looking forward to the day when that sub-species of HU_MANity will be endangered.

as a gamer from SIngapore, banned games are nothing major, always ways to circumvent the fences.

I think the assumption that a legally enforcable ratings system is necessarily oppressive and has an exclusively negative impact needs to be questioned.

As Mark Kermode persuasively argues in this article…
http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1854024,00.html
The BBFC, as it exists today, helps to facilitate a cinema culture where diverse and interesting range of films can be seen.

“in America, … an ‘adults-only’ rating is so stigmatised that many distributors would rather release their product unrated than accept a grown-up ‘NC-17′”

“Hence the insane spectacle of Kubrick’s orgiastic swan-song Eyes Wide Shut being digitally altered to ensure that any American parent mad enough to want to take their children to see it could do so.”

“in America, you can take a child to see Basic Instinct, but grown-ups have a hard time finding a cinema showing Atom Egoyan’s Where the Truth Lies.”

Hopefully, after the political dust has settled, we’ll end up with a situation where developers can create games designed to appeal to adults without having to worry about tabloid hysteria. A proper and comprehensive ratings organisation with the transparency of the BBFC and whos decisions are backed up by law would seem like a good place to start.
-Tom

Jive

As for whether I’ve played Manhunt 2 or not, well that doesn’t really matter. I played the first one so I know how it all works. I’ve seen the various murder cut-scenes on YouTube. Hey, correct me if I’m wrong. If it’s really an abstract statement about the Chinese oppression of Falun Gong then get it a release right now. If it’s just a story ripped from a very bad B-movie loosely gluing together a series of repetitive, brutal murders then it’s infantile trash that no-one is going to miss.

As for Slipknot fans, they lost the right to complain about anything when they became Slipknot fans. You’re missing nothing.

“I guess my point earlier re: kids ignoring a parent’s advice is that, over the age of 12 or so and in the absence of regulated safeguards, they can quite easily go out and buy media that you’ve expressly advised against.”

Assuming they have the money and transportation, sure. So let’s say your kid has $60 plus tax and a car (or a bus pass) and goes out and buys GTA against your wishes. It’s not the end of the world. You’ll definitely see him playing it and that’s when you do the parenting thing. Or you could just set whatever console he has to block M-rated games (not my choice, but an option nonetheless).

Andrew Eisen

If parents don’t care, then sales restrictions aren’t going to help anything. I also don’t like giving lazy parents an excuse to pay less attention to what their kids are doing.

Have you played Manhunt 2? After calling it the game equivalent of a snuff film and void of artistic merit I certainly hope you have. And it may not be a great loss to you but what about all those 14-year-old Slipknot fans?

Andrew Eisen (has no idea who Slipknot is)

I guess my point earlier re: kids ignoring a parent’s advice is that, over the age of 12 or so and in the absence of regulated safeguards, they can quite easily go out and buy media that you’ve expressly advised against.

I don’t think that having a legally-enforced age-rating system is nanny state-ish.

It’s simply accepting that some content is not suitable for some audiences and that, with a mature, generally liberal and sensible body like the BBFC, there’s a useful safeguard of consensus.

This is of special value for those many youngsters who don’t have the wisdom or care of an adult such as you to guide and regulate their consumption.

If they were oppressing a political statement of some kind then I’ll be the first complaining about censorship. So far they’ve only banned Manhunt 2 (and Carmageddon which was overturned because, well, it’s rubbish). All we’re missing out on is the videogame equivalent of a snuff film. Utterly without artistic merit and designed solely to appeal to 14 year-old Slipknot fans. It’s no great loss and, frankly, a line had to be drawn somewhere.

America’s film rating system is strictly voluntary and carries no force of law.

Andrew Eisen

Depends on what you’re talking about and how old your kid is.

If you don’t want your 14-year-old playing GTA, don’t buy it for him. I’d also recommend talking to him about exactly why you don’t want him playing it.

The neat thing about being a parent is you have a lot of options, far more than I suggested above. Do your best to pick the most appropriate one.

Andrew Eisen

To me, ratings should do nothing more than inform me about the content of a game so that I may make an educated purchasing decision. Luckily, that’s all the ESRB does and all it was ever intended to do.

The BBFC ratings, on the other hand (as I understand them), restrict the sale of particular games to particular age groups. That to me is a no-no because I can’t stand any group, gov’t or otherwise, telling me what is and is not appropriate for my kids. That’s my job.

Andrew Eisen

Anyway, thanks for clearing up some of those other points – that’s extremely helpful.

To be honest, this post is mainly directed at the average game consumer’s attitude here and the way in which the original stories have been worded in a super-inflammatory fashion.

Whilst there were indeed some ignorant comments made about the report on that site, it should also be noted that other posters stated they were willing to wait and see what actually happened before getting annoyed.

As for political discussion, well that’s ignorant and heated wherever you go, not confined to one forum on the Internet.

Any industry has it’s over-loud mouthpieces, I think reporting only on them and not mentioning that views varied across the user-base is, in and of itself, somewhat sensationalistic reporting.

Also, it should be noted that the UK already does use compulsory age-rating for most mainline games, anything beyond ‘Solitaire’ type games need to be submitted to the BBFC, so it would be extremely difficult for Mr Brown to introduce one. The report will probably suggest expansion of it to cover a broader spectrum however.