Join us for a discussion on the momentous decision following the official introduction of an R18+ classification for video games in Australia, including a parliamentary special guest!
Last night, the federal government officially introduced an R18+ classification for video games after the legislation cleared the two houses of Australian parliament.
This week, we discuss the momentous decision with special guest Federal Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare, who has been instrumental in introducing the R18+ legislation to parliament.
Also on the show: a controversial Tomb Raider scene, Warren Spector's comments regarding violence in games, and rumours of Microsoft's next-gen console!
Tune in!
Laura Parker is the Associate Editor of GameSpot Australia. She loves adventure games, sparkly stuff, Trivial Pursuit, cake, Master Chief, earthworms, and rhetorical questions. She once stole a sandwich from Peter Molyneux.
you know, not every game this generation has got violence in it.
Try looking at Little Big Planet.
And even something like Muramasa the Demonbane
It had some low level violence but it was still an awesome game.
Sometimes I feel that most of us talk about the games that are big and big as in budget and sales, but most overlook the niche games that still are awesome even though they may not sell as well.
In regards to Loolipop Chainsaw comments.
Japanese do have a certain sense of humor, and not everyone understands it.
Hell, not everyone today can understand the sense of humor of Australian 1960s humour that my parents mostly like.
Australia finally catches up with the western world.
But in regards to classification of content, Japan is far in front and far more mature in a way more better than other countries are.
In Japan, they focus on cracking down on real crime, and they don't worry about what adults play in videogames.
Next we need to protect the freedom of speech on the online world.
NO INTERNET FILTER!!!!!
This is both good and bad....it's good because little kids won't be playing CoD online and ruining the game industry and experience, and so forth, and maybe parents will get a wake up call.
However, it puts us under 18 gamers at a disadvantage. It's wrong to judge us all under the same label, and there's different levels of maturity. I've played everything from Dead Space to Heavy Rain to Deus Ex: HR to Silent Hill, some of them I played when I was around 14. Hell, I played Bad Company 1 when I was something like 13 years old, and guess what? I'm fine. There will always be different sort of people who can stomach and handle gore, sex, violence, etc. I've turned out fine, but it doesn't mean others will. Still, why should I be restricted then?
@ShadowsDemon You were restricted when you played BFBC1 when you were 13 regardless whether it was MA15+ or R18+ anyway, so it really doesn't effect you.
It's not wrong to judge you kids under the same label, level of maturity can't be measured, that's why it is done by age, I bet some 13 year olds are mature enough to drive, doesn't mean it's ever going to happen.
And lastly this is a positive, not a negative. I doubt this will effect anyone under 18 (buy your games online like the rest of us if you don;t have ID), and it's a huge benefit for us 18+ gamers
Now we have an 18+ classification that is acknowledgement the government is taking games seriously, so now it's up to the player to do the same. The fact that Tomb Raider having a sexual assault angle is making headlines sort of shows how immature the industry still is. Welcome to the real world, it's not all 100 head-shots and tea bagging.
Oh yes ID. That depends. Usually a drivers license but as long as you have a photo, name, address and birthdate it will work out just fine. That's not much of a big deal.
Perhaps I should start off that R18+ would be good news from half a year away. Now to make sense in all of this, perhaps it's best that games below at least M15+ must have a parent supervisor. Also from an education perspective, kids aren't going to learn anything without parents telling kids what to look for in terms of the ratings.
R18+ for Aussie games has taken like five years in total from Michael Atkinson and Christian Lobby to common sense which is a huge undertaking. Countless games have been banned and cut for MA15+ so with the R18+ added if it's not to constrained and overblown will reduce the count and give parents much better reason to buy games.
As far as rape goes, that's totally uncommon in videogames. I think that rape will take a long while until it truly catches on. Oversensitive raters like Australia might easily ban it for that reason so developers need to be very careful of that idea whether it's just an element or plays a major part of the story. By the way, Laura, since I oversleep a lot so I'll stick to OzSpot at weekly nights.
Game retailers asking for ID? I've seen firsthand, ebgames staff refusing to sell violent games to kids without parents present - pair that with the fact that children are only very rarely seen in either of the 2 ebgames stores in my town. Children playing violent games without parental consent has always been blown wildly out of proportion.
On the other hand, i have never in my life been denied rental for a movie, and my neighbour's 15 yr old had no problem renting the film Shame (Rated R18) just last week, much to her mum's disgust.
I'm 29 and I still often get asked for ID in bottleshops. The hypocrisy continues, and gaming is still being singled out by legislators. Mainstream media still ignores gaming too - the R18 bill passing was an apparent non-issue for the major TV networks today, but TEN and others considered the new Kristen Stewart movie newsworthy? None of them covered e3 last week either... Yes i've gone slightly off-topic. Just venting my frustration.
On the topic of rape - why is it okay for films, television dramas and novels but not games?
P.S. To Laura and co., can you please make ozspot video downloadable like most other gamespot videos, for PS3/PSP? The video feed at present doesn't work in the PS3 browser (Twitch feeds never do). Audio only kinda irks me. Its too much like listening to radio, and I can't stand radio. I hear enough strange voices... =(
Now since thats been gone through. The Last thing I have to worry bout is QLD state territory since its been run by the Libs now not Labor. Since Labor supported the R18+ but the Libs for QLD unsure yet until they get further more details before deciding either to support or against introducting R18+ in QLD.
I just hope they support it or else QLD gamers arent going to be happy bout it
@izzy_reb_02 I wouldn't worry about that. In Queensland, its more likely that the current government will back it - unlike the previous government who would tell you they are for it only if an election was 18 or less months away, then change their minds the day after.
So no game selling employee in Australia ever asks gamers for ID, and we know this on the basis that Laura has never been asked.. Bit unfair to those in the industry isn't it. For the record i've seen and heard GAME employees asking for ID, I would imagine the other retailers act just as responsibly.
But GAME have been disapointing in other areas. I've heard staff chat with customers that are casually effing and blinding, and they have sexualised content on their video loops - it's a family friendly store so they really ought to have kept things a little more sanitised.
With R18 passed and Guitar Hero no longer a factor, what will the Ozspot be left to discuss?
So can I clarify, MS lawyers didn't post the secret and unconfirmed 720 details? and 2013 is next year?
RE: Tomb Raider.
The topic of rape is fine to be a part of games story lines, and it's a bit of a welcome sign of the growth of story within games.I would say though that although a hand on the hip isn't of itselff an act of rape, it seems that it was an unwelcome sexual advance and a threatening one at that. It sounds rapey. But havent we all seen this E3 demo? I think i've seen it but you're mentioning that it's a behind closed doors thing.
Dan is wrong. 'Tomb Raider' rape attempt 'encourages players to protect Lara Croft'. http://www.digitalspy.com.au/gaming/news/a387062/tomb-raider-rape-attempt-encourages-players-to-protect-lara-croft.html
All games become boring. It's not dependent on wether or not you punch people in the face all the time. Violence and games are like bangers n mash., fish n chips.
