The Risks of Online gaming

Thre are many online games avaliable to consumers nowadays. Most come with an 18 age pass, however, it is easy to click a button to confirm that you are off that age group.

Whilst many people play and enjoy these games safely, there are people who abuse the purpose of the game and pose danger to young players or indeed to those that have lied and are under the recommended age of 18.

These videos highlight some of the potential problems and risks of online game worlds.



It is clearly very difficult for the developers of the game to police the user generated content, and with such a high number of users it is difficult to monitor everyones use of the game.
There are also issues of hiddden identity, as we do not know what age or gender the person is that is controlling the characters.

There are however, pleasures to be gained from the game and in some cases positive outcomes, as outlined in this video:

Debating the effectiveness of PEGI

This news segment raises interesting questions over the regulation of videogames, the lack of understanding of parents.
It calls into question whose fault it is that games rated 18 are falling into the hands of young children.

The Byron Review - Development and sugggestions for future regulatory practices

Byron review worksheet from Holly Taylor

Essay Plan

Section b essay plan from Holly Taylor

Different forms of censorship

Regulative Censorship - carried out by a professional body such as PEGI or the BBFC

Constitutive Censorship - group imposed e.g. dissaproval of something by a group of people, isolating those who don't dissaprove.

Market Censorship - when a store decide not to stock a product as they believe it may offend their customers.

Pre-emptive Censorship - content that is removed before release in anticipation that it may offend or cause concern.

Legislative Censorship - when a law is passed to change the current system to protect certain people from vieweing particular material e.g the Video Recordings Act.

Self Censorship - When we as a viewer decide not to consume something as we don't approve of it or think it is appropriate. Self censorship can also occur when a director of a film or developer of a games decide themselves not to inlcude particular material.

PEGI : Videogames regulatory body

Here is an article that discusses the role of PEGI and how strict they are:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-26-pegi-is-stricter-than-the-bbfc-were-not-ashamed-of-that-vsc

Here is the PEGI website that outlines the ratings system they use and the advice they offer to consumers:

http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/952

Here is a discussion of the BBFC losing the job of rating video games and PEGI taking over:

http://www.wiggin.co.uk/wigginviews/?p=63

Changing Trend in Videogames: First Person Shooters

Videogames did not always contain violence. However once the trend was set the amount of games containing violence rapidly increased.

Here is some gameplay footage from some of the original first eprson shooters.



As you can see the graphics look very different to the games we are used to today, however at the time these games still casued concern as some members of the public believed that these games could cause harm or disturb game players.

You need to consider:
What is the actual risk of harm?
Why did violence become a trend in videogames?
The target audience wasn't children so is the content suitable for an older audience?
Films offer much more graphic images to the same age group audicence so why are games so heavily criticised?

Videogames Regulation Intro

Video games intro from Holly Taylor

Poerpoint created by Emma

you could read this article as an introduction to the debate around videogames and wether or not it should be regulated:

 

http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/what-the-mainstream-press-wont-report-gamers-are-everywhere-and-were-doing-