Australia has been subjected to large amounts of controversy from gamersbecause of censorship and not selling games aimed at adults on a national and international scale. Today, the NSW attorney general Greg Smith has announced that he agrees with the introduction of an R18+ rating for games. He was the last one to be in favor of it, and the Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor claims he is delighted.
“I am delighted that NSW has decided to support what is not just a practical public policy, but a very popular policy. The introduction of an R18+ classification for computer games will provide better advice to parents and help prevent children and teenagers from accessing unsuitable material. Once introduced, the new classification will also afford adults the opportunity to view material designed for adults. It is a credit to all jurisdictions that the meeting has now been able to achieve agreement over what is a complex matter in classification policy.”
Not seeing how it’s complex but then again I’m the kind to not give a damn about content in movies and games.
The Australian government is preparing to legislate the R18+ rating. The statement released says at one point it would “recognize the unique interactive nature of computer games”.
I’m not exactly certain what this means, but I could cover this article twofold with various explanations and ideas so I’ll spare you my jabber. I will say that it might take the fact that games are interactive into consideration. A movie that involves rampant slaughter of innocents would be frowned upon, but sandbox games like Oblivion, Fable, and Jagged Alliance 2 allow for the killings of men, women, and (in JA2s case) children. Such actions have dire consequences in-game however.
This is very long overdue. Censorship of entertainment to “protect the children” is widely considered a BS stance, and the amount of kids who have played games aimed at adults are likely in a majority. Hopefully this will beat down and obliterate censorship which has no place in this day and age.
