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As with films, some games have a certificate if they contain too much violence/gore. But do parents decide to buy it anyway as it is only a game? With the way graphics are advancing some games have very realistic graphics or FMV sequences that could shock or even disturb young children. So should more be done to warn people about these kind of games.
Could you imaginge a young gamer playing Silent Hill 2, even that looks a little to disturbing for me.
My views is that games that contain these kind of scene aren't taken seriously enough. More should be done to warn the gamer and their parents that it is intended for an older crowd.
hang on, so am I !
> Well, I guess if you're a dad then you should know better than to order it!
Ah, and there lies your flaw because I'm not, but I can see how you'd think I was from that last post :)
Also as I've been playing on my PSx and PS2 and now just turned 30 I think I know what is a disturbing game and what isn't!
After admitting my age I will now be completely crucified by all of for being a really old ******* by you all but hey who give a ****!
How many under 14 yr old kids do you know who have £40 plus money to spend on a game!
But hey "Dad/Mum, can you buy me ??????" (put your own title there)
Ok "Son/Daughter (PC) what do you want, lets go down the shop and I'll get it for you"
"No, it's ok Dad, you can order it on the internet and it's cheaper than the shop"
"oh, that's a good idea Son, I'll order it straight away and it should be here in a couple of days time or quicker (SR)"
"Gee....thanks Dad" hehehehehe.....how little he knows!!!
You can see my point, Dad has a credit card which a 14 or younger person would not be able to have and because he's (Dad) is over 18 and has a credit card there's no way the company (whichever mailorder company it is) will not refuse this sale because it's a sale to an adult and they have no way of detecting who it's for.
Unfortunately this'll never change and I don't really know how to get round this problem....otherwise I'd be a genius or richer than Bill Gates :)
Games like Halloween on the Atari was hardly reconizable as a knife and blood although it did capture the film fairly well, but Some day when Graphics become near life quality this is all gona crack probably due to the people who aren't aren't aware of how real some of these graphics can be, Take the silent Hill 2 trailer for an example thats real enough,I think the BBFC shuld come down hard on some games to be 18+ and then companies don't have to worry about making "adult" games just incase there are banned or cencored.
Game was one of the shops who didnt sell him the game. They asked him for ID. Then the shop assiant went on to tell him that the BBFC rating(the game he was trying to get was Z.O.E which has a BBFC rating of 15) was a legal sign and meaning that they cant sell the game to anyone under that age. The ELSPA rating is only a guide line and for age and they would warn gamers and not refuse sale.
So I do think that games that have a ELSPA rating of 15+ should be made to have a BBFC 15 sticker which would mean that no one under 15 should be allowed to buy them. I think ELSPA go up to 17+ as Mortal Kombat games use to have this.
The ELSPA sticker is a warning really to parents and to the shops to advise them that the game is really only for this age and above. So for shops most shop assiants would just sell the game to them or even refuse because they only see the ELSPA 15 sticker.
ELSPA rating = warning a 5 year old could buy a 15= ELSPA rating game.
BBFC rating = Only 15 year olds or over can buy a 15 Rating BBFC.
Of course the ratings only really apply in the shop, when you buy them. Alot of parents these days dont mind there kids playing or watching videos that have a rating older than them. I remember watching Terminator 2 when I was 9 or 10 and my parents didnt mind. For as long as I can remember i've been allowed to watch 18 films when I was only about half of that age.
In games like Extermination, Silent Hill and Resident Evil they have a warning screen before the game starts.
If all games came with a BBFC rating then 13 year olds would just have to get there Brother, Mother or Dad to get the game. This would be abit annoying for the kid but at least there parents would know that its a game rated for at a higher age then there child is at.
So the BBFC would insure that kids can not buy the game but I wouldnt mean that they would not play it. IMO I think this would be good as it would mean that the parents would know the game the rating of the game and would be able to chose whether they would let there child play the game or not. I think that 95% of all parents would let there child play the game, but it gives the parents that bit of extra censorship that is needed if they dont want there child to be submitted to higher rating games than they should be.
I would love a game publisher to do an experiment. Take two new fps games, not very gorey and violent and another not as much, give the not so gorey one an 18 certificate and the really bad one a 15 certificate and I bet I can guess the outcome, The really bad one wouldnt sell as good as the not so bad one purely based on their certificate because everyone buys a game due to its genre and then its certificate, if you want a gory game you buy a 18 certificate fps. You want a kids game you buy a 3+ platformer.
SO I completely agree with you, put more warnings on BUT this could have an adverse effect to what they want because people will play the game to look tough so maybe they sould leave it the way it is?
seeya
I thought most games have ratings on them eg 3+ for F1 2001 cos theres no violence 15+ Extermination (I think this is correct but anyone who know differently please comment).
I also agree that SH2 looks disturbing and yep could seriously effect children and I think that if a game is released with a certificate then shops should be forced with legislation that makes them ask for proof of age!
The same applies with films and some of them can be disturbing, I remember watching Event Horizon and coming out from that thinking that that was one of the most disturbing films I'd seen for along time (some people will probably laugh but I don't care, my own opinion).
You aren't supposed to buy cigarettes or alcohol until a certain age and these are usually enforced so why not for these kind of games!
This might be a bit contradictory to what I said in yesterdays "Violence" topic so apologies for that.
As with films, some games have a certificate if they contain too much violence/gore. But do parents decide to buy it anyway as it is only a game? With the way graphics are advancing some games have very realistic graphics or FMV sequences that could shock or even disturb young children. So should more be done to warn people about these kind of games.
Could you imaginge a young gamer playing Silent Hill 2, even that looks a little to disturbing for me.
My views is that games that contain these kind of scene aren't taken seriously enough. More should be done to warn the gamer and their parents that it is intended for an older crowd.