The Government has
finally brought up the discussion of the Australian ratings system shortcoming in games classification, namely it's lack of an R18+ rating for computer games.
Personally I'm sick of games getting banned or modified for Australian release. For example, Sega's Aliens vs. Predator has just been banned by the Australian OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification) because it depicts intense violence to human beings, such as a Predator removing a person's head and ripping the spinal cord from the body. Now, I understand that's an intense visual, but it was allowed in a film in 1987 (the release year of the original Predator) and then again in 1990 in Predator 2. But somehow, 20 years on, it's still too offensive for people to decide to see it in a game.
Now we're not suggesting forcing people to watch or play these games, so to me the argument that the restriction of them is "protecting people from offensive or disturbing imagery" is ridiculous. My mum hates sex scenes in movies. I don't see them banning every movie or game with a sex scene because it offends a person. They leave it up to her to not watch those scenes/movies. The same liberty should be granted us gamers (game, btw) when it comes to the content of computer games.
Anyway, I could rant on for several more paragraphs, but I think I've made my stance on the issue pretty clear.
The Government's paper can be read
here, and IMO it's worth the read for anyone that feels affected by this.
