For my first post on Mark Attack (thank you Mark by the way, for the handy tutorial for the technically deficient writer here) I would like to talk about age ratings.

I will save the general over-arching rant I have about age certification for all media released in the UK in

Warning: Article requires a brain

general for another time, for now I would just like to discuss age ratings for video games in particular.

Now, as most people are aware when computer games of any format are released in the UK (though this is typically more common on games consoles) the came with an age guidance certificate supposedly-relevant to their content, or at least that is the idea; and in fairness as a general rule of thumb it works pretty well. Or so you would think.

Similarly to films, they tend to range from about (12+) to (18+) to give you the general idea of the level of content one is liable to find within the game in question. This is obviously meant to cover the producers of these video games against the threat of potential legal proceedings should someone or more people be inadvertently exposed to something they do not wish to be. In alot of cases this isn’t really necessary as a basic exercise in observation and common sense should leave you to deduce that a game with a title along the lines of ‘Werebeast Blood Apocalypse 2′ isn’t likely to be a peaceful puzzle game designed to teach youngsters Welsh, before you even feel the need to direct your gaze to the age guidance circle!

It is however, a fairly good method for working out if the F.P.S (first person shooter for those who don’t know) game you are considering buying as a gift for a youngster just has a bit of fake blood spatter the wall behind an obviously-fake character when shot, who then just drops cleanly to the ground and disappears; or if the character you play brutally rips out the intestines of their opponents and skips merrily down the street with them! An with the way sod’s law works, were that shown to a school child you then have the pleasure of attempting to explain to their new teacher why the child screams the place down every time they see them!

Yes dear, your teacher may give you detention for not doing your homework but won’t ceremonially disembowel you. Your not doing it? In that case, forget the previous statement!

Back to the point in hand. You would think this would be a fairly simple guideline anyone could follow wouldn’t you? I mean you would like to believe that most of the average populace have the basic sense even if they know less than I do about quantum physics, about modern computer games, that if something as an age guidance circle on it that is BLOODY IDENTICAL to the ones found on DVD boxes, that hmm, this may have some baring on what the game is like!

For example, perhaps I shouldn’t buy my short-tempered, boistrous neice/nephew with chronic A.D.H.D a game the object of which is to boot off the head of the opposing with the force of a ballistic catapult so that it arcs beautifully of into the sunset in a font of blood that would do an Imperial Roman Fountain proud!?

But no, as  my rant indicates, this is not the case. I personally believe this attitude has arisen amongst the preceding generation and/or not so technically offay, of  ‘I don’t really understand this and I don’t really see why I need to make the effort to’. People, parents in particular here, are now supplying children with media they don’t understand and that’s dangerous. I would never condone a child up to 13-14 having an internet capable computer in the privacy of their own room. Plus so many games are now internet playable to, but anyway, I’m digressing again.

Part of me thinks, and yes I’ve realized I have begun to direct this rant mainly towards those responsible for young people, that parents who are busy, tired etc; quite often are just looking for something to keep the kids quite for a few hours don’t want to face up to the potential consequence of purchasing a computer game that isn’t suitable for them and if they are aware of it, then some small sub-conscious-but-entirely-understandable part of them deems it a risk worth taking in exchange for peace.

I have friends who have worked in high-street computer game outlets who have gone to great pains to explain to the person stood in front of them the age rating of the game they are buying, when they’re stood there with their 6 and 8 year old children clearly about to give them a game such as ‘Grand Theft Auto San Andreas’ only to be met with ‘Oh, its ok they’ve had them before’ or ‘But its a computer game, they’re all for kids aren’t they?’.

Hang on mom, just one more murder till level two!

Its this assumption or perception that all video games or anything animated, just by virtue of being what they are and that they’re typically marketed at children, MUST all be for children without exception! Yet, a simple scan of marketing figures reveals the largest purchasers of video games are teenagers and young adults who have more disposable income. This can also be verified by the readership of any console magazine. Most with this attitude don’t actually seem to comprehend any major difference in content between a game the likes of ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ and ‘Left for Dead’.

At the end of the day though, if someone who is fully cognisant of the content of the game and the audience it is intended for still chooses to break the law and buy it for someone below that age (assuming their hopefully a parent or relative etc) fine. We’re all adults here, provided their fully aware an except the corresponding  responsibility, their decision.

The crux of my rant is when some individuals go ahead and do this despite all prior advice and warning and then turn around and complain that their child is now traumatised buy a game THEY bought them!! When little Toby turns around and attacks his sister with a baseball bat after playing GTA, because thats how the main character in the game deals with annoying ‘ho’s’ who insult him; it is suddenly all the computer development studios’ fault! Or the licensing board for ‘Allowing this type of filth to be sold on high-street shelves!’ Not the pillocks who supplied him with a game he isn’t even legally allowed to buy on his own, in the first place.

I will always say when I think company’s have cocked-up, but lets be reasonable! Personal responsibility has to come into it somewhere, surely! The covers asides their titles and cover graphics, can’t make it any more implicit enough! It has gotten to almost patronising extremes like with movies nower days! Now where a P.G action film also has the breakdown into ‘may contain mild peril’ (i should bloody hope so, I’ve just forked out for an action film, I would expect there to be at least some slight peril somewhere!) On computer games you also have things like ‘explicit violence’ written underneath the label!

What the hell else do they expect?! Are we to start adopting the same policy as newsagents do with hardcore pornography and top-shelving the more adult games now..? Preferably in the obligatory brown paper bag to add that extra tint of guilt and tackiness? Will we begin to see older teenagers shuffling furtively in, wearing dirty duster coats and buying every console accessory behind the shelf before whispering hurriedly for the game they desire, whilst checking round the shop to make sure no one’s watching? I don’t no about you but I do not want to live in that world!

In all these cases, its the shops and developers who are forced to bow and scrape to public opinion, not the parents/guardians. Do you remember a few years ago when ‘Man Hunt’ was first released, and the big public out-cry and subsequent bans of it by many retailers, when a number of foolish people bought for their children.

If you take note, not at any point did any Judge, Magistrate or Board of Inquiry in the land turn round and say ‘OK, we will take your testimony and investigate, but we are going to prosecute and/or fine you for supplying explicit material to under-age minors.’ Never comes up does it?

This is because despite all appearances, the desire figures such as judges and retail branch owners to not go against popular supposed-’common feeling’ or ‘public interest’. So when the like of the readers and writers of (an I shall spell it differently to avoid accusations of slander) the Dairy Male get a hold of the story, they drip the prerequisite doubt and cynicism into their investigations, stir up a sufficient number of ignorant members of the public into thinking they’re on some self-styled moral crusade and before you no it the game is banned!

This is how censorship creeps in, you can almost hear ‘The Simpsons’ Mrs Lovejoy going ‘Won’t Somebody PLEASE Think Of The Children!!?’ But we have to take a stand. They used to apply the same process to many books that these days wouldn’t bat an eyelid, in fact from my own educational background, titles such as ‘The Wasp Factory’ and ‘The Butcher Boy’ were all required films. Indeed, it doesn’t always follow or remain so with Films either ‘The Wickerman’ was required viewing in my As Film Studies class as well.

Let us not allow this to happen to computer games, or we’ll all be doomed to Virtual Fishing forever!

The next time someone whines about a youngster they know being traumatised by a game they were given, don’t be afraid to enquire as to the age of the person who gave them that game!

Anyway, I have ranted on for FAR longer than I intended to, I hope I stayed at least partially relevant to my main point and if you’ve made it to the end, congratulations! Let me know what you think, if you agree or you think I’ve got it totally wrong.

Thanks for reading!

Si