R18+ for Australia Still a No-Go

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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R18+ for Australia Still a No-Go


Australian gamers are going to have to wait awhile longer for an R18+ videogame rating as the country's Standing Committee of Attorneys-General has decided that the best way to address the issue is to keep on stalling.

I'm sure that no introductions are necessary at this point so I'll just get right to it: despite the high hopes of gamers down under, an R18+ rating for videogames is now just a slightly-less-distant dream than it was last week. The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General, an irregular conclave of Aussie AGs that meets to discuss various matters of policy and state, gathered on December 10 but ultimately decided to handle the videogame issue by not handling it at all.

Despite GameSpot.au [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98200-Australians-Overwhelmingly-Support-R18-Rating]. "Once they write it up, they will vote on introducing the guidelines and, following from that, an R18+ classification."

In other words, they've agreed to begin work on establishing the guidelines that will someday be used to set the framework for an R18+ game rating, a fairly standard sort of political stick-and-move that effectively accomplishes nothing but allows optimists on both sides of the argument to claim some degree of victory. R18+ supporters can say that progress is being made, which is technically true, while opponents can celebrate yet another denial of the dark forces that threaten to shred the fabric of Australian society. Which, of course, it did.

"It was very clear to me that the great majority of AGs were in a state of bemusement that anyone could want to make or play many of these games and particularly those proposed for an R18+ rating," Australian Christian Lobby Managing Director Jim Wallace told the Australian Conservative [http://australianconservative.com/2010/12/acl-welcomes-refusal-of-r18-classification-for-games/]. "It is clear that the meeting failed to get support for the R18 classification as a result."

But in a follow-up press conference, Australia's Federal Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor suggested that while the wheels are turning incredibly slowly, they are in fact turning. "Whilst there is not an agreement upon introducing R18 classification for video games today, there is a view that we should draft guidelines," he said in a follow-up press conference. "Gamers have grown up, games have grown up, we need to make sure we have a classification scheme that's grown up as well. We have to deal with convergence of technology, we have to deal with convergence of forms of entertainment like film and games. We have to deal with the constant downloading of information by people in this country."

The next meeting of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General is scheduled to take place sometime in March 2011.

Source: GamePolitics [http://au.gamespot.com/news/6285206.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=picks&tag=picks%3Btitle%3B2]


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samsonguy920

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Now if this isn't an example of dragging your ass on the pavement, I don't know what is.
If I had to venture a thought here, it sounds like the Attorneys General(Attorney Generals, although out of context seems to ring better for this situation, yes?) are trying to play it safe for election day. Like politicos do.
That picture creeps me out....very totalitarian.
 

DiMono

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In honour of this announcement, I would like to announce that next week I will be evaluating my schedule to determine possible times when I can plan how to commend Australia for moving forward with their eventual assignation of an R18+ game classification.
 

Palademon

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Maybe if we tell them they're being like Valve, a well known game company, they'll speed up the process.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Andy Chalk said:
In other words, they've agreed to begin work on establishing the guidelines that will someday be used to set the framework for an R18+ game rating,
Ah, the Sir Humphrey form of rushing it through.

Unfortunately, although the answer was indeed clear, simple, and straightforward, there is some difficulty in justifiably assigning to it the fourth of the epithets you applied to the statement, inasmuch as the precise correlation between the information you communicated and the facts, insofar as they can be determined and demonstrated, is such as to cause epistemological problems, of sufficient magnitude as to lay upon the logical and semantic resources of the English language a heavier burden than they can reasonably be expected to bear.
 

LawlessSquirrel

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Way to go, government, that's the spirit! Work for the interest of the people as a whole; use your powers to enact swiftly on issues people can't handle without you; serve as an objective and selfless power to drive out oppression and corruption!

Argh! I'm fighting the urge to rant about this, because I could go on for pages and wouldn't want to antagonize anyone or fall off-topic, but come on! The only reason this would still be stalled is if there's something seriously wrong with the system and/or the people with power.
 

KiKiweaky

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Once again I can only offer support to our friends down under..... looks like your going to have to wait a little longer :(

You'll get the rating eventually, keep annoying them!!
 

RhombusHatesYou

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Andy Chalk said:
But in a follow-up press conference, Australia's Federal Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor suggested that while the wheels are turning incredibly slowly, they are in fact turning.
They got an agreement in principle (yeah yeah, what would politicians know about those) in place and agreed to all bring their own draft proposals for guidelines to the next SCAG meeting. Not a bad show for 4 hours when you consider they're all career politicians.

The ACL are the only ones who can't see the writing on the wall, R18+ is coming and the only real issue left is how tightly they're going to squeeze the MA15+ guidelines to push more titles into R18+... well that and how long the pollies will drag the issue out so they can get their backroom horsetrade on.
 

ZeoAssassin

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wait a second i thought the only reason R18+ wasn't going through was because of Atkinson...and didn't he quit, i was under the impression that he was the only one against this?
 

A Pious Cultist

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ZeoAssassin said:
wait a second i thought the only reason R18+ wasn't going through was because of Atkinson...and didn't he quit, i was under the impression that he was the only one against this?
Classic politics "No I'm in support of it? What I have to vote now? Well I'm unforunately very much against it."
Much like America's attempted health care reform.
 

Sniper Team 4

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Reading this reminds me of the episode in Futurama where they go to the bueracratic (or however you spell it) head quarters. Funny stuff. "Don't quote the regulations to me!"
 

rufuslives

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Unfortunately the decision (non-decision) came down to wanting to review what the guidelines for an R18+ rating for games would be and now us aussies have to wait while all sorts of specific rating regimes for games are considered. I'm hoping they go for the easiest one:

1. Open up the film classification guidelines
2. Press Ctrl-H and replace 'movie' with 'game'
3. Save as "Game Classification Guidelines"

R18+ for games is coming to Australia, but I think we will be having a couple more rides around the merry-go-round first.
 

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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ZeoAssassin said:
wait a second i thought the only reason R18+ wasn't going through was because of Atkinson...and didn't he quit, i was under the impression that he was the only one against this?
That was a serious oversimplification of a complex and deeply-rooted problem. Atkinson was the poster boy and some people did believe that once he was gone, all would be well. But while his claim that other Attorneys-General supported his position, albeit quietly, was widely derided and dismissed, it looks like he was telling the truth. Which doesn't validate his position, but does mean that it ain't gonna be smooth sailing just because ol' Mikey is out of the picture.
 

Tethalaki

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Nov 5, 2009
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I'm not entirely sure why a lot of Australians really want R18+ rating. Chances are, knowing our Government/Rating Board, that adding an R18+ rating won't prevent newer games being RC'd.

Games that would be rated MA15+ will be put as R18+, and games that used to be RC'd will still be RC'd. Doesn't change anything. This is the reason why there's support for an R18+ rating from some of the Attorney Generals and one of the Christian Groups (Bishops from memory).


Note: I'm 18 and Australian, either way it doesn't really bother me; I'll still import any games that are RC'd or censored.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Well, I guess we in Australia will continue to do what we have been doing; Downloading (illegal) and/or importing RC games.

In this case piracy IS costing the industry money, with no R18 classification companies are unable to sell their product resulting is lost revenue.
 

Shamanic Rhythm

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Correction, Andy: this means it will never get done. This is basically all the Australian government ever does: either they have some form of inquiry into the issue or they draft some guidelines for implementation of new policy: both of which waste millions of dollars of taxpayers money so that they can put up the facade of actually making some kind of progress on the issue when in fact they haven't the slightest intention of bringing it through. If you want the politicians to do anything in this country, you have to either be one, or you have to represent some kind of major business interest so that you can sway them with your wallet. It's not even about bribes, half the time all you have to do is threaten to stop spending money and they'll cave in.

Basically, the Australian government couldn't care less about what a bunch of gamers want. The only way this will ever get changed is if Australia's in-house games industry becomes so well developed that they can start to complain to the government about it hurting their profits, and then you watch how quickly it gets done.
 

Zenode

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Another fact that was missed entirely.

One of the Attorney Generals had only been voted in....3 days prior i believe and hadnt exactly got adjusted to his role. They ARE doing something about it, the federal government wants it, the Australian people want it.

This isn't just a simple case of "put R18+ on everything that it suits" guidelines need to be drawn up as to what falls under an R18+ game, because the video game medium IS inherently different to movies they need to make some adjustments before they can officially introduce it.

If the R18+ is introduced it means that

1. Minors can't buy the game (parents can still do it for them of course)
2. No more games get censored and/or banned (even though its only on average 1 per year)
3. Parents get better informed about what they ARE buying there kids.

Its not so much of a simple issue as "slap a sticker on it"