Retailer-backed pro-R18+ petition draws over 72K signatures in Australia

by Griffin McElroy on Apr 15th 2010 12:15PM

Though new South Australian Attorney General John Rau seems to be straddling the fence on the prospect of introducing an R18+ rating for mature games in the land down under, a large force of gamers are attempting to pull him over to their side. A petition started by electronics retailer GAME six weeks ago has garnered over 72,000 signatures in support of the new rating, which would ostensibly reduce the number of games that are censored or outright banned in the region. EB Games and special interest group Grow Up Australia have started a similar petition, gathering over 46,000 signatures for the cause.

GAME plans to bring its petition before the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General meeting on May 7, though it's not certain that the R18+ issue will be on the agenda. If it is, however, the petition will be difficult to ignore -- according to GamePolitics' calculations, it's well on its way to becoming the largest petition in the nation's history.

Source

Tags: attorney-general, australia, ban, censorship, eb-games, game, grow-up-australia, john-rau, petition, politics, r18

Reader Comments (45)

Great poster says what everybody is thinking

It's about damn time Australian Gamers. Make your voice heard!

People love to complain that the government doesn't listen, but for a government to listen its people must make the effort to be heard.

Australian gamers are doing an awesome job with this.

Good for you Australia!

Well done, Australia.

Censorship like this is annoying.

Why would we address something that brings us millions in tourism dollars! Let sleeping drop bears lie.

@nighttime

what?

Good luck, Australia. Maybe you can address the drop bear crisis next!

So is the idea here that by created the R18+ Rating that only the absolute most mature games will fall into the category, thus more games will fall into the category just below it?

The idea is that games which under the current system would be banned would now be branded R18+ and available for adults to buy.

I think that logic is slightly flawed though. Even if you create the R18+ rating who's to say that the government still won't ban certain games, the ones they deem to be the "worst of the worst"

yes and no. sure, none of us can predict that the australian government will do with future censorship, but the entire point of this is to allow games that would have otherwise been banned (fallout 3 for example) a release to the appropriate audiences.

and while it's not an australian system, the ESRB set up a mature rating (designated as 17+) and an adults only rating (18+), and there haven't been any instances of censorship (though there have been some controversies).

either way, it's better than what's currently on the table. it may not solve the problem entirely, but you can't say it's "flawed logic".

They'd at least get most games. Instead of not at all, or some water downed POS.

..bout time xD

That's what she said.

Whose this she and why don't I know about her?! :o

Here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=that's%20what%20she%20said

And here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-wf2pP7T0Y

Mommy says im grown up

power to the people!

Good work Australia, getting the business done once and for all.

omg poster stop yelling at me

GROW UP AND STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS POSTER.

For a country that has the majority of the poisonous species on the earth, they're very afraid of violence in gaming.

i'm going to pretend that this statement makes sense.

For a country that has the majority of the violence in gaming, Americans are very afraid of the majority of the poisonous species on Earth.

Even that makes more sense than what you posted...

He's saying that next to real poison, fake, metaphorical poison shouldn't be all that scary.

Australians playing M-rated games? Wow... What's next, showing R-rated movies in public theaters? They've already started down that slippery slope towards debauchery and fornication. We need to start shipping bibles to Australia, ASAP!

@ David - Fair enough, I'll call it "wishful thinking" that a government with such strong censorship powers will give them up and just throw all of the previous works into one category.

I am 100% biased on this issue but I can't think of a single good argument against having an 18+ rating.

They should have a law here that requires people ACTUALLY 17 and up to play ACTUAL 17 and up games.

I'm tired of hearing little kids on the mic screaming how they "Chill with the Heart Beat"

I don't even know what that means and I AM SO GLAD!

Money talks better than signatures. Ostensibly prove lost income, lost business, and over-spending on having such a limited and restrictive ratings system. Products come out later, sell worse, and cost more to produce when harsh restrictions are placed on their content. Fewer developers want to develop in such a place that is so unfriendly to ideas.

Any AG, politician, or lawyer can dismiss the will of the public either, for every one signature garnered at a _videogame_ store, they could find dozens from a 55+ retirement community that contradict them. Present the economical argument and its going to convince more folks than the often disconnected view of the gaming public.

Just flood the market with small tits eroge. :P

It's said that this petition had to be started by a company which has it's money on the line instead of the people who might feel they have their freedom on the line.

Either way, this is positive.

*sad

@paperless - what the article doesn't mention is that GAME is actually doing it with EveryonePlays (http://everyoneplays.org.au/) - which was started by website PALGN then joined by a bunch of other Australian gaming sites.

Oh YAY! I can't wait to play Postal 2 and Singles: Flirt Up Your Life -_-

Seriously, maybe 10 games in the last 20 years banned for good and they are all shit. The only thing i want to come out of this is uncensored Left 4 Dead 2. Thats the only decent game in 20 years to receive a significant censorship.

The fun thing about the picture used is that it's not a picture from a GAME store, it's from an EB store (who jumped on the petition bandwagon a couple of weeks after GAME) - for those of you fortunate enough not to be in Australia, those are the two biggest chains of game stores (yes - we have competition!).

How can anyone say fortunate enough to not be in Australia. I can't fault this country. JB Hifi and Gametraders do a good job of providing competition to EB and Game

WHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THAT GOOD
BUT HERE IN PHILIPPINES THERES NO RATED 18+
EVRYONE IS ALLOWED TO PLAY ANY GAME IN ANY AGE

CAUSE THE THREAT IS BETTER IF U DONT SELL THEM
THEY WILL BUY PIRATED SO GOVERMENT CANT DO SHlT
AND ALLOWED EVEN MINORS TO BUY 18+ VIDEOS/GAMES

Are all your shift keys in the philippines stuck too?

And whats with your Videos/Games comment at the end. I know videos have classifications:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_picture_rating_system#Philippines

GP - General patronage
PG-13 - Children under 13 not admitted once accompanied by an adult
R-13 - Strictly for children over 13
R-18 - Strictly for persons over 18
X - Not for public viewing

You fail.

Regarding videogames:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_and_Television_Review_and_Classification_Board_(Philippines)#Differences_with_other_organizations

No they dont have a classification system in the Philippines because they don't produce videogames in any way, all games are imported.

I'm surprised. I didn't realise that was the reason they got screwed with game censoring in Australia so much. I don't think we do here in New Zealand, but we already have R18+ rated games. Not that it stops the bum parents from buying their 8 year olds GTA IV or similar. Now that's just wrong...

I'll definitely sign if they'll allow foreign signatures :) Good luck Australia!

U FAIL UR ASZ DONT TELL ME WHAT IS TRUE IF U URSELF DONT KNOW THE REAL TRUTH

1ST OF ALL IM VERY SURE UR NOT FROM PHILIPPINES

2ND THOSE RULES UV READ IS ONLY "SCREEN/PROXY" OR WAT EVER U CALL IT , IT IS NOT BEING FOLLOWED EVEN
EVRYONE IN PHILIPPINES KNOWS IT AND ACCEPTS IT

SO U ARE THE ONE WHO FAILED NOT ME

Retailer-backed pro-R18+ petition draws over 72K signatures in Australia

Reader Comments (45)

Posted: Apr 15th 2010 12:17PM zefur said

Posted: Apr 15th 2010 12:18PM PlatinumSkeet said

Posted: Apr 15th 2010 2:38PM making11s said

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Posted: Apr 15th 2010 5:57PM paperless said

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Posted: Apr 15th 2010 7:03PM Slashee the Cow said

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