The GameShadow Blog

This one’s not going to seal up until 2009 when the BBFC actually takes over and the shit does or doesn’t hit the fan.

Earlier this year, the Byron report recommended the BBFC take control of all game rating in the UK for titles aimed at the over 12s, where up until now the BBFC had had a lesser involvement. This has lead to all sorts of industry outcry in defence of the popular and voluntary Pan European Game Information board (PEGI).

The industry is concerned the BBFC involvement will mean UK delays and additional costs, while the BBFC swears it is capable of upping its staff and seeing things through.

The latest couple of developments have involved the BBFC taking an outright swipe at PEGI (where so far they had always played the ‘we want to work together’ card), claiming it was unprofessional and slow.

“The trouble is that it is not clear who PEGI is,” David Cooke told The Times. “Administration is handled by the Dutch film regulator, who subcontracts to a couple of blokes [the Video Standards Council] in Borehamwood.” He also pointed out that the BBFC turn around time is around 25% faster than PEGI’s, and that having an independent board in each country helps to reflect that country’s cultural sensibilities.

Fair point, David, but when your cultural sensibilities mean we can’t play Manhunt 2, I’d rather stick with the Dutchies. No, we haven’t forgotten about that one.

More recently, Nintendo, Sega, Ubisoft and EA all banded together under ELSPA to attempt to drive a nail through the BBFC’s plans by declaring their official support for PEGI in an industry wide press release.

“Keith Ramsdale, Vice President and General Manager of EA UK, Ireland and Nordics, said: ‘The Government’s proposed changes will create extra administration and cause delays in getting hit games into the hands of British consumers. Only PEGI is built to address the fast changing nature of the games industry and is best placed to deliver the needed protection for minors.’”

I don’t for a second think that there isn’t more going on behind the scenes than the players are letting on. It’s all politics, smoke and mirrors.

I’m not pro-BBFC for obvious reasons, but I am for a legally enforceable and reliable ratings service, and there’s no concrete evidence to suggest the BBFC can’t pull that out of the hat.

Games Industry is quoting EA UK VP (mmm… accronyms) Keith Ramsdale as fiercely anti the new ratings system to be handled by the BBFC.

“The government’s proposed changes to the existing age rating systems will create further delays in getting hit games to the UK,” he said. “An extra and unnecessary layer of administration beyond a single system slows the process, and that delay will get passed on to the players themselves.”

This is the upshot of the government decision earlier this year, in response to the Byron report, to hand over all regulation of video games aimed at a 12+ audience to the BBFC, where previously it had only handled more mature titles. This move will mean publishers have two major rtaings systems to deal with in Europe - the voluntary European PEGI system, and the BBFC system that’s currently used for films in the UK.

More red tape means higher costs and greater time between the game going gold, and hitting the shelves - not to mention the fact that the BBFC is currently no where near being able to handle the workload, while PEGI strolls merrily along as the industry favourite.

Update: David Cooke of the BBFC has responded by issuing the following: “The BBFC’s current average turnaround time for games classifications is eight calendar days. In terms of international comparisons, this is notably quick. There is no reason why the increased role for the BBFC envisaged by Dr Byron should lead to delays.”

I think the key, really, is that time will tell.

Edit: This ‘news’ item was a fake story posted on www.sarcasticgamer.com. Yes, I fell for it. Sorry.

Yes, it’s happened again.

Following the infamous Hot Coffee incident in the last GTA (a deleted scene involving interactive sex between the protagonist and his fully clothed girlfriend which earned the game withdrawal from many shop shelves) a ‘deleted’ level in GTA IV has been discovered, entitled Hot Coughing.

Clearly a borderline topic cut at the last minute (or perhaps a cheeky middle finger from Rockstar North to the suits), the missions sees the player receive a groin injury and encounter ambulance chaser Jerk Thompson at the local hospital.

Jerk is predictably pushy, and verges on the gay side of homosexual - something tells me it’ll be fun to watch this one play out.

The Byron Report is the government sanctioned inquiry into the psychological effects of video games, and what measures need to be taken in order ot properly control them. It’s been conducted by TV psychologist Tanya Byron, and, after over a year of research, it finally saw release late last week.

Despite many industry fears that the report would be as sensationalist as much of the mainstream press - video games cause violence and cancer!!! - it’s actually been a remarkably restrained and intelligent series of conclusions, the biggest of which is that all video games in the UK will now be rated by the BBFC, and those ratings be legally enforceable.

 You can find the nitty gritty of the report here.

BBFC Ratings

The major impact of the report won’t be felt for a further two years, but by that point all games rated 12+ and over by the BBFC will be legally unavailable to minors. This is a great move forward for the industry - that games can currently be sold to any demographic is clearly inconsistent with film, and irresponsible. Once the ratings come into force, there’ll be one less thorn in our side.

The scarier prospect is how the BBFC will handle the increased work load, and whether they’ll display the same ignorance they did during the Manhunt 2 fiasco. Time will tell.

ELSPA

Industry support for the findings has been almost unanimous. “We fully support Dr Byron’s advice to parents on the use of technology in the home and parental awareness of their children’s activities, including the need for wider awareness of age ratings on video games,” said ELSPA.

Awareness Campaign

There remain some slightly unclear details. A large part of the recommendations involved parents educating themselves about games, so that they can better protect their children - very sensible. The concern comes in where the funds for such an awareness campaign will come from - many fearing it could be the games industry itself, already suffering under the lack of UK government support.

Online

Although the report is aware that many threats reside online, it has generally been held as failing slightly in that area.

Yes.

After months of debate, it looked as if Manhunt 2 was dead in the water. Having been refused classification by the BBFC and ESRB, the game was edited, and resubmitted, at which stage the ESRB allowed the game to be released in the US, while the BBFC again disapproved - for no explicable reason.

Rockstar appealed to the Video Appeals Committee - the guys whose job it is to ensure the BBFC don’t do anything stupid. They decided the BBFC had done something stupid, and overruled their decision. The BBFC, not about to lose face, challenged this decision in the high court, which ruled in their favour, leading us to the situation where the game’s release was highly doubtful.

Today, the VAC again overruled the BBFC, with a majority of four to three. The BBFC had this to say.

“The Video Appeals Committee has again exercised its independent scrutiny. It is now clear, in the light of this decision, and our legal advice, that we have no alternative but to issue an ‘18’ certificate to the game.”

The battle’s not been entirely victorious of course - the game’s violent killings still had to be censored to even be considered for release.

Now we have to come to terms with the fact that the game’s crap. Still, it’s the principle of the thing.

Stick it to the man, boys!

The system works.

The BBFC and Rockstar have gone tooth to nail again at Rockstar’s appeal against the BBFC’s decision not to rate Manhunt 2. The panel’s decision is yet to be made.

I know I said I’d stop with this stuff - it just winds me up, so I’ll cover it in the name of completeness, and leave it at that.

You can find the news story here.

You can find my favourite Andrew Caldecott (representing the BBFC) quote here:

“[Violence] is a frequent theme of level one, which is the only one I’ve actually played right through.”

The crux of his defence seems to revolve around the fact that games are more likely to get into the hands of kids, therefore anything unsuitable for kids shouldn’t be classified or sold at all.

Nice one, Andrew.

What’s more, he proposes there should be some boundary of common decency in video games, and that the line should be drawn at Manhunt 2.

Who needs Medal of Honor when we’re already living in Nazi Germany?

It brings me great joy to announce that Hot Coffee - the infamous hack for GTA: San Andreas that unlocked spectacularly un-erotic place-holder sex scenes - has a sequel.

Manhunt 2 - no, I’m not going to wax on about the censorship organisations’ ridiculous overreactions, we all know the deal, I’m just going to let this link speak for itself – has finally been released in the US on PSP and PS2 with heavily censored execution scenes, winning it the M rating it needed to be sold in Wal-Mart.

Rather than entirely remove said scene, however, Developer Rockstar London, through either astounding stupidity or commendable rebel spirit, has opted to simply disable the scenes in a similar fashion to the sex scenes in San Andreas.

In a similar fashion to the sex scenes in San Andreas, the full executions have already been discovered and put on display.

Stupid, or brilliant, what do you think?