Mass Effect

Mass Effect, an upcoming game for the Xbox360, was initially banned, and then subsequently unbanned by the Media Development Authority of Singapore. I was quite angered by the news, when the ban was announced on 12 November 2007. I am not the best person to gauge the reactions of the local gaming community, but I think a good portion of people were similarly enraged. However, the ban was lifted a few days later and the game was given a rating of MA18 instead.

The initial ban was based off a singular scene containing sex between yourself, as the main protagonist, and a non-player character. I guess that after some re-evaluation, MDA has decided that this particular scene was not sufficient to uphold the ban; that scene is a very small part of the game, not entirely central to the main theme, and more importantly, is not presented in a gratuitous manner.

There are a number of things that we need to consider when we consider the issue. Firstly, we have to recognise that video games is only a medium, and the content that is available on this medium is not always targeted at minors. Secondly, video games are not always for children. This may seem like a re-iteration of my first point, but I want to stress on the video gaming demographic; gaming is done mostly be adults, aged 18-36, most are degree holders, hold professional/executive occupations, and a fairly significant proportion are female (35-45%). This is important when we consider the type of content delivered through video games, and the intended audience.

I do think that we should prevent undesirable content, espeically those with mature themes, from being accessed and consumed by minors. And as video games are not always designed for minors, we do have to monitor and control the type of video games that they consume. On the other hand, I've always believe that intended audiences should be able to access the types of media that was meant for them. If a film/book/video game was intended for adult audiences, and I am an adult, I should be able to consume it. However, therein lies the challenge: How do we, on one hand control access to media content to minors, while on the other hand ensure that intended audiences can access it freely, especially in the field of video games? And an unintended challenge is the popular opinion that video games are still for children, and either no action is taken to control their access to it, or conversely, reactions have been overly heavy-handed?

This leads to, in my opinion, 3 possible responses: Industry self regulation, Government Regulation, or outright Government Restriction.

Government Restriction is difficult to justify. Yes, there should be some controls on undesirable media. But who gets to decide on what is undesirable or not? And if there is a reasonable response to that question, who then decides on the appropriate response? Should the government be the sole decision makers on the prevention of products being consumed? And if so, should adults be subjected to those same restrictions?

Government regulation also shares these same challenges. If I wish to consume a particular form of media, as a legal and consenting adult, should the government act as a barrier to that? My personal opinion is that this should not be the case, but this opinion could be coloured by my desire to play my anticipated games. I would be angered by a prevention/restriction on video games, but I could easily say I wouldn't be troubled much if the same actions were taken against music or film. If there is to be government regulation, it needs to be fairly balanced across all media forms, and our responses to it has to be similarly balanced. One media form is never better, or more important that another. My personal opinion is that government regulation and restriction should be minimal in all forms of consumer media, and I would not want government controls over the music, film or video games that I, as a legal and consenting adult, choose to consume.

This leaves the option of industry self-regulation for video games, as it should be for all forms of media. But there lies other challenges for such self regulation. I refer specifically to the retail side of the industry, where consumers accesses the content. I believe that the retail side of the video games industry is key to self regulation, and helping to prevent undesirable content from being consumed by minors. However, this is difficult to implement and to enforce, especially in Singapore. Most video games here are sold through small retailers, where competition is high and profit margins are minimal. If a game is rated at MA18 (like Mass Effect, for example), there is no guarantee that the local retail shops would uphold that ruling, and only sell to the permissible audience. If only one retailer fails to uphold the ruling, other retailers stand only to lose their sales and business. There is no essentially no gain for any retailer to abide by these restrictions, and sales of mature games to minors will continue. And as I mentioned previously, the video game retail industry is highly competitive, so this only exacerbates the problem for the local gaming community; the retail side essentially cannot be counted on to uphold rulings, and makes self regulation almost impossible.

The local film industry is vastly different, as the major cinema operators have shown that they are effective gatekeepers, and preventing minors from consuming film of an undesirable nature. And self-regulation is easily in reach for this industry. One more thing we have to keep in mind is that films are largely rated by themselves. In other words, deciding whether a film is PG, MA18 or R, is mostly determined by the film industry themselves, and they have done a fairly good job at being critical about their own products. Combined with efforts from cinema operators, the film industry in general (from production to box office) has been very effective in self-regulation.

What is needed, in Singapore in particular, is for the video games industry to galvanise in the same manner. The development and publishing side of the industry has done a good job in providing information regarding each game's content, as well as a fairly well-balanced ratings system in the ESRB (Electronic Software Rating Board). In addition, new initiatives such as What They Play, a website designed to explain game ratings and suitable games to parents, should be continually and strongly supported by the industry, government and all gamers. But more work needs to be done on the retail side of the industry, to ensure that retailers are not losing business by their compliance with regulations, and that there would be repercussions for retailers who do.