Michael Atkinson Stifles R18+ Debate

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, long standing opponent of the introduction of an R18+ rating for games in Australia, has officially withdrawn his support for a discussion paper and public consultation on the issue.

Jason Hill writes in The Age today that in March the Attorneys-General agreed in principle to canvas public opinion and develop a public discussion paper on the issue, but that Mr. Atkinson has now refused to agree to make the report public, effectively stifling the issue completely. Though the issue is still officially on the agenda at the upcoming Standing Committee of Attorneys-General meeting, the introduction of the much-needed R18+ rating would require the unanimous support of all Attorneys-General. With Mr. Atkinson now refusing to even discuss the issue, change is unlikely to happen any time soon.

With overwhelming community support for an R18+ rating for video games, we can only wonder why Mr. Atkinson continues to defend his increasingly untenable position.

Source: Censoring the Censorship Debate (Jason Hill, The Age)

Interactive Australia 2009 Survey

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

The Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia just released its Interactive Australia 2009, which has uncovered a broad range of very interesting findings about the nature of games and gamers in Australia. You can download the entire survey here (2.8 MB PDF), but some of the key findings are so fascinating that I’m going to reprint them here.

• 88% of homes have a device for playing computer or video games.
• 68% of Australians play computer or video games.
• The average age of an Australian gamer is 30 years.
• 63% of adults do not know that Australia has no R18+ for computer and video games.
• 91% of adults (including gamers and non-gamers) say Australia should have an R18+ classification for games.

With figures like these, it is staggering that many of our politicians still consider games an unimportant past-time for children. Gaming is a huge industry both in Australia and abroad, and with an amazing 91% of Australians backing an R18+ rating it’s time that games, and the people of all ages who play them, were treated with the respect they deserve.

Silent Hill: Homecoming Refused Classification

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Melbourne’s The Age is reporting that the much anticipated Silent Hill: Homecoming has become the fourth game this year to be refused classification by the Classifications Board. Distributed in Australia by Atari, the board have refused the game for excessive violence in the same manner as that of Fallout 3. The inevitable backlash from industry leaders followed, with IEAA chief Ron Curry saying to News.com.au:

“With the average age of gamers being 28, it makes no sense to censor games to a point where they are only appropriate for a 15 year old… Such censorship would not be acceptable on television, at the cinema or in print, so why apply it unfairly to another entertainment medium?”

Unfortunately, News.com.au also saw fit to garner the opinion of Heather Ridout, Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group, who provided this monstrously unqualified piece of insight:

Chief executive of the Australian Industry Group Heather Ridout said she supported the work of controversial photographer Bill Henson and that it was necessary to view art through “a different prism”. However she said she found violent video games “appalling”.

“Grand Theft Auto was one of the more famous games and seemed to turn everyone into a car thief,” Ms Ridout said. “Violent games… violence, it breeds violence.”

While Heather is of course entitled to her biased and outdated interpretation of art forms, her naive statement about violence shows exactly how uninformed prejudices about video games are preventing a mature and informed debate about their classification in this country. In the 1700’s, people were terrified that women who read fiction novels would become unsatisifed with their domestic duties and that their weaker feminine mind would collapse from immorality. In 2008, we can laugh at this old-fashioned thinking and dismiss it out of hand. Let’s hope we can soon do the same about these ridiculous fears surrounding video games.

Source: No Homecoming (Jason Hill, The Age)