UK gov’t thinks gaming industry is ready for self regulation

In almost all free societies, mass media is governed by nobody but by itself. It is free to voice its opinions using whatever medium is available. But of course, that doesn’t mean the media will go walk up the streets like a bully. It’s an institution that has withstood storms this long because of self regulation.

This brings us to the age-old question: Are videogames part of the media institution? Can we view violence in several titles as the developer’s social commentary rather than a cheap shot at success? Well, we’re not going in to that now. That road is heavily-laden with thorns and to where it leads, nobody knows…for now.

Instead, we would be talking about something closer, maybe the best the industry can enjoy for now. In the U.K., the government recently came up with a proposal saying training and skills for future growth should be implemented by the industry itself. Now, with training coming from those in the know, the industry won’t have to worry about unfair decisions from bias government agencies.

Furthermore, Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for the audio visual industries, immediately seconded the proposal, knowing this is a big step towards industry independence. The organization is composed of various senior media players including executives from Eidos and Illumina Digital. According to Eidos’ Product Acquisitions Director Ian Livingstone,

Skillset has done this for the computer games sector through our Sector Skills Agreement – Creating the Future, but to implement that agreement to full effect the Government needs to follow through on the recommendations we’ve heard from the Leitch Review today.

The Leitch Review was commissioned by Gordon Brown and was tasked to ensure the necessary changes to be implemented in order to meet the skills challenges of the U.K. economy in 2020. Included in its final report are recommendations to the government for the gaming industry to have self regulation.

Via GamesIndustry

In almost all free societies, mass media is governed by nobody but by itself. It is free to voice its opinions using whatever medium is available. But of course, that doesn’t mean the media will go walk up the streets like a bully. It’s an institution that has withstood storms this long because of self regulation.

This brings us to the age-old question: Are videogames part of the media institution? Can we view violence in several titles as the developer’s social commentary rather than a cheap shot at success? Well, we’re not going in to that now. That road is heavily-laden with thorns and to where it leads, nobody knows…for now.

Instead, we would be talking about something closer, maybe the best the industry can enjoy for now. In the U.K., the government recently came up with a proposal saying training and skills for future growth should be implemented by the industry itself. Now, with training coming from those in the know, the industry won’t have to worry about unfair decisions from bias government agencies.

Furthermore, Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for the audio visual industries, immediately seconded the proposal, knowing this is a big step towards industry independence. The organization is composed of various senior media players including executives from Eidos and Illumina Digital. According to Eidos’ Product Acquisitions Director Ian Livingstone,

Skillset has done this for the computer games sector through our Sector Skills Agreement – Creating the Future, but to implement that agreement to full effect the Government needs to follow through on the recommendations we’ve heard from the Leitch Review today.

The Leitch Review was commissioned by Gordon Brown and was tasked to ensure the necessary changes to be implemented in order to meet the skills challenges of the U.K. economy in 2020. Included in its final report are recommendations to the government for the gaming industry to have self regulation.

Via GamesIndustry