Leading UK studios and tech companies share insights, advice and best practise for keeping their players protected whilst playing their games – or when wearing a VR headset.
TIGA, the trade association representing the video games industry, has published a second report sharing best practice guidance to help developers and publishers keep players safe in their video games.
Safeguarding Players: Responsibility and Best Practice – Second Edition, January 2019, is TIGA’s second report focusing on policing and safeguarding player communities in online games. This edition covers managing screen time through game design, policing online communities with AI and responsibility for VR users.
With insight and comment from leading UK studios including Jagex, nDreams and Lockwood Publishing, as well as technology outfits like Spirit AI, the report is packed with meaningful advice, as well as insights into how the most experienced are getting player safeguarding right.
The report recommends that games businesses should:
- pre-empt the ways content can be abused;
- make the standard of acceptable behaviour explicit;
- keep reporting technologies and their back-end systems clear;
- provide the player community with the tools they need;
- understand the parasitic website challenge;
- consider VR’s power or presence; and
- consider managing screen time through game design.
Dr Richard Wilson OBE, TIGA CEO, said:
“With insight from leading UK games studios, this report provides best practice guidance to help developers and publishers keep players safe in their video games.
“As well as including a five-point plan for teams looking to safeguard online communities, this report covers special guidance on how games businesses can help players manage the time they spend gaming.
“Thank you to all our contributors. We hope that this report helps more games businesses to safeguard their players.”
Safeguarding Players: Responsibility and Best Practice – Second Edition, January 2019 is freely available now, and should prove invaluable to anybody making, publishing or serving a game with any online element, and those crafting VR content.
Please contact suzi@tiga.org for your copy.