Michael Atkinson - 'I' don't support R18+ Games

[Ant_]

Got a response from the WA AG's office today from that email I sent a while ago.

Didn't say much but did attach this document

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...ynM0ASbFmW5s1uk0O9Mtu0uVspZ_irYEU-zoxay&hl=en

 

[JADED]

Zahra Baker (Oz 10yr old killed overseas) died of natural causes but was then cut up by her parents who had taken part in a "chainsaw massacre online role playing game"

If the AG's that are against get wind of this then it's fuel for someones fire.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/zahra...risly-contradictory-account/story?id=12545252

 

[Jabso]

Zahra Baker (Oz 10yr old killed overseas) died of natural causes but was then cut up by her parents who had taken part in a "chainsaw massacre online role playing game"

If the AG's that are against get wind of this then it's fuel for someones fire.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/zahra...risly-contradictory-account/story?id=12545252

This is not related to video games. This referring to real life role playing.

 

[JADED]

Then off topic, the headlines of online role playing games were a bit off.

 

[sacka]

According to reports from the Wall Street Journal and the Arizona Republic, Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner was a “big video gamer”.
The 22-year old Loughner killed six people on Saturday, including a federal judge and a nine-year old girl, during an open political meeting held by congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

This can only help the cause With all the different type of consoles out these days there aren't to many people you cant call a gamer.

Sorry if that sounds insensitive, its not meant to be, but geez the guy has a history of mental instability and him playing video games is something that will be highlighted ffs.

In the USA around 60% of the population play video games, does that mean half of the US are potential murdrers?

 

[Kerrby]

I was talking to some guy on omegle the day before the shooting and he told me he was going to shoot up some congress place. But it's okay, he told me his name was James.

 

[Glenno23]

This can only help the cause With all the different type of consoles out these days there aren't to many people you cant call a gamer.

Sorry if that sounds insensitive, its not meant to be, but geez the guy has a history of mental instability and him playing video games is something that will be highlighted ffs.

In the USA around 60% of the population play video games, does that mean half of the US are potential murdrers?

As Chris Rock says:

"Don't blame music, movies or games, what happened to just plain ol' CRAZY?

Their "right to bear arms" and their gun policies might have a little more to do with it

 

[Mancey]

They said stuff like "No one would play with us! We had no friends" the trenchcoat mafia …" Hey, I saw the yearbook picture, it was six of them! I ain't have six friends in high school. I don't got six friends now! Shit, that's three-on-three with a half court.

 

[SugarShane]

This can only help the cause With all the different type of consoles out these days there aren't to many people you cant call a gamer.

Sorry if that sounds insensitive, its not meant to be, but geez the guy has a history of mental instability and him playing video games is something that will be highlighted ffs.

In the USA around 60% of the population play video games, does that mean half of the US are potential murdrers?

What a load of crap. Don't mention any of his other hobbies, what makes video games worthy of mentioning? I bet everyone in high places is glad to have such an easy scapegoat to pass blame to.

 

[Sterge]

What a load of crap. Don't mention any of his other hobbies, what makes video games worthy of mentioning? I bet everyone in high places is glad to have such an easy scapegoat to pass blame to.

take one look at the blokes picture and blind freedy can tell the guy was a few sheep short, but as you said games are an easy scapegoat why not write articles about the billions of people who play games and don't kill people

 

[midorigreenwood]

Gaming appears to have been an important part of Mr. Loughner's life. In the 7th grade, he and a friend, Alex Montanaro, began playing the multiplayer online games Starcraft and Diablo, which featured complex virtual worlds where players assume roles and play against other people around the globe, Mr. Montanaro said in emails over the weekend and Monday.

Around the 9th grade, recalls Mr. Montanaro, Mr. Loughner abandoned the old games and started playing Earth: 2025, now called Earth Empires, a text-based game in which players assume the form of a country and develop its economy. Players form clans and battle other clans.

http://forums.earthempires.com/Foru...3&z=the-arizona-shooter-was-a-sanct-lcn-soler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Earth

yeah he was a gamer....

damn those real time strategies to hell!!!

 

[Slash_LP]

http://forums.earthempires.com/Foru...3&z=the-arizona-shooter-was-a-sanct-lcn-soler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Earth

yeah he was a gamer....

damn those real time strategies to hell!!!

I hear that Manson guy plays it in jail all day long.

 

[Heisenberg_]

I just saw the perfect example highlighting how stupid the the whole argument is that we don't want a R rating because we want to protect children.
Was at EB, two kids with their mum and would have been 10-11 years atvthe very oldest but probably.
Gears of War was on sale for $50 and they were begging and whining at her to buy it for them and she gave in and got. Pretty sure unless she is the worst mother ever if it was rated R she wouldn't have even considered it. That game is awesome but is not suitable at all for kids that young.
But the current rating system protects the kids from games like that doesn't it

 

[Ochre]

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/03/brendan-oconnor-r18-classification-and-years-of-inaction/

if the AGs dont bring in the R18 by July, the federal government "will certainly be considering other options"

which by the sounds of it means we will have an R18 rating within the next few months

 

[Ochre]

South Australian Attorney-General John Rau has taken the R18+ for games issue into his own hands today, declaring that his state will introduce the adult rating regardless of the decision made by other states and territories at the upcoming Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meeting in July.

http://au.gamespot.com/pages/news/story.php?sid=6310534&skipmc=1



big win

 

[Ant_]

http://au.gamespot.com/pages/news/story.php?sid=6310534&skipmc=1



big win

Massive win, if SA goes alone (which they legally can) it will force the hand of every other state.

Who would've thought that the home state of Atkinson would be the hero in this story.

 

[sacka]

Well it's still not a true R18+ rating, all they are doing is replacing the MA15 with a R18+ rating but the games that fail clasification will still not be allowed in the country(i know thats not what it's all about)

 

[Ochre]

Well it's still not a true R18+ rating, all they are doing is replacing the MA15 with a R18+ rating but the games that fail clasification will still not be allowed in the country(i know thats not what it's all about)

I dunno, this end of this paragraph seems to suggest otherwise.

"It is also important to note that there are some games that are rated MA15+ in Australia, which are rated R18+ in other countries. At the moment, there is an unbroken continuum from G to PG to M to MA15+, which includes some pretty violent games. What we want to do is make sure there is a clear gap between material for adult and material for children and empower responsible parents by making sure game classifications are helpful. No adult would be any worse off [with the abolition of MA15+ for games]; in fact, adults would be better off because there would be more games available in the R18+ category."

 

[sacka]

I dunno, this end of this paragraph seems to suggest otherwise.

Well this back me up(from a diferent article)

The shuffle would see all games currently rated MA15+ reclassified as R18+, making it illegal to sell them to minors.
It will apparently not permit games currently refused classification to be sold under an R18+ rating, as it seems no revision to the assessment criteria of the category has been proposed – it’s simply being renamed, and enforced at a higher age bracket.

BUT wait there is more

Australian Capital Territory attorney general Simon Corbell has said he’s willing to introduce a territory-specific R18+ ratings category for video games if a federal classification is not afreed upon
However, Corbell isn’t keen on Rau’s plans of abolishing the MA15+ category altogether – he’s talking about introducing an entirely separate division for games with content too extreme for current categories.

“The MA15+ issue is a separate question. We are supportive of the draft guidelines into an R18+ classification for video games that provide for both the MA15+ and R18+ classification. We wouldn’t necessarily follow South Australia down that path.”

http://www.vg247.com/2011/04/29/act...ngs-category-independent-of-federal-decision/

 

[HBK619]

Well this back me up(from a diferent article)

BUT wait there is more

http://www.vg247.com/2011/04/29/act...ngs-category-independent-of-federal-decision/

That's just saying what was always going to happen though. No RC'd games would ever have been brought in regardless of R18+ rating around Aus or not, because they're not going to be sent back to classification.

It will however allow for a broader range of classifying games and not having those that are deemed not worthy of MA15+ rating perhaps getting an R18+ rating.

 

[Ochre]

When you say they won't be sent back to classification ****, if the publisher of a banned game resubmitted it under the new laws, would it be re-classified? or arenot allowed to resubmit it?

 

[HBK619]

When you say they won't be sent back to classification ****, if the publisher of a banned game resubmitted it under the new laws, would it be re-classified? or arenot allowed to resubmit it?

You'd assume that they'll be able to re-submit their title for classification, but the odds of a publisher wanting to spend the money on another process and still potentially being RC'd wouldn't be on most of their minds (especially for such a small market).

 

[Borgsta]

also you have to consider the game is already old and everyone who wanted it would have it already so it would be a massive waste of time and money to put it back in for classification.

One big problem for Australia is that I can see publishers looking to wait for Aus to make a decision and therefore not asking for classification on any games that are to be released soon. Instead they just wait for a decision. Hopefully I am wrong.

 

[SpaceCow]

Yeah now I'm confused....

If the current guidlines for MA15+ were kept but the rating was instead 'renamed' R18+ then that doesn't really acheive much. Sure it keeps high content games out of the hands of minors (for the most part) but it is still restricting the range of games Australians have to sample.

If the MA15+ rating is phased out and an R18+ rating is introduced which is equivalent to the R18+ ratings across Europe then it will have fixed the problem but also created another (albeit smaller) problem. Censorship and restrictions are good for the most part but anything with a modicum of blood, gore and violence being shoved in the R18+ bracket is not the way to go about it. Is Uncharted 2 worthy of an R18+ rating?

If however an R18+ rating is introduced which is complimentary to the MA15+ rating then the correct course of action will have been chosen.

From the articles I've read though I'm not sure which of the options is the one being talked about (or if multiple are being contemplated).


On the issue of games not being put up for classification if they have been RC'ed, there'd be a chance for the GOTY versions to be released (if they are announced/released after the rating has been introduced) so not all hope is lost of seeing these games being sold in Australia.

 

[HBK619]

also you have to consider the game is already old and everyone who wanted it would have it already so it would be a massive waste of time and money to put it back in for classification.

One big problem for Australia is that I can see publishers looking to wait for Aus to make a decision and therefore not asking for classification on any games that are to be released soon. Instead they just wait for a decision. Hopefully I am wrong.

Probably not going to happen like that.

From what we've seen so far with the edited and RC'd games they've been more or less given 2 goes. So you'd assume that the publishers will give it a go, if they get RC'd they MAY wait on it.


It's interesting the points you do bring up too Space Cow.

I'm more wondering if we are to get an MA15+ and R18+ rating would it make the R18+ rating more inclusive of titles now. For example would the new COD be rated R18+ just because there's that R18+ rating there and it's probably boderline MA15+ as it is now.