Videogames Age Ratings - Need your help

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

I need a little info on the age rating systems - are they legally binding?

I know any of the BBFC ones are, ie any games with the 15 and 18 certs you see on films are binding as they are passed by that board which is legally binding in Britain. Now the PEGI and ELSPA aren't as far as I know and are more a voluntary scheme set up for self regulation within the industry, correct me if I'm wrong.

Reason I'm asking is I'm leading at a "Tech Camp" next week for kids between the ages of 12 and 16. It's a camp run by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland where we're going to teach kids bits and pieces on Multimedia Presentations, A/V kit, Internet, Web Design and other "techy" bits and bobs. Idea being to encourage them to work at their talents and use them in their congregations or in other ways. It's aimed at the those kind of kids who don't normally "do" camps.

Obviously we want to play a lot of games, leaders in particular

Our main problem is that with kids that age the ratings can be a big issue. Halo, Half Life, Unreal and basically any FPS poses a problem in regards to ratings. Half Life 2 is BBFC rated as 15 so it's out along with CS as we run into legal water letting them play it, you know what some parents are like. Halo 2 on the other hand is PEGI rated 16+ therefore isn't legally binding as far as I'm aware, I'm 99% sure.

Can anyone tell me otherwise if those PEGI or ELSPA ratings have legal backup?

(PS - If anyone can think of any cool, techy communal games we can play let me know! Google Whack Compo is going to be one of them and something like a Flight Sim landing on Carrier displayed on a Projector Hot seat type thing.)

[herulach]

Elspa and pegi are both voluntary, but if its arsey parents youre worried about, then they'll prob be arsey over voluntary ones anyway.

Civ maybe? Racing games certainly. Something like trackmaina might be good, particularly the puzzle mode, or have them designing tracks for each other.

[subucni]

To back Herulach up, i work in a video/game rental store and the PEGI and ELSPA certainly are only voluntary guide lines for the gamer. The BBFC certificates are the only ones that have to be followed by law.

Can't really think of any techy style games though at the moment, when i think "camp" the only idea i seem to be getting is some kind of riddle style orienteering, where solving the riddle leads to the next clue etc.. but it's hardly has a "techy" nature.

Actually, i suppose you could have it so that each clue leads to a different part of the camp where there would be a different hi-fi or video setup of a different description (supervised by a camp leader at each station of course), and when the kids get there they have to either connect the system up correctly from scratch/find the fault in the way the system is currently set up and rectify it, so that they can correctly watch a video tape in the vcr/listen to the cd in the hi-fi setup etc..., and this gives them the clue/riddle to where the next hi-fi/video setup is with a problem for them to solve, and so on for as long as you want until you decide there should be an end point. hell if you know they are going to be a while before getting there, you could even send them back to a checkpoint they've already been too, but you could change the problem at that station and the clue they'd receive from it.

It would probably be best to have the kids in small teams and running the course at different times of the day (giving camp leaders time to reset each station), you could turn it into a competition too by timing all the teams around the course and creating a leaderboard and announcing the times at the end of the day and the winners. Maybe even have some kind of medals/certificate for the winners. Make a day event out of it.

A lot of effort to put into action but it sounds like you're already going to have all the hi-fi/video equipment around anyway.

And so much could be got out of it, learning, hands on practice, excercise, teamwork, problems solving etc...

I know i'd want to give it a go

Its an idea anyway.


sorry for any poor grammar, was having a brain fart and couldn't be bothered to check it.

Bres

[Mike Fishcake]

For the voluntary ratings, get the parents to sign a permission slip. I think you need to give a *bit* of leeway here, and if a kid is going to play a game rated older than they are anyway, they'd probably be far "safer" playing it in a situation where it's being analysed anyway, so that it's proof that it's not real life. If it was a 5 year old playing GTA then that's obviously a no-no , but most 12 year olds are experienced enough to cope with the content of a 15 certificate game. I'd advise against 12 year olds playing an 18 cert game though, personally I reckon that 16+ would be ok for that (15 at a push).

[5lab]

you could always have that nerf game on - that was an fps that was only a pg or sommit

(no they're not legally binding, but you will probably get in hot water..

[Matt1eD]

that nerf game was great, I had the demo when I was younger...... played it to death!

Don't think it would keep my attention for long enough now though!

[herulach]

Just thought of the best idea.
Hacker wargames! Top class fun, encourage lateral thinking, and teach you useful stuff about whatever os youre doing it on.

[directhex]

worms!

[Dougal]

worms!

Goto the vet

[Matt1eD]

lol

[5lab]

nerf arena blast it was called. based on the ut engine iirc..

[Dougal]

Just thought of the best idea.
Hacker wargames! Top class fun, encourage lateral thinking, and teach you useful stuff about whatever os youre doing it on.

You'll have moral issues coming up here.

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

Top class ideas so far guys

Think we may go down the permission slips route, problem there is everyone has to give permission otherwise if one doesn't we can't very well have them sitting in the "your not allowed to play Halo" corner.

[Dougal]

What about Black and White? Networkable and morally good, be more relevant for a church style thing

[Yohji]

Lego Star Wars co operative

[Mike Fishcake]

Think we may go down the permission slips route, problem there is everyone has to give permission otherwise if one doesn't we can't very well have them sitting in the "your not allowed to play Halo" corner.

Make sure you pre-empt any concerns the parents might have by putting a note on the sheet saying that you'll be using the games to illustrate the comparison between gaming and real life.

Either that or don't tell the parents, play the game anyway and say to the kids "Don't tell your mum and dad that we've done this and I'll buy you lots of sweeties. It can be our little secret.*wink*. Ok? OK? OK?"

*ahem*