R18+ Meeting in Oz

[Radelaide]

Brendand O'Connor has said that he's releasing it before the end of the year. Greg Smith (the NSW AG) has agreed that it's the best idea for everyone, but he wants to wait till there are a few more amendments to be made.

If anyone is interested, there's some more here on my blog

(If ^^^^ is against the rules, will the mods remove it?)

 

[StormShaun]

Finaly but are they still getting rid off the MA15+ rating...plus are they going with the plain box art because that would suck!

That's only in South Oz.

Thank god for that. Phew, that was close.

 

[42]

The other thing is the government will go ahead with it anyway with or without the NSW AG's support. but that only raises my question does that mean NSW will not be getting the R rating, and that games will be banned from being sold in the state?

As I understand it, they couldn't really implement it without violating the constitution.

Under section 92, trade between states is "absolutely free", so, I think that you could simply buy from another state without there being an issue, although I'm led to believe there's been all sorts of interpretations about this.

Then was the prohibition of the selling of the first Season of Underbelly in Victoria against the constitution? By that reasoning of course though. i know they had a court ordered injunction on it, but by that section 92 it means that it was illegal. but then again it was just a ban from it being showed or sold in Victoria. couldn't stop anyone from buying it outside the state.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Anyway, I don't get it, they're going to introduce a R18+ rating but they're still going to ban games, what's the point of having a R18 rating then?

Any form of media can be RC'ed in Australia, not just games.

Still, this barely seems to be a step forward, more like a step forward and then one AG taking a step back and now the other guys have to wait for him to catch up.

Whatever happened to "moving forward"?

It's politics and that means even moving backward at a slightly slower pace is sold as moving forward.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Where is this? Australia? OP needs to actually say the country he's talking about, especially since Australians are in the minority on this website. (According to the user polls I've seen, anyway)

Most people recognise "Oz" as Australia.

It's politics and that means even moving backward at a slightly slower pace is sold as moving forward.

Sadly, that is true.

 

[Superior Mind]

Not out of the woods yet, the legislation could still be a mess. We'll see how the drafting process goes.

Actually listened to a brief interview with ACT Attorney General Simon Corbell yesterday, he seems to have it right. He doesn't want to play around with anything like John Rau, (SA,) does, he just wants to ensure games have the same rating system as any other medium. That's all anyone wants, I don't know why there's been such opposition to this. NSW not agreeing surprises me, I always thought the problem child was South Australia... but I suppose unlike Michael Atkinson, Rau was at least always willing to address the issue, (while Atkinson wanted to stick his fingers in his ears and hum loudly.)

Greg Smith, (NSW,) seems to be a limp noodle. He didn't say no outright, he just wasn't sure about anything. I suppose he's reletively new to the job but it's a shame he has to get in the way.

Either way this turns out eventually the ones in power will be those who have grown up with video games as a common entertainment medium and at least then there will be some sensible legislation - but it shouldn't have to take this long and hopefully logic like Corbell's wins the day.

 

[Creator002]

Where is this? Australia? OP needs to actually say the country he's talking about, especially since Australians are in the minority on this website. (According to the user polls I've seen, anyway)

Yes, Australia, but the title of the thread should kind of hint at it (unless you're unfamiliar with the term "Oz" for Australia).

OT: Finally. Bloody, fucking finally. Too bad they'll still ban some games, but hopefully others that would have been banned will be let though.
Does this mean games previously banned/refused classification will be unbanned/reclassified (looks at Mortal Komabat)?

 

[Alumatine]

This a great step in the right direction. There seems to be a bit of ignorant misinformation from some people though.

Games will still be banned yes, but that happens in all countries even with an R18 rating system. Only extreme games will be banned, things like L4D2 will be allowed in their full versions with an R18+ Classification.

NSW has not rejected the R18+ classification but abstained from the vote. The AG in NSW is new and still finding his feet. He is more likely to conform with the others after he's had time to think about it in my opinion but at the same time he would look like he is just following suit if he agreed outright with people who have held their posititons for far longer than him.

It also means the government is taking it seriously (finally) but I would seriously love the see a transcript of that meeting more than anything else right now.

In a skewiff way, this is a win for the fight of internet censorship as well. The same people fighting to fend off the censorship are the same people fighting for this classification argument.

All in all it's a win. It DOES matter and it shouldn't be ignored or brushed aside as not mattering.

___________________________________________

As far as pricing for games goes, that's more of a debate for publishers and retailers like gamestop/EBgames, JBhifi etc I've worked in these places before and I know for a fact that the smaller retailers get charged a ridiculous amount for games by suppliers whilst the larger retailers have huge markups on the games that they get in enough bulk that charging $40 a game would be perfectly viable. That is a debate for another time.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

Hell yes finally and since everybodys saying it yes I to think that these prices should be the next thing to go

 

[zehydra]

Where is this? Australia? OP needs to actually say the country he's talking about, especially since Australians are in the minority on this website. (According to the user polls I've seen, anyway)

Most people recognise "Oz" as Australia.

Well, my bad then. I have never ever heard of "Oz" being a name for Australia, lol.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Does this mean games previously banned/refused classification will be unbanned/reclassified (looks at Mortal Komabat)?

No but publishers/distributors will be allowed to resubmit games under the new categories when they're brought into use.

 

[Giddi]

Games will still be banned yes, but that happens in all countries even with an R18 rating system. Only extreme games will be banned, things like L4D2 will be allowed in their full versions with an R18+ Classification.

The first thing I thought when reading the title was "will my version of L4D2 now be uncensored?".

 

[Creator002]

Does this mean games previously banned/refused classification will be unbanned/reclassified (looks at Mortal Komabat)?

No but publishers/distributors will be allowed to resubmit games under the new categories when they're brought into use.

Ah, right. So there's hope. Thanks for the info.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Does this mean games previously banned/refused classification will be unbanned/reclassified (looks at Mortal Komabat)?

No but publishers/distributors will be allowed to resubmit games under the new categories when they're brought into use.

Ah, right. So there's hope. Thanks for the info.

RC'ed games will have to be resubmitted but MA15+ games will automatically be lined up for reassessment under the new scheme once it launches.

The first thing I thought when reading the title was "will my version of L4D2 now be uncensored?".

Only if Valve resubmit the game for assessment under the new rating scheme... at which point they may offer a patch that restores the removed content, being the nice guys they are.

 

[RicoADF]

PS: There should be no such thing as "Refused Classification" at all. It's a weaselly way of banning while claiming not to ban. There should merely be a graduated system of age ratings culminating in 18+, and nothing ought to fall outside that. If some media contains something of which the very depiction is illegal, such as child porn, then we already have laws on the books to handle such cases.

I disagree, there are some games that shouldn't be allowed, eg: rapely (spelling). I do agree tho that the conditions for RC should be amended to allow higher levels of violance, drug use etc for R-18+.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

PS: There should be no such thing as "Refused Classification" at all. It's a weaselly way of banning while claiming not to ban. There should merely be a graduated system of age ratings culminating in 18+, and nothing ought to fall outside that. If some media contains something of which the very depiction is illegal, such as child porn, then we already have laws on the books to handle such cases.

I disagree, there are some games that shouldn't be allowed, eg: rapely (spelling). I do agree tho that the conditions for RC should be amended to allow higher levels of violance, drug use etc for R-18+.

Rapelay... it was Michael Atkinson's favourite game to talk about... which would have been RC'ed in Australia even if games had the same X18+ rating that porn does here.

 

[Alumatine]

Even the US and EU classification systems have a very rare option of banning certain games. There needs to be that capability because there are some incredibly vile games. I'm not talking chopping a zombie in half with a chainsaw, that's all fun and games. But there are things worse than that and this requires the option of banning in extreme cases.

 

[Apprentice88]

"Under the proposed guidelines games containing high-level violence will be restricted to adults, while games containing extreme violence will continue to be refused classification and banned from sale altogether."

Translation; Everything is the same except Ratings have been bumped up by one M > MA, MA > R, and you can all continue to enjoy not playing Mortal Combat.

 

[infohippie]

PS: There should be no such thing as "Refused Classification" at all. It's a weaselly way of banning while claiming not to ban. There should merely be a graduated system of age ratings culminating in 18+, and nothing ought to fall outside that. If some media contains something of which the very depiction is illegal, such as child porn, then we already have laws on the books to handle such cases.

I disagree, there are some games that shouldn't be allowed, eg: rapely (spelling). I do agree tho that the conditions for RC should be amended to allow higher levels of violance, drug use etc for R-18+.

I can't agree with that. I mean, sure it's a shit game, but I don't agree it should be banned. I am very anti-censorship, and I believe no media should be banned. If depiction of something is illegal, therefore making a game or film based on it illegal, involve the police. If depiction of something is not illegal, even if the act depicted is illegal, then that depiction (ie, game) should be perfectly allowable for an adult to own. I'm sorry my language might have got a bit convoluted there, I hope you follow what I mean.

I still stand by my statement that there should be no such thing as Refused Classification. Yes, that means I believe adults should be allowed to own games like Rapelay. I don't believe CGI representations of rape, or CP, or anything should be treated any differently to CGI representations of violence. Only real photographic representations of real life criminal acts should be disallowed - and even then, not always.

 

[Alumatine]

I am also anti censorship. I signed every petition, filled out every survey and I am in full agreement with free speech. I also think that a game about rape should not be classified as anything else but illegal.

It was said earlier that there shouldn't be a ban category because there are already laws about kiddy-porn and rape... these are the sort of things the ban catagory is for. It is not there to stop your mildly more violent shooter simulator from making it into the country. It is there for excessive games that cross the line of legally.

There is a difference between freedom of speech/content in gaming and believing that just because it's a game that it should be above the same rules applied to movies/magazines/pornography. It's rare that a movie is outright banned in Australia but it does happen. Lets face it, most of the stuff that makes it into that category you don't want to play/see anyway.