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Steam Implementation of Government Rating System in Indonesia Draws Criticism, Confusion

Steam began implementing ratings from the Indonesia Game Rating System for its Indonesian users on Sunday. The implementation has drawn some criticism and confusion from Indonesian users due to the ratings seemingly being inconsistent with the games' content. For example, Cygames' Uma Musume Pretty Derby game is listed with an 18+ rating, and Atlus' Metaphor: ReFantazio and Sandfall Interactive's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 games are "refused classification" (and therefore cannot be sold in Indonesia), but adult visual novels such as Nitroplus' The Song of Saya and Qruppo's Nukitashi are listed as 3+.

The IGRS, a system managed by the Indonesian government's Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi), lists six possible age rating classifications, which include 3+, 7+, 13+, 15+, 18+, and Refused Classification. According to the IGRS website, it defines 18+ games as "not [containing] pornography, but may display references to cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs; animated violence, blood, mutilation, and cannibalism; adult humor with sexual connotations; human-like characters without showing genitals, breasts, or buttocks; gambling activities that do not involve real or digital currency; horror elements intended to provoke fear; and online conversation features." Meanwhile, it reserves Refused Classification for "games that contain prohibited content," which includes pornography, "gameplay based solely on gambling involving real and legal currency, foreign currency, electronic money, or intangible commodities such as digital assets that can be traded and exchanged for legal tender, and providing/supporting/facilitating a cash-out feature," and games violating other Indonesian laws.

According to Steam's policy for age rating games in Indonesia, the IGRS is only one source of the game's possible final rating on Steam for Indonesian users, with the other source being a "rating issued by Valve through Steam's self-rating process," which takes customer feedback, Valve's own content review teams, as well as a survey that the developer of the game must fill in. It is possible that this other source of the final age rating could have also caused the seemingly inconsistent age ratings.

According to the Komdigi ministry, the anomalous ratings were the result of the above mentioned developer survey or evaluations by the system, and not the ministry and the IGRS system, and that Valve was still finalizing its implementation of the IGRS system on Steam through an automated system based on the developer surveys.

Sources: GameSpark (ずんこ。) via Otakomu, IGRS, Steam Age Ratings in Indonesia Steamworks document, Detikinet (Panji Saputro), Radar Bojonegoro (Yuan Edo Ramadhana)