April 6, 2008 -
As GamePolitics has previously reported, elected officials in Australia are considering the addition of an R18+ rating for video games. Currently, any title that doesn't meet the content standard for Australia's MA15+ is effectively banned.
Writing in The Australian, columnist Ross Fitzgerald maintains that the move to an R18+ is being motivated by game industry lobbying:
The whisper is that... Attorney-General Robert McClelland (left) and his junior, Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus, have had a stream of lobbyists representing Nintendo and Microsoft in their ears about creating this new R-rating for violent video games.
Labor appears to be moving away from its stated policy of clamping down on violence as... members gang up on South Australia's hapless, evangelical Christian Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, over his veto on a new R-rating for computer games.
I'm no supporter of Atkinson's deep social conservatism. I suspect that he rejects the R-rated computer game rating more for the sex in the R category than the violence... the rest of Australia's state and federal attorneys should hang their heads in shame for trying to foist a category of computer games on us that will contain mostly mind-numbing violence.
Comments
Foist? I'm sorry, is the Australian government going to force you to buy these games? Did buyer choice fly out the window? If you don't want to play, or have your kids playing, these particular games, then don't buy them. But you shouldn't be able to tell other ADULTS what they can and cannot view. And that's what this is all about, adult intertainment. There's a reason why they have an R18 rating (or soon will have).
I, for one, am sick of getting "dumbed-down" games (like GTA:VC and the soon to be released GTA:4) because we dont have an adult rating for games. We can watch all the porn we want, all the violent movies we can hire, but when it comes to games... nooooo! I'm so sick of parents complaining about how their 9y.o. is playing violent video games like GTA... YOUR' CHILD SHOULDN'T BE PLAYING GTA IN THE FIRST PLACE, IT'S MA15+ FOR A REASON YOU DUMB-ASS! Yet, this is the catch-cry of the uneducated parent. I have worked at EB Games in the past and the amount of parents I saw caving in to their "under-age" children when it came to mature rated games was astounding. These are the very same parents that complain about their children playing the aforementioned "mature" games.
It sickens me to know that because of some grey-haired tool that was born in the first half of the 20th century, I cannot play games that are made for my age group. Nor am I allowed access to the original FULL content of other games because of it's "adult" nature... I'm an adult, let me make the choice if I want to play those games or not.
Australia is the ONLY "Western-world" nation NOT to have an adult rating for games... WHY?!?!?! I mean, even the Americans (known for their conservative views (in government at least) on sex and violence) have ratings designed for adult gamers.
Manhunt: BANNED
Manhunt 2: BANNED & NEVER RELEASED
Mark Ecko's Getting Up: BANNED
NARC: BANNED & NEVER RELEASED
Leisure Suit Larry (the latest one): BANNED & NEVER RELEASED
GTA3: TAKEN OFF SHELVES, EDITED, RE-RELEASED
GTAVC: EDITED BEFORE RELEASE
GTASA: TAKEN OFF SHELVES, EDITED, RE-RELEASED
Reservoir Dogs: BANNED & NEVER RELEASED
and now they're going to take away the ONE THING I have been waiting for (in gaming) since it was announced: GTA4. When I read (here @ GP) about how our Classification Board was only releasing an "edited" version of GTA4, I almost cried (and I'm a 28y.o. male). So many Aussie Gamers have already said that they will just import a copy. I think I'll do that as well. Unfortunately this will put a dent of unknown proportions into the economy of the games industry here in Oz.
Enough of my rant, it's 3:45am here and I'm off to bed, G'nite GP readers!
Maybe Labor's policy applies to actual violence rather then the imaginary kind?
- Did you not get the memo?
Really if you do this people won't have to pirate or import games and the Austrailian government can gain a little bit more money on taxes.
Although really the argument that we shouldn't have adult games because kids MIGHT get ahold of them is so dumb. Under that logic we should ban alcohol, porn, guns, certain medicines, rat poison, toxic cleaners etc.
I said it before and I'll say it again.
"Censorship is like saying a man can't have steak because a baby can't chew it" -Mark Twain (although unsourced).
Our politicians ain't shit.
Yo, have you ever encountered a bible basher (i.e. someone that bashes people with bibles)? Now those guys are scary.
@ Grizz
After looking at your list I must ask; what about Postal? Not even NZL can get that (or Manhunt for that matter).
you're not missing much about reservoir dogs. it's a god awful game.
but manhunt was a fine game to me.
The latter bit has some real meat to it. There is all this debate about violence in games and such but sex is almost always sidelined as an 'of COURSE it is bad!',... which as the commenter pointed out this is kinda strange.
Ridiculous.
Perhaps older folk should be barred from becoming politicians- they seem to be too out of touch. There is an age minimum for good reason, why not an age maximum?
The real enemy here is lazy journalism.
Jeez, I'd hate to live Australia. Even if I was next door to Ben Croshaw, I'd pass.
Oh, that's right. Reality and research can't be permitted to get in the way of a good old vigilante media-burning rant. Some things never change.
No, wait, actually, that's how I amuse myself. He should keep spouting his ignorance, just, you know, with less coverage. Or a counterargument from people who know what they're talking about. Or an admission that he's just rabble-rousing and is actually clueless.
Basically the equivalent of the HB1423 (that is currently before the Massachusetts state legislature) has already passed in all the states and territories. So why is having an adult classification such a big deal to the fundamentalist lobby? As Fitzgerald states I suspect it has more to do with concerns about sexual content, a fact that I think is true here in the US as well. The anti-game lobby are just good at camouflaging their real agenda.
And as an aside, the main reason lobbyists are visiting the new Federal government is to lobby for a tax concession similar to the Australian film industry's, not to change the rating scheme.
This is why, for all the issues we have in the us, there are some things we have gotten right. Now if the ESRB would just dump the worthless AO and use a rating that actually is a rating and not a BAN hammer, it'd be awesome.
How can one have an X-rated erotica rating for games here, when it a) it isn't real, b) there isn't a large market outside japan?
Not strictly true. If the same yardstick was applied to movies as they are to games then many, many more games WOULD be banned than actually are. As it happens they are shoehorned into the M15+ classification.
Australia is VERY different to the US. An R18+ (or AO) is NOT the death knell for a game over here. I realise that given an AO in the US, stores like Walmart will not carry the game, but it's not the case over here at all. Stores will continue to stock them, but just have to restrict who they sell games to; it already happens for M15+ .... you'd just need extra ID to buy an R18+ game.
Of course that might change in the R18 classification goes ahead ie big retail companies like Woolworths limited (owns Big W and Dick Smith Electronics) or Coles (owns Target) might decide not to stock those games owing to pressure from the christian lobby and other groups.
"But there are powerful forces behind this push. In 2006, sales of computer and video game hardware and software in Australia exceeded $1billion and Australians purchase 12.5 million computer and video games each year. A survey of popular Sega and Nintendo games taken a few years ago found that 80 per cent of them primarily featured violence or aggression."
SEGA and Nintendo games a few years ago?????
80% of SEGA and Nintendo games promarily featured violence???
Where does this guy get his information from????
Come on, SEGA went out of the hardware industry about 7 years ago in 2001, also the majority of SEGA and Nintendo developed and published games are no more violent than Mario or Sonic.
Does this guy ever really PLAY any Videogames????
Of course not if he is so stupid to come to these sort of conclusions, and I have played many videogames to know that this reporter is just making stuff up for news worthy sensationalism.
Easy to see he's in bed with the porn lobbyists, and Australian Christian lobby groups... no doubt using crucifixes for something other than praying, and warding off vampires ;)
"MA (inside a pentagon shape) 15+ (RED color label), Restricted (little black line under the MA15+ sign)"
Now turn over to the back of the box
"NOT suitable for people under 15. Under 15s MUST be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian"
Now this is the reason WHY parents have the FINAL say in what their kid buys. If the parent is not there, then the retailer has every reason NOT to sell an MA15+ game to a kid UNLESS if they have a parent who says it is ok.
And THAT is the recomendation set out by the OFLC.
It is NOT because of kids wanting a MA15+ game in the first place, it is because many parents simply just let their kids BUY games that the OFLC says it may not be suitable for them.
As for the M rating in Australia (which is more like a T rating in the US) it says...
M (blue color label with the M in the circle) also it has NOT got any label that says "Restricted" that the MA15+ has got. (THAT'S the difference between M and MA15+, it used to be M15+ but it was so confusing so the OFLC decided in 2005 that they have color labels and they took off the 15+ on the M rating)
On the back it says "Recommended for mature audiences"
Clearly a M rated game is different from an MA15+ game.
Now let me get an R18+ rated Hentai DVD so I can give you what it says....
R18+ (the R is inside a Dimond and it is in BLACK color label) it also says "RESTRICTED"
On the back it says "Restricted to 18 and over"
Did you notice that it NEVER said anything about parent's permission????
That because an R18+ rating IS Restricted, that would mean that retailers CAN'T sell it to children or teenagers under the age of 18 years of age.
But I am sure that their parents would just buy the game anyway.
The only way that Australia would get an R18+ rating in my view is for EVERYONE to LOOK at the OFLC rating and understand that an R18+ rating means that it is NOT FOR KIDS!!!!!!
Sadly politicians don't know that...or they seem to think that most people ignore it. But it is there for a reason, to INFORM parents, and NOT for just simply saying it is BANNED....
Hope my information helps you guys to tell the difference between what the ratings says...
My information could be wrong--I got it from people from Australia who were visiting Korea for pirated games--but I thought the sought-after Australian 18+ rating was necessary because videogames were actually judged more harshly than movies.
As in, movies with similar content got by with a lower-aged rating, while videogames that would have been less than an American R rating for movies were sometimes kept from stores at all because the 15+ wasn't deemed prohibitive enough in an interactive medium. I mean, they were picing up some racy stuff too, but some of the games they said weren't available in Australia because of the lack of 18+ rating were quite tame.
I'd love an R rating.
Currently I just buy my games from Canadia if they're banned and I really want them. I have no interest in Manhunt/Manhunt 2 and I really have no interest in an edited version of GTA4.
Yeah, you are right.
Videogames are treated differently than movies because of their interactive nature. You even see Strippers and Prostitutes in MA15+ movies, but never in MA15+ videogames because of their "interactive nature".
It is a shame for people like myself because I have to put up with this most of the time.
I'll do what I do already.. Look at the cover. If it looks awesome and within my price range, I might buy it. If it looks "good" I'll write the name down and go home to look at it on Wikipedia and GameFAQs. If I like what I see, I'll go back and buy it.
The majority of gamers are smart, mature people. Saying that they'll simply go and buy every single R rated game simple because they're rated R is stupid beyond reason.