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?
Hi guys.
Thank you for the episode and congratulations to number 700 …. What an amount of episodes!
I respect your work, even if am not able to listen to every episode. Thank you so much for hundreds of hours of entertainment!
Regarding this special episode I can’t say so much sadly 🙁
I don’t play and I never played any COD or guilty gear … so … can’t say anything about that :/
About modding: I never cared about any mods for any game. Normally I buy games because I like them the way they are and not because I can or have to mod them.
The only game I played the last weeks was some magic the gathering. I downloaded some smaller games to my switch cause I am flying to Miami next week, so I needed something for the flight 🙂
The only game i am looking forward is Silksong … everything else did not catch me at all :/
Sorry for not commenting really constructive or interesting …
Keep on the good work and please stay healthy!
Greetings from Germany,
Ralf