The R18+ Rating for Games Thread

[Fenrir]

Originally Posted by StorminNorman

"We need an R18 classification so that thinking adults can play games for thinking adults"

This point is purely academic, though, right? I mean, I'm all for principled activism and all that; but what thinking adult game has there ever been that has been met with a ban by the classification board?

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by Fenrir

This point is purely academic, though, right? I mean, I'm all for principled activism and all that; but what thinking adult game has there ever been that has been met with a ban by the classification board?

By nature, a ban makes it difficult to determine that.

[Fenrir]

In what way? I'm given to understand that on The List Of Countries Game Development Companies Market To, we're pretty far down the pecking order.

[Shorty]

That's not what I meant. If you're not allowed to import or purchase RC content (regardless of how much this law is actually enforced) then that makes it more difficult for the public to determine whether or not it's a "thinking adult game". That's not an assessment I'd like to leave solely up to the Classification Board.

[texta]

Originally Posted by StorminNorman

That's something that's bugging me about this. Suddenly the angle has changed from "We need an R18 classification so that thinking adults can play games for thinking adults" to "We need an R18 classification so we can protect the children".

Why are we doing it this way now, when "protect the children" was the argument we spent so much time shooting down?

Protecting children is the fundamental point of an R18+ rating. If you don't think that children should be protected from violent video games you should not be arguing for an R18+ rating at all.


In fact you've highlighted what fundamentally shits me about the R18+ movement. It's only ever really existed because people want to play some games that have been RCed. Not because people want to restrict some games from people under 18 years of age.

So while I don't really care at all, I think it is Fcking hilarious that the Government look like splitting the MA15+ rating and making half those games R18+ and keeping the RC threshold the same. It sounds like the plot of one of those 'be careful what you wish for' stories.

[sausage]

And yet


sorry, forgot what I was going to say

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Are they going to reclassify games that have already been released as MA15+? Considering they said they wouldn't do it in the other direction..


Also kids can go and **** themselves, I want my GTA hooker sex.

[lex3191]

Originally Posted by texta

I think it is Fcking hilarious that the Government look like splitting the MA15+ rating and making half those games R18+ and keeping the RC threshold the same. It sounds like the plot of one of those 'be careful what you wish for' stories.

Is this true? Where did you read this?

[Cerebral]

Originally Posted by lex3191

Is this true? Where did you read this?

http://everyoneplays.org.au/current-...ication-system

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by texta

In fact you've highlighted what fundamentally shits me about the R18+ movement. It's only ever really existed because people want to play some games that have been RCed. Not because people want to restrict some games from people under 18 years of age.

So while I don't really care at all, I think it is Fcking hilarious that the Government look like splitting the MA15+ rating and making half those games R18+ and keeping the RC threshold the same. It sounds like the plot of one of those 'be careful what you wish for' stories.

Classification system reform is not entirely about getting a R rating for games and to imply that this is the case is rather disingenuous. The problem with the RC rating (Australia is the only country in the Western world that has this kind of legal limbo rating) and the criteria to earn that rating is its own argument. It just happens to intersect with the argument for a R rating for games.

Simply splitting the MA rating and putting a new label on it would not, as you rightly point out, solve any of the underlying issues.