BBFC’s “Level of Expertise” Not Up to Par with PEGI
By Chris on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 11:49 PM PST In Game Companies, Games Industry, Microsoft
The BBFC vs. PEGI debates go on, as Neil Thompson has echoed his Microsoft colleague’s statement that, if one of the two rating systems were to be used, it should be PEGI. He points to it as being standard for the industry and how the amount covered by PEGI clearly outweighs the BBFC, saying, “There’s just a scale difference in terms of industry knowledge and industry insight that goes into these things.”
“We made it very clear to the Byron Report team, both as an industry and as Microsoft, strongly believe that PEGI has a lot more benefits for customers, parents and for everyone involved in the industry really,” he told GamesIndustry.biz.
“PEGI has been established for quite a few years now as the industry standard, so the industry has got behind it and invested a lot of time and effort in it, and it offers a level of in-depth information as well as a level of expertise to be honest, that the BBFC doesn’t.”
Despite claims to the contrary, Thompson also believes that PEGI’s usage of graphics is a quick and easy way for consumes to figure out whether or not a game is appropriate.
Several of our European readers have stated previously that they think the BBFC is actually the better system. If you haven’t already chimed in, share your thoughts in the comments.
bbfc is the better one its used on videos and on music I’ve never heard of pegi but I’ve seen some of the logo’s and they are a bit crap, but parents and retailers need to educated about these so they know that if the game is suitable for children for who the game is purchased for, its really the parents and retailers responsiblity to ensure that games such as GTA4 wont enter the hands of a 14 year old, I think there should be more signs in shops as well as leaflets given out with every game to educate parents also retailers need to be more vigilant about minors and parents and ask questions such as “Is this game for your son? If it is how old is he?” or “How old are? Please show me some ID such as your passport or drivers licence?” rather than be concerned about sales. Parents still do live in age where they a videogame is suitable for children no matter the content.
I still don’t understand though why PEGI has such close gaps between its ratings at the high-end. Why would someone of 17 be privvy to particular ‘knowledge’ that an 18yo wouldn’t have? I think the BBFC is more clear-cut and simple. No 16+ or images depicting this-that-other. Simple logic. You’re either 12, 15 or 18. ‘Nuff said.
(That’s not to say I think PEGI is completely bad. Some of the images can be useful, but so is “Contains strong violence”)
In the UK the BBFC is the better system because people recognise it which imo stops more games getting into the wrong hands than the Pegi system would. I would be willing to bet that a parent in the UK would be far more likely to mistakenly buy a mature rated game for their kids than one with an 18 certificate because they have grown up knowing all about the BBFC system and unless they are gamers themselves they wont know anything at all about Pegi.
I agree Norbit, the fact that there is 2 systems confuses a lot of people there should only be 1, in the UK we do prefer the BBFC over Pegi, I dont know what it is like in USA though so why dont the USA have pegi and the UK the BBFC only having the systems is not needed it just lets more underaged people slip through and buy unsuitable games.
The last part of your post (at Shadowmancer) doesn’t make that much sense, I can’t really make heads or tails of it.
I personally, being from the US, think that PEGI is good for most of Europe because it has indeed been established, I’ve seen it on a large number of things that I’ve gotten from Europe.
However, I think that the BBFC is better for the UK because, well, to be honest, they use it for damned near everything. Though I personally don’t agree with the huge gaps before the 18, but that’s just cause I’m a concerned brother, and try to keep my little brother from playing violent games that are too old for him.
People Kill People, the instrument means nothing, and the media pushes forward that it is the media’s fault.
BBFC is better for UK because they are really bad in getting used to new things.
@ James
Playing Devil’s Advocate here; do you believe that someone who is 17 will know stuff entirely different to those at 18 when it comes to life? I’m talking about drugs, sex and violence (all being made pretty damn visual). I think there’s a distinct gap between knowledge of these things between 15 and 18, whilst 17-18 will probably be insignificant. I don’t think the bottom-end of the PEGI is bad, merely the top end which is designed really quite badly.
….. says said: “BBFC is better for UK because they are really bad in getting used to new things”
Examples?