The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers’ Association
The ELSPA was established it 1989, and in 1994 ELSPA was responsible for making the video games ratings in the UK. Over 95% of all leisure products was given a ELSPA voluntary code. Over 60% of games that was given a ELSPA rating by the Video Standards Council was rates suitable for all ages to play, (given an age rating of 3+). With the more mature games, the Video Standards Council would refer the game to the British Board of Film Classification for its rating. In October 2002, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe announced a voluntary ratinng system that was going top be used across the whole of Europe. Based on the template that the ELSPA used, the new system would become known as the Pan-Euporean Game information (or PEGI) rating system. As PEGI was used across European countries in 2003, the ELSPA's original ratings was phased out. When the announcement of the PEGI rating system came about, the ELSPA changed itself to 'The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publisher's Association Ltd'.
The Independent Games Developers Association
The IGDA was first established by Ernest Adams in 1994, where it was first known as the Computer Game Developers Association. The primary reason that the CDGA was started was that the game developers has no one to speak for them in debates taking place in the U.S. Congress in 1994. The publishers of games had the IDSA, later knows as the ESA, but individual developers has no voice. People in the gaming industry wanted to join a group but there was nothing to join, so it was decided that a professional association was required to give the developers of the gaming industry a voice. Another reason was that it was overdue for a professional association to exist to advance to state the art of fame development and to be able to support the game developers as professional associations are designed to. The gaming community needed a way to share their experiences and work together on issues in the industry on an ongoign basis. In 1999, the CGDA was having a tough time in keeping the required colunteer labor to keep the organisation going, so the board of directors turned to Miller Freeman to contract the company for management services. Around this time, the CGDA decided to change their name to the International Game Developers Association, to better reflect that it is growing on a global scope. Until the end of 2004, the IGDA continued to contract with CMP for day to day operation and management services. The IGDA dirently ran the operations of the association under the governance of the elected voard of directors, and in 2008 they contracted with Talley Management Group for logistics and accounting services to support the operations.
Friday, 2 May 2014
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Ethical and Legal Constraints in the Games Industry
Ethical
In the games industry, when you are making a game you have to make sure that everything is legal and that it is possible to do. Recently, the question has come up about having a 'gay protagonist' in a top AAA game.
In my opinion, having a gay protagonist in a game will not change the way the game is played. As long as the gay protagonist is done seriously and not done in a silly way with all the stereotypes there are about gay people then there should be no problem with it as its still the same game play as you would expect in a AAA game. A potential problem could be if the stereotypes are used in a game because in real life, not all gay people are the same. They like different things and they do different things, meaning that they will not want a bad image being represented about them on a game because of stereotypes. You could have 5 friends who are homosexuals, but you may not know because they behave and do the same things as you do, as they are just as human as you are. If there is going to be a gay protagonist, then it should still be made as you would make any character.
In games there are often gay or lesbian characters, but these characters are not normally main characters, but side characters with little to no importance within the game itself. (Bill in 'The Last of Us', it is heavily implied he had a partner named Frank. Ellie in the expansion pack 'The Last of Us Left Behind' has feeling for Riley, 'Naughty Dog' confirms that they have feeling for each other and the writer for the character Ellie said that he wrote her to be gay.) Some AAA companies are beginning to open up the idea on using gay protagonist characters in games. Even if they don't have much dialogue in, they are still gay characters within the game.
In Fable, Fable 2 and Fable 3, the player technically has a choice whether they want their character to be straight, lesbian or gay (straight or gay in Fable 1 as you can only play a boy). This, to me, is a way they can have gay protagonists in games, but they can also do it where the protagonist is gay and it cannot be changed by anything that happens in the game.
I do not see the issue in using gay protagonists in games. There doesn't have to be any gay protagonists in the game because it would be the same as having a straight protagonist in a game as they act the same as everyone else. The people that does not want to play as a gay character are not being forced to play, or even buy the game in the first place, so i do not see any problem with them putting in gay protagonists in games as long as they are smart about how they make the character in the game.
Legal
Video Recording Act 1984
The video recording act was passed by parliament in 1984. This act was passed to prevent gory and explicit videos being shown to viewers who are under aged and/or disabled viewers. By September 1st 1984 all video recording had to be rated to be able to be sold in shops according to the age rating on them. The VRA allows people to buy games according to their ages and prevents underage people buying horror games or games that has sexual scenes in the game.
End-User License Agreement
The EULA is an agreement between the user and the publisher/distributor of the game. The EULA contains the licensing that gives the user permission to use the game but makes it so that you do not have the permission to anything other than the intended purpose.
The EULA also contains terms and conditions such as 'any damage caused will not affect the company, the company is protected from all damage caused and prevents them from being sued for any damage the game may have made to a console or a PC.
The EULA also lists terms on which you are not aloud to do to the game/disc.
EULA's are important because they protect the distributors/publishers product and protects them from most legal issues between the end user and themselves. It also tells the user what they are aloud to do with the game and what they can't do with the game.
Human Rights Act 1998
Every human is different, they do different things and they act differently to one another. You should always respect everyone as much as you want to be respected. Everyone is entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Everyone is entitled to believe and think as they wish. In the games industry, one person may think that it is a good idea to have aliens as the bad guys in a game, whereas another person on the same project may think that normal humans would be a better idea. Everyone is allowed to put their point in to share their ideas even though not everyone will agree with the same idea.
The prohibition of discrimination protects you from being treated differently because of your race, sex, religion and/or disabilities. In the games industry, when making games you have to think about all of these, (like the gay protagonist mentioned earlier). If work colleagues was to do this in the industry, this is a form of bullying and you would probably lose your job for it.
In the games industry, when you are making a game you have to make sure that everything is legal and that it is possible to do. Recently, the question has come up about having a 'gay protagonist' in a top AAA game.
In my opinion, having a gay protagonist in a game will not change the way the game is played. As long as the gay protagonist is done seriously and not done in a silly way with all the stereotypes there are about gay people then there should be no problem with it as its still the same game play as you would expect in a AAA game. A potential problem could be if the stereotypes are used in a game because in real life, not all gay people are the same. They like different things and they do different things, meaning that they will not want a bad image being represented about them on a game because of stereotypes. You could have 5 friends who are homosexuals, but you may not know because they behave and do the same things as you do, as they are just as human as you are. If there is going to be a gay protagonist, then it should still be made as you would make any character.
 |
| Ellie and Riley kiss |
 |
| Gay marriage in Fable |
I do not see the issue in using gay protagonists in games. There doesn't have to be any gay protagonists in the game because it would be the same as having a straight protagonist in a game as they act the same as everyone else. The people that does not want to play as a gay character are not being forced to play, or even buy the game in the first place, so i do not see any problem with them putting in gay protagonists in games as long as they are smart about how they make the character in the game.
Legal
Video Recording Act 1984
The video recording act was passed by parliament in 1984. This act was passed to prevent gory and explicit videos being shown to viewers who are under aged and/or disabled viewers. By September 1st 1984 all video recording had to be rated to be able to be sold in shops according to the age rating on them. The VRA allows people to buy games according to their ages and prevents underage people buying horror games or games that has sexual scenes in the game.
End-User License Agreement
The EULA is an agreement between the user and the publisher/distributor of the game. The EULA contains the licensing that gives the user permission to use the game but makes it so that you do not have the permission to anything other than the intended purpose.
The EULA also contains terms and conditions such as 'any damage caused will not affect the company, the company is protected from all damage caused and prevents them from being sued for any damage the game may have made to a console or a PC.
The EULA also lists terms on which you are not aloud to do to the game/disc.
 |
| World of Warcraft EULA |
- Make copies of the game
- Lend the game to other people
- Re-sell the game
- De-compile the game or Derive source code (you cant take the game apart or change the coding in it to suit the players needs)
- Transfer the license in any way
EULA's are important because they protect the distributors/publishers product and protects them from most legal issues between the end user and themselves. It also tells the user what they are aloud to do with the game and what they can't do with the game.
Human Rights Act 1998
Every human is different, they do different things and they act differently to one another. You should always respect everyone as much as you want to be respected. Everyone is entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Everyone is entitled to believe and think as they wish. In the games industry, one person may think that it is a good idea to have aliens as the bad guys in a game, whereas another person on the same project may think that normal humans would be a better idea. Everyone is allowed to put their point in to share their ideas even though not everyone will agree with the same idea.
The prohibition of discrimination protects you from being treated differently because of your race, sex, religion and/or disabilities. In the games industry, when making games you have to think about all of these, (like the gay protagonist mentioned earlier). If work colleagues was to do this in the industry, this is a form of bullying and you would probably lose your job for it.
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