18+ rating Options

[Massey]

Its about time. i was sick of hearing of cool games coming out esle where but of the 18+ rating was not alord to be sold in Aussie land! (AvsP almost didnt make it to Australia becuase of the 18+ rating)

This ----> http://www.growupaustralia.com/show-your-s...mes-submission/
I hope this gets through.

Massey

[Overdose]

Don't worry they only let the bad games through.

[wb21]

Hope it works, but it might not because a certain Aussie politician named Michael Atkinson says that only "a small number of very zealous gamers" would be affected.

[ultimentra]

Wow I used to not like Australia just for the numerous things that can easily kill you both on land and in the water. But this takes the cake.

[MARS]

Good luck to you Aussies out there. It's kind of a shame that your politicians are legging behind even Germany when it comes to videogame acceptance.

[Alias]

Part of the problem is a dodgy political system. The main guy against this (Michael Atkinson) is the Attorney General (law/justice minister, basically) of South Australia. There are Attorneys General for all the other states, but it only takes one of them to block legislation changes, and that is what he's doing, and doing it alone.

We're not behind Germany by any means, let me say that. The only game that I can think of in recent times (3 years) to be butchered is Left 4 Dead 2, and about the only important game to be banned in recent years would be Risen. Most other games get in through appeal (such as AvP) or minor changes (such as Fallout 3).

While the system is utterly stupid and we do need the extra rating, it could be worse. I wouldn't classify it anywhere near that of Germany, about the only exception I can think to that would be L4D2.

This post has been edited by Alias: 11 Feb 2010, 10:04

[MARS]

Guess you're right then. Truth be told, I don't know much about the political system of your country, with the Attorney Generals and all, but we do have an 18+ rating here. The silly thing is just that 18+ still doesn't mean it's uncut. Our censors have the infamous reputation of being quite sensitive and apparently, many developers don't even bother sending in the international version of their games anymore. They just cut things out in advance BEFORE they actually send their games to our ratings board. At this point, I actually have the feeling that a lot of the censorship we have to put up with is actually caused by the developers pre-emptively censoring the game, NOT the USK actually asking them to cut stuff out. A few months ago, there've been early rumours about Starcraft 2 coming out censored as well; not because it's too violent for an 18+ rating, but because Blizzard wanted to have a lower, more marketable 12+ rating instead.

[Pickysaurus]

Those who can't buy 18+ games just get a parent/friend to get them instead >.<

[partyzanPaulZy]

puritans... childrens shouldn't be allowed to get these,
but adult human with IQ above 85 shouldn't have problems to tell virtual world from real world.

On the other hand - how is possible movies from Aussies are like those from another hypocritical puritans - Americans:
erotic (scent of sex(masturbation)), violence, small amount of blood... marked 15+ or mindless bloody movies (I liked The hills have eyes because it was scary), but there aren't many American movies with deeper point (like The Man From The Earth or soviet postapocalyptic film the Dead Man's Letters).

On the contradiction there is this weird anti-violent games campaign... it's parental fail when they allow their 8 year old kid to play games with rating 18+ or even "Mature" (if such rating mark exists)...

[wb21]

On the contradiction there is this weird anti-violent games campaign... it's parental fail when they allow their 8 year old kid to play games with rating 18+ or even "Mature" (if such rating mark exists)...

Are you referring to the ESRB one? If so, you may be referring to the Adults Only (AO), the organization's highest content rating (although a number of really brutal, bloodbath games that are downright banned in countries like the Manhunt series still get an M).

If the Aussies dare make a rally the people to surrender and dispose of violent/sexual games in a bin, they'll just simply suffer this fate.

[wb21]

On the contradiction there is this weird anti-violent games campaign... it's parental fail when they allow their 8 year old kid to play games with rating 18+ or even "Mature" (if such rating mark exists)...

Are you referring to the ESRB one? If so, you may be referring to the Adults Only (AO), the organization's highest content rating (although a number of really brutal, bloodbath games that are downright banned in countries like the Manhunt series still get an M).

If the Aussies dare make a rally the people to surrender and dispose of violent/sexual games in a bin, they'll just simply suffer this fate back in Deutschland.

[Alias]

What on earth are you talking about.

[Stalker]

A few months ago, there've been early rumours about Starcraft 2 coming out censored as well; not because it's too violent for an 18+ rating, but because Blizzard wanted to have a lower, more marketable 12+ rating instead.

IIRC Gamestar said that a censored SC2 and D3 was confirmed.

Also they are not releasing AvP in Germany because they don't want to cut the game or something.

[Shiro]

The problem with kids wanting to play games so badly their parents buy them reminds me of one of my friends who was 11, a girl and got any kind of game from her uncle. About the only thing he did NOT buy her was the Elfenlied anime - thus she watched it online.
Fact: a rating 18+ serves sh!t.

[IonCharge]

Those who can't buy 18+ games just get a parent/friend to get them instead >.<

Or buy them on the internet. Surprising the amount of parents that will buy 18+ games for there 12 year old kids

[wb21]

What on earth are you talking about.

Are you referring to the ESRB one? If so, you may be referring to the Adults Only (AO), the organization's highest content rating (although a number of really brutal, bloodbath games that are downright banned in countries like the Manhunt series still get an M).

I was referring to PartyzanPaulZy on what he said if there is a Mature rating, I said there is one, the one by ESRB. I said if he may be referring it as the highest one in that organization, I said that the Adults Only is the ESRB's highest possible rating.

If the Aussies dare make a rally the people to surrender and dispose of violent/sexual games in a bin, they'll just simply suffer this fate back in Deutschland.

Off-topic remark, in the event they do make such a campaign then the results might be the same in what happened in Germany (see this thread).

Hope that elaborate talking explains it all.
------------------------------------------------------

Yeah, I do see parents and/or elder brothers/sisters buy games like CoD4/WaW/MW2, L4D, RE, GTA:VC/SA/4, etc., original or otherwise, to their kids without too much problems here in my country.

This post has been edited by D' WRTHBRNGR: 12 Feb 2010, 3:28