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This newsbit could be quite interesting for the developers and publishers among our readers. If you're considering to add green blood or other such nonsense to your game, you may want to find a way to consume this German document.
The German Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body USK (links: English, German) made their current leading criteria (German: Leitkriterien) for age classification (link to the German overview page) available to the general public. GamesMarkt.de writes (transl.):
According to managing director Felix Falk the USK publishes the Leitlinien as useful information for both users and developers, and to make the USK rating process more transparent and optimized.
On 20 pages in plain text game related topics like violence, war, drugs, sexuality, discrimination, realism, gameplay, atmosphere, etc. put in the context of their impact on a young user and a potential danger for children and adolescents. Legal paragraphs are only mentioned in the footnotes.
As mentioned before, the document is in German. 3 out of 4 related articles have been translated into English, though. So a future translation is not unlikely.
More information.
The German Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body USK (links: English, German) made their current leading criteria (German: Leitkriterien) for age classification (link to the German overview page) available to the general public. GamesMarkt.de writes (transl.):
So this document is the real thing. Not just a summary, the document the USK uses internally and which has the full support of the involved parties.The leading criteria are the result of the current law, the USK's general policy (Engl.) , scientific findings and the experience from 30.000 USK ratings over 16 years. [Unfortunately there's no precise English word for the legal term "Spruchpraxis". Interpret this in the context of legal consistency. - ed.] They have been written by a gremium of experts and put into force by the advisory council.
According to managing director Felix Falk the USK publishes the Leitlinien as useful information for both users and developers, and to make the USK rating process more transparent and optimized.
On 20 pages in plain text game related topics like violence, war, drugs, sexuality, discrimination, realism, gameplay, atmosphere, etc. put in the context of their impact on a young user and a potential danger for children and adolescents. Legal paragraphs are only mentioned in the footnotes.
As mentioned before, the document is in German. 3 out of 4 related articles have been translated into English, though. So a future translation is not unlikely.
More information.
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2006
- Messages
- 7,830