One of the problems with government rating boards is that they seem to go out of their way to get people who either dislike or are indifferent to gaming as an art form as play testers.
I've read an interview with the (sole) guy responsible for testing and giving out rating recommendations to the german ratingsboard about games they had considered 'liable to corrupt the youth' (yes, that is a real legal term in german...).
He is a biomedical engineer who isn't very interested in gaming and that is sort of the point. He describes himself as 'a little stuffy and conservative' and gaming as 'something he liked to do as a kid once in a while', but thinks 'more violent games should be banned to keep them away from unstable minds'. Yes, the playtester responsible for compiling the footage that will be pivotal in the decision over a games legal status in germany subscribes to the theory that violent games make you more violent in real life.
The playtesters play through the whole game, but work off a checklist of items such as 'beheading', 'blood spatter', etc. without much regard to context.
They then compile a presentation out of screenshots and captured gameplay to 'proffessionally and neutrally' present to a gremium of up to twelve (presumably old farts) in the ratings board, who see all of the most violent parts a game has to offer up in a sort of compressed slide show.
I'm actually amazed we don't get more self-censorship from developers in response to this, than we do.
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