{"id":91979,"date":"2016-05-25T13:01:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T11:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=91979"},"modified":"2016-05-25T13:02:59","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T11:02:59","slug":"this-is-what-the-new-fpb-policy-means-for-south-african-gamers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/91979-this-is-what-the-new-fpb-policy-means-for-south-african-gamers","title":{"rendered":"This is what the new FPB policy means for South African gamers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The final version of the FPB&#8217;s Online Regulation Policy has been <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/fpb.org.za\/profile-fpb\/legislation1\/594-redraft-fpb-online-regulation-policy-2016\/file\" target=\"_blank\">published <\/a><\/strong>on its website.<\/p>\n<p>According to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ellipsis.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Overview-of-the-Films-and-Publications-Board-Online-Regulation-Policy-2016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions,<\/a> <\/strong>the policy is structured into four sections: <strong>online distribution of \u201ctelevision films\u201d and games<\/strong>, user-generated content (UGC), complaints, and self-classification.<\/p>\n<p>What exactly does this new regulation mean for gamers? We spoke to Nicholas Hall of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.michalsons.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\">Michalsons <\/a><\/strong>and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iesa.org.za\/\" target=\"_blank\">IESA <\/a><\/strong>to find out exactly how the new FPB Policy will effect South African gamers.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">What are the advantages\u00a0of the new policy?<\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;The direct result, assuming the policy is enforced effectively, is that South African gamers <strong>will see the FPB logo<\/strong> on games they buy online <strong>more frequently<\/strong>. If you mainly buy your games in physical format then you will see little to no change.<\/p>\n<p>The policy requires people distributing games online to South Africans to do the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Register with FPB as a distributor.<\/li>\n<li>Submit for classification all games that it makes available on its platform.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, the policy (read with the amendment bill) also allows for registered distributors to apply for a &#8220;permit&#8221; to use foreign classification systems (such as PEGI or the ESRB). It also even allows the distributor to get a permit to self-classify certain &#8220;classes&#8221; of games (after going through a training program with the FPB).&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">What are the\u00a0disadvantages\u00a0of the policy?<\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;I would say, that all of this is good and certainly a vast improvement over the previous incarnation of the policy. However there are still problems. My <strong>main issues<\/strong> with the policy and bill is that:<\/p>\n<p><strong>It is a criminal offence not to register as a distributor.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Basically <strong>any content<\/strong> (not just films and games) can be <strong>subjected to classification<\/strong>, and the big one,<\/p>\n<p><strong>Failure to register as a distributor can result in the distributors website or services being blocked at the ISP level. <\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">What does this mean for everyday South African gamers?<\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;I want to focus on the last point since that is the one most likely to affect local gamers if implemented. Using a practical example, League of Legends is distributed directly by Riot Games. In terms of the new policy, Riot would need to register with the FPB as a distributor.<\/p>\n<p>Once registered it has two options, first it can submit LoL to the FPB to be classified, alternatively, it can apply to the FPB to allow the PEGI\/ESRB rating that they already have to be used instead.<\/p>\n<p>If the Riot fails to do this, and the FPB enforces the law, what this means is that the FPB could order all ISP&#8217;s in South Africa to block access to LoL&#8217;s servers.<\/p>\n<p>Riot is a big company though, and considering they have already followed similar processes in Germany and Australia, I don&#8217;t see registering with FPB to be an issue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Smaller or &#8220;indie&#8221; site like Itch.IO could be hit<\/strong>, this will hit indie game developers and people interested in more experimental games in South Africa particularly hard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More gaming news<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Here is how hard game developers actually work\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/89705-here-is-how-hard-game-developers-actually-work.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Here is how hard game developers actually work<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Awesome PC gaming accessories that will change the way you play\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/91313-awesome-pc-gaming-accessories-that-will-change-the-way-you-play.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Awesome PC gaming accessories that will change the way you play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to The best HP consumer laptop in South Africa\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/91815-the-best-hp-consumer-laptop-in-south-africa.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">The best HP consumer laptop in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is how the Film and Publications Board&#8217;s new policy might affect gaming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":91981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3174,18627,18625],"class_list":["post-91979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-fpb","tag-government","tag-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92505,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91979\/revisions\/92505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}