Australia Finally Getting an R18+ Rating for Games

[Darth_Dude]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

GODDAMNIT IM NOT 18 YET!

WHY GOD? WHY?!

 

[DJDarque]

I'm not Australian, but still, congrats guys.

 

[infohippie]

It's still not a real 18+ rating, it'll just be similar to the current 15+ rating, maybe very slightly more permissive, and most of the current 15+ games will just be rebadged and stuck in the 18+ category. In this country the public has always had to fight long and hard against socially conservative governments to get tiny little increases in what we plebs are "allowed" to view.

It's not going to change my buying habits, I will still get my games from elsewhere, where I can be sure they haven't been modified to fit our ratings board's idea of what games should contain. Screw merely buggering about with R ratings, it's long past time we abolished RC entirely.

 

[AdumbroDeus]

And this is why the government should not be dealing with this stuff in general, internal industry boards ftw.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I think one Aussie we know on this site will comment on this sooner or later. I'm happy for my gaming comrades who live down under.

 

[Kalith]

As an Australian let me say that this is awesome news. But here's the catch you guys may have blinked and missed. See even though we are now getting the R18+, games will still need to be editted to pass for the most part. See the R18+ guidelines may still block a game like Mortal Kombat 9 and most of the games marked MA15+ will sit on the shelf with the R18+.

From what I've seen of the draft guidelines it seems like the video game R18+ is just the current MA15+ with a little more flexibility. I can tell you right now the sex scenes in GTA would still be removed. It's still a win and less games will be banned but a lot will have editing done to them to fit the R18+ guidelines. As for when we get it I'd honestly say we'll see it around March. To be honest I wish they'd get it out before the big releases in October before bad Christmas decisions are made.

This exactly, they're also removing another rating (or so I read in Game Informer) to have the R18+ one bought in which is really shooting oneself in the foot.

I import my games from America. That's the only way I know I will get the content as released before Nanny Australia has it's way with it. The difference between L4D2 in Australia (that I remember)is all of the corpses disappear after death and there isn't as much blood splatter. Australia's censorship reminds me of the Vatican putting fig leaves on all the naked sculptures in it's city. We all know what's under there people.