Thoughts on R18+ rating for Australia

[Chatato]

Now to start off, no this post shall not be about how much Michael Atkinson sucks (even though he's stepped down now) and how Left 4 Dead 2 should have remained in it's full uncensored awesomeness, no I understand what Michael Atkinson tried to do and why he did he and I understand why the Australian government censored L4D2 (even if it was a bit over the top) ,no, i want to know what the benefits of having are and what the disadvantages are, Personally i half do and half don't want the rating, for example (before you start spamming me about how trying to censor video games is like trying to black out the sun) on one side the R18+ rating will allow a lot more diversified and adult games games that normally wouldn't be allowed into Australia hitting the shelves, however on the other side it would change parents views on what video games their kids are and aren't allowed to play, imagine if you will from a teens point of view, now your precious copy of Cod: Blops (or any other game that you have recently been playing) Has the rating bumped up from Ma to R and you get your game taken away from you halfway through it by you parents so forum tell me what are you thoughts?

 

[Capt. Crankypants]

You're on a gaming forum, I think your results are bound to be a little one sided don't you think?

Anyway, as an Australian, I really just want the whole thing to go away. Let it through, lock it in, make people shut up about the whole thing and let mature, adult gamers buy mature, adult games. Kids...bleh. Tricky. I don't really like kids anyway, but as any half-brained person can tell you, it should be the PARENT'S job to regulate the videogames their children buy, so again, an R+18 should do no more harm.

Unfortunately people are thick. Alot of people. And REALLY thick.

 

[dex-dex]

Most children are not going to be traumatized for life when they see things such as a digitized limb get severed. People are not giving their children any credit. There are good parents out there and will say no you can't play MW2. And then there are the completely absent minded who should have not had children in the first place.

 

[ethan22122]

As an Australian, I think it's good that we can finally play "big kid" games.

 

[Hunter65416]

Paranoia, Im moving to australia next month and as stupid as it sounds the whole R18 games australia thing is the thing thats annoying me the most can someone explain the situation because I dont really get it I heard M.A stood down and I heard that the r18 decision thing has been delayed ect but are new games being left as god intended a bit more now that m.a is gone or what?

 

[StBishop]

MA 15+ still exists. One person has suggested that we remove the MA 15+ rating and have G - General, PG - Parental Guidance, M - Mature, and R 18+ - Restricted to Adults.

I don't see what possible problems there could be with initiating an R 18+ rating if we accept that children not being able to mosey in to a store (Yes, Australian kids mosey) and buy adult games is a positive thing.

The R 18+ rating will not make it illegal for children to play games, they can get them from their parents, aunties, uncles, and older siblings. They just can't buy them from stores.

It's the same as Adult films and MA 15+ games.

I want to know if anyone thinks that there's a genuine negative other than WAAAAAAAAA! no more MW2 for me

 

[captaincabbage]

As an Australian, I think it's good that we can finally play "big kid" games.

Seconded.

OT: The advantages of an R18+ rating far outweigh the disadvantages. No,it's not going to stop people who are underage getting their hands on these games, but it will hinder it. It's up the the parents. When it comes down to it, it's up to the parents to decide what is appropriate for people under 18 to play, as it always has been.
All I'm saying is that if you let your 14 year old play an uncensored L4D2, then it doesn't mean the rating system is shit, it means your parenting skills are shit. It's like if you let your 15 year old watch Saw. it doesn't mean the rating system for movies has failed, it means your parenting skills have failed.

On top of that, supporters of the 'no-18+' idea seem to all be under the impression (at least the ones I've spoken to) that there is a huge hoarde of ravenous developers rabbling at the gates to get into Australia, just to shove ultra-violence, gore, sex and drugs down your kids throats. It's just not true or fair on the industry.

 

[captaincabbage]

MA 15+ still exists. One person has suggested that we remove the MA 15+ rating and have G - General, PG - Parental Guidance, M - Mature, and R 18+ - Restricted to Adults.

I don't see what possible problems there could be with initiating an R 18+ rating if we accept that children not being able to mosey in to a store (Yes, Australian kids mosey) and buy adult games is a positive thing.

The R 18+ rating will not make it illegal for children to play games, they can get them from their parents, aunties, uncles, and older siblings. They just can't buy them from stores.

It's the same as Adult films and MA 15+ games.

I want to know if anyone thinks that there's a genuine negative other than WAAAAAAAAA! no more MW2 for me

I don't know what part of Australia you live in, but in Melbounre, we 'saunter' about the place.

 

[Candrian]

I'm a brit and I can't for the life of me understand why the US and Australia use fairly ambiguous letters. G, PG, M, R whats the point?
Here in england we have a simple system 12, 15 or 18 and we haven't had any real problems, especially because the ratings board have pretty much laid down the law and said 'Underage consumption is the fault of the parents and/or retailers not the creators.'

 

[captaincabbage]

I don't know what part of Australia you live in, but in Melbounre, we 'saunter' about the place.

Melbourne is a joke, in QLD we have swagger.

lol touche' good sir. We're all better than the ACT tho. those druggies 'stagger' about the place like it's new years every day of the year.

I also gotta add, you wrecked the guy above this post with your 'oh snap'.

 

[Candrian]

I'm a brit and I can't for the life of me understand why the US and Australia use fairly ambiguous letters. G, PG, M, R whats the point?
Here in england we have a simple system 12, 15 or 18 and we haven't had any real problems, especially because the ratings board have pretty much laid down the law and said 'Underage consumption is the fault of the parents and/or retailers not the creators.'

We all passed algebra, so we know that letters can represent numbers.

oh snap

Maybe so, but as has been pointed out before, the public are as thick as a brick sandwich. And looking through the constant news reports of apparently normal people not getting the letters system maybe its not working.

 

[StBishop]

I'm a brit and I can't for the life of me understand why the US and Australia use fairly ambiguous letters. G, PG, M, R whats the point?
Here in england we have a simple system 12, 15 or 18 and we haven't had any real problems, especially because the ratings board have pretty much laid down the law and said 'Underage consumption is the fault of the parents and/or retailers not the creators.'

The reason is due to the titles of the ratings not being aged based.

G is genreal, for anyone.
PG is Parental Guidance, as in if the audience includes a child their parents need to consider the content.
M is for Mature, meaning that it still requires parental guidance but it should be for more mature audiences.
M 15+ is exclusively for 15 year olds or greater unless acompanied by a parent. There are penalties applied to persons and companies allowing people who fall under the age limit to have access to these media.
R 18+ is exclusively for adults. There are penalties applied to persons and companies are greater than those associated with the MA 15+ rated media.?
Currently, as you're aware, this only applies to movies.

I'm a brit and I can't for the life of me understand why the US and Australia use fairly ambiguous letters. G, PG, M, R whats the point?
Here in england we have a simple system 12, 15 or 18 and we haven't had any real problems, especially because the ratings board have pretty much laid down the law and said 'Underage consumption is the fault of the parents and/or retailers not the creators.'

We all passed algebra, so we know that letters can represent numbers.

oh snap

Maybe so, but as has been pointed out before, the public are as thick as a brick sandwich. And looking through the constant news reports of apparently normal people not getting the letters system maybe its not working.

Just to clarify the previously mentioned letter system. It's MA 15+ not just MA.

There's an age limit on the box. Just like your system.

Will edit in a pitcure soon when I get a camera/find a picture online.

 

[Aerialfrogg]

There is no problem in the ratings system. The "I don't understand the ratings" is merely an excuse for parents when they buy games for their kids without even briefly looking into the content. OR to keep them from looking bad for allowing their kids to play games other parents don't approve of.

EDIT: Also, I have no problem with games having mature content ratings not being sold to kids. If you are 15, convince your parents that you are mature enough to play them or, more likely, an 18 year old friend.
The whole changing of content thing is crap, though.

 

[Chatato]

All of your comments are true, however this was supposed to be more of a diversified opinion thread however thanks to people like Hunter65416 and Canadrian we now have those opinions (even if this started a flame war or two) so thanks guys

 

[badgersprite]

I don't like the fact that I, as a functioning, reasonable adult, am being babied by my government and told, "No; you can't decide what you want to do with your money because we know better than you."

I seriously don't understand why children are always brought into this debate. Isn't the whole point of the R18 rating that children aren't supposed to play it? Why are R18 movies (which I still get carded for if I want to buy them on DVD) fine and perfectly legal and totally no drama at all, but bringing that same rating into games is the final straw that's going to cause society to go mad, even when they require identification to buy?

 

[Superior Mind]

I don't see why games shouldn't be treated like any other media. Truth is there is no reason, people are talking up the notion that there is violence and as it is a game "people partake in that violence" assuming that the human brain can't determine what happens in a medium to what happens in real life. Most of this is brought on by panic induced from a few select instances like the Columbine Massacre which are exceptional circumstances, you simply can't draw a conclusion from it.

I know much of the argument is about parents protecting their children, or should I say the Government protecting children. So why no R18 rating yet? Remember that in Australia game developers often are forced to 'tone down' aspects in a game, (like in L4D2,) in order for it to fall under the M15+ rating. However the content is essentially the same. This pretty much means that "kids" are getting their hands on material that would have otherwise been kept from them. Not to mention that parents should be monitoring their kids' media consumption anyway.

The other argument for an R18 rating is to simply let adults make adult decision about the kind of media they consume. This may shock a great number of people, (no-one here obviously,) but games are a massive industry, one of the biggest in entertainment, (if not the biggest, forgive me for not being bothered to look into the details.) It's not "for kids", it's not a fringe form of entertainment, it is very very mainstream. Why is it treated differently to everything else? I can see no reason.

Then there's SA attorney general John Rau's latest gem... He may be better than Michael Atkinson but his latest idea to either have games for everyone and R18 games just demonstrates how little these people understand about games. Rau seems to think that games are either Bejewled or Splatterhouse, that there is no diversity in an industry that practically defines the word. It makes me think that the key thing here is just to teach these decision makers about games, break down the incredibly incorrect assumptions. Force them to watch Extra Credits or something, I don't know. The key thing is to bring them up to speed and right now they are fumbling in the dark.

An R18 rating will be introduced in Australia eventually, of that I'm sure of. Why it's taking so long is a topic of some frustration and amazement to me.

 

[Chatato]

I don't like the fact that I, as a functioning, reasonable adult, am being babied by my government and told, "No; you can't decide what you want to do with your money because we know better than you."

I seriously don't understand why children are always brought into this debate. Isn't the whole point of the R18 rating that children aren't supposed to play it? Why are R18 movies (which I still get carded for if I want to buy them on DVD) fine and perfectly legal and totally no drama at all, but bringing that same rating into games is the final straw that's going to cause society to go mad, even when they require identification to buy?

No what I'm saying is that the Australian government is planning to bump up the rating for games like Cod from Ma 15+ to R 18+, and yes the government is slowly taking away more and more things that are fun and eventually we'll be left with a box of crayons in a heavily padded room and Superior Mind they've essentially said that they are going to do it however the process shall wait until next year or so.