BBFC Post (Rated 12A)

    Before I got to the BBFC lecture I was admittedly slightly curious as to how an hour and a half talk could be made on age certificates, I was expecting someone explaining to us how the age classifications work in film and games and not too much more. However I thought the subjects covered and the way it was presented was really well done. I hadn't really thought about age ratings previously apart from the odd occasion when you see a 15 film where there's a one off graphically violent scene and you come of the cinema thinking "Cor that was a bit heavy, that should have been an 18!", so it was interesting to find out from someone who directly decides the age certificates how it works. There were a few cool facts I picked up which i previously didn't know about, for example cinemas have the right to show films with a different certificate to the one the BBFC has decided on.

    Another thing that I found interesting was that the games industry have been fighting for rights to have games age classified independently of film, arguing that 'games and film are two completely different media'. Thinking over the texts we've been advised to read whilst on the course and also it's my personal opinion that this is the case, film and videogames are whilst similar in some aspects i.e. theres a degree of narrative, usually protagonists or some kind of main character involved, there's a strong importance for visual content in both... they cannot be considered essentially the same. However with regards to age certificates, I think the talker did a pretty good job of justifying why they can be rated by the same guidelines. He admitted that what you see is what you get with a film, everyone sees the same thing, however with a videogame, people don't always share the same experience, it's partially down to the player what kind of content they are exposing themselves to. An example he used which is this in a nutshell was when playing Grand Theft Auto (pretty much any of them), players have the CHOICE to pick up a prostitute in a car that they've stolen, do whatever with them, kill them afterwards and get their money back and then perhaps put a few bullets in the body, watching blood spray over the pavement for some kind of sadistic enjoyment. This is a pretty dark example however I think why he used such graphic imagery was to emphasise the fact that with games like Grand Theft Auto; severity of content in terms of violence/level of trauma is subjective. Another player could just have easily bought a car perfectly legally, and driven about sight seeing whilst abiding by speed limits and having general good manners. Either way the content still exists and the possibility for these pretty grim incidents are there. It sort of goes without saying that because of this kind of content, GTA's are 18's. Now if this happened in a film, it would also get a certificate 18. The point I'm slowly making is that regardless of whether this kind of content is obvious... it still exists, the mechanics are there to carry out these actions, meaning that the designer has deliberately decided to allow this kind of behaviour. So as long as this is the case, whether a games designer has allowed for players to kill prostitutes in such a graphic way or whether a writer has included a scene depicting the same thing in a film, that both media can be age rated by the same set of regulations.

    These leads on to topics like, what is considered offensive/acceptable, what may be influential to younger audiences in films/videogames? Which again is subjective to the viewer/player. I was reading Kayleigh Mizon's post on her blog, the link to which I'll put at the end of this post, regarding a boy of young age shot and killed his mum thinking she would respawn, this was in relation to whether 'violent' videogames are considered damaging to young minds. Could it not be the case that boy could have just as easily watched a film or cartoon where someone falls a long distance only to land with a comical 'BONK" and a sore head, causing the boy to go and throw himself off a cliff? The Coyote and Road Runner cartoons spring to mind when making that example. The reason I mention this is just to support the arguement that again content is subjective, what one person may consider OK, another may not. A more stable minded boy of the same age could have played the same games that that boy did and carried on life as normal. I'm going slightly off topic here but I'm just saying that it's hard to give a film/game an age certificate that everyone in the world will be completely happy with.
    So just to end this post I've decided to give myself a little test to gauge whether I've grasped the age classifications about right. The talker mentioned Manhunt, a game that was extremely controversial when released due to it's graphically violent content. So I was wondering how someone would go about redesigning (or I suppose it's more a case of reskinning) the game to make it acceptable for each age category. To do this I've got a little Youtube clip of Manhunt showing one of the various execution's possible in the game, watch this first (if you're not too easily offended) before reading my adaptations: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEDQgoFb07g

Rated 18: Man sneaks up behind goon strangling him with a baseball bat, whilst blood spatters over his shirt, then proceeding to aggressively whack his head in causing his head and brain to explode.

Rated 15: Man sneaks up behind goon giving him a knock on the back of the head, causing him to fall to the ground, not necessarily killing him and showing no blood.

Rated 12A: Man sneaks up behind goon and giving him a dead leg which then leads to a Scooby-doo-esque chase seen in which the goon chases him waving his fist angrily.

Rated PG: Man sneaks up on less menacing goon without tattoos, perhaps wearing a nice brightly coloured shirt, giving him a cheeky slap on the bum before apologising afterwards and making friends.

Rated U: Man and goon run together with expressions of intense happiness on their faces, in a flowery field, dressed as muffins, jumping together and cuddling then proceeding to sit down to have a tea party with plastic cutlery. Followed by more cuddles and friendship. Possibly rename the game from Manhunt to Manhug.

    I think I'm about on the mark here, let me know if you would have done anything differently! I think the 'U' version might be a bit heavy actually, containing elements of homo-eroticism, which might be hard for a 4-8 year old to handle and cause offence to their parents...

(http://kayzsblog.blogspot.com/ <<< Kay's blog)