Grow up! Games have. Opinion & analysis by Philip Oliver.
2005 Oct 07 Since the dawn of video games only 25 years ago the market has grown at a staggering rate. Sadly, time and time again the debates come up of violent content in games and tabloid headlines reporting this 'evil'.
Yet here we are at Blitz producing successful kids games and now opening up a division, Volatile Games, to concentrate wholly on Mature rated games. Given the current attempts at legislation in the US since the 'Hot Coffee' mod, are we mad?
The average age of video game players is now 23.5 as opposed to the mid 80's when it must have been around 12. As people mature so tastes change.
We want to keep people engaged as their tastes change, therefore, we must remain appealing through different genres just as the film industry does. That's a mature and accepted industry and have offerings in all genres and tastes - yet they no longer get these tabloid headlines. Why not? Because it's widely understood what films are and what they may contain.
The problem is, many people don't know what games contain or might contain. As an industry we must promote to the wider public the rating systems and then enforce them.
Some people who don't play games themselves still think that the ratings are for difficulty - not nature of the content. They still think that games are just for kids and question why we are producing console games with mature content. Whilst they weren't looking the industry grew up and captured a much bigger, wider audience and games can and will contain anything that might appear in films.
These outrageous negative headlines hurt our industry and reduce the potential wider market. We as an industry must take a pro-active approach.
It's an exciting time right now in the industry as the new consoles approach. There will be huge marketing spends, high profile media coverage and massive growth. Let's make sure we sell the content message correctly to the wider audience - and that means promoting the variety of content and the rating systems!
My recommendations:- PEGI to produce clear, simple rating information like those from the ERBS. Display these prominently in the following places: packed in with new consoles, at all points of retail, game magazines, within game manuals and maybe even onscreen during boot up. Plus all websites to carry links.
For further information please contact:
Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR
T: +44 (0) 1608 645756
E: Alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk
M: +44(0)7966 449130
www.lincolnbeasley.co.uk
Yet here we are at Blitz producing successful kids games and now opening up a division, Volatile Games, to concentrate wholly on Mature rated games. Given the current attempts at legislation in the US since the 'Hot Coffee' mod, are we mad?
The average age of video game players is now 23.5 as opposed to the mid 80's when it must have been around 12. As people mature so tastes change.
We want to keep people engaged as their tastes change, therefore, we must remain appealing through different genres just as the film industry does. That's a mature and accepted industry and have offerings in all genres and tastes - yet they no longer get these tabloid headlines. Why not? Because it's widely understood what films are and what they may contain.
The problem is, many people don't know what games contain or might contain. As an industry we must promote to the wider public the rating systems and then enforce them.
Some people who don't play games themselves still think that the ratings are for difficulty - not nature of the content. They still think that games are just for kids and question why we are producing console games with mature content. Whilst they weren't looking the industry grew up and captured a much bigger, wider audience and games can and will contain anything that might appear in films.
These outrageous negative headlines hurt our industry and reduce the potential wider market. We as an industry must take a pro-active approach.
It's an exciting time right now in the industry as the new consoles approach. There will be huge marketing spends, high profile media coverage and massive growth. Let's make sure we sell the content message correctly to the wider audience - and that means promoting the variety of content and the rating systems!
My recommendations:- PEGI to produce clear, simple rating information like those from the ERBS. Display these prominently in the following places: packed in with new consoles, at all points of retail, game magazines, within game manuals and maybe even onscreen during boot up. Plus all websites to carry links.
For further information please contact:
Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR
T: +44 (0) 1608 645756
E: Alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk
M: +44(0)7966 449130
www.lincolnbeasley.co.uk
