A new draft of the R18+ classification has been released by home minister Brendan O’Connor through the Australian Federal Government. The new guidelines closely match those in place for Australia’s film industry. The new R18+ rating removes restrictions on bad language, drug use and nudity; in contrast, the current guidelines forbade the classification of any adult-themed games.
O’Connor’s draft claims that the R18+ rating will allow “virtually no restrictions on the treatment of themes”, and violence in games “except where it offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that it should not be classified.” As far as sex, the draft says, “Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is ‘simulation, yes – the real thing, no'”.
Of course, “standards of morality, decency and propriety” is still troublesomely subjective, while “simulation, yes, the real thing, no” is comicly inept for videogames, where everything is simulation. You may be able to tell when live actors are actually performing sexual acts, but when can you tell a videogame character is actually having sex?
O’Connor stated:
“The Gillard government wants to provide better guidance for parents and remove unsuitable material from children and teenagers. The introduction of an R18+ classification will help achieve that and will also bring Australia into line with comparable nations. This issue has been on the table for many years, without the necessary progress to make a change. We’ve recently seen several states publicly express their support for an adult only rating for games and I’m keen to reach a unanimous decision at the July meeting.”
Rather than banning games, why not punish stores for selling mature games to underage children? Or put the onus of raising children on the parents?
@Sony patents tech to stop used games and rentals
So basically both the medium and the console will carry unique IDs. Those get sent to Sony where they get associated, then if the game gets played on a different console, with a different ID, what then? What happens to people who bought new consoles?
Digital only is not a guarantee. In case of Steam, for example, you can create an account for one game, then share the account info. And if you also create an e-mail account specifically for it, then the game/Steam account/e-mail account can be re-sold easily.
Backward compatibility is important. Heck, I still play games older than 10 years.
@PvP mode for Diablo III delayed yet again
Meh, who cares; I’m with Paul on this one.
From all the games that I saw in 2012, it’s actually World of Tanks that still stays on my radar. Too bad I have a crappy connection and I can’t play it.
Back to Diablo 3, even if I had a good connection, I wouldn’t buy it because of the DRM system. Just because I hate that kind of DRM.
@Telltale is in the very early stages of The Walking Dead Season 2
Didn’t play the first one, but during the night watches when the dog was recovering from surgery I watched some lets plays, and it looked very good. I mean people cried over it.
If the second one is just as good, then the devs and publishers will make quite some money.
Shooters being dead: dunno. Sure, you get more and more RPG games that use the first person perspective, but I wouldn’t call FPS-es dead. Not after Serious Sam 3.
@QOTW:
Man :), besides regular chores (cleaning up the place, help out with cooking for Christmas and New Years Eve meals), I got to make cakes: brownies, cheese rolls, and the New Years Eve cake … mmm, yummy …
I also got to play board games with the close family, got to play Serious Sam 3 BFE (damn, I missed you Sam!) and Rush for Berlin. The second one actually caught me by surprise, it’s quite a fun and yet challenging game.
Shortly, I enjoyed my holiday a lot.
@It’s time to go to the A-O-E-O
A bit stupid to offer premium content for free. Anyone who cares enough about extra content will play the game long enough to get it for free. People who don’t care won’t pay. Kind of defeats the purpose of freemium games.
@Turning PS4 into a software prison
They might as well sell PS4 with a slot for a modchip. This tech won’t stop people buying PS4 but they will crack it on purchase. I don’t think SONY will go through. Simply because any of it’s competitors (i.e. XBOX or WiiU) will gain all SONY looses if they stay DRM free. This will only work if everyone does it.
@E3
Can’t wait for E3. I too think that the current gen has burned out. The gaming industry needs something fresh.
@PVP in Diablo 3
Oh wait. Diablo 3 was out?
@Walking Dead
Picked up the entire series during the Xbox 360 christmas sales. For 800 points. Sale purchase of the year. I enjoyed it. Although I did find it to be more talk less action. Very basic point and click style. But great value for money.