Changes have been afoot in the gaming industry's European rating system this year, with many different opinions on what's best coming from many different people. Currently the continent is sticking with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). Obviously, games aren't exactly their speciality, though it does funnily parallel a bit with Denis Dyack's (of Silicon Knights) views on games in the future adhering more to movie genres than the current game genres we hold so dear.

In any case, SPOnG thought it'd be a good idea to get inside the meat of the rating system, so they interviewed BBFC's press officer Sue Clark about how things are done. Here's an excerpt:

SPOnG: What qualifications do [examiners] need?

Sue Clark: They have to be good at playing games. There are no 'formal' qualifications for being a BBFC examiner, but you do have to have a good level of education and a good grasp of English as you are required to produce well argued written reports.

You also have to have an interest in film because games examiners don't just classify games. It also helps if you have an understanding of child development because the majority of the works classified are for people under the age of 18.

Sounds like a pretty neat job, actually! Gets even more neat when you hear the pay scale: £33.950 to £45,758 (about double that number to convert to American/Canadian dollars).

Examiners for games are 'trained up' to do film later, through a three-month programme, and then spend another three months with experienced examiners.

The game are played for two to five hours or more, depending on the game. And get this: they use cheat codes to get through the content faster.

Now, while an independent body dedicated specifically to game reviews could probably benefit the industry more, Clark does mention their connection with the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) board; there's no regular contact between the two, but they do keep in touch, and their director is on PEGI's advisory board.