Gamertell

The UK’s Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) have just announced a new “traffic light” system to rate video games and offer up for consideration for the UK government before it finishes consulting on video games on November 20, 2008. This new system uses colors and numbers to help parents and guardians instantly decide if a game is appropriate for their children.

This proposed rating system is also inspired by Dr. Tanya Byron, a child psychologist the British Government asked to study children who play video games and use the internet and write a report on. Dr. Byron found parents had trouble understanding the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) rating system. The PEGI system was first established in 2003 and now is the predominant video game rating system in Europe.

Normally I’d be rolling my eyes at the need for a color coded rating system like this, but then I went to look at the PEGI site. It turns out the rating system could be a number representing age (3+, 7+, 12+, 16+ or 18+), then a series of icons to represent what’s in the game. Some of these extra icons are a bit vague. I mean look above at them. Would you guess the one with three people stands for discrimination? I’d look at it and think “multiplayer!” And the spider is supposed to represent “fear,” but someone who isn’t afraid of spiders could look at it and think that its a game featuring bugs. The fist could be “Fight the power!” rather than signifying violence, and the male/female intertwined symbol could be interpreted as a game good for both genders, and not for sexual content.

Read [Gamasutra] Site [ELSPA] Site [PEGI]