PEGI: 'Play Smart, Check the PEGI Rating!'

August 11, 2011

“Uh, this game has spiders?”

PEGI, the ratings organization set to take over exclusive game rating duties in Europe sometime in the coming months, uses symbols instead of text for its content descriptors. If you don’t happen to know what they mean, they can be a little confusing. For example, the spider icon means: “Fear – Game may be frightening or scary for young children.”

Okay, good to know.

A few months ago, PEGI launched a campaign seeking to educate consumers on the meaning of those content symbols through the use of short, animated videos. Check out one of them below.

Cute, eh? You can view them all on PEGI’s YouTube channel in a variety of languages.

-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics Contributing Editor Andrew Eisen

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Comments

Re: PEGI: 'Play Smart, Check the PEGI Rating!'

Submitted by Allan Weallans on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 16:25.

The video's kind of confusing. Is it really 'obvious' that the first one means the game includes swearing? It looks like it could mean it's the kind of game you're likely to swear at.

Re: PEGI: 'Play Smart, Check the PEGI Rating!'

Submitted by State on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 15:39.

When the symbols need explanations as to what they mean then surely they have failed. Symbols should be self-explanatory, not requiring videos like the above.

I am concerned with PEGI's rating system though, the incident with Heavy Rain is worrying. Heavy Rain was released uncut with a BBFC 15 rating, it has had to be cut to receive a PEGI 16 rating. PEGI rate too many games at 18 and probably seems safer for them to give games the highest age rating considering the amount of different countries and cultures they have to account for.

Re: PEGI: 'Play Smart, Check the PEGI Rating!'

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 15:55.

While I can understand the need to use symbols rather than words (PEGI covers a variety of languages making it difficult to use anything else), they could have used more clear symbols.

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower

Re: PEGI: 'Play Smart, Check the PEGI Rating!'

Submitted by State on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 17:56.

True, but isn't that the fundamental problem with PEGI (it's attempting to cater to too many cultures/countries)? You can't have a single currency, and this looks to have similar problems.

Although if I remember a few years, they did use captions with their symbols, but I guess they now want more universal packaging for different countries (otherwise the captions would have to be translated many times).

I'm also sure that they said that there would consultations over the symbols used as surveys stated that they weren't clear. But it appears that nothing has changed. The spider isn't great and the discrimination symbol is pointless (not many games dealing with discrimination).

Shout box

james_fudge: it sounds like if you have an HD reciever you'll be able to use it with a pass-through cable... not 100 percent sure yet05/21/2013 - 2:41pm

james_fudge: happening now http://majornelson.com/2013/05/21/xbox-one-architecture-panel/05/21/2013 - 2:20pm

E. Zachary Knight: Some reading material for Microsoft on its used games blocks. That will hurt the console more than helping. http://ezknight.net/?page_id=20505/21/2013 - 2:18pm

james_fudge: yeah good luck with over the air TV05/21/2013 - 2:12pm

E. Zachary Knight: But what if I want to only watch over the air tv? I don't subscribe to pay tv. I never will. If that is a requirement, then MS wasted 45 minutes telling me how great TV will be.05/21/2013 - 2:08pm

james_fudge: EZK it will depend on your provider, just like HBO Go i'd imagine.05/21/2013 - 2:05pm

PHX Corp: @IanC there's also a chance that those titles might be Xbox one exclusive, but it's too early to tell afaik05/21/2013 - 2:03pm

IanC: @E. Zachary Knight - MS certainly got the checkbook out for EA, so no surprise on how negative they are over the Wii U.05/21/2013 - 1:54pm

MaskedPixelante: So now I have to wonder, how many of EA's games are skipping the PS4 because of their pro-used stance?05/21/2013 - 1:53pm

E. Zachary Knight: On the TV front, does the XBox One require a cable/satellite subscription or will I be able to use my over the air channels?05/21/2013 - 1:48pm

E. Zachary Knight: Also, that name was not one of the options on our poll.05/21/2013 - 1:42pm

E. Zachary Knight: This presentation also shows why EA has been so negative about the Wii U. They have had a massive hardon for the XBox One forever.05/21/2013 - 1:42pm

james_fudge: two female presenters05/21/2013 - 1:40pm

E. Zachary Knight: Quote: Are developers forced to create games that have these online features, and are thus not playable offline? They are not, Xbox exec Whitten said to Wired — but “I hope they do.”05/21/2013 - 1:40pm

E. Zachary Knight: The Wired article I linked to earlier has a different story. While it will be possible to play offline, that is a game to game thing, not standard. http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/05/xbox-one-analysis/05/21/2013 - 1:39pm

Andrew Eisen: According to Geoff Keighley, Don Mattrick says Xbox One is not always on. https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/33690727595023155305/21/2013 - 1:35pm

Andrew Eisen: Just like how Sim City needs the cloud for various computations. (Note to anyone unaware: Sim City does not need the cloud for various computations. That was a barefaced lie by EA Maxis.)05/21/2013 - 1:24pm

MaskedPixelante: So all in all, more of the same, with the possibility of used game restrictions and always on DRM disguised as "cloud computing".05/21/2013 - 1:20pm

Andrew Eisen: Absolutly zero gameplay footage. Doesn't look like there are going to be a lot of games ready to launch by the end of the year.05/21/2013 - 1:12pm

E. Zachary Knight: They didn't talk about any of the other exclusives. I guess they are saving that for E3.05/21/2013 - 1:06pm

All shouts

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