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Reviewed Ratings System Review Reviewed
An interesting story from yesterday merits a brief comment, I think. The PEGI rating system for games in the UK is to become the industry standard, and legal. The current confusion, where the BBFC ratings are often voluntary but enforced by law, and the PEGI ratings required but not enforced, has been muddling parents and [...]

Author: John Walker
Category: RockPaperShotgun bbfc pegi
Publish Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:30:43 +0000



An interesting story from yesterday merits a brief comment, I think. The PEGI rating system for games in the UK is to become the industry standard, and legal. The current confusion, where the BBFC ratings are often voluntary but enforced by law, and the PEGI ratings required but not enforced, has been muddling parents and shop assistants for years. After the Byron Review, Tanya Byron suggested just one ratings system, more robust, and far more clear. And it looks like it's now going to happen.

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Read the rest of Reviewed Ratings System Review Reviewed (107 words)

Posted by botherer. |
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Post tags: bbfc, pegi

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Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun
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In fairness the icons actually have what they mean written under them now.#


They'll have an age on the front, then the reasons why on the back. Also it will be legal, which is good because it won't be the game's fault anymore.

Ahh, that sounds more useful.

Waaaaay back when, i worked for EB (jesus, has it been 11 years already?), and it was preferable to put my knackers in the shrinkwrapping machine, than it was to try and explain the two different ratings systems to the public

Parents explaining that a BBFC18 game really was suitable for their precious tarquin as 'he has already watched Friday the 13th on his own and was hardly scared at all!!' and then bringing it back next day because of the horrible violence.

Or them wanting a PEGI 15+ rated game because 'oh, he's so advanced for his age!, i don't want to bore him!' and bringing it back for the same reason.

That was the reason my widows peak started growing by the time i was 20.

I can only assume from that, then, that they think it is like the age rating on board games. A recommendation of the age someone is likely to understand it, rather than like a video rating.

Dog Pants wrote:I can only assume from that, then, that they think it is like the age rating on board games. A recommendation of the age someone is likely to understand it, rather than like a video rating.

That's how I always viewed it, and the argument I used to convince my mum that the game I wanted wasn't violent. Worked like a charm.

I don't care, as long as there's one reasonable system (both are) and it's enforced it'll be good for developers as it'll horse retail to take up the brunt and means people can't blame the devs as much.

The logos in this style, from PEGI's 'what do they mean?' page are fine though:

D: would still work better though.