Video Game Regulation and Ratings Systems

PEGI is acronym for 'Pan European Game Information', and is the gaming rating system in place within Europe. It decides whether the content of a game, is suitable for certain age groups, and rates it accordingly. Before PEGI, there were many different age rating systems, and from April 2003, PEGI replaced those with a single system for the whole of Europe.  The BBFC played a joint role in the rating of games previously. There are five age categories that PEGI places on games; 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18.

The ratings on the games are decided by the amount of the content above. For example, a game that is rated 18, will contain all of the above, where as a game rated 3 will only contain mild violence. From June 2009, PEGI introduced the coloured rating system, after the 'dual classification system and two sets of symbols often made things confusing for the consumer'.

From the 30th of July 2012, the PEGI rating system became legally enforceable in the UK, meaning that retailers that sell video games to children who are under the age rating can now be prosecuted or fined. This is due to the governments plan to 'crack down on violent and unsuitable content'. Before this, it was not illegal to sell games to people who are under the '12' age limit, and apparently, according to 'culture minister', Ed Vaizey, "Today's simplification of the ratings system benefits both industry and consumers and will help ensure that the millions of games sold in the UK each year are being played by the audiences they were intended for." Previously, it was illegal to sell games to children under the 16 and 18 categories, but the new law means that now, it is illegal to sell games with a 12 rating to children under 12. Obviously, this could be potentially dangerous for retailers, as they have to be very careful about who they sell their games to, and this could have an effect on their profit, as now they can not sell the games to the children. Retailers could be fined up to £5,000 if they are caught selling games to children under the age of the games rating.

As well as this becoming a legality, the new system means that the BBFC will no longer play a role in the rating of games as they did before this new law came into place. All video games will now be rated under the PEGI system by the 'Video Standards Council', apart from if the game may require an 'R18' rating, when the BBFC would be called to classify it.

Also, this new law might alter the way publishers and developers wish to make their games - will they have to reduce their games violent/ sexual/ gambling/ drug content in order to be able to sell more and make a larger profit? Even though it will be illegal to sell the games to the children themselves, there is still nothing stopping their parents going out and buying it for them... This system merely helps parents to decide whether or not to let their children play these games. 

MMORPG - Runescape

Runescape is a fantasy based Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, which was released in January 2001 and is still a very popular game today. With over 200 million accounts created and is recognised by the Guinness World Book of Records as the world's largest free MMORPG.

The game is free to play, however you can become a member for as little as $5 (£3) a month, which enables you access to more gameplay and content that is not offered to non-members.

RuneScape does not follow a singular storyline and players choose set their own goals and objectives to follow, and which ones they don't want to pursue. Players can choose to fight monsters, complete quests, or increase their experience in the different skills that players can develop. Players can interact with each other by trading goods, chatting, or playing mini-games. Some of these are competitive or involve combat, while others allow players to cooperate to complete the task. The game was designed by Paul Gower and Andrew Gower and developed and published by Jagex Games Studio.

According to figures of 2011, there are 139 English servers of Runescape, including; the UK, the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, New Zealand, Mexico, France, Lithuania, and India. However, there are 2 servers translated into French, 5 that are translated into German, and 6 servers which translate into Brazilian Portuguese. The image below shows the server locations.

Runescape has a very devoted following, with many fan sites and forums dedicated solely to the game. Jagex even have a 'Fansite Support Programme', which ranks fan sites into bronze, silver, gold and platinum. This system means that Jagex support these sites through things like, advertising support, allowing exclusive staff interviews, invitations to Jagex events and recognition as an official Runescape fan site. This shows the level at which people devote their time to Runescape...

RuneZone

On this fan site, there are a large range of things to look at. There are a lot of forums, discussing topics from updates and Runescape news, to help and advice and user guides. On these forums and message boards, people have to register themselves, and can choose an icon and a name to display themselves by. Their Runescape names and medals are also displayed next to their forum names. According to the forum statistics, which are displayed at the bottom of the homepage, the RuneZone message board has 239,950 posts, there are a total of 7,746 registered members, the newest registered member is Valerie and the most users ever online was 1,446 on Oct 23 2012 at 7:51 PM. The website has many links to things such as fan blogs, quest guides, databases and even RuneTV and RuneRadio.

Runewise.net

Runewise.net is a golden Runescape fan site. On thier 'About us' page, it says, 'RuneWise is highly compatible with other Runescape sites, which focus on guides and calculators, as it's rather unique as a tool site. In addition to tracking how much xp you need to your goal, RuneWise also offers suggestions on how to train, and achievements, and a score system to drive you to that goal, not mentioning the experience deviation system that finds your average levelled skills, and the Exp. Tracking system that counts how much xp you've gotten since your last visit.' It has a very large link page, on which it links its many partners, other Runescape related blogs and forums, and even game clans. It offers quizzes, and polls and information on Runescape News.

GTA V trailer analysis

After almost a 2 week delay (due to hurricane Sandy) Rockstar released their well anticipated 2nd trailer for GTA V on the 14th of November. As expected from Rockstar, their new trailer has a film-like feel to it, with opening credits and sweeping establishing shots, showing the skyline of Los Santos. We can see from this screen shot how the usual distance fog that appears in games does not appear here - the graphics seem superior, which makes it seem more than a game (which was definitely one of Rockstar's intentions). The natural lighting and bright colours contrast with that of the darkness of GTA IV, however, there are some clues that there will be aspects of GTA V that have been in previous games.

The trailer opens with the Stevie Wonder song 'Skeletons' which may be symbolic, as many of GTA's song choices are. It may reinforce the violent content of the game, which will inevitably end with many deaths (skeletons  symbolise death). After the initial establishing shot, the credits appear, and we are introduced to the first of GTA V's protagonists. This scene shows his lavish and luxurious life style, with shots of his mansion and a low angled shot of his very expensive car - a grey F9 (Audi R8 Spider). All of these shots expose the amazing amount of detail that Rockstar have put into this game. It also begins with some dialogue, some diagetic dialogue from the first character's family, and also some non-diagetic narration from the character himself. Dialogue throughout this trailer allows it to flow properly as a film trailer would, with characters almost explaining the scene as it is portrayed on the screen.

After several more establishing shots of the city, we are introduced to the second protagonist, who seems to have a fiery temper. The camera edits speed up to show the difference in his personality from the first man, and shots are shown of him slamming another man's head against the bar, and even him blowing up a house. These are all shown in quick jump cuts to show the typical fast paced and action based content that is expected of GTA games.

Then, the last protagonist is introduced. After a quick jump cut of him and his girlfriend arguing, even more jump cuts are shown of high speed car chases, a scene where a bank robbery is involved, a train scene and even a scene with a dog is shown (animals have never been in previous GTA games, which caused a lot of discussion in on line chats about the trailer). A scene is shown with a quad bike and motorbike chase, and a scene which could have been from a Hollywood movie is shown, where a Jeep falls from a plane and is seen falling towards Earth. We can tell from this trailer that Rockstar definitely wants this to seem more than a game. All the while, the music is getting louder and more fast paced, again, following the speed of the edits and action in the frames. Near the end, all 3 characters come together, and after a quick introduction and more jump cuts of action from a nightime helicopter/jet chase, they seem to form the pose of the three wise monkeys - see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. Again, this is very symbolic.

GTA V so far...

The Grand Theft Auto series is an extremely popular and well established franchise, published by Rockstar and developed by Rockstar North. The first GTA game of the series was created in 1997, and 14 titles followed this, the most recent being Grand Theft Auto V, which is set to be released in the Spring of 2013. The first GTA game set out to found the new 'Sandbox' format of games, involving violence, organised crime, theft and many other subjects that other games had been reluctant to include before. The games have proved to be very controversial, but also very successful, and the publicity that has surrounded news on GTA V suggests that the new game in the franchise is set to be a huge triumph for Rockstar. 

Rockstar has been drip feeding the press news on GTA V for quite a while now, however not a lot is known about the gameplay and production of the game. Rockstar have told us that GTA V 'evolves every mechanic' that was included in every other game of the series,  and that the world that game is set in is bigger than the worlds of Red Dead Redemption, San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto IV combined. We also know a bit about that characters in the game - Michael, Trevor and Franklin are the 3 main protagonists (as shown in the image below) and are criminals, whose stories intertwine as they complete missions together. According to the GTA V wikipedia page, "Michael is a retired former bank robber in his early forties who lives with his dysfunctional family on the proceeds of his former life in the upper-class suburb of Rockford Hills, based on Beverley Hills. Trevor lives alone in a trailer in the desert of Blaine County, his reckless and psychopathic behaviours being fuelled by a drug addiction. Franklin makes a living in Vespucci Beach — based on Venice Beach — as a repo man for an unscrupulous car dealership." The three acquaintances are drawn into Los Santos' criminal underworld in the "pursuit of the almighty American dollar". As in all GTA games, the open world of Los Santos (based on Los Angeles) can be fully explored. The GTA world is totally interactive, and players can interact with people with in the game and even pursue hobbies such as scuba diving and base jumping.

 

On the 2nd of November 2011, Rockstar released the trailer for GTA V, which stimulated a lot of discussion on line. This is an example of how Rockstar virally marketed the game. Rockstar had scheduled to release a second trailer on the 2nd of November of this year, however Hurricane Sandy delayed this, and it is now set to be released on the 14th of November instead. The picture above is a screenshot from the first trailer, which shows a sign, obviously based on the Hollywood sign in LA. The trailer also contaioned footage of a jet aeroplane and many people have concluded that there may be opportunities to actually fly jets in the game. From the 20th to the 24th of August, Rockstar also released a series of screenshots from the game, which also caused a stir on the internet - they provided hints as to what the gameplay will consist of. It's Rockstar's consistant, but scarce marketing strategies mean that publicity is built up, and a lot of 'knowledge' that people have about the game is just speculation. This creates an aura of excitement about GTA V.

 



 

We now know for sure that the new GTA game will only be available on PS3 and Xbox, not the new Wii U. The more complicated controllers of the Playstation and Xbox consoles suggest that GTA V will be aimed at core gamers, and the violent content of the game (and also one of the cover art pieces showing a woman in a bikini) suggest a male target audience. Now available for gamers to pre order, it is for sale in the UK in shops such as GAME, Play.com, Zavvi, HMV, Amazon and Tesco. This may mean that Rockstar may have a place in the top 10 gaming charts several months before the game is even released.

 

MVC Top 20 game chart

From this table, we can see the top 20 video games from this week. In the top 10, there are 3 games that have been published by EA games (Fifa 13, Need For Speed and Medal of Honour) which shows how successful it is as a publisher. There are 3 games that are solely available to DS platforms, one game that is only available for PC and one game that is only available for Xbox 360. These are all first party games which are also all established franchises. This suggests that most first party games that are successful today tend to have very well known IPs. Also in the top 20, we can see that there are no Sony first party games. This shows how Sony are more successful with their third party games. All the rest of the games are available across many platforms, Fifa 13 is available across the most platforms, even the PS2 (which is a contributing factor for its position as number 2 in the gaming charts as more people can play it across different consoles). The reason for this is that many countries, e.g. Brazil and India, the PS2 is still a very popular console, and Fifa is a very popular game in these countries. Out of all of the games in the top 20, only one is a new IP - Dishonoured, published by Bethesda Softworks. This shows how most publishers are more comfortable creating games from an established and well known franchise (to ensure success) rather than create a new IP and risk it not being a success. Assassin's Creed being number one is evidence of this - it is a very popular and well known franchise. Most of the games in the top 20 are also for an older audience, for example the violence in Assassin's Creed and Medal of Honour may be unsuitable for a younger audience. This suggests that the gaming audience is increasing in age, as more games are aimed at older audiences. However, there are a few games that are aimed for younger audiences such as Moshi  Monsters and Skylanders, which implies that a young gaming audience is still catered for.

Symbiosis - Halo and Mountain Dew

 

This is an example of how video games use other products (through symbiosis) for promotion. In this case, Mountain Dew has paired with the new Halo 4 game, to promote both of their products. There is a link between the energy drink and the game - many people spend many continuous hours on video games, and so the energy drinks allow them to keep relatively awake to play the game. This is a good partnership that would hopefully increase the sales of both products.

Conglomerate Map for Grand Theft Auto IV

Conglomerate model for Skylanders