Many parents, like most people, are stupid and don't understand many things about the real world. In a bid to help them figure out what's best for them and their kids so they don't have to, the British Board of Film Classification has launched a new Web site.
Parents BBFC is aimed at educating the drooling public as what the age ratings mean and what content may or may not be suitable for their slightly less intellectual offspring. Of course, one can question the authority of a ratings board that refuses to give ratings if it doesn't like the content it's looking at ... but I won't mention the organization's unprofessional handling of Manhunt 2 again. I will say it was unprofessional though.
Cynicism aside, this is something I actually approve of, since I've said many times that education, not regulation, is the way to deal with questionable content in our entertainment media. If we can stop parents being such reactionary crusaders every time their parasitic sprog sees a bit of fake blood in a videogame, we might not have half the 'controversy' that goes on in this industry.
Remember -- it's very obvious that children will play adult videogames. What doesn't seem to be obvious, however, is that they can only do it if parents let them. Sites like this are needed because people are simply ignorant. Now the morons can search for games and movies through this site to see if they're comfortable with what Little Bobby Crappypants is playing with his friends. Good show.
i like the UK and how it handles most things..... I wasnt, however, a fan of the first manhunt 2 fiasco...
cant win em all i guess
The only problem is that if parents are so ignorant that they don't know what games are suitable for their children, how will they know how to use an internets?
I'm curious how many parents will actually know about this site.
WiiSucks:
It depends. I feel it's the parents job -- and NOBODY else's -- to define what is right and wrong with videogames.
That is one bitchin' controller design. It's like a mix of Playstation & Xbox-- the only difference is the X & Y buttons are replaced with C & D-- oh, how creative they are!
Is that picture from the Pink Floyd movie of the Wall?
WiiSucks: Then I would certainly think that was fine. I do not believe 'violent' media is harmful to children, provided the child is well-balanced and understands what is real and fantasy. If your parents were good enough to actually raise you, then it's no problem.
Wesman: You damn right it is.
A good idea but I tried typing in some games in the 'fuzzy' and specific searches. There were no entries for a good number of games that I tried including Stranglehold, Bioshock, The Darkness, Crackdown and Saints Row, all games rated 15 or above by the BBFC. Indeed the only game they had that I tried was Halo 3. So yeah, great stuff.
Can I call you out on something Jim? Thanks, I know you don't mind.
You said Many parents, like most people, are stupid and don't understand many things about the real world.
and then in the comments say
I feel it's the parents job -- and NOBODY else's -- to define what is right and wrong with videogames.
Wriggle out of that and you will win yourself an internet cookie.
Well, at least they're trying.
comradetrotskii:
It is the parent's job to define what is right and wrong for their child. Whether they do a GOOD job or not is another point entirely.
That was so easy, I don't deserve the cookie.
A greater majority of people who have kids are exactly the ones passing on genetic traits that need to die, such as . . . I dunno, having their hand held through everything.
On a slightly unrelated note, I find it quite disconcerting that most of the smartest people I know feel the same way about kids - they either don't want them, or don't want them until much later in life, and then they only want one.
Why are the slobbering imbeciles the ones who breed en masse?
"Why are the slobbering imbeciles the ones who breed en masse?"
You answered your own question... "slobbering imbeciles"... ;)
Jim, I think you should have a cookie just for the hell of it. Go ahead - eat a cookie. Go on, it's OK. Nobody's watching. Go! I SAID EAT A GODDAMN COOKIE! Mmm... sacrelicious....
I agree Jim. I also want to bring up the point that not all parents give a shit about what thier kids are playing. Which just coincides with the point you made about them being the "drooling public."
Lets all face facts here, a large chunk of the parentals of gamers these days really don't swear what their children are playing because they are the more realistic parents. To assume video games that are rated high on the ranks will damage a child is pointless. They will all learn eventually. Life isn't lollipops and rainbows, it's goombas and a large legion of hammer bros.(I'm sure my point came across)
Well played Mr.Sterling
- BTW, I DID eat a cookie!
do parents use the internet?
And besides just Goombahs and Hammer Brothers, life is also Colonel Volgin doing Raikov up the butt and a smart ravishing from Pyramidhead.
Ah Mr. Sterling, a true libertarian. English like you died with Churchill.
FINALLY. Now they just need to support it with a decent ad campaign, maybe have leaflets on the counters of retailers with a big notice saying "STOP! Are you an ignorant motherfucker? In that case, we've got just the site for you!"
Or something like that.
Ill give my dad a free pass from this one. I let my brother play Halo by turning the volume off so my dad couldnt hear the marines screaming.
I just hope I can be an ignorant father when I grow up.
I don't know why people bitch about the BBFC. It's reformed greatly in the last ten years. Unlike US equivalents, it is open, pretty liberal and shows a certain amount of flexibility, even rating some artistic films containing hard core sex with an 18. It demonstrates how censorship / classification boards *should* work. I really don't understand why people are ragging on it for not rating Manhunt 2. It's not their problem if a game chooses to make itself unratable and unjustifiable artistically through the content it depicts.
If a ratings board does not rate something, then it isn't doing its job. And I refuse to believe that the content in Manhunt 2 was worse than Ichi The Killer, which is rated 18 and also have a 'casual approach to sadism' as well as lighthearted rape.
everytime i see a story from you jim, i take notes. we are different people, but i think you are helping to make people more aware, smarter, and more accountable. that is what we really need.
This is what we need more of. Mainsteam media that doesn't demonize videogames. I really feel this will only get better in the future as gaming has become such a huge part of our culture that in a generation the gaming-inept will be far and few.
You got out on a technicality there. *shakes fist angrily and pisses on your cookie*
I was wanting to provoke a huge philosophical diatribe from you, my day is now spoiled.
Semi interesting and related stuff here
I hadn't noticed that Nex posted that shit from Gamepolitics, sorry.
Also TRIPLE POST!
No one mentions The Wall? BLASPHEMY. Delicious Schoolmaster, you must have some.
"but my hands were tied, the bleeding hearts and artists... let him going with murder!! let me punish him today!"