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Section 3Ethical: In the games industry, companies must always consider the ethical issues they’ll face when making a game. They have to think about the moral, psychological and emotional effects their games will have on the customers who play them, and ensure they ultimately do not regret playing the games or succumb to any strong negative effects from the game. They also must ensure that their content is appropriate for their target audience and age rating.What is considered appropriate for a game in one region, however, may not be the case in another. The Australian government did not approve of mature rated games until June 2012, and there are also different age ratings for the same game in different regions. For example, Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer’s Call for the PlayStation 2 was given an M rating (meaning the game is only suitable for people over the age of 18), but received a PEGI rating in Europe of 12+, despite containing strong language, intricate religious plotlines and eerie environments that would perhaps be more suited for players over the age of 15. There have also been cases where games were banned in certain countries due to the excessive amount of offensive games. Wolfenstein was banned in Germany for featuring Nazi references. Manhunt 2 was banned in all European countries until its release in the UK in 2007, because of its strong graphic violence, explicit scenes and the questionable motion controls in the Wii version of the game (where players had to move the Wii remote in a certain way to eliminate the enemies in the game). One of the more recent concerns with games is the concept of inequality between men and women in gaming. In games such as Dead or Alive, Tomb Raider games, Golden Axe: Beast Rider, they often used the female characters that were wearing questionably sexualised clothing as a way to promote and market the game. Famous game heroines such as Samus Aran from the Metroid games gained their fame from being strong independent characters, and showing that female characters could accomplish just as much as a male character could. But due to her character change in 2010’s Metroid: Other M (She was portrayed as a more vulnerable character for no apparent reason, despite the game taking place after previous games in the series), fans were outraged that she lost the trait that made her likeable before. The opposite has happened to Lara Croft, the main protagonist from the Tomb Raider games. While she used to be recognized by her attractive physical features in the games as well as tackling dangerous situations, but in Square Enix’s recent Tomb Raider re-imagining, they changed Lara Croft slightly to make the player relate to her a little more, as she was less sexualised, more of an amateur adventurer and determined to overcome life-threatening obstacles despite the pressure. This change in character won the character popularity from female gamers.Legal: As computer games became progressively better known worldwide, more people started to take notice of them. Some of these games were noticeably violent and/or contained lewd content inappropriate for the age range of people that were playing these games. After the arcade game Mortal Kombat was released in 1992, there was a lot of controversy surrounding it due to the characters’ finishing attacks, the “Fatalities”, as a sequence would play where the fighters would kill their opponents in an excessively violent manner. Due to the complaints, an age-rating system was established in North America, called the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), and the ELSPA rating system followed soon after in the United Kingdom, and then PEGI for Europe in 2003. The BBFC is another rating board for games, as well as films. There is also health and safety policies that people in the games industry must abide by. For example, there may be a feature in a game that could affect a player in a negative way, or certain issues could arise if the player attempts something for too long. There have often been games with lighting effects that can cause epileptic seizures, such as in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, where when the player is defeated, a death animation will play and the background will be placed with strobe effects (multiple colours flashing onscreen at once). This has raised concern due to how dangerous it was, and so later ports of the game replaced the strobe effect with a simple red background. Game developers now make sure to warn the player of any possible hazards that could affect them, and also advises them how to play the game safely. The Metal Gear Solid games often contain scenes where the characters advise the player to take regular breaks from playing to game every 45 minutes for 15 minutes, wait 30 minutes after the player has eaten a meal before continuing to play the game, and to turn the game off immediately if the player feels nauseous at any point. There is even similar information found in the instruction booklets that come with the games and the platform the games operate on. They go into detail about what to do and what not to do with the platform and the device used to control it, and advice to help consumers with certain technical issues about their game/game platform. Research log: ................
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