Yesterday afternoon a good friend of mine called me from two and a half states away (which is considerably far for an Australian) to ask me in frenzied confusion what exactly was going on with a game sequel that had been banned, of which he had never actually played the ancestor title, to which he felt quite aggrieved as he was looking forward to a near future date where he might experience said game at last. He wanted to know what was going on, as the notion of potentially awesome games being kept outside of his reach had gotten him into a lather nonetheless.

I explained to him that the game in question had been refused classification by the OFLC due to specific content being deemed ‘unratable’.

Who or what is the OFLC he asked.

The Office of Film and Literature classification I said.

Why was it ‘unratable’ he asked.

I explained to him that since we don’t have an officially dedicated ratings system for Interactive Entertainment (due to their entire classification board operating out of an administration that exists primarily for Film and Literature) the games industry classification system only goes up to an MA rating in Oz (due to an archaic notion whereby games are still considered as children’s toys and not as a form of adult oriented entertainment) which means that R18+ titles can’t be released here due to the simple fact that we don’t have a ratings system that permits for restrictions to be set higher than the age of fifteen.

He asked why this was the case, as he hadn’t been aware and felt instantly perplexed by the concept.

I explained the entire Atkinson shit storm to him, including the various titles that have had classification refusal over the last twelve months and the frightening notion that many games had been released in recent years that would have been refused classification if they were screened by today’s OFLC, simply due to the snowballing of OFLC’s approach and understanding of unclassifiable materials.

He summarised what I had imparted; We don’t get games that everyone else gets because our government thinks the adult populous of Australia aren’t mature enough to deserve adult oriented entertainment, nor are they mature enough to discipline their children against exposure to unsuitable material.

I confirmed for him that this was the whole enchilada, yes.

He asked if these games would ever be released here.

I told him that most of them had to be compromised in some way in order to deem them suitable for release here, and that something along these lines would most likely happen with this most recently refused title.

Compromised in what way he asked.

I explained to him that in order for an R18+ title to be released under our highest rating of MA15+, the game would essentially have to be altered so as to remove themes only suitable for eighteen year olds and up, removed until such time as the remaining game can be classified suitable for a fifteen year old.

Thats pretty ridiculous he remarked.

I agreed with him, stating that it was tantamount to reducing the impact/potency of Nicotine, Alcohol or Pornography so that it would be legal to sell Winnie blues, Jim Beam & Hustler to otherwise underage adolescents.

He agreed in muted astonishment.

Sad times to be Australian in the games industry…