Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

July 4, 2008

GameSpot is reporting that hugely-anticipated role playing title Fallout 3 may be subjected to the Australian government's notorious ban hammer.

While GameSpot is careful to add that the Fallout 3 ban is still a rumor at this point, it points to a seemingly well-informed post in its PC Games Forum:

I have a friend that works for the government body here in Australia that reviews movies, books, music, magazines and...computer games... I was told by my friend that Fallout 3 has just very recently gone through the initial review process by the board of the OFLC and has been refused classification...

 

Apparently the game includes the use of Morphine by your character. (I assume as some sort of "healthpack" or "stimpack"). By all accounts this did not sit well with the Board as the portrayal of the unregulated use of proscribed substances is a bit of a no no and will damage the fragile minds of Australia's game-playing populace.

 

The key issue here is that, unlike movies, our computer game classification ratings only go as far as MA 15+... But due to our archaic and conservative laws, we don't have a computer game R 18+ rating and thus Fallout 3 and games like it will continue to be Refused Classification.
 

GP: This rumor is entirely possible. Readers may recall that Australia banned Marc Ecko's Getting Up over its grafitti theme. 

Comments

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Wow. If only Fallout 3 could rely on a major publisher like EA, Microsoft or Sony. I'm sure then a few palms could be greased and the situation resvolved. As it is, I extend my comiserations to our antipodean bretrhren.

-- teh moominz --

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

man i know it is only a rumor but most likely the game will be banned. the federal govt need to get their act together and hurry up and pass this R rating law for video games.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

We just had a bit of a discussion at the GDNet Lounge touching on the OFLC (originally from an idea of mine about spurning countries with draconian rating systems). Apparently, the reason for there being no R rating for games in Australia is that the approval of the states attorney-generals, and the AG for New South Wales is blocking it because of his far-right, Christian Conservative views.

NSW voters might want to put some pressure on their state government to get their AG, Michael Atkinson, removed from office. And considering how Victoria's AG is a supporter of Atkinson, perhaps voters there should do the same thing about theirs.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

As far as I remember, its south australia's AG thats the problem. The OFLC have a bit of a bad rap really, a search of their database shows only 64 games that've been refused classification since 1994 (I suspect it was when they started to apply ratings to games) and the majority of those were those really lame porn games, ones with titles like "Immoral Cumbat"

I read this on gamespot & it all originates from some bloke posting in the forum, frankly it sounds like some wanker making crap up because he read the OFLC guidelines & realised it could apply to practically anything. Besides, history has shown that the OFLC don't care about drugs, it's only sex & in extreme cases, violence

 

EDIT: Yup, definitely the SAAG thats the roadblock, I just looked it up. damned SAAGy bastard's holding us all back.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Both NARC and Blitz: The League were refused classification because of 'drug use related to incentives or rewards' that said; I doubt that Fallout 3 will be banned.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?
It's a hoax, there's been no comment by the OFLC about whether to ban FO3 or not. That said, NSW needs to kick the idiot blocking an R rating out.
Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Michael Atkinson is the South Australian Attorney-General. He is the most vocal opposer to the R rating for games, on the basis that kids might be exposed to what he calls "questionable and morally irresponsible material". He refuses to accept the argument that there are R-rated movies available in Australia so there should be no problem having R-rated games, which I believe is due to the fact that he probably believes that only kids play video games.

And that's before we even mention his religious beliefs, which obviously are going to sway his vote towards the "no bad games for everyone" option. Because we all know that if a game is banned, it simply cannot be procured in Australia... *cough*

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Why don't they just get a freaking 18+ rating incorperated?

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

They won't get one Ryan because "SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDRENS!!!!!!!". :P

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

I call this a hoax, Bethesda isn't the type to ever put adult themes in there games, espeicaly one that Todd Howard is working on.

 

 

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?
If they have any intention of honouring the previous Fallout titles then there will be adult themes without a doubt. I think a lot of fans would be quite pissed off otherwise. How can you say that the assasin's quest line in Oblivion wasn't adult themed anyway? Could have fooled me. Anyways if this rumor is true, it paints the Australian classification board as very useless. Any gamer who wants Fallout 3 will just get it shipped to them from outside the country anyway.
Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Your first sentance was exactly my point.  They don't,

 

 

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

I'm so glad I'm going to be playing a good game rather than the bitter acid you NMA jerks are going to claim you've played.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Using morphine to restore health is already in a little game called Half Life 2, which is not banned in Australia...

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

I forgot about that. You're right.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Another great game that Austrailian gamers won't get to play cause there goverment are jerks and won't add a R 18+ rating for games.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

In the first two Fallout games, you could use stimpacks or mentats to heal yourself and get smarter.

I can't rememeber if there actually morphine in the stimpakcs, but morphine is still used in hospitals to to away people's pains??

Both Emil, Pete and Todd have said that Fallout will be (a somewhat) different game than Oblivion.

 

 

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Explains when they have confirmed it in interviews to be Oblivion with guns.

 

See? they can't even get there own ducks in a row, screw all hope of them doing fallout right.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Maybe it's because I haven't played Fallout 1 & 2, but I honestly see no problem with the gameplay. It's the little details that piss me off - if there are no children, and it's an 18, why not give the Conservatives something to shit themselves over? Sex, More Drugs, Rock N' Roll. Any objections?

~You Could Be Mine, But You're Way Out Of Line..~

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

I'm going with rumor. If crappy B-grade horror movies like "Undead" can be released in Australia...

 

Then again, movies are always considered different. Movies consistently are allowed to have gracious amounts of violence, sex and drugs, all OK, but one little boob flash in a game, and it's blocked. They really need to change that 15 policy.

 

 

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

 Wow, they haven't seen Buffout, Mentats, Psycho, *Jet*, Super stimpacks, or Voodoo.

And have they just caught on to the whole "Stimpack" thing in video games? This has been used hundreds of times.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

because of MORPHINE? wow

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Marines use Stimpacks in Starcraft. Ban that filth!!

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Guys don't believe the poster who did this, he has been going around a few Australian game forums the past few days and creating new accounts just so he can copy and paste the same post without providing any actual sources.

Gotta hand it to him though one little rumor he created has exploded across the internet and people are believeing it without questioning it. Think about it, how can they ban a game that dosen't even have a release date or any sort of code that they can actually play test?

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Yet another reason to import. Luckily Aussie customs doesn't really do much to stop banned (RC) games from getting into the country (Got my copy of Dark Sector right here, and I'm an Aussie). Probably too busy trying to find actual dangerous stuff to bother, which is fair enough.

This whole thing about the R rating is complete stupidity, when it should be simple. I especially dislike some religious conservative trying to push his outdated views on what I should play onto me. Or simply that he assumes that since I play games, I must be a 'child'.

When will it be over and we (as the the gamer generation) can have our turn at persecuting some new form of media, and this old generation can step down.

-Tristan

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

The thing that shits me about it is that the addition of a rating has to be unanimous, they should require a 2/3 majority or better so the civilised states can tell atkinson to go sit in the corner & think about how stupid he is whilst we're playing games with blood &/or boobies in (but not both at once because that'd count as sexual violence)

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

What I find hilarious is how unbelievably gullible people are. Some no-name clowns makes ONE post on Gamespot, whom has about a two post history and has been a member for about five seconds tells everybody that his friend works for the government and has given him inside information.....Next thing you know dozens of desperate journalists are taking it as fact without any sort of reliable source WHAT SO EVER and soon after even more desperate journalists decide to humiliate themselves by using a Gamespot post as a source for their article. There is an influx of posts exactly like this on Gamespot every single day and you know what? They're called "troll posts" which are created by trolls trying to kick up a stink and get a petty rise out of everybody. Maybe we should start using random forum posts to receive ALL of our news just because sometimes the people posting decide to use good grammar to make their post look more legitimate! YEAH GREAT IDEA!

 

Dear Gamepolitics,

As a scientist for the past 26 years I have just discovered that the sun will combust within the next decade and swallow the Earth whole. Please evaculate to Mars ASAP!

 

Sincerely,

Some random idiot

 

Please.....I would expect this sort of garbage from FauxNews. Once again the media proves that they are the lowest form of life on the planet.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Well it WAS on gamespot, they're about as far from a reputable information source as you can get for a high profile site.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

It usually reeks of the meme "Its true, netcraft confirms it"

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Yeah..

Since when do we get our news from  second hand-sources on interweb forums?

While I wouldn't put it past their government to do stupid things like such, it's far too early for it to be really coming up. And I tend not to trust any stories that start with "My friend who works at [organization] said.."

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Garbage.  Drug use is an M classification at best, and even then, didn't Fallout 2 have morphine use in it?  That wasn't banned.  I highly doubt this will result in an RC.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

The trouble is, Australia doesn't have an M classification as such.

Their system stops at 15+, meaning that any game classified as 18+ material is automatically banned.

As for this rumour, well, no actual release date has been announced anywhere, so it could very well be a hoax, although not an unlikely one.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

An M classification in Aus is a 15+ recommendation (similar to the US PG13 rating), as opposed to an R18+ restriction which is what the system is currently missing.  Drug use as far as I can see is not as big of a deal for th OFLC, and certainly not enough to warrant the game being refused classification.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Yeah, not to mention all of the games out there that have had actual hard drug use; GTA, Hitman, Saints Row...

Even though the OFLC is about as consistent as homemade jam, I really doubt that the use of a prescription (Not even contraband) drug will tip the scales here.

The dismemberment, on the other hand, would be a far more likely candidate.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Anything that starts with "I have a friend" I find to be dubious information at best. Mind you Fallout 3 very well might get banned in Australia, but I don't think the first place that we will hear about it will be gamespots message board.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

 rant rant rant , rave rave rave . whine whine whine.  Them did this, they am that...... i agree here and disagree there.

 

Move along. Nothing to see here.

Like any other game that has been banned , there are always ways around it. 

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

I believe the point of the rant, whinge and whine above is that we shouldn't *have* to find a way around it.  As a gamer in the 18-34 demographic, I shouldn't have to do anything sinister to play a video game.  Espeecially considering the 18+ drek Hollywood throws at us on a daily basis.

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

 "Luckily Aussie customs doesn't really do much to stop banned (RC) games from getting into the country."

 

 

The real issue.  For all the carry on of the Classifications Board (OFLC is no longer the official title), Aussie censorship no longer exists.  RC'd games become more popular as a result of their ban and are imported and downloaded en masse with no arrests or prosecutions.

The system is an epic fail.

 

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area.  If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?

But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself.  Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children.  Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story.  Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age.  The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself.  Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head.  Not gonna happen.  Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.

The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status).  In  a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent.  The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me.  Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time.  It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?

Re: Fallout 3 to be Banned in Australia?

Thanks good job;

Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because  these guys have done nothing travesti or little and need to start saving costs. and dizi izle

YES.

Now I don't have to get off my ass for the important shit anymore!

Whats next, ordering pizza from Xbox live?

Wait... I think that sounds like a good idea.

But I think voting should MAKE you get off your ass, and see outside or a second while you go vote. I mean, your picking the president of the United States of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there and punch out a card.

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 07/05/09 at 11:28am
GoodRobotUs: It's not a tactic I see catching on in the future.
Posted 07/05/09 at 11:28am
GoodRobotUs: Just amuses me that Jack strives to match the most infantile of his his enemies, regardless of who he's actually talking to...
Posted 07/05/09 at 10:49am
JDKJ: Or "Just because the customer isn't really our customer doesn't mean they aren't completely retarded."
Posted 07/05/09 at 10:46am
GoodRobotUs: They could release it as a Demo tape for training and call it : 'Just because the customer is always right, doesn't mean they aren't, on occasion, knobs'.
Posted 07/05/09 at 10:42am
JDKJ: GRU: I suspect that the person Jack-O's been speaking with says, "Please go right ahead and tell me your concerns, Mr. Thompson," then mutes the line. Fifteen minutes later, they unmute it and say, "Thanks for sharing your concerns. Good day."
Posted 07/05/09 at 10:25am
GoodRobotUs: 'And yet he's still smarter than you Jack...'
Posted 07/05/09 at 10:25am
GoodRobotUs: You just know Jack's gonna phone your work again: 'Please Sir! Please Sir, Andrew came to school on only 3 hours sleep!!'
Posted 07/05/09 at 03:56am
Andrew Eisen: Hmm... You know, I think it would be wise if I stopped working on my music and tried to get a little sleep seeing as I have to work in 3 hours.
Posted 07/04/09 at 11:08pm
Andrew Eisen: LGJ - Not that I'm aware of. The Twitter feed was someone else's live blog of the debate.
Posted 07/04/09 at 11:04pm
Leet Gamer Jargon: @AE: Wait, wait, wait: JT has a Twitter account?! Are you serious?
Posted 07/04/09 at 09:24pm
PHX Corp: For those that want to know what i watching it's called man vs cartoon(a.k.a fixing Wile E. coyote's Mistakes one trap at a time by EMERTEC)
Posted 07/04/09 at 08:20pm
GoodRobotUs: Went out for my Mum's 65th Birthday, which is the only relevance 4/7 has in the UK for me ;)
Posted 07/04/09 at 08:18pm
Andrew Eisen: Beach + fireworks + root beer + strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, whipped topping, and pound cake = my Fourth of July!
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:58pm
GoodRobotUs: Which seems to be the only point Jack proved, that some people find some games offensive. i.e. Nothing.
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:57pm
GoodRobotUs: The discussion was supposed to be whether games were dangerous not 'Do you find some games offensive'...
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:55pm
GoodRobotUs: Some agreed, some didn't, but it was their choice to make, not the governments.
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:55pm
GoodRobotUs: By asking the audience their opinion, he more or less proved that it's a matter of personal choice
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:55pm
GoodRobotUs: Meh, he ended proving Mark's point for him
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:26pm
Erik: Jack if you are reading this you are a LIAR. There is no legal weight to the MPAA's ratings.
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:24pm
JDKJ: I still think my buddy the midget who rides a unicycle backwards while juggling four bowling pins would have been a much bigger hit with that crowd. And he can make up statistics and misinterpret studies, too.
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