Legal:
The Legal side of the Games industry involves the Compliance of the required acts within the games industry such as the video recording act of 1984 where videos or games had to be rated in the appropriate age rate to sell in stores and to insure that the video game being issued dose not contain anything too gory to be shown or containing any real sexual content because if it dose it will not be acceptable to be released to the public.
Another act within the games industry requirements is the EULA (End User Licence Agreement) this is the agreement between the end user (the person how bought the game) and the distributor of the game that the end user will only play the game and not to do anything that would alter the coding or graphics of set game, the EULA also involves other terms and conditions such as damage responsibility protecting the company and/or distributor from being sued for any damage the game may have made to the console/PC.
One thing to consider about the legal ageing of video games is whether it has been rated by the BBFC( British board of Film Classification) or PEGI(Pan European Game Information) when a game is rated by theses companies they will be placed in the necessary age slots so long as the chosen game dose not break the Video recording act 1984 by either showing sexual content, violent gore scenes or discriminating images against human races which also breaks the Race Relations Act 2000
The implications of franchising is that when franchising you are allowing an individual to buy a franchise they will advertise the company, you also buy into success into the other franchises for instance buying a burger king stand in a town but someone has a same shop in another town but is earning more profits but because of this the popularity of the franchise will allow customers in your town to want to buy your shops merchandise.
Licencor has full rights to there company but allows people to use there name if agreed, mind you that’s all they can do since the licencor will not support your company any way other that to allow you to use there licensed name.
health and safety policy in the games industry are important because if this is not explained to the gamer’s there is a chance you could get sued for not explaining any health and safety instructions for playing said game.
Ethical:
The Ethical side of games design involves the policies and procedures of games development that means with every game made it must reach the procedures game designers must met in order to allow the game to sell and the polices to follow to make the game eligible to sell i.e. game testing, multiple language accessibility and not completely prejudiced to diversity, the ethical requirements in video games is that the game being made must not show any excessive anarchy to the players because it could influence them to behave in a manner unfit for society, saying this there has been games that have been released with content not ethical for gamer’s like “Manhunt” and “Carmageddon”
The emerging social concerns of video gaming shows that people mostly believe that violent video games will affect gamer’s into believing that it is acceptable to be violent towards society in reality, the truth is if anything video game have actually prevented crimes happening from gamer’s who have played a lot of violent games because it is a form of stress relief when playing violent video games.
Society expectations of gaming ethnics is that they expect games to be bad for people and that they turn gamer’s into violent people when in reality violent games tends to be a form of stress relief to some gamer’s while some get agitated from constant losses in games but are very rare cases.
policies and procedures; ethical requirements; emerging social concerns and expectations
Professional Bodies:
The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers’ Association (ELSPA); The Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA); Women in Games; British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA); The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF)
Between 1994 and Spring 2003 The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers’ Association ELSPA voluntarily rated computer games released in Britain that were exempt from legal classification by the British Board of Film Classification BBFC, The ratings given were originally 3-10, 11-14, 15-17, and 18+. “X” on one of theses marks would highlight which age group a title was not suitable for, while a check mark in the categories above that would indicate the suitable ages. For example, a title suitable for all ages would have all the categories checked to ensure its safe to play for everyone.
The Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA) is an association that supports people making there games independently, they have been assisting all types of game developers from coding to script writers, Their mission is to advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community
The BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) is known for there awards they give out to the most high end spectacular films and games rated by expert judges and by the people, this is considered important for game designers because with an award from the BAFTA and the game being awarded will gain popularity for being an award winning game.
The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) set its headquarters in central London in 2002, there role is to build awareness, create business development, opportunists and facilities to factions across the world, MEF Global handles world-wide strategy, the association’s brand guardian, they oversee financial matters and is also responsible for global events including the CEO Summitand the MEF Americas.
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