Australian Government Rolls Out R18+ Game Rating Guidelines
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
The UK has a Unicorn, FIGHTING A LION!... yeah, beat that.CommanderKirov said:
Still this is great news, I was in OZ a little while ago and thought to myself "Yeah, its quite nice here, now if only it wasnt so nannying" I mean even the TVs ridiculous, every other commercial is either life insurance "YOUR GONNA DIE, QUICK GIVE US MONEY!!!" or about kids keeping fit "Does your child not like sports? Oh really, then you must be A TERRIBLE PARENT!!! JUST DIE... but get some life insurance first".
Well viva for progress. Even though there are caveats being added on, it is opening things up for Aussie gamers. In time even those caveats will get removed, and maybe after a while the government might decide too many taxpayer dollars are being used to legally enforce the games rating system. Just takes some time, friends.
Don't forget the tophat. Gotta be stylin'.A Pious Cultist said:
The only thing I got out of that particular sentence was: "...There's standards of violence?"GreenII said:
Completely Off-topic but I just have to say "OMG, Sifl and Olly!! You sir (or madam) have the best avatar ever"cynicalsaint1 said:
back OT: I'd have to agree with a lot of people on here, It's a step forward but I think the wording is ambiguous enough (go government) that what "fits" into that rating will be a very small portion of games.
No what they are referring to is that it is fine to depict a character getting brutally beaten to death etc. but mutilating the corpse after they have died is unacceptable.GreenII said:
And as for that "real or simulated sex" thing, it means that a game will be RC if it depicts virtual penetration. So sex in a game is fine so long as it doesn't look pornographic.
Don't worry internationals, these guidelines make sense to Australian because we've had to grow up with these rather odd descriptions across all media.
Am I the only one who thinks some people are still going on about how "video games are evil" purely because they don't want to admit they were wrong? I'm going to wait to see how this plays out before getting excited about it. If I can get R18+ games from my local EBgames then good, but if they try to pull something like a "special underground shop" where you feel shady just walking into the place then that's still not good enough (suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world though).
Even if this does get passed, it won't be all sunshine and roses. Parents will ignorantly buy R18+ rated games for their children and still blame video games for exposing their innocent children to such evil and unholy content. It happens with MA15+, it'll happen with R18+.
Even if this does get passed, it won't be all sunshine and roses. Parents will ignorantly buy R18+ rated games for their children and still blame video games for exposing their innocent children to such evil and unholy content. It happens with MA15+, it'll happen with R18+.
Now let's watch all the gamers who haven't paid a damned bit of attention to videogame censorship act surprised when Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo proclaim that they will never permit an R18+ game to be licensed for their console. Just like they did with AO in the US and R18+ in Europe and other equivalent ratings in other countries.
Wake the hell up and DESTROY these censorship agencies. ENTIRELY. Do NOT permit a government OR private corporate ratings board decide what age kids are allowed to play videogames at. No person, child or adult, has ever been harmed by any videogame in any way whatsoever. There is NO justification whatsoever for these age prohibition rankings. So that parents can make their OWN decisions, support CONTENT LABELING and NOT age ratings! Age ratings actively prevent parents from making their own decisions, and they are keeping videogames as the most highly censored medium in existence. No publisher will even allow a dev team to ATTEMPT to create an actual mature game with mature themes that might make the audience feel something because they know that Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony will ban the games from their consoles by refusing to license them until they get a lower rating.
Do you think Shakespeare would have written about Oedipus screwing his mom and killing his dad if the ESRB, BBFC, OFLC, etc existed and publishers refused to license anything deemed too racy for a 15yo? These ratings agencies are infantilizing our culture and preemptively destroying videogames as an artistic medium. And videogames are posed to be the dominant medium of expression for the coming generations. To the future these generations will appear to be dunder-headed simpletons with a Disney insignia stamped where their humanity used to be. Settle for nothing less than the COMPLETE DISMANTLING of these agencies!
Wake the hell up and DESTROY these censorship agencies. ENTIRELY. Do NOT permit a government OR private corporate ratings board decide what age kids are allowed to play videogames at. No person, child or adult, has ever been harmed by any videogame in any way whatsoever. There is NO justification whatsoever for these age prohibition rankings. So that parents can make their OWN decisions, support CONTENT LABELING and NOT age ratings! Age ratings actively prevent parents from making their own decisions, and they are keeping videogames as the most highly censored medium in existence. No publisher will even allow a dev team to ATTEMPT to create an actual mature game with mature themes that might make the audience feel something because they know that Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony will ban the games from their consoles by refusing to license them until they get a lower rating.
Do you think Shakespeare would have written about Oedipus screwing his mom and killing his dad if the ESRB, BBFC, OFLC, etc existed and publishers refused to license anything deemed too racy for a 15yo? These ratings agencies are infantilizing our culture and preemptively destroying videogames as an artistic medium. And videogames are posed to be the dominant medium of expression for the coming generations. To the future these generations will appear to be dunder-headed simpletons with a Disney insignia stamped where their humanity used to be. Settle for nothing less than the COMPLETE DISMANTLING of these agencies!
that and they are both deliciousdeathninja said:
OT: Nothing at all has changed as yet so I'm not getting my hopes up. The Australian gov will always want to nanny all us fully grown mature adults and I just cant see them letting us have anything at all.
Quoted from the guidelines:
"As a general rule, computer games will be Refused Classification if they contain:
(i) drug use related to incentives or rewards;
(ii) interactive drug use which is detailed and realistic."
This would mean no GTA including the original, no bioshock, no fallout and sadly the list would go on and on. I want my games as they were meant to be, not cut down for teenagers.
so Australia has finally decided to grow up and actually allow its inhabitants to deal with their own choices like reasonable adults when it comes to video games? I am pleased that they did so 
Still waiting for my copy to be sent over. It's still cheaper from Hong Kong but the online passes still won't work.farq1414 said:
OP: They've stated that the only really unsuitable type of sex is now only bestiality. It think that's a pretty good standard to judge by since I don't think anyone wants to see bestiality in games. I hope...
Yeah, pretty much. Isn't it sad? We're one of the few western countries to eat their national emblems xDdeathninja said:
On a slightly more serious note, thank God we have some intelligence slowly appearing in the upper echelons. I was beginning to get worried.
Thank you for your services! That does bring up an interesting point though, will games that were banned when released under the old classification guidelines but wouldn't have been banned under the new be released or at least available? Or just no longer illegal to own?Scott Guthrie said: