So What's Caught Our Eye This Year?

Earlier this week I managed to drag our game examiners away from the hamster wheel of game content analysis in an attempt to discover which of this year's games they personally found worth playing.  This is not easy since they are frequently to be found 'in the zone' concentrating intensely on what is happening in the game in order to determine the appropriate PEGI rating.  However, the smell of a doughnut or other sugary item will usually draw them away from the screen long enough to get a few mumbled words of conversation out of them.

Though it may seem to be the equivalent of working in a chocolate factory, I can assure you that the reality is rather different.  They don't, for example, 'play' a game in the way you and I would; indeed, the whole point is really not about fun and enjoyment, or whether the game is good, bad or indifferent, but to objectively identify those elements within a game – violence, sex, bad language, etc – that will result in a particular rating.  Yes, I know.  It's grim work, but someone has to do it!

The following list then comprises those games which for a variety of reasons our lab mice found to be particularly engaging.  Let me emphasise that these are NOT endorsements for particular games.  What the lab mice find interesting or entertaining may not sit with what you enjoy.  In addition, this is going to be wholly subjective and limited in scope, so don't give me a hard time if your favourite game doesn't feature.

Finally, I've had to use false names for our examiners in order to protect the guilty... sorry, innocent!

From Belinda our first offering is Ori and the Blind Forest rated PEGI 7.  This is a Platform adventure following Ori, a white guardian spirit, who has to make his own way through the forest when his adoptive mother dies. Ori must restore the forest after a cataclysmic event by recovering the light of three main elements supporting the balance of the Spirit Tree, Nibel. Belinda notes that: "I liked it because it’s visually stunning and a very sad tale is told in the opening cut scene – purely by animation (no words). I think it’s difficult to create a character that people can fall in love with without the need for voices and that’s what they did in the first 5 minutes of the game."

Hot on her heels is Jane who's come up with two games, starting with Dying Light (PEGI 18) which is a "Survival action game. You play as Kyle Crane, exploring the zombie-infested city of Harran, looking for anything you can use to assist the remaining survivors, while following leads on your own secret mission. The difficult gameplay is the main reason I like the game. Your character is good at scaling buildings and out-running the (slow, Dawn of the Dead style) zombies. Even so, the zombies are not easy to kill and you can easily be overwhelmed. Your (mainly melee) weapons will keep breaking and you constantly have to scavenge for resources. At night, the zombies become more alert and dangerous which can make the game quite scary also."

Her second choice game is Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (PEGI 7) which, I am told, is a "Cute, but difficult, action game where you fly around in a spaceship, defeating evil robots and rescuing space bunnies. This 1- or 2-player local co-op action game is worthy of a mention as players work together to control the battleship."

Next up is Katy whose top pick is Oddworld (PEGI 12) though mainly "...cause it's a remake of a game I loved when I was younger." To this she adds that Metal Gear Solid V (PEGI 18) is a real favourite simply because she's a big fan of all the MGS games.

In the world of apps, our IARC examiner, Sally, reckons that her personal favourites are Akinator the Genie and... er... Cow Evolution.  Of the first she says: "It's a game which involves thinking of a famous person or character and a 'genie' asks various questions, eventually guessing the right answer.  It worked every time, even if they are quite obscure."  As for Cow Evolution, Sally says: “Cow Evolution is one of a series of games involving animals.  This one involves cows popping out of crates on a farm and the player has to add them together so they mutate into new varieties.  It goes on forever and is quite addictive!"

Finally, to Larry who picks out Project Spark (PEGI 12) as something a little different from the norm.  He tells me: "The game has a number of different modes. In Play Mode the player can play through games created by the developers: Team Dakota and the global Spark community; in Create Mode the player can use the Project Spark tools to create a world and games from scratch and in Crossroads Mode an in-game wizard helps the player to create a world based on the parameters selected."  Then goes on to add: "An enjoyable game which allows a great deal of creativity on the part of the player. There is plenty of help via YouTube for those interested in the creative aspects of the game."

So there you have it.  Words from the wise and all-knowing.  Have yourselves a happy, gaming Christmas and next year we get to do it all over again.

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.