Australians Ban In-Game Performance Enhancing Drugs
Midway’s Blitz Banned Down Under
Midway’s American Football title, Blitz has been refused classification down under, by Australia's increasingly conservative Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC).
The game was originally set for release in Oz on February 22, but the OLFC states refused classification due to representations of both legal and illegal performance-enhancing drug use in the game.
The news follows a number of recent games banned for sale down under, including, Eidos' Reservoir Dogs and Atari’s Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.
The OFLC board report claims that:
In the ‘morally-upstanding’ eyes of the OFLC’s board members this falls into the realm of unacceptable content that depicts “matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults.”
The OFLC can only give a videogame the maximum classification of MA15+ under Australian law. DVDs and films however can be rated up to R18+, preventing DVD or cinema ticket sales to anybody under 18.
Perhaps it’s time for this outdated law to change?
The game was originally set for release in Oz on February 22, but the OLFC states refused classification due to representations of both legal and illegal performance-enhancing drug use in the game.
The news follows a number of recent games banned for sale down under, including, Eidos' Reservoir Dogs and Atari’s Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.
The OFLC board report claims that:
"In the course of the game, the player may access what are purported to be both legal and illegal performance-enhancing drugs for the members of the team. Choosing to use these drugs (by selecting from a menu) will have both negative and positive effects on team-members, for example, by improving their speed while making them more susceptible to injury.
Each drug has different characteristics. Fake urine samples may also be acquired for avoiding positive drug tests. While the game-player can choose not to use the drugs, in the Board’s majority view there is an incentive to use them.
By using them judiciously, the player can improve the performance of the football team (while managing the negative effects) and have a better chance of winning games, thereby winning bets and climbing the league table."
Each drug has different characteristics. Fake urine samples may also be acquired for avoiding positive drug tests. While the game-player can choose not to use the drugs, in the Board’s majority view there is an incentive to use them.
By using them judiciously, the player can improve the performance of the football team (while managing the negative effects) and have a better chance of winning games, thereby winning bets and climbing the league table."
In the ‘morally-upstanding’ eyes of the OFLC’s board members this falls into the realm of unacceptable content that depicts “matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults.”
The OFLC can only give a videogame the maximum classification of MA15+ under Australian law. DVDs and films however can be rated up to R18+, preventing DVD or cinema ticket sales to anybody under 18.
Perhaps it’s time for this outdated law to change?
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Comments
Joji 22 Jan 2007 15:18
1/6
Hey cheers aussies, you've just made this game more intriguing as a possible buy. Who cares if they ban it down under. Many who can will just do a Play Asia thing and import a copy. These bans never work.
Why ban the game? Its just art, imitating life, and to ignore it because some don't agree isnt always the thing.
Why ban the game? Its just art, imitating life, and to ignore it because some don't agree isnt always the thing.
Hypnotoad 22 Jan 2007 23:47
2/6
This OFLC bullshit has got to stop. Are we actually living in a free country here in AU or is this a dictatorship? If the OFLC belives that the game has morally unacceptable content, that's fine. Put a sticker on the box that lets us know that - your job is done. As for banning the friggin thing all together? It's making us look like anally retentive backward hicks to the rest of the world and quiet frankly, aussies are amongst the most open minded people out there. It's time for these OFLC dinosaurs to step down and realise that these games are for fun & it's only an infinitesimal minority that are too stupid to understand that - so why should the majority suffer?? This has got to change. Oh, and make an 18+ rating you f**king dicks!!
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Quill 22 Jan 2007 23:48
3/6
This should help sales... if there's one way to make an Aussie want something, it's to tell them that can't have it. As was said earlier, people will import a copy if they truly want it.
Regarding law changes, we've been barking up that tree for years. Due to the interactivity of the gaming medium, it is deemed as more likely to influence behaviour - hence why film is allowed an R18+ classification and games are not.
Good to see someone is thinking of the children, i guess...
We could take a stand and push for a R18+ classification on games. We could sign petitions and campaign for our leaders to treat us as adults... but it's just easier to import.
Regarding law changes, we've been barking up that tree for years. Due to the interactivity of the gaming medium, it is deemed as more likely to influence behaviour - hence why film is allowed an R18+ classification and games are not.
Good to see someone is thinking of the children, i guess...
We could take a stand and push for a R18+ classification on games. We could sign petitions and campaign for our leaders to treat us as adults... but it's just easier to import.
TimSpong 23 Jan 2007 15:43
4/6
Hypnotoad wrote:
This OFLC bullshit has got to stop. Are we actually living in a free country here in AU or is this a dictatorship?
John Howard, Philip Ruddock, Amanda Vandstone (whoops, Malcolm Turnbull); still covering up Maralinga (actually, that's us Poms); still no apology to the stolen generation; detention centres in the back of beyond with kids in... good question.
Hypnotoad wrote:
If the OFLC belives that the game has morally unacceptable content, that's fine. Put a sticker on the box that lets us know that - your job is done.
Not going to happen - back when I worked in the same office as PC Powerplay/Hyper magazines, we had the Office of Film and Literature Classification try to pull a cover-mounted CD because demo on it had not been classified. They need to be seen to be doing something...
Hypnotoad wrote:
As for banning the friggin thing all together? It's making us look like anally retentive backward hicks to the rest of the world and quiet frankly, aussies are amongst the most open minded people out there.
Have you been to Darwin? Of course, I jest... a little. The point is not how the rest of the world sees the country but how the country reacts to its own censors and government. Actions vs words as ever.
Hypnotoad wrote:
It's time for these OFLC dinosaurs to step down and realise that these games are for fun & it's only an infinitesimal minority that are too stupid to understand that - so why should the majority suffer?? This has got to change. Oh, and make an 18+ rating you f**king dicks!!
1) The OFLC members need to be SEEN to be in a job.
2) The Aussie political consensus is that sporting success equates to healthy mind/healthy body/healthy country - the OLFC is pressured by the right-of-centre Howard government in order to maintain that stance. Also, bear in mind the vast amount of public money spent on the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) - that 'investment' needs to be "protected".
And as has already been noted, there are many other ways to get banned games (which will probably be availalbe in the Australian Capital Territory, like porn and fireworks, anyway).
TimSpong 23 Jan 2007 15:45
5/6
Quill wrote:
We could take a stand and push for a R18+ classification on games. We could sign petitions and campaign for our leaders to treat us as adults... but it's just easier to import.
And I wonder why voting is compulsory in 'Stralia.
Quill 23 Jan 2007 23:01
6/6
Tim Smith wrote:
And I wonder why voting is compulsory in 'Stralia.
Ah... the quandary. We are forced to register to vote (which isn't compulsory to do, but it is compulsory to vote once you've registered - so i've been told) under the delusion that we can actually make a difference with our own opinion. The truth is the conservative media hold control over that anyway.
You can be sure that an R18+ classification in Australia would outrage parental groups on the basis that "children play games", and our current affairs shows would vilify these "murder simulators", citing links between Wolfenstein and some boys who kicked a labrador puppy in 1995.
Welcome to the land of the young and free.