I am not against censorship. It is a necessary part of our modern society that helps parents and children make informed decisions about what they should see. What I am against is bad censorship. The best example I can find of contrasting good and bad censorship is between the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) and PEGI (Pan European Game information). The BBFC is fantastic. It's content ratings are extensive and in depth, covering all the content of a game or film. This means even if the number they finally put on a box is wrong, there is enough information to make your own decision about whether you want to see (or your child to see) the material. As an example, here is the BBFC review for Skyrim: Now compare to the review from PEGI : "Contains Extreme Violence" As the BBFC has now ceased to rate games, I am now left with PEGI for ratings for new games, which I don't find satisfactory at all.
In the end, the number or letter the censor puts on the box is irrelevant. What is much more important is that the censor has put there whole thought process in the public view, because otherwise you have to take their word for it that they are right.
So, what do you think? Also, is your country's censor great like the BBFC or useless like PEGI?
Imagine you're in a game shop, you want to know right now what you're up with that game. You see the PEGI symbols and have a first idea of what to expect.
That BBFC seems like a good review for games etc. if you're at home at your PC or with one of those fancy smart phones; in any case, whenever you would also be in a situation to search for other game reviews. So while I understand that you lost a good review possibility for your games, I don't understand why it's so dramatic. The BBFC short info on your link is "Contains strong violence". Same as PEGI.
I am not against censorship. It is a necessary part of our modern society that helps parents and children make informed decisions about what they should see. What I am against is bad censorship. The best example I can find of contrasting good and bad censorship is between the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) and PEGI (Pan European Game information). The BBFC is fantastic. It's content ratings are extensive and in depth, covering all the content of a game or film. This means even if the number they finally put on a box is wrong, there is enough information to make your own decision about whether you want to see (or your child to see) the material.
There is a difference between censorship and informing the consumer of what they are buying. Censorship is blocking content, not informing of content.
Also, is your country's censor great like the BBFC or useless like PEGI?
My country's ('Merica) is pretty useless like PEGI, the best example would be the Modern Warfare series being rated for heavy language when any given game in the series has maybe 5 curse words. To counter that Halo Reach had like 8 or so and wasn't even rated for so much as mild language so now I can never be sure about a game without looking it up which doesn't guarantee answers either.
My country's ('Merica) is pretty useless like PEGI, the best example would be the Modern Warfare series being rated for heavy language when any given game in the series has maybe 5 curse words
Uh, either I'm mishearing stuff when my ~12 year old brother is play COD Black Ops w/e # and I hear them constantly swearing, or we're thinking of a different shooter series.
Even in Cod4 (the last good Cod) there was still an awful lot of swearing. Not that I care or anything, I'm only saying...
so now I can never be sure about a game without looking it up which doesn't guarantee answers either.
Why would you ever buy a game you know nothing about? I mean obviously a shooter game that's rated M is going to not be suitable for a younger child.
I don't view the ratings as age requirements. Age has absolutely nothing to do with maturity. A hamster is more mature than my brother, and they crap wherever they want. E = everyone. Great. T = Not suitable for everyone. M = Don't let whiny brats who have no impulse control play them.
Uh, either I'm mishearing stuff when my ~12 year old brother is play COD Black Ops w/e # and I hear them constantly swearing, or we're thinking of a different shooter series.
Even in Cod4 (the last good Cod) there was still an awful lot of swearing. Not that I care or anything, I'm only saying...
Since CoD has 2 different devs things like swearing are different, the modern warfare series has very little with the others have a butt load. I think you might be mistaken about CoD4, as I recall (from recently-ish playing/watching my brother play) there was little compared, especially when compared to other games.
