Rating content for the protection of minors was a pretty visible theme on the first day of Nordic Game 2007. Per Strömbäck from Spelplan talked about the conflict between creative freedom and protection of minors with his provocatively titled Games are bad, they make you mad! speech. His number one theme was the precedent set by a criminal case against the Swedish importer and distributor of Postal 2, in which the distributor was charged with "illegal depiction of violence". He was held accountable for violent scenes in the game, but after the jury saw several more brutal scenes in movies cleared for teenagers (age 15 or more), the case was dismissed in December 2006.
Another example given by Per was PlayStation 2 title Rule of Rose. The content of the game was misinterpreted and its brutality grossly exaggerated by an Italian gossip magazine, which led to public furor. As a result, an Italian MP, Serafini promised action against brutality in games. The scandal blew up out of proportion when the EU Commissioner Franco Frattini added games to the agenda of the Council of EU Interior Ministers. As Rule of Rose was already rated PEGI 16+ in the Pan European Game Information system (approximately ESRB's Mature rating), this undermined the PEGI's rating system and PEGI's whole credibility. Apparently the Council of Interior Ministers left the issue on the table, with the suggestion that "content provocative to the norms of society" should be strictly censored.
Once in place, restrictions like this aren't easily abolished, says Strömbäck. He points out that the Swedish Board of Film Classification was founded in 1911 and is still active today, and fear of legal percussions might lead to creative self-censorship (e.g. the 1950's Comics Code of Conduct in the U.S.). Game developers and the whole game industry has to promote a positive image of gaming, try to get governmental recognition of gaming as Culture and actively participate in media debate about gaming and the perceived dangers of gaming. Equally important is to support prosecuted colleagues (as in the Postal 2 case), and keep making great games that deserve only good publicity.
The talk sparked some excited discussion about several topics, including game addiction (a soon-to-be-extinct concept, according to Strömbäck - even game detractors are talking about "excessive gaming" now), and the consensus was that World of Warcraft and other truly "addictive" games, in the clinical sense of the word, are addictive because of the social environment, not gameplay per se. Publishers and marketers would do well, says Strömbäck, to stop using the word "addictive" entirely when talking about their games. The discussion also touched on whether interactivity makes games more or less likely to cause violent behavior than other forms of entertainment that depict violence. There were arguments for and against, but recent studies seem to indicate that interactivity only validates the fictionality of the game experience. The topic is obviously flammable, and one that the game developer community needs to take and is taking seriously.
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