Greens support R18+ Game Rating

Friday, August 13th, 2010

GameSpot’s “I Game and I Vote” article has a rundown of where the major political parties stand in regard to the R18+ issue. Although Labor and the Coalition is fence-sitting on the issue, The Greens have replied with:

“The Greens support the introduction of an R18+ classification for video games in Australia. We believe that it is time to change the system. It is bizarre that Australia is one of the only countries in the Western world without an adult classification for games. We believe that a change to the classification system should occur in the next term in parliament.

“The Greens will continue to support a campaign for R18+ for games. We also believe that the games industry and gamers have done a really good job of highlighting the issue and putting it on political agenda. We’re going to play our part in parliament and the community to make sure people know about the issue. We plan to raise this issue during our upcoming federal election campaign and make sure it is part of the debate.”

You can use the article to determine who to vote for. It even has a section for you to contact your Federal member via e-mail.

Source: Kotaku

What the Censored L4D2 lacks

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

According to Kotaku, the censored version of Left 4 Dead 2 “no longer contains depictions of decapitations, dismemberment, wound detail, or piles of bodies lying about the environment.”

The Board’s official report states that “…the element of violence in the game has been sufficiently modified and is now able to be accommodated within the MA15+ classification”.

In other words, what was okay in Deadspace and F.E.A.R. 2 is not okay in Left 4 Dead 2. We can only hope that the Classification Review Board agrees, come October 22.

Please welcome Matt, R18+ Games Australia’s newest contributor. Thanks for helping out, Matt!

Left 4 Dead 2 Refused Classification

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

As basically everybody everywhere is reporting this morning, the highly anticipated Left 4 Dead 2 has been Refused Classification in Australia – or in other words, banned.

For reference, the original Left 4 Dead only warranted an MA15+ rating. While it seems possible that L4D2 added some highly objectionable new content to warrant its Refused Classification branding, chances are that this is simply another case of woeful inconsistency from the Classification Board.

Kotaku AU is reporting that:

An EA spokesperson has told us they “are still working through the submission process with OFLC and want to explore all opportunities before making any comment.”

While this does leave open the possibility of Australians being allowed to play L4D2 in the future, realistically the game is very close to being finished, and it is likely any massive changes will either push the release date further back, or simple be skipped over in favour of getting the game out the door.

This is one of the highest profile titles to be Refused Classification in a long time. We will follow this case with interest.

Velvet Assassin Uses Morphine; Gets MA15+

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

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)

F.E.A.R. 2 Refused Classification

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Another day, another highly-anticipated title is refused classification in Australia. This time it’s F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, the sequel to the 2005 first-person shooter F.E.A.R. According to New Enthusiast, the key factor in the game’s refusal was the depictions of violence.

The violence is considered highly impactful in such scenes as where Michael uses his sub machine gun to explicitly bisect an enemy, the two parts of the body lying separately on the ground, with copious blood spray. There are also a number of explicit close range decapitations involving both human and mutant creatures. The decapitations are the result of close-up throat slashing from behind and close-up gunshots to the throat.

Enhanced graphics and the realistic behaviour of human and mutant foes increase the playing impact of the violence to a high level.

The Board considers that the cumulative effect of this type of violence is high and as such cannot be accommodated at the MA15+ classification and the game must therefore be refused classification.

As Kotaku points out, the inconsistency in this ruling is maddening. Luke Plunkett cites the example of Gears of War 2 where you the player is at times literally swimming in blood, assuming they are not using their gun-mounted chainsaw to violently bisect an enemy and cover the screen in the resulting gore. Also consider Fallout 3, where the game’s slow motion combat system allows you to sever opponents limbs with precise bursts of gunfire and watch them trail blood through the air.

Both of these games have been rated MA15+ and are currently available for sale to Australian children. Both of these games should, by all rights, be classified at R18+ and be restricted to adults. Keeping F.E.A.R. 2 off the shelves does nothing while games like this are still available for sale – Australians need an R18+ rating to make sure that these sort of games are freely available to the mature adults who want to play them.

Source: F.E.A.R. 2 Is So Banned (In Australia) (Luke Plunkett, Kotaku AU)