“Our plans are to introduce the R18+ bill in the first session of parliament this year. If it passes the Lower House, it will then go to the Senate for the same process.”

For the bill to be passed in the lower house, it requires the support of two crossbench MPs (independents Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor, Andrew Wilkie, and Bob Katter; and Greens MP Adam Bandt), all of them remaining silent on the issue.

To be passed in the Senate, it must be approved by either the Greens or the Coalition. Shadow Attorney-General had doubts about the rating in the past, while the Greens are showed their support.

If the bill is passed, then Mortal Kombat and Syndicate will be able to get released with an R18+ rating, Left 4 Dead 2 would be uncensored, and a majority of violent games such as The Darkness II will get the ratings they deserve.

Among the games in the list are Borderlands Bulletstorm, Duke Nukem Forever, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, F.3.A.R., and Left 4 Dead 2. All of the games in the list are already restricted to adults in Europe, Germany, New Zealand, North America, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.

While touring an EB store in Adelaide, he told GameSpot:

There are dozens of games that are currently classified as MA15+ in Australia, but in other countries, these gaming titles are restricted to adults only. If the new category is introduced, it could result in computer games that are currently classified MA15+ being reclassified R18+, providing a new level of protection for children. Games that are currently refused classification and do not meet the standard required for R18+ classification will remain in the refused classification category.

This issue has been on the table for almost a decade, without the necessary progress to make a change. This is the right decision for Australian families and the right decision for parents who want to be able to make informed choices about the games their children play. The time has come for state and territory attorneys-general to represent their constituents’ views at a national level and lay their cards on the table.

This hopefully means that the new R18+ rating will have its own bracket of classification and any existing game that got rejected, such as Mortal Kombat, will get the rating they deserve.

Kotaku has been speaking with both EA and the Classification Board about the matter. The Board states that just because the word ‘modified’ is used doesn’t mean that the game is watered-down.

We usually use the word ‘modified’ when we get a second version of the game in for classification, and that often happens for a number of different reasons.

“For example, if the game is multi-format, and the Wii version has extra characters, then we’ll term that version ‘MODIFIED’. Same goes for any other extra content – extra levels, stuff like that. It doesn’t have any bearing on the classification itself.”

EA confirmed that the Australian release would remain uncut, saying that the game’s ‘modified’ status is the result of the Bulletstorm Epic Edition as well as the extra content in the Gears of War 3 beta.

So, with adult-only games like Left 4 Dead 2 receiving watered-down versions while others like Bulletstorm are getting through unscathed, how can anyone have confidence in our game classification system? If every Attorney-General agreed to introduce an R18+ rating in Australia instead of dragging their feet, then Bulletstorm would have gotten the rating it deserved. Instead, it is rated MA15+, making it available to minors.

Bulletstorm will be released in Australia on February 22, 2011.

Duke Nukem 3D was initially self-censored before it was released in Australia, and it contained no violence or nudity. A patch that gave people the uncut version of the game circulated on the Internet, and as a result, the OFLC attempted to reclassify the game before being forced to release the US version of the game.

House of the Dead: Overkill was not Refused Classification, but it is another example of how the Classification Board inconsistently classifies games. It has excessive violence and a high amount of profanity that is available for children aged 15 and over. Meanwhile, overseas rating agencies have classified the game for adults only.

Left 4 Dead 2 was originally rejected for the same type of content that was already present in the original game. Before it was rejected a second time, another version was passed with cuts made by the publishers, such as the removal of dead corpses lying around the environment as well as the amount of violence being toned down. It is now being available in Australia for children age 15 and over.

So grab a sandwich and a cup of coffee and have them while you are reading one of the case studies.

A word of warning: the video contains material that the Classification Board has deemed unsuitable for persons under 15 to watch.

While this may seem excessive, games like Dead Space and Mad World both feature equivalent, if not greater levels of violence, and yet both have been rated MA15+.

The arch-irony of all of this is that it took users all of two whole seconds to figure out the simple steps to unlock the restricted content so that they could play the uncensored version. Now anybody purchasing the game on the PC in Australia will be able to completely circumvent the censoring and play the game as it was originally intended – which just goes to further prove the pointlessness of trying to prevent the flow of electronic information.

Left 4 Dead 2 goes on sale on November 20 in Australia, under an MA15+ rating.

The initial rumours of censorship stemmed from some peculiarities on the Borderlands page on digital PC game store Steam. While Australian customers could view the page, the ‘Buy’ button was, for a time, noticeably absent. This problem was remedied a couple of weeks later, but those viewing the page from Australian IP addresses noticed that the game was now listed as Borderlands Australia. The only other country known to have a region-specific version of Borderlands listed on the Steam store is Germany. Anyone who has followed the issue of video game censorship will be aware that Germany’s low tolerance for video game violence has seen numerous games (including Borderlands) modified for that country’s market. So perhaps Australian Borderlands fans in Australia do have something to worry about.

At this stage most forum users are willing to be optimistic. After all, Borderlands received an MA15+ rating back in August, and there has been no official word that anything untoward has occurred. But who’s to say a modified version of the game was not submitted for initial classification (as was the case with console versions of GTA IV) in order to avoid the very problems that have plagued Left 4 Dead 2? And what’s in it for the game’s publisher, 2K Games, in letting Australians know that they’re getting a modified version of Borderlands? Surely releasing this information will only drive consumers to either import the game– upsetting the publisher’s local retail partners– or to find a pirate copy of an overseas version.

Optimists have also taken solace in the visual style of Borderlands. The cel-shaded look of the game is far less realistic than that of Left 4 Dead 2, a game which is scarcely life-like to begin with. But looking overseas, the American ESRB rating summary for Borderlands gives some cause for concern. The following is their description of the violence in the game:

The combat is frenetic, and enemies moan or scream when they are hit. Damage from weapons also results in large spurts of blood, dismemberment, and decapitation. When a human or creature is decapitated, an effect resembling a fountain of blood will shoot from the neck for a few seconds and stop. Some weapons cause enemies to split in half, the top being separated from the waist.

Sound familiar? Remind you of a certain other game of post-apocalyptic survival?

All this speculation is probably just a storm in a teacup. It has been suggested that the quirks of the Steam page are simply the result of solving some glitch or other with the store’s listing of Borderlands. Elsewhere, there are claims that the Borderlands developers themselves told visitors to Perth’s GO3 Electronic and Entertainment Expo that nothing has been censored. All this sounds entirely plausible, but the lack off an official statement still leaves lingering doubt. And these seeds of doubt in gamers’ minds will only grow and prosper until an R18+ rating for games in Australia becomes a reality. For every game that is refused classification, publishers will be increasingly likely to modify their games in order to ensure smooth passage through the classification system. In turn, gamers will become less certain that they are getting the genuine article and become less and less willing to part with their money. This can only serve to harm the Australian video game industry at all levels.

Huge thanks to Sam Whitton for writing this submission! If you’ve got something to say, email me.

And it’s not good.

Any hope that the Review Board might take a more balanced approach, as with the reclassification of F.E.A.R. 2 was dashed yesterday, with the board citing that there was “insufficient delineation between the depiction of general zombie figures and the human figures, as opposed to the clearly fictional ‘infected’ characters.” As a result, Australian audiences will be restricted to a watered-down version of the game, which removes the “depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail, or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment.”

This is just the latest in the wheel of classification fortune. (Again, the inconsistency of the ruling is bizarre, given that F.E.A.R. 2 pitted you against clearly human adversaries.)

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!

This morning, we awake to the news that the Classification Board have granted Left 4 Dead 2 an MA15+ rating for “Strong, bloody violence”. According to Softpedia, this classification applies to the censored version, as the appeal process for the original, uncensored version is not due to commence until October 22.

Thanks to everyone who emailed in this morning with this news!

I had the opportunity to speak with the Classification Board as I was commissioned by games.on.net to write them a feature article on the Classification Board’s decision. Below is the full text of my questions and the answers that their spokesperson gave to me.

1) Was Left 4 Dead 2 examined by any of the same members of the Classification Board that examined the original Left 4 Dead?

The Classification Board acts as a body. It does not discuss or speculate on the opinions of its individual members. The Classification Board is broadly representative of the Australian community.

2) Does the Classification Board believe that the level of violence in Left 4 Dead 2 is objectively greater than in the original Left 4 Dead?

The Classification Board determined that the impact of the violence in Left 4 Dead was ‘strong’, and the impact of the violence in Left 4 Dead 2 was ‘high’. The Board classifies each computer game on a case by case basis.

3) Which specific areas of Left 4 Dead 2 would, in the Classification Board’s opinion, need editing in order to meet the requirements for sale and distribution as an MA15+ title in Australia?

The Classification Board does not advise on how material could be edited to receive a lower classification. That is a matter for the distributor of the computer game. The Board’s decision report contains information about the content that caused the computer game to be classified RC.

4) Have the publishers, Electronic Arts, stated or suggested to the Classification Board that they will be seeking a review of the RC rating for Left 4 Dead 2?

I understand the distributors applied for a review of the classification on 25 September 2009.

5) In the case of such a review, would the same members of the board who rated Left 4 Dead 2 as RC undertake the review with Electronic Arts, or would the review panel be composed of different people?

It would be a different board altogether. The Classification Review Board is an independent board, entirely separate to the Classification Board.

6) Is the Classification Board in a position to comment on the Discussion Paper for an R18+ rating for games which was developed by the Attorneys-General, and is the Board aware of any possible date at which the paper will be released to the public?

See answer to next question.

7) Was the Classification Board consulted on this Discussion Paper in any form, or will it be consulted in the future?

The Classification Board’s role is to classify material according to the National Classification Scheme. Changes to classification policy are a matter for Government.

As you can see, the Board was unwilling to provide me with any clarity on their seeming inconsistency with the different classifications with the original and the sequel. It was interesting to learn though that the Classification Review Board are entirely separate to the Classification Board – giving us slim hope that these new people will agree with the original minority decision of the Board to award L4D2 an MA15+ rating.

A big thankyou to everyone who left comments on the last article, the discussion was fantastic to see, and thanks to everyone who emailed in links about the events unfolding after the ban. Let’s cross our fingers and see what happens over the next week.