Britain OKs Dead Rising violence
The extreme man-on-zombie violence of Capcom's recent Dead Rising has caused some problems for the game internationally. The game was denied a rating in Germany, and has been changed slightly in Japan to prevent the death of innocent human characters. This British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has gone against this trend, though, confirming to GamesIndustry.biz that the game will be available uncut throughout Great Britain.
More important than the decision itself, perhaps, was the justification the film board used in allowing the game to be released with an 18 rating. According to a BBFC spokesperson, "there is no clear evidence that playing games leads to copycat behaviour." In other words, the film board thinks the game is unlikely to cause players to run on down to their local malls to attack the undead with a variety of inventive weapons. "We would only intervene if a game was going further than any other game in terms of interactivity and the 'thrills' it offers a gamer," the spokesman added.
On its policy page, the BBFC states that "adults should as far as possible be free to choose what they see, providing that it remains within the law and is not potentially harmful to society." The basis for refusing a game classification to a game usually depends on graphic sexual content, although "sadistic violence or terrorisation" is also considered "of particular concern." Good to know that slaughtering the undead isn't too sadistic for England's adults.
