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[Gubump]

My brother's girlfriend noticed that some Dominion expansions have a recommended age of 13+, while others have 14+. Does anybody have any idea why?

[hhelibebcnofnena]

My brother's girlfriend noticed that some Dominion expansions have a recommended age of 13+, while others have 14+. Does anybody have any idea why?

I don't know why they have recommended ages that high in the first place. I saw someone who I know to be in kindergarten playing a Prosperity game with his dad once, and he built up a decent deck-drawing engine.

[Eran of Arcadia]

Something weird with if you want to market a game for younger than that, you have to pay yourself to have it tested for lead (you know, in case the 12 year olds eat the cards.)

[Donald X.]

My brother's girlfriend noticed that some Dominion expansions have a recommended age of 13+, while others have 14+. Does anybody have any idea why?

Originally they were all 8+, in 2006.

Mattel managed to have toys made in Chain with lead paint, in 2007. A bipartisan effort ensured that kids would never have to fear that their books or card games or other products that had never had lead ever would somehow have lead; if you want to say younger than 13+, they all need lead testing, on each print run. This is prohibitively costly (unless you get your lead testing done in... China, like Mattel does). So, Dominion switched to saying 13+.

One printer (ELM) felt that actually the requirement was 14+. That was their reading of whatever. So the copies made by them say 14+, and other copies say 13+. We don't use them anymore for some reason, so eventually they will all say 13+.

[pubby]

14+ is usually there when the product will be sold in the EU. Their laws are 14+, while America prefers 13+.

[Awaclus]

14+ is usually there when the product will be sold in the EU. Their laws are 14+, while America prefers 13+.

Most Dominion sets are 8+ or 10+ in Finland, and in fact the entire age rating system used by lautapelit.fi has nothing to do with age at all and instead it just tells you whether the target demographic is families (8+), adults (10+) or hardcore board game hobbyists (12+), unless it's a game for toddlers in which case it tries to be accurate. I guess some individual countries in the EU might have a law that requires 14+ but I don't think it's EU-level.

[pubby]

Most Dominion sets are 8+ or 10+ in Finland, and in fact the entire age rating system used by lautapelit.fi has nothing to do with age at all and instead it just tells you whether the target demographic is families (8+), adults (10+) or hardcore board game hobbyists (12+), unless it's a game for toddlers in which case it tries to be accurate. I guess some individual countries in the EU might have a law that requires 14+ but I don't think it's EU-level.

The EU-level part is from the CE mark: https://www.cemarkingassociation.co.uk/toys/

Games for ages 0-13 are considered toys and need a CE mark. Games for 14+ aren't and don't need one. The CE mark implies safety testing was done, so putting 14+ on the box skirts that.

I don't know why ELM wanted to print 14+, but I do know other publishers put 14+ for this reason.

[Awaclus]

Most Dominion sets are 8+ or 10+ in Finland, and in fact the entire age rating system used by lautapelit.fi has nothing to do with age at all and instead it just tells you whether the target demographic is families (8+), adults (10+) or hardcore board game hobbyists (12+), unless it's a game for toddlers in which case it tries to be accurate. I guess some individual countries in the EU might have a law that requires 14+ but I don't think it's EU-level.

The EU-level part is from the CE mark: https://www.cemarkingassociation.co.uk/toys/

Games for ages 0-13 are considered toys and need a CE mark. Games for 14+ aren't and don't need one. The CE mark implies safety testing was done, so putting 14+ on the box skirts that.

I don't know why ELM wanted to print 14+, but I do know other publishers put 14+ for this reason.

Oh, right. It's surprising that the CE mark is an issue for some manufacturers though.