As Kotaku is reporting today, the upcoming game Velvet Assassin has received an MA15+ rating from the OFLC. This despite the fact that Velvet Assassin makes heavy use of the drug morphine, something which Fallout 3 was Refused Classification over.

In Velvet Assassin, the player can use morphine to enter slow-motion “bullet time”, allowing the character to attack enemies with a knife, filling the air with slow-moving stylised droplets of blood. In Fallout 3, the player could use morphine to heal themselves and dull pain. From Kotaku:

“But, no,” says Aubrey Norris, Velvet Assassin product manager. “We were surprised we didn’t have any issues [with the ratings board]. They rated it like any other game.” Norris said it was “a profound victory” for developer Replay Studios — they got away with something Fallout 3 couldn’t. “We put something controversial out… and we stuck to our guns.”

We are once again forced to wonder about the inconsistencies behind the OFLC ratings decisions. Is morphine acceptable or is it not? If so, why in one fashion and not the other? If the OFLC was worried about the incentive for the player to use morphine, why is Velvet Assassin any better than Fallout 3. What factors does the OFLC consider when determining drug use levels?

I will be contacting the OFLC with these questions, and will post up any answers I receive.

Source: Velvet Assassin Gets Away With Morphine In Australia (AJ Glasser, Kotaku AU)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 1:19 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Comments on Velvet Assassin Uses Morphine; Gets MA15+

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   Glenn says:

   This is getting ridiculous, and is further proof that we need a R18+ rating. Good luck getting a response from the OFLC. If they can’t explain why they awarded the game a MA15+ rating, then it should be banned. If Michael Atkinson was smart as he thinks he is, then he would submit an application for review.

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   Reuben says:

   Strange that the game that represents morphine in use for its intended purpose with expected results is banned, yet the one that presents morphine as some kind of super-focus-drug is allowed through.
   Morphine isn’t even an illicit drug, I’d have thought that falsely painting it as some kind of performance enhancer (and misleading the kids, so they try to get it to do that cool stuff) would be worse than educating players as to its actual effect- even if in the game it just substitutes for a heal potion.

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   flabby says:

   fallout gets banned for using morphine and velvet assassin gets MA15+ is it cause she a chick that fights nazi’s? not a guy that fights weird looking bad guys? am i right?

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   Adam Hangman Games says:

   Hi Mate Really i agree that “fallout gets banned for using morphine and velvet assassin gets MA15+ is it cause she a chick that fights nazi’s?”