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Video Game Ratings System Coming to Thailand
By Khaosod English


Minister of Culture Vira Rojpojchanarat and other officials inspect an internet and game cafe in Bangkok on 22 Nov., 2014.

BANGKOK — A six-tier system has been devised for rating video games released in the kingdom to provide “guidance” to parents without regulating retail sales.

Six age-based ratings for games have been floated by the Ministry of Culture that would be placed on all games released in Thailand but would not be legally binding on retailers to enforce, Pradith Posew of the Film and Video Censors Board said yesterday.

“There won’t be any legal effect in banning kids from playing games,” Pradith said. “It’s merely a guidance for guardians to take care of their kids’ video game playing, based on the appropriateness to their age.”

He said it was also intended to help internet and gaming cafes “to advise kids who play games at their shops.”

In addition to a “general audience” category, the six ratings would include recommendations for minimum ages of 3, 6, 13, 15 and 18.

Those ratings are similar to that used internationally by the U.S.-based Entertainment Software Rating Board. Widely adhered to due to market forces, that system is voluntary and was created by the international gaming industry to stave off threats of government regulation.

Thailand already has ratings for films and TV shows. Cinemas that show films rated “Over 20 Only” by the Ministry of Culture are required to check customers’ ID cards, but other ratings have no legal effect.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1440574217


-- Khaosod English 2015-08-26

[ronthai]

Rating from age 6, same as recommended for 15-18

[overherebc]

What is missing from your life that makes anyone, don't care what age you are, want to spend any time at all staring at a screen and pushing buttons.

If you reply with any reason that you think justifies doing it I will answer you now.

GET A LIFE.

[dotpoom]

I'v just now come back from spending almost a full afternoon in the PEA (Provincial Electricity Authority) office, in Naklua. I know addiction to mobile phones is common place now but for the first time ever I seen staff in the course of walking from A to B holding their mobile phone in their hands and constantly checking it and No...it was not work related...I had to go and have a peek over one gals shoulder just to make sure I was not misjudging the situation.

Where will this all end, will Surgeons be cutting you open with one hand while checking Twitter with the other one.

[Morakot]

Ministry Seeks Expert Gamers

What the Papers Not Say | 26 Aug 2015

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1440574217

[WhizBang]

I'v just now come back from spending almost a full afternoon in the PEA (Provincial Electricity Authority) office, in Naklua. I know addiction to mobile phones is common place now but for the first time ever I seen staff in the course of walking from A to B holding their mobile phone in their hands and constantly checking it and No...it was not work related...I had to go and have a peek over one gals shoulder just to make sure I was not misjudging the situation.

Where will this all end, will Surgeons be cutting you open with one hand while checking Twitter with the other one.

Unlikely, they will have a nurse do it for them.

[majhiggins]

Since almost all the video games here are pirated off the internet directly or burned onto illegal DVDs and sold in markets, how is anybody going to even know this system exists?

[Rumblecat]

What is missing from your life that makes anyone, don't care what age you are, want to spend any time at all staring at a screen and pushing buttons.

If you reply with any reason that you think justifies doing it I will answer you now.

GET A LIFE.

Yeah, the common response from someone who doesn't understand the medium which pushes artistic boundaries, provides adventure and excitement, allows for an interactive experience where you are in control of what is happening rather than passively soaking in entertainment like television, films or books.

I mean, I presume you watch TV sometimes right. What's missing from your life that you want to sit passively staring at a screen..? You might want to consider getting on of those life things that are all the range nowadays.

[DrTuner]

All bans, ratings, laws, etc are irrelevant if they are not enforced. And courtesy of the RTP, they're not. I guess they only bother in order to get their names in the news.

[thhMan]

What is missing from your life that makes anyone, don't care what age you are, want to spend any time at all staring at a screen and pushing buttons.

If you reply with any reason that you think justifies doing it I will answer you now.

GET A LIFE.

What planet are you from mister!

Kids dont have it the same as back when you where a kid in the 1920's or whenever

To many mothball smelling, brown sock wearing trolls who scream at clouds... Yeah, get a life

[duckmandon]

What is missing from your life that makes anyone, don't care what age you are, want to spend any time at all staring at a screen and pushing buttons.

If you reply with any reason that you think justifies doing it I will answer you now.

GET A LIFE.

What planet are you from mister!

Kids dont have it the same as back when you where a kid in the 1920's or whenever

To many mothball smelling, brown sock wearing trolls who scream at clouds... Yeah, get a life

I disagree with you thhMan, as kids can do the same things we did when we were growing up. Time spent playing outside, sports & just having fun with family. What about study so they can make a better life for themselves. Better grades, better jobs. I have an 18 year old stepson who would, if allowed, play games 24/7 but he is restricted to 20 hrs a week. The rest of the time he works part time & basically does nothing. He has already fried his brain & the only thing he wants or cares about is computer games. He is overweight & needs to excersize but is to lazy. Want to sit & play. Want to be a programmer when I get older. Playing games does not give you the inteligence to become a programmer. Study does.

[sammygood]

oh only a guideline

or do thai games have to be censored also, like when they show a bit too much of cleavage or a sigarette or a gun / knife in the game ?

[Yunla]

Yeah, the common response from someone who doesn't understand the medium which pushes artistic boundaries, provides adventure and excitement, allows for an interactive experience where you are in control of what is happening rather than passively soaking in entertainment like television, films or books.

I mean, I presume you watch TV sometimes right. What's missing from your life that you want to sit passively staring at a screen..? You might want to consider getting on of those life things that are all the range nowadays.

Videogames are an artform, and also a skilled sport. Who is to say that a person throwing a javelin is more of a skilled sportsperson than somebody who uses handspeed and reflexes to beat computer game high-scores. In both cases the sportsperson is using their physical body and learned skills, to manipulate an object in the world, with an aim to break previous high-scores.

And if you look at the visual / fantasy art side of certain games, they clearly influenced a lot of creative arts, from painters to mainstream blockbuster movies.

Also some people can't just "get a life." They have lifelong crippling diseases, are in wheelchairs, or are suffering from PTSD from a range of previous life-traumas. They don't want to play in the outside world, for their own good reasons. Or they are physically incapable of doing normal "get a life" things like surfing or skydiving or mountaineering etc.

Videogames save lives, I know people who have turned back from chronic alcoholism by discovering videogames. Also, in cases where a disabled person has the option of staring at the floor, or staring at the TV News, videogames provide a third option where a disabled person can battle dragons and be a magic flying wizard, or whatever. In the game, that person no longer has a crippled body or life-traumas, they are suddenly transformed into a noble barbarian warrior from the frozen tundras!

I think the proposed ratings system is a good idea, if it helps to stop parents worrying. These ratings never interest kids, because they understand that its just a game, and also that the real world outside the front door offers far more potential real dangers and horrors than could ever be packed into a videogame.

Edited August 27, 2015 by Yunla

[theusedversion]

What is missing from your life that makes anyone, don't care what age you are, want to spend any time at all staring at a screen and pushing buttons.

If you reply with any reason that you think justifies doing it I will answer you now.

GET A LIFE.

You just described yourself as you sit there staring at your screen and typing (pushing buttons) on ThaiVisa. Get a life.

[overherebc]

What is missing from your life that makes anyone, don't care what age you are, want to spend any time at all staring at a screen and pushing buttons.

If you reply with any reason that you think justifies doing it I will answer you now.

GET A LIFE.

Yeah, the common response from someone who doesn't understand the medium which pushes artistic boundaries, provides adventure and excitement, allows for an interactive experience where you are in control of what is happening rather than passively soaking in entertainment like television, films or books.

I mean, I presume you watch TV sometimes right. What's missing from your life that you want to sit passively staring at a screen..? You might want to consider getting on of those life things that are all the range nowadays.

Artistic boundaries ? You really do have to go further into that one.

Adventure and excitement would be another of your areas I would love you to explain in greater depth.

For me that used to include some potholing a bit of climbing, ok, more like hill walking but with some fairly straight up bits, skiing, down some of the fairly straight down bits. One of the main points being it was done with company ( in my world that means real people ) not some electronically produced image that can be switched off and disregarded when you feel like it.

It's the way people learn to react with other people

Your world will be small boxes with one person in each one dealing with everyone else in their little box.

I see a future of fat kids without social skills, each one in their own little world who will have no life skills either.

Yes, I do sometimes watch TV but I pick the programmes I want to watch. I also like to read because sometimes I learn things from reading.

Most of the time I like to work on old cars or bikes and when I'm finished I have a sense of achievement and something I can feel good about, and it exists. It's not an electronic score in a data base, and I can sell it, profit or loss, I don't mind, the money goes into the next one.

For your future, what is going to happen when the computers are run by computers ?

I could go on but I've got some things to do that would no doubt bore the a-se of you, because they will get my finger nails black, my back painful, for a while, but at the end of the day 'I' will have something to show for it.

[Rumblecat]

What is missing from your life that makes anyone, don't care what age you are, want to spend any time at all staring at a screen and pushing buttons.

If you reply with any reason that you think justifies doing it I will answer you now.

GET A LIFE.

Yeah, the common response from someone who doesn't understand the medium which pushes artistic boundaries, provides adventure and excitement, allows for an interactive experience where you are in control of what is happening rather than passively soaking in entertainment like television, films or books.

I mean, I presume you watch TV sometimes right. What's missing from your life that you want to sit passively staring at a screen..? You might want to consider getting on of those life things that are all the range nowadays.

Artistic boundaries ? You really do have to go further into that one.

Adventure and excitement would be another of your areas I would love you to explain in greater depth.

For me that used to include some potholing a bit of climbing, ok, more like hill walking but with some fairly straight up bits, skiing, down some of the fairly straight down bits. One of the main points being it was done with company ( in my world that means real people ) not some electronically produced image that can be switched off and disregarded when you feel like it.

It's the way people learn to react with other people

Your world will be small boxes with one person in each one dealing with everyone else in their little box.

I see a future of fat kids without social skills, each one in their own little world who will have no life skills either.

Yes, I do sometimes watch TV but I pick the programmes I want to watch. I also like to read because sometimes I learn things from reading.

Most of the time I like to work on old cars or bikes and when I'm finished I have a sense of achievement and something I can feel good about, and it exists. It's not an electronic score in a data base, and I can sell it, profit or loss, I don't mind, the money goes into the next one.

For your future, what is going to happen when the computers are run by computers ?

I could go on but I've got some things to do that would no doubt bore the a-se of you, because they will get my finger nails black, my back painful, for a while, but at the end of the day 'I' will have something to show for it.

But these things aren't mutually exclusive. Just because some plays video games doesn't mean they can't be active, in the same way that just because someone watches TV doesn't mean their entire life is confined to being a couch potato. You seem to be coming from the point of view that if someone plays video games that then excludes them from doing any other activity or being social.

Look, if you mean that seeing people sitting staring into their mobile phones, jabbing away at some puzzle game for hours is depressing, I agree with you. These things are the slot machines of the future, designed specifically to hook people and make them shell out cash, giving out little rewards along the way to keep them playing. But that'd be like me writing off all of literature based on a Jackie Collins novel, or TV based on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo or whatever.

(I don't mind Jackie Collins actually. She knows how to write. But you get the point )

The great thing about video games is that it gives the player control. They're not passively experiencing something. And it can be a test of skill, of logic, of intelligence, or it can even go deeper and have some emotional or social resonance. This War of Mine, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Papers Please- I could go on and on, hell the last fifteen minutes of The Last of Us were as involving and affecting as any film I've seen in recent years, only I was front and centre of the experience, influencing it.

Artstic boundaries? There are things you can do in computer games you can't do in any other artistic medium precisely because it's the only one where the viewer actually has a direct participation in the events unfolding. And in the same way folk like Godard tore apert and reinvented cinema structure, there are people doing the same thing with video games. And it's a medium that's still in it's infancy. It's only going to get more complex and interesting.

But just because I enjoy a video game doesn't mean I don't travel, I don't have hobbies, I don't play sport, I don't have an active social life. It's a tired cliche, and it's like saying 'people who read books don't have friends' or 'everyone who watches TV is fat slob'.

[MaxLee]

Video Game Ratings System Coming to Thailand

or in other words Videogame censorship system

[overherebc]

To Rumblecat,

Absolutely no arguement with your last reply.

Unfortunately your answer deals with a small percentage of screen staring button pushers. I see kids around the area who have one idea in mind, get out the school gate and go straight to the video game shop.

I dread to think what kind of future they have.

Hours sitting everyday at a computer screen with

no interaction with anyone. It's becoming their

way of life and to my eyes it seems to be a high

percentage of them.