After the revelation of the controversial airport level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, members of an Australian lobby group were asking for the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification to reconsider their 15+ rating for the game, and now it appears they may get their wish. South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson recently announced his intention to appeal the rating.
“I’ll be appealing against that classification,” said Atkinson to Radio National [thanks Kotaku AU]. “I think it’s wrong.”
While some would say that the rating system is at fault for not including an 18+ age rating, Atkinson put the blame on the classification board for their interpretation of the current system.
“The Classification Board in Australia does everything to try to get games in under the radar. But just because the system is not being applied properly, it does not mean that the principles of the system are wrong,” said Atkinson. “What I want the Classification Board to do is to apply the guidelines properly. What I don’t want is the extremely violent, sexually depraved, drug use games in Australia at all. At the cinema, we can stop people under 18 going in to see R18+ rated movies. We can’t stop these games that are extremely violent and depraved from getting into the home or getting into the hands of children.”
Atkinson once again proves why he’s the number one enemy of gamers in Australia; it seems quite likely that the country will never have an 18+ rating for games until he is removed from his position as Attorney-General.
3 Comments
November 25, 2009
The reason Atkinson is the number one enemy of gamers in Australia is because he's a moron who has no idea what he's talking about. I can guarantee that he hasn't played through Modern Warfare 2 and thus has no clue that the airport level, whether or not you think Infinity Ward made a good decision putting it in the game, makes sense in the context of MW2's plot. Nor does he seem to have any idea that MW2 is a game intended to be played by mature adults who are over 18 and it is only the archaic and inadequate Australian classification system that it is allowing it to be played by people younger than its intended audience.
November 25, 2009
Atkinson is the Attorney-General of one state. Censorship is handled at the Federal level. He has no direct power over the issue and is little more than the Australian equivalent of Jack Thompson when it comes to the question of game classification. Holding a respected government office just gives him a little extra credibility by comparison.
All it will take to get an R18+ rating for video games in Australia is for someone with public credibility to put it on the agenda, and provide a balancing voice to Atkinson. So long as its only gamers saying they want it, nothing will happen. As soon as an objective 3rd party stands up and makes a point of demonstrating how dumb the situation is, things will happen.
November 30, 2009
Atkinson has already been called out on his beliefs - the problem is that he does have the authority to block an 18+ rating because of Australian law that says that all of the Attorney Generals need to agree to pass the measure. Gamers are indeed trying to organize down under, but as long as Atkinson remains in his position, the situation will likely not change.