R18+ classification open for public consultation

This is certainly heartening news. Potentially not having to worry about censors anymore. I'll consider writing something up some time.

Quick, someone round up all the flamers in some kind of distraction/trap.

Yeh I will write something up. Hopefully because this keeps getting dragged up time and time again lately that maybe in the near future something will finally change. Its not that I have a desire to play only high violence/gore/sex games, but if I so choose to do so then I should be allowed to.

I read the title as "R18+ classification open for public consumption."

In addition to games that are refused classification, many games are simply given an MA15+ rating, when they are given the equivalent of an R18+ rating in other countries.

Surely giving games an MA15+ rating when they really should be restricted to people over eighteen is doing more harm and exposing more violence to minors?

Basically, the submission form is a survey with your details, and the usual 'strongly disagree'--> 'strongly agree' stuff. But you can leave comments at the end.

The submission date is just before I turn 25, so I'm gonna wait until then before I send it in so I can fit into the higher age bracket and hopefully prove a point...

IMO, we don't really need R18+ rated games. Games we already have today that are MA15+ can become gory to the extent of horrifying. If things could get any more violent, well- that's the point. I don't think they could.

Unless there are some games that are going to have full length sex scenes or content or similar content, adding another classification seems stupid.

But games ARE becoming more violent as technology improves and the graphical detail becomes, well, more graphic.

And games are being refused classification or censored to meet an MA15+ rating. We are either being given inferior products, or missing out entirely. And that's the problem. It's not about whether or not we need R18+ games, but acknowledging and respecting our decision as mature adults to play the kind of games we want.

Hex said it best. I also don't have a desire to play games with an R18+ rating (I still get the heebie-jeebies when I play Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem), but if I choose to do so then I should be allowed to.

I still remember thiking to myself when I played Killer 7 that the game SHOULD NOT have been let in on an MA15+ rating. I was already 16 but I still felt that game is something I should have been denied for until 18. And don't even get me STARTED on God of War

I see your point. What boggles me is how gamers think a game is ruined due to a mere censorship. I guess it's up to personal preferences when it comes to the inclusion of blood and gore, but cranking up the classification to have these things added seems somewhat trivial to me. I wouldn't consider a censored copy of Left 4 Dead 2 'inferior'.

However, it seems like it'd be a category restricted to adults alone, seeing as most kids are playing MA15+ games these days. Eh, they might as well enforce it. But it's a video game- the classification isn't going to stop teenagers and such from playing it. Seems to me it'll just become another rating, ignored by those who play it, therefore relinquishing any purpose it may have been intended to have.

I think your phrasing highlights how little you understand the importance and dangers of censorship. The heart of this issues has, in my mind, NOTHING to do with games, but to do with freedoms, and who gets to choose what we are and aren't free to do.

Atkinson's stance is the view that it is the government's job to choose what is good for the people and for the children. My view is that it its the people and the parents choice to decide what we want respectively. Why should he or the Goverment be able to choose what I can or can't play?

As for L4D2, my understanding that simply having a 'different' copy of the game is enough to get most Australian players banned from a lot of servers.

can anybody answer me this, as i have read so many different answers from all over the place, can you own a copy of a game given an rc classification? if so can i buy it or does somebody have to gift it to me, and if not why is that and how is it policed?

I completely agree with what TSPhoenix wrote.

I'm not into videogames for the violence, but the government denying us the choice of accessing this material is downright censorship. In my eyes, video games are as legitimate of a medium as any other, and should be treated as such.

I understand that the inclusion of censorship conflicts with our rights to choose what we play. I'm not against the addition of an R18+, yet I don't think it'll make a substantial difference to those who actually play the games. If being deprived of the right to play something of such stronger content leaves you feeling your liberties so terribly unsatisfied, then by all means- let's have an R18+ rating. The ability to choose what video games we play is so much more important than our other rights. lol, disregard that.

Also, it's true that I'm not as informed as others may be when it comes to classification and censorship, but these are just my personal views.

From the best of my knowledge, this shouldn't be a problem.

To use a drastic example, X18+ films are only legally available for purchase in the ACT and the Northern Territory, but these films may be legally purchased from interstate via mail-order.

This may even apply on an international level when it comes to R18+ games, but I can't possibly understand how such a policy could be enforced?

I buy games from the UK all of the time as they're cheaper, but I've never bought a game that has been refused classification in this country.

Has anybody had an experience with this?

Mmm, but the thing is, most restrictions wouldn't, would they? Yeah, you can make a good game without violence. You can also make one without penguins, or without the colour blue.

Now, penguins and blue don't harm kids (though don't give Atkinson and Conroy and the like any ideas...), but we can find similar examples quite easily. Kids die in swimming pools, and never having had one in my backyard, it wouldn't make a substantial difference to me if they were banned. Kids burn themselves on stovetops, and I suppose I don't really need to cook that much when there are perfectly good grains and fruits and vegetables available. They fall out windows, and I could live without those if I still had a door. Shampoo gets in kids eyes, and that can really sting.

Plastic bags, alcohol, scissors, cars, Shannon Noll; the world is full of things that can be horrible for kids and that we could each live without. But we don't ban these things. We inform, and educate, and work around the risks. With all these potential dangers legal, R18+ games would need to be incredibly dangerous to justify their banning, and I don't think anyone has demonstrated that at all.

Hmm, good to know they're willing to listen. I guess I'll read over the form and type up a response when I get home.

As far as I'm concerned, the R18+ rating won't open the way to extremely violent or sexual games like some people seem to think., but it'll just make the games that otherwise have a massively hard time getting released down eaiser to get. I'm also a little tired of getting a gyped version of a game because a certain level was too unsavoury for our current rating system or there was a little too much blood. Ninja Gaiden is the one game that comes to mind, when they removed decapitaions and whatnot. Not that I love huge amounts of blood, but in a game like that it's part of the experience and should be left alone. Just saying.

In a way, at the moment our government is like the 4kids of the gaming world. I'd like that to change if it can, but if it doesn't I probably won't be too bothered by it. =P

Then again... No More Heroes 2 sounds like it'll have a hard time getting down here judging by the American rating board's summary. xD;

Heh.


I'll be filling this in for sure.

I'll be getting mum to fill this in for sure :P

A lot of people are willing to listen, many are in favour of the rating. Unfortunately the one person that matters in this issue is not willing to listen. Its going to take more than majority support for Mr Atkinson to budge.

As long as he hold the veto power all these things will be fruitless. That is not to say this kind of support doesn't help move things in the right direction though.

HONK HONK

http://www.gamers4croydon.org/news/stillwatchtv

Hope someone YouTube's it or something.

I remember some lady talking about GTA4 on sunrise one morning saying that the main purpose of the game was to kill prostitutes to get "points". So i'm sure we'll see some gems come from this.

It is illegal to have RC content in Western Australia.

It is legal to have it in other states of Australia, providing that it doesnt contain illegal content (eg. child pornography etc.).

I was reading just the other day about some poor sod in WA who copped a $1000 fine from customs because he tried ot order the game in the post. Sad state that our country is in!



*BEEP BEEP*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0RDLXPplB0

Waveguider... Just in case you dont know, R18+ doesnt mean that completely unrestricted content will get through. Have a read of the discussion paper for what the ratings ACTUALLY mean.

Curious. Do you have a link to this article?

What's stopping residents of WA from retrieving imported games from their interstate friends?

You mean other than the law, I suppose. Well, nothing, same as there's nothing to stop people speeding on the roads or giving bourbon to fourteen year olds.

I suppose that just because you can get away with something, that doesn't necessarily make it right, does it?

i know its EB games but they have set a petition to the AG regarding R18+ classification for games
I have already submitted my reply.

http://www.growupaustralia.com/show-...es-submission/