Australian Government Rolls Out R18+ Game Rating Guidelines

[Realitycrash]

[wuote]"'simulation, yes - the real thing, no'."[/quote]

Lol? EVERYTHING in videogames is simulated. How the hell can it provide "the real thing"?
Even a Hentai-game is still a Hentai Dating simulator

 

[Treblaine]

"Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is, 'simulation, yes - the real thing, no'."

How the hell could it be anything BUT simulated?

Have the person who wrote these guidelines ever even heard of video games, they do understand they consist of entirely simulated worlds?

 

[A Pious Cultist]

Wait a minute... WAIT A MINUTE.

Do Australians seriously have Emu in their official symbol?

Do Australians seriously have Kangaroo in their official symbol?

I figured that would be... you know... kind of stereotypey. Like having the British coat of arms include a cup of tea and a monocle.

That said: =F Must be some happy Aussies about.

 

[Treblaine]

"Violence is permitted except where it offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults"

In other words you better not have shocking violence in your fantasy even though you'll find plenty of it in the real world.

This sentence is vague enough to still allow censorship.

These restrictions are too restrictive. When talking about material for adults EVERYTHING should be OK in fantasy content-wise.

No more restrictive than US guidelines, to be honest. You don't hear people complain about US censorship being too harsh, do you?

On-topic, bout fucking time, and I say that on behalf of Americans for Australia, a group I didn't just make up off the top of my head.

That's because there is no American government censorship.

The MPAA is nothing but a trade body with a copyrighted sticker, their rating is not a requirement to sell your game legally. It's like a metacritic score except has even less to do with game quality ZING!

The only thing is most of the big-stores like Wal-Mart and Target only stock games with MPAA ratings but that's just store policy, any retailer could sell games without MPAA approval or from an alternate ratings board.

Theoretically if Notch was living in Australia when he released Minecraft he would have to submit his game to the censorship board before he could sell it. Frankly censorship in the internet age is outdated, just look at this superinjunction fiasco in the UK with twitter and the internet in general flouting court gagging orders.

The only US government censorship is of "obscene" material such as hardcore sex which only prohibits publicly advertising and displays (they can't do shit about private consumption and discrete distribution) or footage of things that are actually illegal like snuff films or child sexual abuse.

 

[DaHero]

"Violence is permitted except where it offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults"

In other words you better not have shocking violence in your fantasy even though you'll find plenty of it in the real world.

This sentence is vague enough to still allow censorship.

These restrictions are too restrictive. When talking about material for adults EVERYTHING should be OK in fantasy content-wise.

No more restrictive than US guidelines, to be honest. You don't hear people complain about US censorship being too harsh, do you?

On-topic, bout fucking time, and I say that on behalf of Americans for Australia, a group I didn't just make up off the top of my head.

The US doesn't need censorship, we have Fox News for that.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

All right, I retract my previous comparing to the US guidelines, since the Australian government controlling it makes it apparently a case of apples to oranges. However, considering the number of retailers that will allow AO-rated games to be sold, rating a game AO might as well be banning it, since the game developers have to censor it in order to sell it. Just because the government isn't involved doesn't mean that the games are able to be sold uncensored.

 

[Andronicus]

Like having the British coat of arms include a cup of tea and a monocle.

...except that would be the most AWESOME coat of arms ever created.

OT:
And much festivities ensued. This is three steps in the right direction, and maybe only one or two back!

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

OK... Good news, but some things though... Did they think this through before writing it?

document says. "Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is, 'simulation, yes - the real thing, no'."

Now, feel free to point it out if I'm forgetting something here, but unless this was lifted wholesale from the film classification guidelines, this particular statement makes no sense whatsoever.

With a handful of exceptions owing to Full Motion Video (Which nobody really uses much anymore), video games are 100% simulated by definition.

This means 'the real thing' is a meaningless concept when applied to computer games.

Ergo, this comment implies pornographic computer games can get an R18+ rating, while otherwise equivalent sexual content would have an X rating (or be banned altogether).

That's... A very weird statement, to say the least.

"'simulation, yes - the real thing, no'."

Lol? EVERYTHING in videogames is simulated. How the hell can it provide "the real thing"?
Even a Hentai-game is still a Hentai Dating simulator

And consider this from the other angle. "The real thing" will be subject to censorship. What the fuck does that mean? "The real thing" in regards to sex is sex.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

Wait a minute... WAIT A MINUTE.

Do Australians seriously have Emu in their official symbol?

If you like that you'll love Tristan da Cunha

Hi. I decided to do some googlin'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_arms_of_Tristan_da_Cunha.svg

Seriously, WHAT THE F**K??

 

[Twilight_guy]

Hum... I never knew ratings were meant to protect the people... I always though of them as more... guidelines so that people were informed and could make informed choices. Censoring art is not really a path that any government should want to go down. Totalitarian states makes a foundation on censoring media so having free exchange of opinions would be a good thing. I guess the perception of ratings are different in different places.

 

[Hungry Donner]

Hi. I decided to do some googlin'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_arms_of_Tristan_da_Cunha.svg

Seriously, WHAT THE F**K??

They're spiny lobsters, also called rock lobsters but that term risks getting the B-52s song stuck in your head.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Wait a minute... WAIT A MINUTE.

Do Australians seriously have Emu in their official symbol?

Don't bag the Emu, it has been known to disembowel a man with a single kick, kangaroos too. Our national crest is twice as deadly as anyone else.

I think the opponents of the R18 assume all parents are loving and want to protect their children from the readily accessible porn already available on the internet, no real proof of age needed for it either. They must also think that the under 15s don't or don't know how to pirate games.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

Wait a minute... WAIT A MINUTE.

Do Australians seriously have Emu in their official symbol?

Doesn't Peru have a Lama on theirs?

 

[seditary]

"Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is, 'simulation, yes - the real thing, no'."

How the hell could it be anything BUT simulated?

Have the person who wrote these guidelines ever even heard of video games, they do understand they consist of entirely simulated worlds?

Its similar to the film guidelines, in that you can see people acting a sex scene, but you can't see actual penetration or the like.

So this is just making sure that you can't see digital cocks plow digital pussies.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

(which is why Good Old Games' move to let users select their region, which allowed Aussies to dodge the content censors on Witcher 2, was such a big deal)

That's not why Good Old Games switched to the 'honour system' on region at all. The switch was a none-too-subtle response at being forced by the distributor covering Australia (Bandai Namco) to raise the price for their own digital distribution version of The Witcher 2 for Australian customers because of contractual bullshit.

About time a digital distributor made a stand about being forced to give up their pricing advantage over physical products.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Grrrrr... fucking double post

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Don't bag the Emu, it has been known to disembowel a man with a single kick, kangaroos too. Our national crest is twice as deadly as anyone else.

It's also perfectly legal to eat both animals... which is good because they're tasty. How many other countries say "here are our national emblems... would you like them grilled or fried?"

 

[WolfThomas]

Wait a minute... WAIT A MINUTE.

Do Australians seriously have Emu in their official symbol?

Yeah and we're the only country that eats our national emblem.