1. Contractual, Legal, Ethical and Professional Checklist:
Ethical
Violence
Rating - PEGI
Education
Stereotyping
Addiction
Violence:
This is when the player performs or witnesses something harmful to a living being.
So when somebody stabs/shoots another person in a game.
The media often likes to say that kids are becoming increasingly violent due to games and
other influences. I believe this is wrong because games aren’t the problem it’s the people
that use them.
It’s also part of the parent’s responsibility of bringing up their children and how they teach
them to act on a certain set of morals.
Rating – PEGI:
Pan European Game Information or PEGI is a European video game content rating system
made to help people make informed decisions on video game purchases based on how
graphic the content in the game would be. Higher age ratings would indicate a very
violent/bloody or sexual focused game.
I personally believe this rating system isn’t very useful. Only strict parents take heed to the
age warning and store clerks since it’s their job to do so.
Children, Teenagers and young/older adults tend to completely ignore the age ratings. I find
the age rating can also hint at how interesting a game could be. For example a low rated
game like 3 years old puzzle game would be incredibly boring to me while 15-18+ shooter
would seem a lot more fun and action orientated.
Education:
This is when a game can be used for educational purposes like Brain Training.
There are many people who say that games serve to “rot” our brains just like TV apparently
does with no sufficient evidence to back it up. I’d personally like to disagree since I believe

2. I’ve learned a lot more useful information and life skills that have come in useful from the
vast majority of games I’ve played.
Not to mention improved reflexes and motor skills in my hands from training for a fast
paced music game called Osu!
There are also games that improve multi-tasking/micro management skills because of the
vast amount of things that the player needs to do to be successful. Know examples of this
would be the professional gamers that play for Esports in games like League of Legends and
StarCraft II.
Stereotyping:
Stereotyping is where we assume somebody acts/is a certain way based on how they look or
one thing they have said. For example most American’s assume the majority of the English
population wear top hats, drink tea and walk around with canes saying “Quite” and other
“fancy” terms.
I believe Stereotyping is a minor problem in the younger part of gamers 12-18 since these
people are typically less mature and take stereotypes seriously. Often causing racial remarks
and sexism on multiplayer platforms like Xbox live and PSN.
This obviously isn’t a big problem since I myself find stereotypes humorous and often have
laughs with my friends online that come from different countries from around the world.
For example my friend Dan is from Portugal and we tend to joke around about him working
in a kebab shop. Now this is very stereotypical and not true but he also joins in on the laugh
by saying me and my friend Sean who is from Scotland are posh or sheep herders and often
does a very bad posh accent.
While there’s people like us that find stereotypes funny. There are people who take offense
to them and hate being judged because of them.
Addiction:
Lastly, through addiction and community, participating in an immense amount of time in
video game play have caused people to be addicted to it. As a result, they lose valuable time
within their communities and miss opportunities from other activities that could be more
beneficial for them.
I personally have no issues with addiction to games. I can stop when I need to. Most of the
public have misconception of gamers. They believe we spend no time talking to other
people and hole ourselves up on our own.
This is false or at least in my case. I know many people from many countries that I’d never
have the opportunity to talk to normally if it wasn’t for the internet, games and programs
like Skype which let you talk via microphone or webcam.
I know hundreds of people from different cultures, backgrounds and countries thanks to
games and speak to them every day. But Addiction is a problem for some people which
scientists discovered that some people have personality’s that make them more addicted to
certain things.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_European_Game_Information
Most information was taken from my general knowledge or in class discussion.