Rating your game (PEGI 3 to 18+)

  • #1, by nenad-asanovicSunday, 29. May 2016, 19:25 9 years ago
    I have come to this issue after doing one of scenes for my current game... Now i know the rules cause we may read descriptions on many pages online about PEGI 3 to 18+. My wonder came after reaction of many parents and even non parent mature (fully adult) people. They said my scene will be rated with PEGI 16 cause girl on scene show too much skin.
    My wonder started after reading what PEGI 12 and PEGI 16 are rating for. So here both of them copied so you don't need to browse to find em

    PEGI 12
    Videogames that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy character and/or non graphic violence towards human-looking characters or recognisable animals, as well as videogames that show nudity of a slightly more graphic nature would fall in this age category. Any bad language in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives.

    PEGI 16
    This rating is applied once the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. More extreme bad language, the concept of the use of tobacco and drugs and the depiction of criminal activities can be content of games that are rated 16.

    As you will see on my game screen girl don't even show any real nudity on scene. So i am wondering what this community think about this? Especially if you are a parent. I would like to know would you let your child that is 12 years old or bit older let play game that has scene alike this one and why so?
    In general i am just a bit confused by direct "law" of game rating to real life reaction of people who will chose game by rating... Especially since dark souls and similar game are consider as safe for 12+ and even many people say it should be 10+ only...

    Any help on this would be very appreciated.

    Thank you all in advance.

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  • #2, by MachtnixMonday, 30. May 2016, 13:53 9 years ago
    Because the unicorn is completely naked...?

    This rating should only prevent to endanger young persons from bad influence. It's different in every country. I think, France or Sweden knows the facts of life. Look at DVDs: rating is only for ONE country.
    But if I have a daughter of 12 I should forbid Barbies with bath suits... ;-) This scene is like a lot of young girl's posters with dolphins, full moons and unicorns...

    I think, it's not the nudity itself, but the requested pose. The problem of German "Jugendschutz" is: if something looks like a sexual pose or someone looks like a posing child or teen - even the person is over 18, it doesn't matter. The watching person can believe it's a child or the pose could be sexual. In your law examples the graphic style is important too, the more real the person seems the more danger to children.
    Better to think all watching people are catholic nuns you are on the saver side.. ;-)

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  • #3, by nenad-asanovicMonday, 30. May 2016, 16:35 9 years ago
    Thank you for reply. I know each country has it own laws. And you are so right by saying we need to think all watchers are catholic nuns to be really safe from any judgments about age prohibition. But even so we may have some sentence in script that crosses someones line and rating jumps up from 12 to 16+. But i really am not concerned about this for my game cause it is not me who will rate my own game anyways. I tend do do it as i imagine and hope at the end of the day it would be good game. All other is anyways out of my power.

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  • #4, by bananeisafreeTuesday, 31. May 2016, 16:56 9 years ago
    If I may add a pinch of oportunistic salt.
    Unless you have unlimited ammount of money to sink into advertising, the reach of your game, as good as the game could be, is gona be limited initially.
    A lot of thing could boost it, and the golden goose would of course be mouth to ear (Untertale Style).

    But since that kind of com is what farytale are made of, the next good thing that could boost your visibility is a good Streisand effect.

    An uptitght parent find out more flesh than he hoped for in the game he bought for his (or so he think) innocent kid. That person make some noise, put your game in the middle of a new "Games are corrupting our kids" non-debate, cue the clickbaits, youtube drama videos etc etc etc... And you in the middle, getting all that visibility for almost free...

    Again, I am romancing quite a bit, but still ... The internet poved us time and time again that this kind of drama is ...well what makes it ticks !

    Now if your game is good. People will enjoy it however they came across it, and critics are gonna reflect (for the most part) that.
    If the game is bad ... welp, unless you decide to ride the controversy bike with each and every game, making some kind of trend (I don't judge :p ) It would have been at least a small but savouring moment of glory.

    I would not reccomend to try and follow that as a carrer path ... As the road is slippery and the moral value is debatable.

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