P1E

P1 E

Video game regulation

PEGI labels

Bad language- the game will contain bad language

Discrimination- the game includes depictions of,   or material which may encourage, discrimination.

Drugs- the game refers or depicts the use of drugs

Fear- game may be frightening or scary for young children

Gambling- games that encourage or teach gambling

Sex- game depicts nudity and/or sexual behaviour or sexual references

Violence- game contains depictions of violence

Online gameplay- game can be played online.

PEGI 3- games with this rating are considered suitable for all ages. There could be some violence but only for comic reasons (e.g. Bugs Bunny) the child should not be able to be able to associate the game characters to real life characters, no bad language or frightening sounds should be heard or included.

PEGI 7- any game that would normally be rated 3 but has some kind of possible violence or frightening scenes or sounds may be considered suitable.

PEGI 12- those rated 12 show more graphic violence towards fantasy characters or non-graphic violence toward a human looking character or animal. They could also involve nature that is slightly more graphic, any bad language must be mild, and no sexual expletives involved.

PEGI 16- a game would be given this rating when the violence or sexual activity is at the point it could be expected in real life. It will also involve more extreme language and the use of things like drugs and criminal activities.

PEGI 18- an 18 will be given once the depiction of violence is considered ‘gross’ violence and/or includes elements of specific types of violence. Gross violence is often hard to define as it can be subjective but it is often considered violence that would make the player feel a sense of revulsion.

PEGI

PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) is an age rating system used for games used to help parents establish if a game is appropriate for their child or not. It was developed by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE), and was released in the spring of 2003. PEGI was used to replace all the different rating systems we originally had so it is now one system used in 30 different countries. This rating system is supported by major console manufactures, including Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Many publishers and developers across Europe also support this system.

Hot Coffee

Hot Coffee was meant to be an inaccessible mini-game in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, developed by Rockstar North. However, the public soon found the mini-game which came with the release of the Hot Coffee mod, created for the Microsoft Windows port of GTA: San Andreas in 2005. This mod enables access to the mini-game.

The mini-game portrays crudely animated sexual intercourse between the main character, Carl Johnson, and his in-game girlfriend. The name of the mod is derived from the girlfriend's offer for the main character to come into her home for "coffee", a euphemism for sex.

Although the "Hot Coffee" mini-game was completely disabled and its existence was only highlighted after the mod's release for the PC version on June 9, 2005, the assets for the mini-game were also discovered in both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game, and people found ways to enable the mini-game via console video game hacking tools. By the middle of July 2005, the mini-game's discovery attracted considerable controversy from lawmakers and politicians, prompting the game to be re-assessed with an "Adults Only" rating by the U.S. ESRB, and refused classification in Australia, resulting in its removal from sale.

An updated version of San Andreas has since been released with the mini-game removed completely, allowing the game to regain its original rating. A patch for the original version of the game, Cold Coffee, was designed to counter edit the script and disable the mini-game and crash the game if one attempts to access it.