Recently the Australian Gaming Market finally took a step in the right direction with the introduction of the R 18+ Rating for games. To the casual observer this would appear that Australia is now in line with other markets, but there is a slight problem with this.

Prior to the introduction of the long awaited R 18+ rating, many games that should have been rated R 18+ were in fact given an MA 15+ rating. So what happens to all of the MA 15+ games that should be rated R 18+?

Now while you are thinking about that, think of this, in 1993 the Australian Classification Board introduced the MA 15+ rating to cater for films that were too violent for an M rating but not violent enough to justify an R 18+ rating and due to the fact that the R 18+ rating for games was delayed as it was many MA 15+ games on the market are in fact combinations of MA 15+/R 18+.

What I am doing is gauging support to start a petition to scrap the current classification and adopt the classification used in New Zealand. When you compare the two classifications side by side it becomes evident that the New Zealand model is more effective at offering ADVICE especially for parents who buy games for their children and young teens.

Australian Model
G
PG
M
MA 15+
R 18+

New Zealand Model

G
PG
M
R 13
R 15
R 16
R 18
R

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Film_and_Literature_Classification_(New_Zealand)

I welcome your responses to this post.

Cheers.

I guess this s*** is super important when you're 14 and wanna be all independent and stuff and 3 months of your life seems like a lifetime, you don't want to wait, your mum won't buy it, and you don't realise how quickly time goes by and that you'll be an old prick in no time and won't care

Current scheme offers plenty of advice, besides the rating itself, the classification stickers have a summary of what the game contains that earnt it that rating.

what the f*** are you going on about whoop? They introduced the R rating, I have never heard of this mythical 9 year old girls mother outside of retarded stories from America which, given your inability to understand life outside of the internet, you seem to have some how integrated into your Australian experience.

you are insane is what im saying, whoop.

change your avatar too, its f***en annoying.

That New Zealand system looks way too complicated and will just make things extremely confusing if it was decided to be brought in here. And even if the Government wanted to, imagine how much f*****g around they'd take just to do it. They'd waste so much money on stupid focus groups and other rubbish like that.

Our ratings system is fine as it is now.

As a parent the current ratings are fine.

G - anyone in the family watches or plays this and we dont need to triage any DVDs or games they get for christmas with this label
PG - we watch this first or with the kids, maybe check reviews, maybe a bit scary for the little ones, pretty safe though
M - this is a film or game for grown ups, depending on the material it might be ok MAYBE depending on our discretion, but it requires our attention. For example, Tekken on the Wii U is rated M but there's no blood and the violence really isn't much worse than a Ben 10 episode, so we let the kids play it.
MA 15+ - f*** off, no you cant watch or play this, I don't care if Little Billy's parents let him do stupid s***
R 18+ - requires no further explanation

Hoggies rating is pretty much what we have. Except I don't so much look at the rating of the film, as the film itself.

Although, fkn Barbie and Marry a God damn Prince type movies I put in the R18++++ category because my daughter is already bad enough with getting married and s*** and she is only 5 damn it.

It is so hard to find good movies/shows where the hero is female and ISN'T chasing a boy at some point, or the Hero is a boy who is rescuing a female.

Tangled almost did a good job of it, she was pretty independent but still chasing a boy.

Brave though, that was great. Except the ending implied she still needs to chase a boy eventually. At least she rejected it through most of the movie.

Never thought I'd post this, but wow, life is simple with 3 boys ... ?

also the OFLC website is really good. You can search titles and it has a good rating matrix - recommended for any parent!

I watched my first R-rated movie (Platoon) when I was 7yo. Bit of a parenting failure there. Still turned out fine.

I wouldn't even put pen to paper on your petition, OP, based on how difficult it was to get a relatively small change across the line over a very long period of very solid lobbying for the latest update!

So what happens to all of the MA 15+ games that should be rated R 18+?

It's not even worth talking about unless you can somehow quantify the effect that this is having on kids, which pretty much seems to be no effect at this point.

How many kids do you think are playing MA15+ 1993-2000 era games? How many will that diminish to in another 5 years?

lolz, im a bad parent. im letting spook jnr (aged 4) play ma games.

stuff like res evil 4 on the wii is fine im sure!!!!
mum doesnt like it.

How old are your kids Hog? Sif you wouldn't let a well-adjusted 14 year old watch R18+ movies. I was watching Goodfellas and Casino by that age and look at how well I turned out.

F*** yeah. I still remember going to the cinema to watch Universal Soldier (R18) when I was 9 with a family friend who was 13. "Two children's tickets to Universal Soldier please!"

Ah, the good old unenforced ratings of yore.

I think it's relevant who the f*** Zanix357 is.

did the dad threaten to get in his corolla and come beat your ass?
(if he was able to get it started)

You should have replied with "You know this game is rated .. and it's against the law to ..."

Ages ago when I was at "insert computer store here", this mum came in giving the store grief about how the kid couldn't play this game cause his machine was bugging out saying 8 year old lil jonny was having probs with CoDx (can't remember the exact version) to which I replied after going through the machine with a fine tooth comb and finding all sorts of compromised hacks for CoD and said it was a software problem, not covered by warranty and that would be $65

She didn't even blink an eye when I said he shouldn't be playing this game as it was rated ...

All she cared about was the screaming rage her electronic babysitter was causing her spoilt little clitoris drop.

Why is this relevant? I am a gamer, and no different to any other gamers out there. Being playing computer/console games for 25 years and looking forward to the next consoles to come out. What the hell is wrong with that?

I believe it's relevant because i'm older than you.

I doubt Zanix357 is actually over 18. Also, classification is not censorship.