Analysis of PEGI 7 Games
For the next section of this research, I plan to look into some games that are listed as PEGI 7 to see what type of gameplay (Narrative and gameplay itself) the game makes use of.
Some PEGI 7 games that I have found are:
Minecraft (Mojang, 2009)
Splatoon 2 (Nintendo, 2017)
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu! (Nintendo 2019)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo, 2017)
Minecraft (Mojang, 2009)
Minecraft is an open world sandbox game, where the player can create a world and, upon entering the world, do whatever they want and go wherever they want. The player's imagination is the limit, which is one of the USPs of the game.
The game doesn't really have a narrative since the main focuses on the game are adventure and creation/building. the only characters the player can interact with are NPC villagers which are used for trading (a mechanic of the game). However, these characters don't talk, and only really wander around their village.
However, adventure maps (world created/coded by other players) can be downloaded and played, and often many make use of villages as characters which actually speak to the player by using the game chat. Although this isn't in the vanilla version of Minecraft (wouldn't occur if you were to create a normal world)
One main activities of the game is adventure, as the player is often rewarded by venturing around the world by finding generated structures, like sea temples or villages. Some of which containing rare items that the player can acquire.
Additionally, by adventuring around the world, the player will often encounter caves and ravines, which will often reward the player by allowing them to easily locate/find resources to mine and use to improve their armour or tools.
Another activity of the game is building and crafting. This links with the adventure section of the game. When adventuring through the world, the player can acquire more items/unique blocks that can be used to build structures. Due to the many different types of blocks that are in the game, the possibilities for creations are only limited to the player's imagination.
The game does have aspects of violence in the form of fighting monsters or other players. Another main activity is for the player to venture around the world and find the location of bosses, and acquiring the items to summon bosses. The player can create weapons, such as swords, axes, and bows to fight these bosses (although any item can be used to attack an entity).
Most of the bosses/monsters the players encounter are fictional, such as the Ender Dragon, the Wither, Zombies, and Skeletons.
However, the player can also attack animals (these animals having models that do resemble their real-life counterpart quite well) and is rewarded by obtaining food. When attacking these animals they often run from the player and make a distressed sound (when being attacked and being killed). Additionally, going back to what was previously stated, the game also has online features where players can join servers or make their own to play the game with friends. This then adds another aspect of violence as players can fight each other with somewhat realistic weapons. This may be one reason as to why the game is a PEGI 7. However, I feel as the factor keeping the game at PEGI 7 is the art style.
The art/visuals of the game are somewhat cartoon-ish and simple (pixel art style). The models of the players and other entities are all blocky in terms of their models. Linking back to violence, the art style is what makes the violence acceptable within the game, at the models of the enemies are not realistic enough to require a higher PEGI.
Splatoon 2 (Nintendo, 2017)
Splatoon 2 is a game that takes a different approach to shooter games. Guns and bullets have been replaced by ink blasters, and the main objective of the game (at least for the multiplayer online games) is to spread your team's ink over the most area of the map as possible, beating your team if your team's ink covers more area than theirs.
The game does have a narrative/story, where the player gets recruited as a member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon to help find the missing Great Zapfish, which powers the city but also to find the sister of Agent 2 (both being characters from the previous games). There is often the interaction between the player and Agent 2 (mainly with just Agent 2 talking to the player through some of the levels
The game's worlds are like nodes,
where each 'world' has a hub where the player is required to find and complete all of the separate levels/stages. Upon clearing all of the stages of the 'world', the player can attempt the final level of each 'world' which is a being a boss fight. However, there are also a few other activities in these hubs that the player can carry out, which reward the layer by giving them rewards (mainly being currency).
The combat and art style of the game suit each other quite well. This being due to the fact that there is no blood or gore in the game, but when a player is defeated by an enemy or another player (while playing online), there is an ink explosion. This being more suitable for a game with a younger audience, then an explosion of blood and guts.
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu!
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu! and Let's Go Eevee! are the two latest Pokemon games to have been released, and much like the previous games, are acceptable and effective with younger audiences.
There is a story to the game but there aren't any themes to it that are extremely sinister or unacceptable for younger audiences. The main theme that the villainous team involves is theft (as they often aim to obtain/steal powerful Pokemon from others).
The only descriptor that the game has is violence, as the main selling point of the game is Pokemon battling. This violence in the game is unrealistic, due to the art style of the game being cartoon-ish (although the art style has improved throughout the years of the series development) and due to the creatures that are actually being violent (as the violence is occurring between fictional creatures, Pokemon, and the attacking that the Pokemon are doing is also unrealistic, such as breathing fire, water or whipping vines).
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo, 2017)
Super Mario Odyssey is one of the latest additions to the Super Mario Series.
The game makes use of a story, although this story makes use of the plot which almost all of the other games have included, being that the
(Nintendo, 2017)
Princess, Peach, has been kidnapped by the antagonist, Bowser, and the protagonist/player, Mario, must travel across the world to defeat Bowser and save Princess Peach. Although this game adds another aspect to this story concept, being that Bowser has kidnapped Peach with the intentions of marrying her (and to then rule over the Mushroom Kingdom).
The game includes the player traveling around the different kingdoms/levels (which are like open world nodes), with the sidekick character, Cappy, to collect power moons (by completing puzzles, finding them, and defeating bosses), power up the ship/Odyssey, and follow bowser. The game does include aspects of violence, however, all of the player's attacks are rather unrealistic, with the most violent attacks being that the player can jump on enemies, and (during a boss fight with Bowser) punch enemies. This mild violence, mixed with the cartoon-ish (stylized) art style of the game is likely why the game is PEGI 7.
So What Have I Learnt From These Games?
The three games that I have looked into have allowed me to gain a better understanding of what PEGI 7 games can include.
Violence is a common and acceptable descriptor found in PEGI 7 games, meaning that it would be a good idea to make use of this within our game (which is fitting as the concept for our game includes violence anyway). However, we'll need to make sure that the game makes use of an art style that isn't too realistic but is instead more cartoon based.
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Most of the games looked at make use of adventure, which is another area I'd hope to be implemented into our own game. After carrying out my audience profile research, I was able to find that adventure was appealing to all of my respondents. Combining this with this research (finding that many PEGI 7 games make use of open worlds/aspects of adventure), I think it would be a good idea to include some sort of adventure in our game.