P5(E) - Legal and Ethical Issues

P5(E) – Legal and Ethical Issues:

When creating the game, I will have to be aware of ensuring that I do not copy other games that are already on the market, this could result in copyright in which other companies may take legal action against me and my game. On the other hand I will also receive copyright on my own game as 'Copyright law gives the owner the right to prevent others from copying, creating derivative works, or using their works'. I will also have ‘Get Trollied’ rated by PEGI, to ensure that it receives a formal age rating. Since the game includes some strong language and violent behaviour, the game may be rated PEGI 12 which states a game includes ‘violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy character and/or non-graphic violence towards human-looking characters or recognisable animals, as well as videogames that show nudity of a slightly more graphic nature would fall in this age category. Any bad language in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives.’. Because ‘Get Trollied’ is independently produced all of the royalties from the game will go straight to me, the creator, as all of the ideas that were brought together in order to create the game were my own, not the licensed work of someone else.

Ethical issues including drinking alcohol may arise when the audience play the final game as they may feel the game is encouraging the audience to consume dangerous amounts of alcohol, therefore to avoid this I may include a disclaimer at the start of the game to remind the audience to drink responsibly. A disclaimer discouraging the audience to get involved in violent interactions may also be shown, those who are of a younger age who play the game may be influenced more than those who are older and will see the humour more in the game, therefore a notice discouraging them of violent altercations may be required in order to ensure the game does not impact the behaviour of the audience. Micro-transactions may also become an ethical issue that may concern some of the audience, since the game includes in-app purchases, however as the target audience of my game is those aged 17 and over, the ethical problems of containing micro-transactions within a child’s game may not be related to ‘Get Trollied’ as the audience are old enough to make their own decisions, as well as most having their own income in order to spend on what they want, rather than children having to use their parents money.