Should Australia have an R 18+ rating for video games?

Australia is one of the only western countries that doesn't have an "R" rating for video games. Anything that exceeds the classification for "MA15+" is refused classification unless the "objectionable" material is cut-down or lessened. Several games that were either banned or horribly censored and disfigured due to censorship include:

Left 4 Dead 2
Mortal Kombat
Manhunt
Manhunt 2
Alien VS Predator
50 Cent: Bulletproof
Grand Theft Auto III

and many others.

Discuss why Australia should/should not have a rating system that allows adults to play adult content in interactive media when there is already a system in place that allows such things in all other forms of media.

Really? Now I wish I lived in Australia when I wanted to buy GTA San Andreas. I had to get my mum to buy it for me.

I don't think it should. I'm with Australia on this one, they seem to be far more relaxed when it comes to age groups and what's shown on TV. Our TV's shit now because of this whole "objectional material on TV is not allowed!" thing and I don't want them to make the same mistake.

@Gravity Cat, don't think you understood what the topic says; In Australia they don't let adults play games that would be rated R, the games are basically mutilated to the point of being kid friendly. On the main topic: I think it's stupid and their ancestors are criminals anyway so why do they even care. I hate to say it, but I think it's a right to play video games free of such censorship when you are a grown ass man or woman

I would like to expand on why not having an R rating for games is ridiculous. Left 4 Dead 2 was censored so excessively that ALL the gore was removed and made what could have been a great zombie fest.

It's a staple of zombie and survival horror to have large amounts of gore and distressing themes. In the cut-down Australian release of this game, pretty much everything that made it a zombie game (other than the presence of zombies) was removed.

Zombies couldn't be dismembered or mutilated in any way. Dead zombies disappeared before they even hit the ground, and blood was removed from the game altogether. Another annoying feature was that u couldn't use adrenalin shots to speed up your actions in the game, because it was deemed "visually similar" to drug use and therefore refused classification.


This is the kind of thing you would expect an overly conservative parent to do when tweaking the violence content of a game before allowing her 16 year old to play.

Yeah I didn't, whoops. Since you put it like that and it was the opposite of what I thought your thread meant, then I agree with you and I am against it aswell. Seems Australia likes to treat its citizens like babies when it comes to internet usage.

But please keep their ancestors out of this. Their ancestors being criminals isn't really relevant to this discussion and not all Australians were decendants of a criminal.

Australia has been going through some questionable political control for the last decade or so, and this is just one of the side-effects. Australia seems to be firmly grasped by conservatively biased government control, while an increasing number of Australians (perhaps because of said reason) or finding themselves more and more liberal.

Eventually Australia is going to go through some sort of revolution. Whether it is just a clean election where some more liberally-minded individuals find a place in government, or whether it becomes more violent.

That said, it is a convenient demonstration against those Congressmen in the United States who are trying to do nothing less than take government control over the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and rewrite the book on how they define the age groups for video game entertainment. All people have to go is "You want us to be like Australia?" Heh.

It's hard to make a really strong argument in both directions here.

For 18+ rating



Against 18+ rating



Of course you know that won't stop the kid from watching a play through of the game in its "adult" glory on Youtube. Personally I can understand why there is no 18+ rating to begin with. Its one less thing people can blame government or the media for. As long as its not illegal to import "adult" games and not extortionately expensive the people who want "adult" games can order them overseas. The cost of shipping can be quite a bit with even with mail systems so I can understand why people support just having the 18+ games to begin with. Oh idea. If there are specialty shops for porn why not sell "adult" games there too?

Right you are, we're not all the decedents of convicts. Most of us are actually the decedents of Irish and English immigrants :P

Knowing this makes me a whole lot more greatly to Yahtzee who goes out of his way to do his Zero Punctuation reviews on games that may be difficult to obtain in Australia unmutilated.

If you're talking about getting an uncensored version, then no I don't think that's true unless you go through some lengthy process of bullcrap.

When L4D2 first came out, my friends and I (USA, Canada, Netherlands and Australia) pitched in to buy the four pack to play together. During our first few playthroughs we would laugh about all the blood and dismembered limbs and then our Aussie friend would remind us that he couldn't see any of that.

Australia has always gotten on my nerves on how they pretty much treat their entire country like stupid babies with their horrible censorship in video games and the internet. I think it's pretty unfair that everyone has be treated this way instead of leaving the responsibility to the families.

i live in australia and i can't see how the internet is censored?

As always, I don't see a problem in a rating system. The, theoretical, idea stands; media with this rating is RECOMMENDED for age (enter value).

Putting the shit into federal law, however, is bullshit. The nanny state destroys the distribution of free expression. It is the responsibility of parents to ensure that their children receive proper guidance when exposed to these themes.
Otherwise, you just create cultural regression.

I Would like to point out that Australia is now going through the process of allowing an adult rating for games, but it will take a LONG time to go through the lengthy parliamentary procedures before it is made legal.

It has taken nearly 20 years and a lot of clamoring from the gaming community for this. All this effort is mostly due to the refusal of one state's Attorney General (New South Whales) to block this from happening. But luckily, he retired last year and has been replaced by a man that is all-for the change :D

As said in the post above.

There are valid reasons for, and against.. however the generals reasons were a little assholeish if you ask me.. i mean, he was getting threatened by gamers, because he kept refusing it.. but that is no reason to say 'you know what, fuck you all, you're going to be stuck with games that aren't as violent as the makers meant for them to be. OH, and game devs, you are going to have to keep on fixing them for australian audiences. fuck you hahaha'

But really.. i can see the reasons for and against..
Examples:
For:


Against:


I honestly couldn't think of any other arguments.. but i look forward to finally having an R18+ rating.
They should at least have a law so that anyone caught giving their child a R18+ game will be fined, and the game will be confiscated or something.. seriously, it's the same as these kids who smoke. pisses me off.

I agree with both points made there, the main issue seems to be the fact that parents today are way more lenient then they should be. Teens and even pre-teens nowadays drink, smoke, take drugs and the like, all because they get whatever they want when they were younger. Plus, online multiplayer for games such as Halo are diminished when you hear the whiny voices of 12 year old kids in-game.

What it all comes down to, is parent responsibility and the government's ability to follow the changing values of the Australian people. The current rating system we have now was put in place in response to Mortal Kombat's release in 1993 in Australia, shocking many parents and resulting in them demanding a restriction on such content. The R rating (presumably) was never added to the system because the common assumption among parents was "video games are for kids"

Something something firewall against certain websites.