PEGI/ESRB and Amateur game ratings

[Dan_N]

Although it is a VERY GOOD ideea, i don't think i will.

I prefer to rate my own games my own way, by posting warnings in reviews and on websites and in the actual game the first screen asking whether the player wants to continue after writing something like "This game contains graphics violence, blood and gore, and might not be suitable for children and light-hearted people. Do you wish to continue.". Although maybe an EAGMA icon would make it look more professional.

I don't know. Besides the link doesn't work...

[Alynn]

In the end Dan, you are rating your own games, you are just using icons that are standardized for use by all amateur game makers.

The document was updated to 1.01a... I decided to make it a standardized set of icons since I kinda thought the whole make your own was silly, but at the same time I wanted flexibility.

Anyway thanks all that participated so far... I'm working on getting a domain registered, and a few other things...

EDIT: Actually I'm going to wait on the domain, if there doesn't seem to be any interest, then most likely I'll just subsite it off my current web domain.

[HillBilly]

I like this idea.

•   EAGMA markings should be used as is. Current icons (which as of the writing of 1.01a have not entirely been created) will be used until a volunteer is able to make easily scalable icons that can be used in multiple resolutions.

If you want, I can create some vector icons for you.

EDIT:

Something in this direction:



If you already got the icons covered, nevermind.

[Alynn]

Actually something like that would be great...

However I'm still working out how I would label them, which I have a decent idea. But I'm doing some cross referencing and research and what not...

I'm thinking of going with a color/symbol system Green:Mild, Yellow:Moderate, Orange: Severe, Red: Extreme. Which would be easier than coming up with a seperate icon for say mild violence, to Extreme Violence. I've also been thinking about things like sexual conduct in text as compared to visual acts... So I was thinking of a primary category, like Text, Cartoonish, or Realistic, then Violence, Sex, Drugs, Scary, Suggestive Themes, Sex, Crime, etc.

I'm also developing a rating guideline such as:
If the game uses mild swear words (hell, damn, ass) that can normally be heard on Broadcast television, minimum rating for language is mild.

And so on.

What I think I will do is by this weekend go ahead and create a subsite of yelloweyedstudio and create a forum in there so we can discuss this without bothering the rest of the community that aren't as interested.

[deadsuperhero]

Here's what I think:

Rather than letters or colors, what about numbers?

Each rating would be a degree. 1 would be pretty much kiddie stuff, 10 would be extremely gory, with lots of swearing, sex, drugs, etc.
I also like the idea of vector images for each things.

This game is rated Degree 10:
(picture of bloody knife) Violence
(needle) drugs
(toilet) foul language
(bed) sex

something like that, perhaps?
In any case, this is a great idea, and I hope this goes through.
It could be called...the AGRS (Adventure Game Rating System)

[celestialroad]

Like I said on STG, it's a really good idea. 

[Toefur]

I think this is really a good idea. Of course, you would need to work hard for it to succeed out of the AGS community and probably need to work hard for it to succeed in just the AGS community as well.

I fully support and endorse this idea.

[MrColossal]

just a note, if you're going to do this I wouldn't make the icon for violence more violent than the game possibly could be. Showing blood in games is enough to knock it out of an E rating... Then again an icon for "sexual content" with 2 people screwing like mad would be awesome...

NEVERMIND ME!

[deadsuperhero]

Then again an icon for "sexual content" with 2 people screwing like mad would be awesome...

I like that idea.
It would also rock if the rating and picture got mixed up...so Violence would show two people screwing, Sexual themes would show a needle, Drugs would show a man with a toilet mouth, and extreme language would be a bloody knife.

[Radiant]

This icon has been rated PG-13 by the Game Icon Rating System. HAND.

By the way I don't see any need to be this politically correct - young children don't play retro games anyway.

But it's interesting to note that the first computer game ratings were also done voluntarily, such as the PC-13 rating on Wolfenstein (which IIRC was truly the first).

[HillBilly]

just a note, if you're going to do this I wouldn't make the icon for violence more violent than the game possibly could be. Showing blood in games is enough to knock it out of an E rating...

I thought the same thing. But since it was just an example I was like... whatever. 8)

[GarageGothic]

The concept of a toilet icon for bad language doesn't really work in other languages (not to mention that I find the word "potty mouth" a lot more offensive than the word "fuck"). And it's also rather ambiguous unless people already know what the icons represent, it could easily mean "this games show people urinating" a la Hitman, Mafia etc., which I'm sure is also covered by censorship rules.

I think the cartoon cursing symbols, like they are used in the PEGI logo, is the best way to represent foul language.

[Alynn]

http://www.eagma.org is up and running (if you cannot reach the site please give your DNS time to update). It is still being built, and later today I will add a simple forum to it for discussion.

Thanks

[GarageGothic]

I see that you went for colors to represent severity. I really think you should consider a monochrome alternative, for print and for people who don't want a technicolor rainbow on their title screens. How about a system where the severity is measured in notches at the bottom of the icon (a la the volume display on a stereo)?

[Alynn]

Well wait for the full document to be finished, they generally will be monochrome, the color will be more of just an outline.

Look at the example icon I made, the outer white ring that surrounds the entire Icon will be color coded, the icon itself will be monochrome. At least this is the plan for now. Someone sees a knife with a red outline, they are going to know that it's an extremely violent game.

I'm working on getting a SMF board setup on the new site. Most likely I won't worry about doing a theme for it at least not at first. This way we can start using those forums instead of hijacking others .

Thanks

[Vince Twelve]

I'm not sure that amateur games need this, but since no one is requiring us to use it that it's not really hurting anybody.

One thing that strikes me as odd, however, is that your rating system for amateur games is more complicated than the rating system for professional games, movies, tv shows, and music.  Does your rating system need to be this complicated.  I'm certainly not going to use anything on a volunteer basis that requires me to ugly up my beautiful game page with three or four multicolored icons.  A simple single monochromatic icon that displays the games rating, however, I might consider.

[Alynn]

Taken into consideration, the simplist way would to put a game rating the way the ESRB does with an age category, however since this is the internet putting age categories is pointless.

Howver even PEGI uses multiple icons for the content within.

While it may seem complicated, I am trying to be as complete with it as possible so with a quick glance a consumer will know the approximate amount of content held within the game.

[Ishmael]

I see that you went for colors to represent severity. I really think you should consider a monochrome alternative, for print and for people who don't want a technicolor rainbow on their title screens.

And the people of my kind - colourblind.

[GarageGothic]

Since you're already using degrees of content, couldn't the number of icons be reduced? Blood and gore would usually be involved at a higher level of violence, and suggestive themes, nudity and sex couls also be part of the same scale.

[Helm]

The idea is to give any consumer a truthful idea of game content,

But game content is there to flesh out concepts, ideas, story and aesthetics. What use is it to anyone to know 'this game contains images of knives, drawings of people having sex'. Take anything worthwhile you've ever experienced in art and break it down to the signifiers contained therein, regardless of the conceptual element they serve, what do you have?


I don't see any point to this, besides possibly it being fun to do for your game, to go through all of it and find the signifiers and put warnings for everything for them as some sort of post-modern statement.

WARNING, THIS GAME CONTAINS:

PEOPLE
DISCUSSIONS
COMBINATORIAL ITEMRY
COLORS
MOUSE POINTERS (6)