guys and gals, go and post in support of an R rating. we need to stand up and be recognised. 
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24551395-2862,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24551395-2862,00.html
-
AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
R Rating article in the HUN
- Thread starter Strike Swiftly
- Start date
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Jimi
Draftee
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"An R18+ rating would open the door to adult computer games with violent and sexually explicit sequences and games that encourage drug use and crimes such as graffiti, theft and speeding."
Encourage? The double standards written here still tell me that people don't understand video game at all.
Here's another example:
"IEAA research shows that 88 per cent of Australian households have at least one computer game and 95 per cent of 6-10-year-olds play them."
Well guess what? 100 percent of Australian households have at least one DVD player, and even 2 year olds can enjoy a movie. But their mums don't buy them R-rated movies...
Encourage? The double standards written here still tell me that people don't understand video game at all.
Here's another example:
"IEAA research shows that 88 per cent of Australian households have at least one computer game and 95 per cent of 6-10-year-olds play them."
Well guess what? 100 percent of Australian households have at least one DVD player, and even 2 year olds can enjoy a movie. But their mums don't buy them R-rated movies...
Heisenberg_
17🏆19🏆20🏆
Whats this I see about Fallout 3 being banned?
Their needs to be an R rating, its ****ing ridculous that we miss out on awsome games because of a group of ****wits with no idea.
Why shouyld we as adults miss out because of younger kids, its the ****ing parents problem, not ours.
Their needs to be an R rating, its ****ing ridculous that we miss out on awsome games because of a group of ****wits with no idea.
Why shouyld we as adults miss out because of younger kids, its the ****ing parents problem, not ours.
- Thread starter
- #5
fallout has been edited so it complies with the m15 rating. problem is, so has every other countries version because of us.
Hyper had a really good article last month regarding the R18+ rating. If you haven't got Hyper, i suggest getting it even for just this article. It has 2 sides to the argument, so its very fair and has some very valid points. Only $7.95 and you get a free PC Gamer mag.
Lets just say i'm for the R18+ classification and the South Australian Attorney General needs to let the parents act responsibly and not try to "babysit" the parents. His main gripe is that the kids will have access to this "inappropriate" material, as parents will just buy it for their kids....
Hate to tell him, but so mnay parents currently buy their underage kids MA15+ games, so nothing's gonna be different....
Lets just say i'm for the R18+ classification and the South Australian Attorney General needs to let the parents act responsibly and not try to "babysit" the parents. His main gripe is that the kids will have access to this "inappropriate" material, as parents will just buy it for their kids....
Hate to tell him, but so mnay parents currently buy their underage kids MA15+ games, so nothing's gonna be different....
All they changed was Morphine to "MedX"
the most idiotic game rating ever, based on the bloody name of a drug being realistic.
Heisenberg_
17🏆19🏆20🏆
Really if you can't have R rated games, you shouldn't have R rated movies.
Their is no difference, except that it is probably even easier for somebody uner 18 to have access to an R movie then a game, considering most younger people don't have a whole heap of cash to spend $100 on a game as apposed to the movies
Their is no difference, except that it is probably even easier for somebody uner 18 to have access to an R movie then a game, considering most younger people don't have a whole heap of cash to spend $100 on a game as apposed to the movies
Just to go off on a slight tangent, I clicked on the link in the article that opens up the IEAA website. Found this in the "Game Piracy" section:
http://www.ieaa.com.au/game_piracy.html
"...Sadly, large scale piracy and organised crime often go hand in hand. Piracy provides the cash flow for other crimes including pornography, vehicle rebirthing and identity theft..."
Pornography's a "crime"?
http://www.ieaa.com.au/game_piracy.html
"...Sadly, large scale piracy and organised crime often go hand in hand. Piracy provides the cash flow for other crimes including pornography, vehicle rebirthing and identity theft..."
Pornography's a "crime"?
Back on topic, there was a good article on this issue in JB Hi-Fi's recent issue of Stack:
http://www.stack.net.au/g-features.php?goto=10
"The Politics of Video Game Censorship
The same old issue keeps raising its head, time and time again. When will Australia be granted an R18+ certification for video games? STACK looks into the politics surrounding the contentious adult rating that is proving almost impossible to obtain.
The word censorship has reared its ugly head on more than one occasion this year in relation to video games. In August it emerged that after 19 year-old Polwat Chinno from Thailand stabbed a taxi driver to death in the streets of Bangkok. He cited Grand Theft Auto IV as his ‘inspiration’.
In a knee jerk reaction, Thai Police banned legal sellers from distributing every title in the Grand Theft Auto series. Thai distributor New Era Interactive literally yanked the game from shelves overnight.
The ‘c’ word is also alive and well here in Australia. The lack of an R18+ classification for video games dictates that while adults can watch R-rated films like the ‘80s Patrick Swayze howler Roadhouse, video games with similar content are illegal.
You can’t own them, you can’t play them, and you won’t be able to as long as one man has his way.
South Australia has been something of a breeding ground for conservative politics in recent years. The right wing, predominantly Christian political party Family First appeared in Adelaide circa 2001.
The state is also home to Michael Atkinson, the South Australian Attorney-General who is all but the last man standing in the battle against the sale of R-rated video games in Australia.
October was scheduled to be the month that Atkinson and the other State and Territory Attorney-Generals released a public discussion paper on video game ratings.
The paper was widely regarded as the first step towards the relaxing of video game censorship laws in Australia.
Rudd government Minister For Home Affairs, Bob Debus, confirmed via a spokesperson in late September, that “The release of the discussion paper has been delayed because South Australia (Attorney- General’s Department) withdrew support (for its release)”.
Unanimous support from all Attorney-Generals is required to introduce an R18+ classification for video games. Atkinson’s actions come at a time when the Rudd minister also maintained via a spokesperson that “there’s no harm in seeking the community’s views [on the issue]”.
While gamers in loungerooms across Australia continue to scratch their heads as to why their government is the last in the Western World to legislate on the issue, this difference of opinions between the South Australian and Federal governments is nothing new.
Atkinson’s department outlined their opposition to the introduction of an 18+ rating earlier this year to a News Limited journalist.
The message to gamers was blunt: “Minister Atkinson would not consider an 18+ rating even if there were measures to protect children from being exposed to adult content.”
According to Ron Curry from games industry body IEAA (Interactive Entertainment Association Australia), the views of Atkinson and the lobby groups supporting him are deeply flawed.
“The current legislation and those opposing its review are draconian,” Curry says.
Curry’s argument centres on what he believes is a fundamental misconception held by those generating “the hysteria” surrounding the introduction of an R18+ classification.
“People are saying that they don’t want children exposed to R-rated material, so they don’t want it. But the whole point of the R classification is that it’s there to prevent children having access to this material in the first place.”
Last year the IEAA conducted a study through Bond University, sampling the average age of gamers. The study revealed that “50 percent of Australian gamers are aged over 18, making the average age 28”.
Curry believes that future surveys will indicate that the average age of gamers is closer to 30. Atkinson’s office doesn’t quite share Curry’s faith in the over-18 set’s dedication to video games.
In March, the Attorney-General’s office made comments suggesting that the policy makers are up against a generational divide that has empowered youth with a far better understanding of technology than adults have: “He doubts whether any safeguards could be put in place to deter young people, who after all (are) the most computer literate and savvy in our society, from being able to access material.”
The Rudd government has shown some indication that it shares these concerns. But it’s also been clear in its views that public discussion is pivotal to resolving the issue.
A spokesperson from Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus’s office has said that “The Commonwealth agreed to the discussion paper being prepared to find out if parents would benefit if an R-rating category was introduced, and if it would help them monitor what children are playing”.
Rob Hulls, acting Victorian Premier (at press time) and state Attorney-General, who has driven the push for an R-rating for video games since 2005, believes that censorship is not the only issue raised by the lack of an 18+ classification.
“There is research to suggest there is already a substantial black market in games that have not been classified and obviously exceed the MA15+ classification,” Hulls said.
Hulls’ sentiments are supported by Debus, who affirmed in an interview with the ABC early this year that “There’s a strong argument that if you just refuse to offer a classification then you encourage a kind of a black market. You encourage people to go off and look at games that have no censorship classification at all”.
The IEAA believes that there is perhaps an even more serious reason to introduce new legislation – the increasingly thin line of demarcation between different kinds of digital media.
Sales of video games have already begun to compete with, and in some cases outstrip, the cinema box office.
Grand Theft Auto IV, the game banned in Thailand in August, did $500 million in sales during its first week. 2008’s biggest film, The Dark Knight, took around five times longer to reach the $500 million mark worldwide.
Curry believes that we are witnessing the beginning of an era where cinema and video games are merging well beyond these similarities between the number of times their cash registers ring.
“The mediums are clearly converging” Curry says, “both from a content and delivery perspective – yet only one of them is eligible for an R classification. We’ve been able to play DVDs on game consoles for years.”
So how can it be that Australia lags behind the rest of the western world in developing an adult classification for video games – allowing a black market to emerge, reportedly ignoring the age of half the people buying them, along with the changing shape of a billion dollar industry that’s witnessed exponential growth during the past decade?
Some of the blame lies with Australia’s legislative system. According to Debus’s office, “Changes to the class act require unanimous agreement from the States and Territories and the Commonwealth”.
What this means is that nine men representing the interests of nine different governing bodies must all agree on change for it to become law.
Curry also believes that the Howard government, who chose to ignore the issue of a standard classification for movies and video games, despite it being canvassed by the Standing Committee of Attorney-Generals as far back as 2002, is also at fault.
“The previous Federal Government must accept some blame for the current situation,” Curry says.
“The Federal Government has an obligation to represent the views of the majority of the population, regardless of the State or Territory in which they live.”
Regardless of what happens over the coming months, one thing will remain unchanged. Hulls, who believes that it’s an anomaly that adults can watch R-rated films but cannot play R-rated video games, points out that “It is still the responsibility of parents to monitor the gaming habits of under-age children”.
Express your support for an R18+ certification in Australia by writing to: attorney-general@agd.sa.gov.au"
http://www.stack.net.au/g-features.php?goto=10
"The Politics of Video Game Censorship
The same old issue keeps raising its head, time and time again. When will Australia be granted an R18+ certification for video games? STACK looks into the politics surrounding the contentious adult rating that is proving almost impossible to obtain.
The word censorship has reared its ugly head on more than one occasion this year in relation to video games. In August it emerged that after 19 year-old Polwat Chinno from Thailand stabbed a taxi driver to death in the streets of Bangkok. He cited Grand Theft Auto IV as his ‘inspiration’.
In a knee jerk reaction, Thai Police banned legal sellers from distributing every title in the Grand Theft Auto series. Thai distributor New Era Interactive literally yanked the game from shelves overnight.
The ‘c’ word is also alive and well here in Australia. The lack of an R18+ classification for video games dictates that while adults can watch R-rated films like the ‘80s Patrick Swayze howler Roadhouse, video games with similar content are illegal.
You can’t own them, you can’t play them, and you won’t be able to as long as one man has his way.
South Australia has been something of a breeding ground for conservative politics in recent years. The right wing, predominantly Christian political party Family First appeared in Adelaide circa 2001.
The state is also home to Michael Atkinson, the South Australian Attorney-General who is all but the last man standing in the battle against the sale of R-rated video games in Australia.
October was scheduled to be the month that Atkinson and the other State and Territory Attorney-Generals released a public discussion paper on video game ratings.
The paper was widely regarded as the first step towards the relaxing of video game censorship laws in Australia.
Rudd government Minister For Home Affairs, Bob Debus, confirmed via a spokesperson in late September, that “The release of the discussion paper has been delayed because South Australia (Attorney- General’s Department) withdrew support (for its release)”.
Unanimous support from all Attorney-Generals is required to introduce an R18+ classification for video games. Atkinson’s actions come at a time when the Rudd minister also maintained via a spokesperson that “there’s no harm in seeking the community’s views [on the issue]”.
While gamers in loungerooms across Australia continue to scratch their heads as to why their government is the last in the Western World to legislate on the issue, this difference of opinions between the South Australian and Federal governments is nothing new.
Atkinson’s department outlined their opposition to the introduction of an 18+ rating earlier this year to a News Limited journalist.
The message to gamers was blunt: “Minister Atkinson would not consider an 18+ rating even if there were measures to protect children from being exposed to adult content.”
According to Ron Curry from games industry body IEAA (Interactive Entertainment Association Australia), the views of Atkinson and the lobby groups supporting him are deeply flawed.
“The current legislation and those opposing its review are draconian,” Curry says.
Curry’s argument centres on what he believes is a fundamental misconception held by those generating “the hysteria” surrounding the introduction of an R18+ classification.
“People are saying that they don’t want children exposed to R-rated material, so they don’t want it. But the whole point of the R classification is that it’s there to prevent children having access to this material in the first place.”
Last year the IEAA conducted a study through Bond University, sampling the average age of gamers. The study revealed that “50 percent of Australian gamers are aged over 18, making the average age 28”.
Curry believes that future surveys will indicate that the average age of gamers is closer to 30. Atkinson’s office doesn’t quite share Curry’s faith in the over-18 set’s dedication to video games.
In March, the Attorney-General’s office made comments suggesting that the policy makers are up against a generational divide that has empowered youth with a far better understanding of technology than adults have: “He doubts whether any safeguards could be put in place to deter young people, who after all (are) the most computer literate and savvy in our society, from being able to access material.”
The Rudd government has shown some indication that it shares these concerns. But it’s also been clear in its views that public discussion is pivotal to resolving the issue.
A spokesperson from Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus’s office has said that “The Commonwealth agreed to the discussion paper being prepared to find out if parents would benefit if an R-rating category was introduced, and if it would help them monitor what children are playing”.
Rob Hulls, acting Victorian Premier (at press time) and state Attorney-General, who has driven the push for an R-rating for video games since 2005, believes that censorship is not the only issue raised by the lack of an 18+ classification.
“There is research to suggest there is already a substantial black market in games that have not been classified and obviously exceed the MA15+ classification,” Hulls said.
Hulls’ sentiments are supported by Debus, who affirmed in an interview with the ABC early this year that “There’s a strong argument that if you just refuse to offer a classification then you encourage a kind of a black market. You encourage people to go off and look at games that have no censorship classification at all”.
The IEAA believes that there is perhaps an even more serious reason to introduce new legislation – the increasingly thin line of demarcation between different kinds of digital media.
Sales of video games have already begun to compete with, and in some cases outstrip, the cinema box office.
Grand Theft Auto IV, the game banned in Thailand in August, did $500 million in sales during its first week. 2008’s biggest film, The Dark Knight, took around five times longer to reach the $500 million mark worldwide.
Curry believes that we are witnessing the beginning of an era where cinema and video games are merging well beyond these similarities between the number of times their cash registers ring.
“The mediums are clearly converging” Curry says, “both from a content and delivery perspective – yet only one of them is eligible for an R classification. We’ve been able to play DVDs on game consoles for years.”
So how can it be that Australia lags behind the rest of the western world in developing an adult classification for video games – allowing a black market to emerge, reportedly ignoring the age of half the people buying them, along with the changing shape of a billion dollar industry that’s witnessed exponential growth during the past decade?
Some of the blame lies with Australia’s legislative system. According to Debus’s office, “Changes to the class act require unanimous agreement from the States and Territories and the Commonwealth”.
What this means is that nine men representing the interests of nine different governing bodies must all agree on change for it to become law.
Curry also believes that the Howard government, who chose to ignore the issue of a standard classification for movies and video games, despite it being canvassed by the Standing Committee of Attorney-Generals as far back as 2002, is also at fault.
“The previous Federal Government must accept some blame for the current situation,” Curry says.
“The Federal Government has an obligation to represent the views of the majority of the population, regardless of the State or Territory in which they live.”
Regardless of what happens over the coming months, one thing will remain unchanged. Hulls, who believes that it’s an anomaly that adults can watch R-rated films but cannot play R-rated video games, points out that “It is still the responsibility of parents to monitor the gaming habits of under-age children”.
Express your support for an R18+ certification in Australia by writing to: attorney-general@agd.sa.gov.au"
Atkinson is the biggest tosspot in the country. I still hold out hope that the kiwi twat Rann will get voted out soon and Atkinson will be turfed out with him.
- Banned
- #14
Does this mean that games that are banned such as Manhunt will be released as normal, or released as an edited version?
HBK619
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If it goes through it will mean games deemed to be R18+ will be released in Australia, games like Dark Sector, GTA IV, Silent Hill, would have all been released as R18+ games and would not have needed to be edited.
Manhunt(1 or 2) is one I am not really sure of, Manhunt(1 or 2) could have been deemed to be higher than R18+ therefore it would still have been banned or edited.
Manhunt(1 or 2) is one I am not really sure of, Manhunt(1 or 2) could have been deemed to be higher than R18+ therefore it would still have been banned or edited.
ive got GTAIV uncensored and its hardly any different, its a joke.
Some of the shit you see in games these days, even after being 'censored', belongs in an R Rating.
Heisenberg_
17🏆19🏆20🏆
Playing GOW 2 shows how much of a joke this censorship is.
Hpw that got through unharmed when you get to slice people up with chainsaws and blow enemies to pieces, yet they banned fallout 3 because you take morphine
Hpw that got through unharmed when you get to slice people up with chainsaws and blow enemies to pieces, yet they banned fallout 3 because you take morphine
yeah thats what i was getting at earlier.
Same as SR2, ive never seen someone get chainsawed in half in an MA movie before. ohh but morphine!! ohh no!!!
This is the one that always got me.
Now, the campaign for Gears should be ok and passed by the classification board, as it is Alien enemies you are popping heads off, dismembering etc.
(effectively, Dark Sector was refused classification because you could decapitate and dismember human enemies; Ninja Gaiden 2 was allowed classification because the game developers advised the enemies were not human - get the drift?)
HOWEVER, in the Multi Player aspect of Gears, you have 1 Locust Team and 1 Human Team.
In this, the Locust Team can decapitate / dismember / chainsaw the Human Team in half - so how does that work?
You're right, it's a mystery why Gears and Ninja Gaiden pass so easily, 2 of perhaps the most brutally violent games I've ever seen, yet other games get knocked back on simple things as the word Morphine.
Go figure hey?
Either way, the integrity of Fallout 3 was not compromised at least. They changed the name of a couple of things, game play in tact
yeah thats what i was getting at earlier.
Same as SR2, ive never seen someone get chainsawed in half in an MA movie before. ohh but morphine!! ohh no!!!
yeh that's crazy
even in the simpsons it gets through easy as with homer demanding morphine and you see him taking it etc...
the simpsons is rated pg i'm pretty sure lol
HBK619
Brownlow Medallist
- Dec 5, 2006
- 21,762
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- Other Teams
- Melbourne Victory, Storm and United
Don't think it is that, unless Treyarch somehow managed to push it past the OFLC, but in COD5 there is a decapitation of a Japanese person, and it is shown, so I guess it throws that concept out the window.
Moral of the story is that MA15+ rating is bullshit.
OK, it's slightly more than Human vs Monster being decapitated / dismembered.
Dark Sector was RC'd because of the decapitations / dismemberments AND the large blood sprays that followed AND because of the reaction of the human enemies when you lop their limbs off. The human enemies scream in agony and hold the stump where their arm used to be.
The other side of it is that it is an action you control, whereas by the sounds of it from what you say in COD5 it is a cutscene, as in you are not actually controlling the decapitation.
I know that Ninja Gaiden 2 was passed by the OFLC, despite the over the top gory dismemberments (accompanied by massive blood spurts) because it was stylised AND because they were told the Spider Ninja Clan were 5 eyed demons, not human (despite the fact you never actually see their faces and they appear human).
So no, that theory doesn't go completly out the window, it's just a little more in depth than simply Human vs. Mutant / Monster / Creature.
The scenes in Dark Sector are fairly realistic and not stylised, so that is why their was a problem with it.....as well as the reaction the human enemy give (i.e. screaming and pleading)
some of the stuff you see in the single player cod5 is very graphic
in fact i think there's even real footage of people getting shot from the war that i saw
