After a long wait in the dark night it is finally here. As I have told you all, I am a student and my studies are the first priority in my life even though GameTrocity is important, either way, here is the long awaited post.

My first thought when I heard the Byron Report had come out was, OH NO! The state of things just had not been promoting the image of a gamer friendly outcome to the report. The Prime Minister had been running around building up his army of yes men (ahem Mr. Vaz) for a total S*** storm against video games. He had made his opinions on games public and was trying to give his crusade some public sympathy by meeting with the mother of the child who supposedly murdered based on the influence of the game ManHunt. Never mind that the Scotland Yard had already dismissed that as an influence in those tragic events, the Prime Minister was perfectly happy to place the blame on games. The news I had gotten out of the United Kingdom seemed to tell me that the gears were turning and it seemed as though the outcome was going to be bad for gamers no matter how you looked at it. Even though this was going on in the U.K, I had no doubt that the outcome of this report could very well effect the video game policy of many countries including the US. It felt as though the stage had been set by the Prime Minister to a degree that it felt almost as if he already knew the results of the report and was just getting ready. Needless to say it was with great trepidation that I looked at the Byron Report, knowing that the fate of the game industry in Europe could very well be sealed based on the outcome of this report.

For anyone who isn't entirely sure why this study would be so important when so many others have already tried to clearly say that games are a source of violence and they haven't been payed this much attention. Well the reason behind this is because to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a governing body has commissioned this big of a study. This generally shows a great deal of trust being placed onto an individual by the government and as you may well know, the Parliament has tried to follow the Byron Reports suggestions almost to the letter.
Except for Mr. Vaz who totally, whether intentionally or not, has tried to misconstrue the results to fit his own agenda, but at this point gamers don't even listen to him anymore anyway.

As for the results, it was not the most groundbreaking study as she decided she couldn't prove anything about video games being linked to violence and at the same time she said that she couldn't disprove it either. This is the theme for most of the video game part of the study for me. Dr. Byron's results seem to take the most traveled road if you ask me. When it came to the rating system for games, she once again decided to take an easy way out. What she proposed wasn't a new system of rating games or even in preference to either of the rating system's out there. To be specific she proposed that the BBFC ratings should stay on the front of the box while a PEGI rating go on the back. Forgive me for saying but this seems to be pretty asinine, the two systems don't even have an identical set of ratings for games so how is this going to do anything but confuse parents. The industry has spoken up in support of the BBFC and I have to agree with them because it is much more accurate than PEGI in my opinion. As well as that, in my opinion neither system is actually as good as the ESRB, which is basically a combination of the two with it's aged base rating system but with a description of the reasons for the rating (graphic violence, inappropriate language ect.). She seems to have skirted around the issue of how to improve the system for rating video games by commending both of them for their separate qualities and then suggested them both. This seems almost as if it would be more confusing for parents and not entirely helpful, and I am the first to say that changing the ESRB could tremendously help the cause of gamers but I have to say that the ESRB would be better for the UK than the system Byron is proposing.

A place she seems to have at least tried to take a stand in is restricting minors from purchasing games classified for an age group that is older than them. The efforts she proposes seem to be incredibly invasive to me however, as she claims that parents shouldn't be able to buy a mature game for their child if they aren't old enough. The feel of the report is a little off for me in the video game section because she said herself that she couldn't find a link between violence in kids and violence in games, yet here she is proposing that parents shouldn't be able to decide whether or not their kid can play a mature game ( I am using the word mature as a general term, not as the ESRB rating indicates, hope it won't cause any confusion.). It gives me the feeling more and more that she couldn't quite decide what to do with games but here she takes a firm stand against an idea that she said herself was far from proved. Dr. Byron even defended this view point from Keith Vaz after he claimed her report supported that games caused violence. If you wonder where that came from, what I just mentioned might just be the proof for his reasoning. I have to say that while I am thankful for the mild flavor of the report, I just can't respect there being a blatant oxymoron in her reasoning.

Thats about all I have to say on my opinion of the report, but I would like to take a second to look at the political consequences of this report. The UK has the misfortune of having several of its most prominent political figures being devout in the belief of video games being harmful to developing children. To them the idea of video games as an art form would seem like the most ridiculous concept imaginable to them. As a member of the ECA forums(thanks Beemoh) alerted me too, the actions of Vaz are just the beginning as it is likely that more censure happy parliament members will jump on the bandwagon. The suggestions and new regulations based on the report are supposed to roll out over a two year period and that is plenty enough time for the reports thoughts to be so stretched that they will probably not even resemble what Byron intended them to be. There will probably be legislation that is more serious than what Byron suggested and it will have a good chance of passing as well. Really the only cure for this problem is gamers banding together and a more ECA like version of industry support to lobby and talk with government officials. The way to save gaming in the UK is to be proactive and not to sit there and hope for the best.

Now on to the comments I managed to get from people:

First up is Dr. Mike Hoechsmann, whom has always been very friendly to me and GameTrocity:
I asked him for any general comments and here is what he had to say.

I think the recommendations to regulate how video games are sold and to whom are useful, and could clear up a lot of misunderstandings about who plays what games and to what effect. If the gaming community is indeed mainly 20 and 30 somethings, then it should applaud the idea that inappropriate games for minors will be regulated. The only player who would lose, and it is the biggest player of all, is the game industry which will have to contend with a small dip in profits once sales drop somewhat due to new restrictions....

I was more interested in the recommendations on Internet safety which by and large ignored the explosion of creativity in online habitats - I keep waiting for someone to say that they want to promote media production by young people.

Cheers, M

Mike has always given me interesting view on topics. He makes a good point on that since so many of us are are no longer minors than we should applaud the idea of restriction of sales to minors. However, it goes without saying that I don't think there has ever been a consensus by gamers to keep games of mature content from being restricted from minors. We have always wanted make sure that games are not treated as porn as most laws have recently suggested here in the states. On a last note, I am not implying that Mike inferred that in any way. In response to media production by younger people, I replied that it would probably never happen.

Now here is what was said by Tom Hansen the editor of OpenEducation.net, this one is a little different as it comes from a discussion I had with him via email in which I referenced the above points:

Thank you very much. I do think all in all it was fairly balanced and she certainly didn't try to over simplify - we also did a series on the research of the Harvard Professors and their upcoming book called "Grand Theft Childhood" if you are interested. They too have a parental theme to their advice. The links are below if by chance you want to include them in your resource list.

I have to admit that I haven't talked to him much yet but he is very reasonable. The links he has provided me with will put at the end of this post, I haven't been able to find any others Tom so you get a special thanks you are my reference list. :)

Next up is a familiar name to many gamers with his widespread research, Doug Gentile. He is a very reasonable man, just make sure if any of you try to contact him that you are polite, I asked him about the report and how it may disagree with his research findings with Craig A Anderson.

I think that anything that helps to get parents to pay better attention to their children's media habits is a good thing, especially if that is partly by giving parents better information (such as ratings that they will understand and use). I am particularly excited about the move to having one rating system for both movies and VGs in the UK. It's something I've been working on in the US for the past decade, with little success. There is a lot of improvement to be made to media ratings, but change has been minimal.
In general, I don't think my research disagrees with her summary much except in two smaller details. First, I don't think the research is as equivocal (on either the positive or negative effects) as she thinks. Second, she continues the idea that maybe some kids are more "vulnerable" to the effects than others. Although this is a reasonable hypothesis, I have never found evidence to support it.

Dr. Gentile seems to be very open to debate from what I can tell, in response to his statements I would have to say that man I cannot agree with him more when it comes to the fact that anything gets parents to pay attention cannot be anything but positive. I have to agree with him on the fact that Byron shouldn't be as confident with her research as she is due to many errors you could find in it. Doug is often perceived as a threat to gamers I guess because his research does suggest there is a connection between violence in games and aggression in children and many people gamers especially dislike often cite his research as their proof. I want it said that he is not anti gamer in any way and nor is he anti games because he perceives them as an excellent learning tool. Do not judge him based on the people who use his research even if we all disagree with it.

Fourth and definitely not least is Jason Townsend-Rogers who is the author of the Gaming Blog Network located at http://gamernetblog.com/. He is very well informed and has never failed in my opinion to deliver a good report on current issues with games and I have found that I almost always agree with his opinions, here is what he had to add:

After observing various aspects of the Byron Report in relation to video games, I have come to the following conclusions:

1. This is the one of the most measured attempts taken that I have seen in a while towards the understanding and comprehension of video games' role in society. Unlike the rantings and ravings of Jack Thompson and other anti-gaming officials, the Byron Report comes across as a thoughtful, composed piece that clearly shows that this individual did her homework on understanding this matter.

2. I still hold the opinion that parents should know what their kids are doing when it comes to video games. I remember when I was 13 and I wanted to play Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64, my mom, raising me on her own, told me that the game's content would be unsuitable for me. Though I found her reasoning absurd then, I fully support her rationale.

3. The report, though well-meaning, reeks of 'big-government' control, this can be found in portions where she essentially says that computers should watch over what their users do. The link to that piece is here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7314751.stm)
That to me sounds like something out of 'Big Brother.'

I agree with almost all of what Jason says here except for one thing. I do take a little issue with him saying that Byron did her homework and while she undoubtedly did, I can't find too much professionalism in a study that in my opinion contradicts itself. It just leaves room for parasites like Vaz to interpret her study as they see fit. Everything else he says tends to line up with my opinions as well.

I also asked for a comment from Dave Walsh a speaker for the SayYesToNo foundation, they resemble a watchdog group in my opinion if you ask me, but you should always look for both sides of the opinion if you ask me. I got a response that he had not read it and I am interested to see if he has yet as it is definitely entirely in line with the goals of his organization.

Ok, this is easily the longest post I have ever done and part of me is glad that it's over. However, I do support my opinions as put forward in this post, I'm gonna try and get this post out there and I do want to thank everyone who talked to me and gave their opinion.

Here are the links I got from Tom, they're not all Byron Report related but they are all good and I would suggest reading them.

http://www.openeducation.net/2008/04/02/the-byron-review-video-gaming-recommendations-for-children/

http://www.openeducation.net/2008/03/31/the-byron-review-e-safety-internet-recommendations-for-children/

http://www.openeducation.net/2008/04/02/the-byron-review-video-gaming-recommendations-for-children/

http://www.openeducation.net/2008/03/16/shoot-em-up-video-games-the-cause-of-greater-anti-social-behaviors-in-teens/

http://www.openeducation.net/2008/03/17/author-reveals-the-surprising-truth-about-violent-video-games/

http://www.openeducation.net/2008/03/18/experts-state-do-not-banish-instead-manage-violent-video-game-play/


Thanks for being so patient for this one everyone, it's an important topic so I went the extra mile to make sure everything was as good as I could get it. Again special thanks to everyone who gave me their opinions and thanks guys for being so easy to get into contact with.

- Ichi