You might find this hard to believe, but back in 2002 I wrote an editorial campaigning for an R18+ rating for videogames – and the issue wasn’t entirely new then. Well, six years on, the government has finally responded to endless haranguing from games journalists across Australia and agreed to consider adding the adults-only rating when the next Standing Committee of Attorneys General convenes on March 28.There has often been a misunderstanding of this issue – and when a game such as Manhunt was banned, much venom was misdirected at the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). But the OFLC was only doing its job: when it saw content it felt was too graphic for an MA15+ rating, it had no option but to ban the game. The government, ignorant to the fact that a large majority of gamers are now adults, had declined to allow games to be rated R18+ full stop.
Well, maybe the more liberal-minded Labor coming to power had something to do with it, but whatever the case, an R18+ rating for games is now on the table. The question is, will it get through?
Governments – particularly Labor governments – are notorious for pandering to loud minorities, especially if there is some moral debate involved. Despite endless calls from games companies, games writers and games consumers to institute an R18+ rating, it could only take one Worried Mothers Action Group or Concerned Conservatives Against Anything New to scupper the tortoise-like progression towards common sense we’ve been fighting for all these years.
The lack of an R18+ rating for videogames is as antiquated as the view that videogames are for kids. The Attorneys General have an opportunity to set things right on March 28 – but do they have the gumption to stand up to those self-appointed moral arbiters who would presume to tell free-thinking adults what games they may and may not play?