If you've ever had trouble in the past understanding the age ratings of a video game, then you're a f*cking idiot. Unsurprisingly, Britain is full of these arseholes, so UK games will soon be introducing a "Traffic Light" labeling system to help moronic parents understand videogames without taxing their mental reserves. Now they can save precious brainpower for important stuff, like thinking about Big Brother.
As you might have gathered, the system uses the red, yellow and green colors of a traffic light in order to provide a visual aid the mentally incompetent. A green label means the game will be fine for kids, a yellow calls for the long-dead art of parental guidance, while a red means that it's for adults. Before this, parents were forced to decide for themselves whether an 18-rated game was suitable for their 7-year-old child. Thank God for progress!
The system borrows from a currently existing one that rates food in a similar manner, based on how healthy it is. Publishing body ELSPA agrees with the new system, believing it will help parents become more informed.
Personally, I expect parents to ignore this, just like they ignore everything else, because they are either as thick as pigsh*t or too weak to tell their children that they can't have Gears of War. Videogames have had massive, impossible-to-miss "18" certificates on them for years and that hasn't helped. I appreciate the sentiment of this move, but it's likely to be lost on a fair few UK parents.
Contest:
1:24 PM on 10.28.2008
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next they'll probably try to have famous actors or something on boxes literally holding a note saying "FOR KIDS", "FOR TEENS" "FOR ADULTS"
maybe then will their mind say something.
If it were up to me I would cater the highest common denominator and have the ratings be complex geometry problems to figure out which age range they are suitable for.
Between this and wrapping street poles in plastic material, these are far too safe.
I say we let Social Darwinism do it's job.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights,
No matter where they've been.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights,
But only when they're green.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights,
No matter where they've been.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights,
But only when they're green.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
That is what I said.
I Like traffic lights
I Like traffic lights
I Like traffic lights,
But not when they are red.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
That is what he said.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights.
He likes traffic lights,
But not when they are red.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights,
Although my name's not Bamber.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I Like traffic lights.
I-- Oh, God!
or a Red Yellow game...
fuck it, every game not on nintendo is yellow.
any FPS is red.
Shame though as the parents are always the first ones to bitch and complain about violent games.
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Fucking government. If they spent this much time/money telling the banking sector what they can and can't do -as they should be- the economy would be in better condition.
If Parents see U, PG, 12, 15 or 18 on a box, they know what's involved. They'd at least pay as much attention as they do to DVDs.
A pale gray box with 7+ upon the case should be quite simple to follow. But in Britain, parents expect the BBFC ratings. It's what they know and trust.
Why do games need a whole new rating system that will cost time and money to implement, when every Film reviewer feels competent to rate games, anyway?
@JustLikeBuck,
well, ok then, just expect every game to cost £10-20 more as the BBFC hover up on languages and such within the games.
I'm sure there could be something aranged. Release-Price DVD's get cheaper by the month, despite mandatory BBFC review.
And if it did cost, I would expect eh Government to pay. After all, it's their fault people can't read.
You figgure that A) The goverment gives a frangrent shit (It doesn't by far) B) The BBFC will not price gouge given how much time will be have to be put in to "Review" a game for content.
Plus, I don't want to find content magicaly missing from my PAL Copy of something, thank you very much.