Thursday, 15 January 2015

Task 6 - Legal and Ethical Obligations


Legal


  • Copyright - Copyrighting allows the owner rights specific rights to their work and they are able take any legal action against any plagiarism of it. The first owner is usually the author of the property.

  • Trademarks - are the way that companies allow themselves to stand out from others, a trademark are normally a word, slogan, shape or symbol and in some cases a combination of them all.

  • Registered Designs - A registered design is very similar to 'copyright' and it allows you to have extra legal protection over any of your designs. However to get your design registered you must first create something new and it cannot be similar to anything previously created by someone else.

  • Patents - Applies to industrial processes and inventions. A Patent is a government license which protects your invention and allows the the inventor to take legal action against any unauthorized coping, usage and distribution of their invention for a certain period of time.

Ethical Obligations


  • Violence -  Violence in video games is one of the many debates in the gaming industry and others include sexism, gore and sexual scenes. Many people believe and link violent behaviour to violence in games and playing them will influence children to act the same, many games are affected by this claim such as Grand Theft Auto (GTA) but these games are protected by their age rating placed on them.


  • Ratings - The PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) rating system was introduced to help European parents make more informed decisions about buying games for their children and what is suitable for them to play. This rating system was launched in 2003 and has replaced multiple national rating systems. It is now being used throughout the world.
The Rating Category's include;

esrb ratings symbol for ec gamesEARLY CHILDHOOD
Content is intended for young children.
esrb ratings symbol for E-rated gamesEVERYONE
Content is generally suitable for all ages. May contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.
esrb ratings symbol for e10 gamesEVERYONE 10+
Content is generally suitable for ages 10 and up. May contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes.
esrb ratings symbol for T-rated gamesTEEN
Content is generally suitable for ages 13 and up. May contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling and/or infrequent use of strong language.
esrb ratings symbol for m-rated gamesMATURE
Content is generally suitable for ages 17 and up. May contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
esrb ratings symbol for AO-rated gamesADULTS ONLY
Content suitable only for adults ages 18 and up. May include prolonged scenes of intense violence, graphic sexual content and/or gambling with real currency. 

  • Education - Games are designed to entertain the player for hours on end but there are a few that are created to teach and educate the player 'such as games like Sim City and Roller coaster Tycoon, where players create societies or build theme parks, developed children's strategic thinking and planning skills'.  


  • Through an educational perspective, there are many different things that video games can teach us, some positive, and some negative.


  • Stereotyping -  Stereotyping in the gaming industry is a big issue as many games focuses more towards the male audience rather than female and in certain cases games such as 'Dead or Alive' have amplified the breast area of the female characters due to their main target audience may be men and this causes many issues in gaming as many people think it is stereotyping against women etc. However over the years the gaming industry is having less problems as newer games contain female protagonists and even have the option to choose between genders .


  • Addiction - A large amount of gamers tend to spend a large amount of time playing video games such as World of Warcraft which is large and in some way an endless game and many people will  become addicted to them. As a result many players will spend days on end playing without sleep or even taking a break and because of this issue people will start to have health issues like obesity other physical signs include black rings under the eyes and muscular stiffness in the shoulders which may possibly be caused by a tense posture or sleep deprivation. Also in really rare cases people have died from over excessive gaming. 


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