So, The Byron Report has been published today. There’s plenty of talk on that thar interweb about it, and it’s well worth having a read of some of the stuff if you can. I’d like to say a lot more about it, but Uni and other work is preventing me otherwise. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the time to read the whole thing this week, but in the meantime I’ll point you towards some of the links of people talking about it, so you can do your own bit of research. It’s good for you, honest!
The Byron Review’s website and official home
The Review itself in a 2.7mb PDF file
MCV has a handy rundown of the highlights of the report, and lots of other stuff on it as well.
Blogochum Seniath has his say on the initial findings of the review.
My initial opinions are that overall, the report is good news and a good thing, although most of the content is what those in the know knew fairly well already. Hopefully the education of the public at large will increase as a result, and the understanding will lead to a lot less ignorant dismissal of games in general. Personally, it has been incredibly eye opening in my mind, to find that a lot of people were confused by both the PEGI and BBFC ratings, and assumed that the PEGI ratings were not a content guideline indication, but that of a difficulty rating for games.
Tnaks you for treating the whole thing rationally, unlike many of the newspapers, and in return many defensive-gamers.
Convincing parents to take an interest in their childs hobby must be a good thing, and playing games in a comunal space is ohe of the most sensible policies i have ever heard, even for us who pass the age rating system.
On the whole, it is impossable to give results to a repot like this without pissing everyone off, either by overstreesing the dangers, or by ignoring the possibilities of danger.