With the recent unveiling of the Byron report it seems clear that the games industry's continued drive into film quality content is also bringing video games into the censorship spotlight again, although you could argue that it's very rarely out of it. The work that the Byron Report has undertaken with TNWA and it's user base of 200,000 gamers has clearly shown that the majority of gamers have or do play games that are rated above their age, I believe very often because they watch films or TV content at a similar level at home. It's clear that many parents do not understand the age ratings or even take them seriously; this could be in part a backlash to 80's hyper sensitive censorship a time when many of today's parents were young children or teenagers.

Although inconsistent classification of games and films further confuses the issue, the recent blockbuster film Transformers was classified by the BBFC as a 12A, which means if you are under 12 you need to accompanied by an adult, but the games are PG and 7+ depending on the format, so you could take your 6 year old to watch it in the cinema and yet couldn't buy them the game for their DS.

TNWA Group's involvement in the Byron report and the issues it raised became evident when we recently ran and managed the UT3 National Championships for Play.com, as the BBFC had rated the game18 - Play.com were very conscious of their responsibility not to promote the game to under 18's. Even though the law in the UK around age ratings for video games only covers the purchase and not the use of them, it was clear that to retain a responsible role in the e-sports community the competition had to be available only to over 18's. This is one of the first occasions in which an age rating has been applied to a professional e-sports competition in the UK, the event was a tremendous success and received far more mainstream coverage them normal, the large cash sums involved for the prizes (£50,000 in total) would not have been available had the competition not been run and monitored at a professional level.
You only have to read the coverage in the Guardian (April 08) to understand that the E-sports scene in the UK really is at an early stage, in the US and Asia pro-gaming is fast becoming the media of choice for many large corporations after the hearts and minds of the teen/young adult. TNWA is leading the way in the UK by working with the governmental bodies that monitor the industry and also building visibility within the mainstream for e-sports, but it also needs a more professional attitude from the competitors.

I regularly talk to various pro and semi-pro teams during events and it's clear they want the UK e-sports scene to grow, with better sponsors and more cash prizes, but at the same time we have so called "known" members of scene spouting opinions and attitudes that any sponsor would run a mile from.

As with most things, its going to take work from all sides to grow the e-sports scene in the UK to the levels we all think it should be at, but rest assured that TNWA Group is working every single day to increase the visibility and focus of the gaming scene, not just for PC gamers but also for console users as well.

Cliff "BigDog" Cheetham