UPDATE: The BBC have altered the log-in requirements for the age restrictions and will soon support worldwide play.
The BBC have still been unsuccessful in mastering how to make a particularly good Doctor Who game; so with the new Doctor Who game on the CBBC website being released today, not only isn’t the game either challenging or even interesting, but the BBC seem to be selective with their audience on who can play the game.
The game is run on Unity Web player, an engine which allows vaster gaming integration with your web browser, beyond what a standard flash game could offer. It was described to help teach children the basis of coding, in an engaging Doctor Who environment – essentially the game relies on a simplistic 2D side-scroller which then pauses itself so that you can code the playable Dalek simple commands. Fans of the series can appreciate the genuine voice acting from Peter Capaldi and an existing Doctor Who writer (Phil Ford) taking control of the games script, yet there isn’t much to actually enjoy within the game.
Regardless, there’s bound to be many Whovians who’s been anticipating to play a new Doctor Who game, and ‘The Doctor and the Dalek’ may suffice for the moment, even if they aren’t children who aim to learn to code. The game is accessible to those with Unity Web Player installed, but within certain conditions. Firstly, you must live in the UK in order to play the game, any other region will restrict the user from even playing the game. Yet it doesn’t only stop there; if users want to save their data and continue later on, they require a BBC ID account which after signing in/up will ask you for your age…
Doing so then brings users into a simple question requiring your age, are you ‘under 16′ or ’16 or over’? If you were to fill in ’16 or over’, then the website absurdly prevents you from playing the game, since the game is made for “people in a different age range”.
There are obvious workarounds rather than just accepting the game isn’t for you, dedicated fans who are intrigued to play the game could still reroute themselves to access the game. A VPN is always an option when it comes to accessing region specific websites, and applies here for the Doctor Who game too. However, not everyone is too experienced with setting up VPNs and therefore not everyone will immediately think to set-up one. Those who are above the age of 16 and want to save their data from this children-centric game, all it requires is for you to return to the age request page and lie about your age that you’re under 16; while the legality of this is slightly in question, doing so won’t send you to an arrest.
The BBC have already received a handful of complaints about the obstacles for this game and are likely to respond soon with lifting up the restrictions from the game, making it accessible to anyone.
SOURCE: (CBBC Doctor Who game)
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