Unit 1: Task 9

Legal/Ethical Issues and Regulation

Borderlands 2

Possible Influences on AudiencesViolence:

Using violence can promote violence to be something that is acceptable in reality, examples of this are people such as Anders Behring Breivik who killed a total of 77 people, 8 in a bomb explosion of a government building in Oslo and 69 deaths on the island of Utøya where Breivik posed as a police officer claiming he was there for security following the explosion soon after began shooting individuals. During his court sentence that his attack was planned over a nine year period and he trained himself in gun skills by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 improving his skill with a holographic sight similar to the one he used in the attack he also claimed that he used the game World of Warcraft to cover his isolation from the world.Other examples of this have been brought up recently through the media linking the use of violent video games to violent outburst. Within Borderlands 2 the game developer have inserted a toggle gore option where blood etc are removed from game play.

Bad Language:

By using bad language within a video game can lead to premature learning of explicit language to younger players who either play the game or are around during someone else. In Borderlands 2 the toggle gore option also removes most the explicit language from the game.

Spreading of Slander:

Within Borderlands 2 it is a fantasy world so therefore all companies within the game are made up ones designed by the game developers

Regulatory Bodies

Rating a Video Game

video games are rated using the PEGI (Pan European Game Information) which gives a age rating to the game highlighting what age someone has to be to buy the game as well as the recommended age a person has to be to play the came based on its content. Borderlands 2 has a 18 PEGI rating the reason for this is because the game includes violence scenes of people dying and/or being injured, motiveless killing as well as containing blood and gore the game also includes bad language including swearing and sexual innuendo’s

VSC

Video Standard's Council are responsible for the rating of video games they have been responsible for the since 1994.The VSC has a Code of Practice designed to ensure that both industries show a duty of care in their dealings with customers and the public generally. The VSC were part of enforcing the PEGI system 2001-2002 from here video games were rated using this system the VSC have rating for video games this creates a second part of the PEGI system which consists on descriptors which say why the game has this rating for example a PEGI rating of 16 would include violence (or sexual activity), more extreme language, encouragement of the use of tobacco and drug and encouragement of criminal activity. The VSC review games before they are published and give the game A final PEGI rating to inform people of what is in the game and what the recommended age range for the game is.