In U.K., Much-awaited Byron Report Will Drop on March 27th
Game Digest reports that Dr. Tanya Byron’s long-awaited report on the effects of video games and the Internet on children will be released next Thursday, March 27th.
Games Digest writes:
There’s an air of foreboding surrounding the study because it could have far reaching consequences for video games in the UK. It is expected, but by no means guaranteed, that the report will propose a mandatory ratings system to be applied to all games in the UK.
GP: The release of the Byron report will surely be major news, both in the U.K. and abroad. We’re quite interested to see how Dr. Byron assimilated the available - and often conflicting - research on game violence and whether her report takes an objective view or panders to the current strain of anti-game sentiment running through certain corridors of power in England.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:24 am
I’m looking forward to this report, hopefully it’ll be… oh I don’t know… SCIENTIFIC
March 21st, 2008 at 9:26 am
“It is expected, but by no means guaranteed, that the report will propose a mandatory ratings system to be applied to all games in the UK.”
Umm… doesn’t the UK have a ratings system? What has the BBFC been up to lately? And if they don’t count, couldn’t the UK just use PEGI?
If that’s the only conclusion stated in this paper, my reaction is somewhere between relief that they aren’t calling for anything more serious, and bewilderment that this is all they could come up with after several months.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:26 am
Don’t forget that all along she has been talking about the fact that the most important thing is educating parents, which I am not against. I am also not against age ratings by the BBFC (or I wouldn’t at least, if they could be a little less two faced about it when it comes to games and films). I don’t know that rating games such as My Little Pony is a good idea however as it takes time away from an already over stretched resource. I also think it is important for the BBFC to play games fully. Working at a test centre for a certain console, we used teams of four plus one lead minimum, and gave each game 6 days (3 on emulation 3 on disk) to play through. This is more than enough time to play most games through twice.
She’s always struck me as a level headed person and I hope that her report will be similarly so.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:27 am
@ Benji, we do, but only for certain games. Games blatantly for children aren’t rated.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:39 am
I am looking forward to this review. I plan on reading it as soon as it comes available.
I don’t support legislating games in any way. So hopefully it does not come to that conclusion.
My hope is that the Byron report will come out and the likes of Vaz and that idiot from yesterday will finally shut up. But more likely they will try to cause people to question the validity of the review if it does not support their preconceived notions.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:44 am
@Daniel: Didn’t realize that the BBFC was only for certain games.
In light of that I’d say that a rating on all games wouldn’t be bad - if for no other reason than the line for ‘blatantly for children’ is a kind of blurry one. The ambiguity probably hasn’t caused any problems yet, but in theory it could and in general policies should be as clear as possible.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:48 am
True but as I said, they already don’t play games properly. I’d prefer them to spend more time on more mature games than worry if The Sims is a PG or U.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:53 am
Also, since Daniel mentioned the concept of games being played through entirely - the main arguments against this are that (1) it’s prohibitively time-consuming (since you’d have to play entirely through EVERY game, which is a lot, and since some games are theoretically ‘endless’), (2) that the process of playing through doesn’t yield any more information than does the ESRB process of viewing a video of the most objectionable material, and (3) that it would require that professional gamers be used, which could bias the ratings or at least present the illusion of pro-gaming bias.
I actually wonder if a good compromise on Point 1 would be to spend X number of hours on a game (say, 40 - 4 playtesters play 10 hours each) along with the video of most objectionable content. It means the game’s being played but avoids the problem of playing through massive or endless games, and for most games the first 10 hours bears a pretty good resemblance to the rest of it.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:58 am
Actually I didn’t say they should be played all the way through, just that more time should be given to them.
3 days is enough to play through most games once, and you don’t need pro gamers, just grab anyone straight out of school with nothing better to do.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:08 am
@ Benji and Daniel
My problem with making people play the game is that you most often will not reveal anything that is not already in a video submitted by the developer. More often than that, you will miss more things than if you watch a video.
Think of it this way. You are supposed to play a game looking for objectional content. The problem is that you can easily get preoccupied with trying to get through the current level or boss fight that you don’t notice the stripper in the background.
So what good is playing through a game if it does not reveal anything new and possible obscures some stuff? If you are already watching a video of the most objectional content, there is nothing to gain except maybe pacing, but that should not be really considered with any weight in my mind.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:17 am
While that is a good point, it still gives anti game activists ammunition, claiming that the games industry is dishonest with its submissions (as has been the case with GTA:SA and Oblivion in the US). If only the most gory parts of a game are shown it gives an bias overview of the game. If all they’d shown of Mass Effect was the ’sex scene’ it might be thought that this happened a lot during the game, where actually it _may_ happen just once. Also, as I understand it, a written document containing information on all the content in the game is also submitted and I personally think this preferable to a short video.
Regardless, all we can do is speculate and offer suggestions, hopefully we will get a better idea of what’s going to happen when we see the report.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:21 am
No matter what happens or what anyone says about Videogames,
it is important that we, as gamers understand that no matter WHO says WHAT about Videogames, we still enjoy our videogames regardless of what other people think.
Also to understand that the older generation (a large group where a few minority of anti-gamers belong to but most of the anti-gamers are within that large group) had never really grew up with videogames so they can’t understand videogames on the same level as we do.
That is my view, and with that in my mind I know that I will enjoy reading her report no matter what she says.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
[…] The report is going to come out on March 27th. It’s been a long wait since we first heard about this report, and among the details it is highly expected that Byron will push for mandatory ratings on all UK games, and, as we talked about yesterday, possibly propose ditching the BBFC in favor of PEGI. All in all though, it is hoped that Byron will produce and a fair and intelligent report that focuses on educating parents, rather than forcing legislation down our throats. […]
March 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
[…] The report is going to come out on March 27th. It’s been a long wait since we first heard about this report, and among the details it is highly expected that Byron will push for mandatory ratings on all UK games, and, as we talked about yesterday, possibly propose ditching the BBFC in favor of PEGI. All in all though, it is hoped that Byron will produce and a fair and intelligent report that focuses on educating parents, rather than forcing legislation down our throats. […]
March 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
[…] The report is going to come out on March 27th. It’s been a long wait since we first heard about this report, and among the details it is highly expected that Byron will push for mandatory ratings on all UK games, and, as we talked about yesterday, possibly propose ditching the BBFC in favor of PEGI. All in all though, it is hoped that Byron will produce and a fair and intelligent report that focuses on educating parents, rather than forcing legislation down our throats. […]
March 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
[…] The report is going to come out on March 27th. It’s been a long wait since we first heard about this report, and among the details it is highly expected that Byron will push for mandatory ratings on all UK games, and, as we talked about yesterday, possibly propose ditching the BBFC in favor of PEGI. All in all though, it is hoped that Byron will produce and a fair and intelligent report that focuses on educating parents, rather than forcing legislation down our throats. […]
March 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
[…] The report is going to come out on March 27th. It’s been a long wait since we first heard about this report, and among the details it is highly expected that Byron will push for mandatory ratings on all UK games, and, as we talked about yesterday, possibly propose ditching the BBFC in favor of PEGI. All in all though, it is hoped that Byron will produce and a fair and intelligent report that focuses on educating parents, rather than forcing legislation down our throats. […]
March 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am
@Daniel: The ESRB can re-rate a game if they find out that content was left out of the original evaluation - see also GTA:SA. I’ve heard that they also have the authority to fine publishers that try to abuse the ratings process, though they have not done so to date.
As for biasing things the other way - so raters think the objectionable content is more prominent than it really is - that is I imagine partially negated by the information supplied by the game company. I suspect Bioware was able to say somewhere in the application materials that there are only two or three sex scenes in the game, and this is what they look like. I’m also not sure if that matters very much - I don’t know if Mass Effect would have received a harsher rating if it had ten or twenty sex scenes instead of just two or three, provided they all showed no more skin than the ones that actually are in the game. (Although context becomes an issue at this point - if the entire game is about trying to sleep with alien chicks, the game runs dangerously close to softcore porn, but Mass Effect frames its romance within a greater narrative which helps its rating.)
March 21st, 2008 at 10:43 am
Damn, those “my site has posted a link” postings are annoying at the best of times but 5 in a row?
March 21st, 2008 at 10:45 am
I’d be really interested to see a package of stuff that developers submit to ratings boards, how do you think we could go about getting one? Just email bioware & ask?
March 21st, 2008 at 10:49 am
I find it disturbing that the British government would use a POP TELEVISION psychologist to make this report. Its even more sickening that the matter of personal freedoms is hanging in the balance.
My condolences to British gamers.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:56 am
[…] The report is going to come out on March 27th. It’s been a enlarged wait since we first heard about that report, and among the details it is highly expected that Byron will push for mandatory ratings on all UK games, and, as we talked about yesterday, possibly propose ditching the BBFC in favor of PEGI. All in all though, it is hoped that Byron will produce and a fair and intelligent report that focuses on educating parents, rather than forcing legislation down our throats. […]
March 21st, 2008 at 11:02 am
@ Daniel:
“While that is a good point, it still gives anti game activists ammunition, claiming that the games industry is dishonest with its submissions (as has been the case with GTA:SA and Oblivion in the US).”
To be fair, the things that were objectionable in those cases were physically on the discs, but not in the game. This hadn’t been an issue before, so I understand them not thinking to mention it; it was never expected to be seen by anyone.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:36 am
While that is a good point, it still gives anti game activists ammunition, claiming that the games industry is dishonest with its submissions (as has been the case with GTA:SA and Oblivion in the US). If only the most gory parts of a game are shown it gives an bias overview of the game.
It isn’t ammunition that is given, it is created. They’ll never be satisfied even if they played through the entire game, b/c a person will still miss something as is only human, and thus they’ll blame them for overlooking something. They create their own ammunition, even if given 3 days to play as you said, that won’t be enough to satisfy them, and goes against what you stated previously about only needing a certain amount of time. Oh yeah, and not everyone can complete games in 3 days even if forced to play it 72 hours straight.
If all they’d shown of Mass Effect was the ’sex scene’ it might be thought that this happened a lot during the game, where actually it _may_ happen just once. Also, as I understand it, a written document containing information on all the content in the game is also submitted and I personally think this preferable to a short video.
I say the video along with a transcript is best.
Regardless, all we can do is speculate and offer suggestions, hopefully we will get a better idea of what’s going to happen when we see the report.
I’m not liking the idea of this report, it won’t change anything, and likely will prove to be a waste of time. If it comes out in favor of legislation then this will just have them pushing more money to restrict more or whatever doesn’t fit in Kaz’s wild fantasies.
If it favors gamers’ point of view, then this’ll be written off as “a waste of time” by Vaz and he’ll claim Byron didn’t research well enough or that the report doesn’t fit with facts and will need to be redone or some other BS.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:36 am
The hard part I have with this report is the motivation behind creating it in the first place. This report is being produced due to political pressure. I have a very hard time believing it will be unbiased and based purely on facts instead of conjecture.
I see this coming out very negatively towards gamers and following a predetermined agenda.
I’m sure Dr. Byron already has a date with Faux News regardless of the conclusion in the report or do you think they got JT, soon to be former attorney, as a spokesperson?
March 21st, 2008 at 11:48 am
@ Loudspeaker
John Bruce is the Faux News poster child. They will never dump him.
I too am wary of the motivations behind the report. hopefully the UK government did not interfere with her work once it began, but that is only a hope.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:07 pm
@lumi
To be fair, the things that were objectionable in those cases were physically on the discs, but not in the game. This hadn’t been an issue before, so I understand them not thinking to mention it; it was never expected to be seen by anyone.
The fact that they were not accessible to anyone in the standard versions of the game frankly remove them from consideration in my book.
To use an example, say the latest mario game comes out and at some point there’d been a project threatening delay because the developers had major trouble with one level. Developers often use inline comments which, in case you’re not familiar with them, are sections of non-executed text embedded in the code and are meant to be used by coders to explain parts of a program (eg: “This subroutine controls the jumping physics, X is the force of gravity, V is velocity” etc).
Lets speculate that since the developers know full well that the one and only way to read this code from a retail version of software is to decompile it, they decide to bitch about just how hard it was to get the section completed, a bitch session which included vehement swearing about programming in general, the hardware & the fat little plumber that they hope dies in a messy accident.
Does that mario game become the first one to have an advisory for bad language?
March 21st, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Well I’m reserving judgement until I see what the report contains. With a little luck it’ll draw sensible conclusions but who knows? We’ll certainly find out soon enough.
Gift.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Does anyone have any doubt that this woman is nothing other than a shill to give cover to a government that has it’s mind already made up?
I know I sound like I’m just trying to set myself up to deny any claims she makes, but my distrust is that of the government and it’s methods.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
# Aliasalpha Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 9:24 am
I’m looking forward to this report, hopefully it’ll be… oh I don’t know… SCIENTIFIC
————-
^^^^^ What they said…..
March 21st, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I wonder if she’ll do follow up on any supposed psychological effects to see if they are temporary or permannt.Most studies don’t touch on that.
March 21st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
@Bill
You’re not alone on that thought.
March 21st, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Bill, I am not British, but I am from America where just as much BS goes on in a similar fashion. So I can appreciate your sentiment. There are just as many government shills running about waving supposed “scientific” studies around screaming “Think of The Children!!!!”. It is patently disgusting to say the least.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Yep. Think of the children. Appeal to emotion followed by irrelevant conclusion. A perfect storm of bullshit.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:13 pm
@Bill
Oh yeah, right here. I’ve got a fiver says that’s exactly what happens.
March 21st, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Byron Report: The next big lie from an over controlling government.
March 21st, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Still, it’s better than what the tories can come up with..
March 21st, 2008 at 5:38 pm
[…] According to Games Politics the all important (to the UK at least) Byron Report is due to land on March the 27th. […]
March 21st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
@GRIZZAM 512
Yeah, think of the children. Think of the 12 year old spammers who put dirtier content in their screaming and teabagging than most entire games! If they played online for a couple days, parents would know just how much mature content their precious little babies are familiar with from tv alone.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Daniel:
“@ Benji, we do, but only for certain games. Games blatantly for children aren’t rated.”
I dont believe that is quite true. A little investigation shows that all films, dvds and games have to be assessed to be released in the UK. The rating for games means that 12 is the lowest they can be given - there is no U rating for games. They are still assessed though, just no warning stickers required. Most will use a PEGI 3+ rating instead in those instances.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:32 pm
@ Elalonna
Ahh yes those prepubescent children yelling “FAG!” spray goatse tags in CS. Tbagging? I’m guilty of that but it’s usally on people who desreve it, and the occastional clan member. Anyways, a lot of the stuff in CHILD CARTOONS that are WORSE than in most games.
Lets see Cars…. a refrence to smoking pot in the line “My brothers headlights don’t work but that doesn’t mean he isnt ALWAYS LIT.”
Rocko’s Modern Life… the question to MR. Bighead “Hey Mr. Bighead want to play SPANK THE MONKEY?”
That’s just a few
March 21st, 2008 at 7:22 pm
@Ebonheart
Not to mention Bambie(Moma deer gets shot), Land Before Time(Moma dinosaur gets eaten) ,and Dumbo(Depicts animal cruelty), to name a few.
March 21st, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Rocko RULES!!!!!!!!!! I hope this does not lead to a video nasty period for video games.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:35 am
Anyone else foresee this affecting GTA4 - Another 9 months of legal battles for Rockstar then…
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
@ Cheater87
I pulled Rocko because I remember when my parents laughed at a lot of the jokes that I didn’t get and when I went back and watched a few a fw years back I was going “Haha! I get the monkey joke now!”
@ AliasAlpha
What is this “science” you speak of? Is it blasphamy?! Blasphemer!
March 25th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Oh come on, she’s a TV Psychologist, I bet I could give a more scientific and objective view with only studying Higher Psychology that she could ever produce. And I’m getting the impression that this will be another report that rambles on about nothing relevent (i.e David Cameron’s) to video games, but doesn’t fail to conclude every section with “But they’re bad!!”
We don’t need anymore uninformed biased views from quasi-politians. Anyway, who really beleives that Brown will read this report, he’ll just use its existance as ammunition against a group of people and an industry he still knows nothing about.
Damn the UK >___>, we need another election before Labour does as much as they can to destroy everything good in the next 2 years. Alas our only hope is the Conservatives and well… -____-;;;;