Risen’s Australian Banning Revives R18+ Debate

OXCGN has taken a closer look at Australia’s refusal to classify Risen, and why it’s just another reason why the country needs an “R18+” rating for video games.

The problem in Australia is that we still do not have an R18+ rating for games, though we do in film, and so this means the game gets (refused classification) making it illegal to purchase or own here.

Australian distributors of the game, Madman Interactive, now have to see if the creators will change Risen enough to pass the Australian classification system into MA 15+, which is the highest current rating a game can be given.

This is always an iffy proposition as Australia is a very small gaming market anyway.

I’ve said it before, but the fact is that the average age for the Australian gamer is now 30 years old, according to a recent study by Bond University, Queensland. Yet we live in the dark ages where, while film is rated with R-ratings for content inappropriate for younger viewers, games are not.

Besides the issue of censorship and an adult’s right to choice, there is simply the issue that the current antiquated system is too inflexible to properly classify games by content. Games full of violence and gore (eg. chainsaw killings) pass into MA 15+ category, but some games with implied sex and drug use are banned. Swearing was huge in the Wii game House Of The Dead: Overkill and 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand, but they passed. Implied sex has been in a number of games including Fable, and prostitution has been in the GTA series.