Stop the sickos: keep the ban on R-rated games

In response to some of the information from the report listed below (Gameplay 2005) an intersting response from the Sydney Morning Herald-

http://blogs.smh.com.au/entertainment/

Stop the sickos: keep the ban on R-rated games
"The Punisher puts a man's head under a drill press and lowers the drill into the screaming man's eyeball, killing him."

That's how the film and video game censor described a scene from The Punisher, a game that was last year "refused classification", meaning it could not be sold in Australia. But this may soon change.

OK, stomping gang members to death in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, blasting zombies in Half Life 2 and lobbing grenades at other players in Battlefield 2 is amusing for a level or two. But it all gets dull very quickly.

Violent computer games are becoming boring. We desperately need fewer guns and more creativity.

Yet the computer game industry believes the opposite. They believe more violence is the way to sell more games.

What else can you make of the industry's relentless push to obtain an R(18+) rating for computer games in Australia?

At last week's release of the Game Play Australia 2005 report John Watts, president of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia, said the association had been on a ``crusade'' to convince the relevant state and federal authorities it was time for R(18+) computer games.

The industry believes an R(18+) would legitimise computer games as a form of entertainment like film.

But look at the report. Gaming is already mainstream. The average age of gamers is 24 and 38 per cent are female.

Watts says 88 per cent of Australians support an R(18+) rating for computer games.
So what? Only 27 per cent of respondents knew there was no R(18+) rating for computer games.
When asked why they wanted an R-rating the top answers were ``to deal with high level violence'' (47 per cent) and ``to protect children'' (45 per cent).

The best way to reduce ``high-level violence'' and ``protect children'' is to rule out R-rated games so they can't be sold in Australia.

The push for an R(18+) rating for games is a waste of time and resources for the industry. The only result will be games that make the industry look like it is catering exclusively for teenage boys.

The industry should instead focus on making games that everyone wants to play. That's how to expand the industry.

Sony's Buzz! The Music Quiz and SingStar and Nintendo's Nintendogs game are good examples.

Computer games need to get more creative and interesting - not even more violent than they are now.



UPDATE:Since 2000 the Office of Film and Literature Classification has banned 11 computer games. This document details why four of the games were banned. Download file.

UPDATE 2:Details of other games that were banned in Australia. Half of the games here were knocked back because of violence. The other half because of nudity.