? What would be suitable for an average 14 year old? To be suddenly banned from FPS games would be a shame. Many games seem to be rated on their singleplayer mode with their storyline and sometimes use of language in the narrative, however often the multiplayer contains none of this. Look at CoD4 for example, they are practically different games entirely.
I would like to see something in between PG & 15 ratings and seperate ratings for singleplayer and multiplayer.
“BFCC vs. PEGI - Is it that hard?”
Posted by: alexanderpas - Feb 18, 6:04pm
Is pegi really that hard???
It has:
numbers for age indication…. (similar to BFCC)
and aditionally it'll actually tell you what's bad about a game
with the following icons::
a fist for violence…
a textbaloon with @*! for bad laguage…
a spider for fear…
both gender signs connected for sex (most difficult one to get…) …
syringe for drug abuse…
2 white guys and one black guy on the background for racism…
tell me, is it that hard???
http://www.pegi.info/en/index/
“Re: BFCC vs. PEGI - Is it that hard?”
Posted by: Rob - Feb 18, 8:57pm
The first poster should do his/her homework - between PG & 15 there is a 12. Doh!
“Re: BFCC vs. PEGI - Is it that hard?”
Posted by: ReDorDeD - Feb 19, 6:26pm
Doh! Indeed, although I can't think of any fps games with a 12 rating.
“Re: BFCC vs. PEGI - Is it that hard?”
Posted by: _-MrT-_ - Feb 21, 12:47pm
@2
No, PEGI is quite simple, but what you're not taking into account is how ******ed the general public are.
“Re: BFCC vs. PEGI - Is it that hard?”
Posted by: Rikki - Feb 21, 3:54pm
lol, whole can of worms opening up! The multiplayer might not contain bad language, but opens the young impressionable to a world of rude, mouthy, swearing louts who spend all game audibly abusing each other. Maybe that should be censored as much as the single player game? ;-)
“Re: BFCC vs. PEGI - Is it that hard?”
Posted by: S - Feb 22, 11:22am
im not sure about both of them, but i think pegi should go ahead though they need to be a bit more lienent when rating games. eg Smackdown vs Raw. PEGI: 16+ BBFC:PG