BBFC: Public Doesn’t Understand PEGI’s Symbols
By Chris on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 6:28 PM PST In Gamer Life, Games Industry
Microsoft’s Michael Lambert was able to air his thoughts on why PEGI offers a better ratings system for videogames than the BBFC does, but the BBFC has fired back, calling PEGI’s system “purely a tick-box system filled in by the distributor themselves.”
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, a spokesperson for the BBFC explained that while they do use the same symbols for rating films and games, it doesn’t “classify games in the same way that we classify films, because we physically play the game.”
“We know for a fact that the public is confused by [the PEGI] symbols, they don’t understand them,” said the spokesperson. “They do understand consumer advice which says ‘Contains strong language’ or ‘Contains strong violence’.
“The fact is, we provide consumer advice about the content – and extended information – on our Parents website about exactly the sort of things you can expect to encounter in the game, in all of the games we classify – and we do it in words, which people understand, they don’t understand the pictograms.
“We know this – in January we did research and the public really couldn’t get their heads around what a spider meant. That is not sufficient information for them to make a decision.”
The spokesperson also had harsh words for PEGI, claiming that it only helps to further confuse the public over game ratings.
“Unlike the PEGI system, which is purely a tick-box system filled in by the distributor themselves, the BBFC has very well-qualified games examiners – who are games fans themselves – to play the games right through all the levels, with the cheat codes, and spend a lot of time playing them so that they know what the content is.
“Yes, we’re using the same symbols that we use for films, but that’s because parents understand what those symbols mean.”
The spokesperson is right that I don’t understand pictograms (I’m not even quite sure what a pictogram is, to be honest) and that text is much more straightforward. The CMS Select Committee has its work cut out for it, to be sure.
I’ve been playing games for years and I’ve never heard of either of these ratings systems. They’re not important.
But as for the one being “tickbox filled in by the distributor themselves”…THAT’s all we need. The ESRB sucks and is ridiculous. A developer should be able to decide what their game is rated. And who should play it.