Australian classification verdict: It's all junk!

Per

Vault Consort
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Australian Gamer has managed to get hold of the board report that resulted in Fallout 3 being refused classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification. It turns out that the drugs in the game are, as speculated, what's behind the decision. From the report:<blockquote>The game contains the option to take a variety of "chems" using a device which is connected to the character's arm. Upon selection of the device a menu selection screen is displayed. Upon this screen is a list of "chems" that the player can take, by means of selection. These "chems" have positive effects and some negative effects (lowering of intelligence, or the character may become addicted to the "chem"). The positive effects include increase in strength, stamina, resistance to damage, agility and hit points. Corresponding with the list of various "chems" are small visual representation of the drugs, these include syringes, tablets, pill bottles, a crack-type pipe and blister packs. In the Board's view these realistic visual representations of drugs and their delivery method bring the "science-fiction" drugs in line with "real-world" drugs.

The Guidelines also state that "Material promoting or encouraging proscibed [sic] drug use" is Refused Classification.

The player can also select and use "Morphine" (a proscribed drug) which has the positive effect of enabling the character to ignore limb pain when the character's extremities are targeted by the enemy.

The Authorised Assessor's report also states that "chems are an essential part of Fallout 3, and the player will likely use a variety of them throughout the game".

In the Board's view the drug use in particular the use of a proscribed drug, via means of selection from a menu, is related to incentives and rewards as the incentive to take the drug is to progress through the game more easily and the reward is an increase in the character's abilities and as such is Refused Classification.

[...]

The Board notes that the violence throughout the game could be accommodated at an MA 15+ level of classification.</blockquote>I learned something today: the Classification Board really don't like you to select things, especially not from a selection. Of course, news sites such as Kotaku have not been slow in pointing out the gross inconsistency in the verdict.

Link: Fallout 3 - OFLC documents @ Australian Gamer
Link: OFLC Report: Why Fallout 3 Was Banned In Australia @ Kotaku
 
Oh, so it's the drugs and not the dismemberment this time. It's not like Deus Ex, Boiling Point or Haze had you taking drugs either. Oh, and sticking things into your arms? Were Plasmids a suppository or something? Why don't they target real drug dealers instead of a video game. Dandenong sure could use the cleanup and I'm even more sure that all the people in the last year who were murdered in their sleep by junkies would appreciate it, I'm also quite doubtful that said junkies got their first fix from a vial of Zyme.


This is like going up to Bethesda and saying "I want a scotch and coke" but they reply "we only serve bacardi breezers", so you make do. Then the Australian Government comes along and says "that's no good, he's only allowed club sodas". FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
 
Australia seems like a terrible place to be a gamer. The friends I have there are always telling me how it seems like every other game released is either banned or heavily edited.
 
That is true. All the games I/we get are kind of... lacking, I even went through the trouble of getting games from out of the county to play them as they were meant to be played. It is seriously stupid to refuse classification because the game used a tried and true formula - using items, even if they are drugs, to enhance the Character. It seems to me, however that part of it is because the depiction of the drugs (Their image) is too detailed for the reviewers liking. Using non-real drugs - Images and Names - would probably work.
 
Holy13 said:
That is true. All the games I/we get are kind of... lacking, I even went through the trouble of getting games from out of the county to play them as they were meant to be played.

That's exactly what my friends say they do. It's not only the banning and such that sucks, it got to be hard paying more than one hundred dollars for a new game.
 
I guess that is the new tactics to making gaming unattractive; neuter it and force gamers to spend more money on a game which already questionable.
 
Holy13 said:
I even went through the trouble of getting games from out of the county to play them as they were meant to be played.

It is indeed troublesome. Plus, for console players there's the issue of TV formats. The US uses NTSC while we use PAL, which means most games brought in end up being unplayable.

Which brings the thought: If the game was in isometric view, that means whatever representation of drugs will be only a few pixels large, which is not so realistic, thus escaping the watchful eyes of the board.

Way to go for 'immersion'.
 
Typical Australian government screwing us again.

just like when the Prime Minister said drinking 4 beers in one sitting is classed as binge drinking....
 
The Dutch Ghost said:
Well if it was truly immersive it should be possible to have our characters have a bad 'trip'.

I thought Dutch people were hip? There certainly is a good opportunity for them to model withdrawals here, though - I hope they made the most of it.

Incidentally, how did Fallout handle chem addiction, gameplay wise? I only ever got addicted to Rad-Away (in Fallout 2), and I think that was a bug, since I only used it once in that playthrough, and the only ill effect I noticed was an ADDICTED tag on my character sheet.

Wow, check this;

Link

Yeah, Babelfish is silly sometimes.
 
TTTimo said:
Holy13 said:
Which brings the thought: If the game was in isometric view, that means whatever representation of drugs will be only a few pixels large, which is not so realistic, thus escaping the watchful eyes of the board.

Way to go for 'immersion'.

Well, you would still see the evil, evil fake drugs in your inventory.
 
Unillenium said:
the4thlaw said:
Typical Australian government screwing us again.

just like when the Prime Minister said drinking 4 beers in one sitting is classed as binge drinking....

Wow poor aussies, 4 beers is a night cap not a binge :p

EDIT***
Here in Canada drinking less than 4 beers is considered binge sobriety.

Even more ironic is how Australia is stereotyped as a generally beer-swilling nation. Which we are.
 
Kind of funny that prohibition obviously doesn't work on drugs themselves, and now their trying it on videogames with drugs in them.

Do you Aussies have black market uncensored game dealers? "psst, over here, i got the good shit, the blood isn't green and you can press the morphine button! only 95 bucks!"

make somethin illegal and you only make more criminals
 
Actually in most states within Australia a refused classification game only means that it cannot be sold, displayed in public exhibition or displayed to a minor. Buying or possessing the game (as long as you are 18+) is completely legal.
 
This is ad absurdum malum prohibitum. A vile infringement on the freedom to have bad taste. Boo you Australian Bureaucratic bozos without the common sense to create a new rating.

The player can also select and use "Morphine" (a proscribed drug) which has the positive effect of enabling the character to ignore limb pain when the character's extremities are targeted by the enemy.

limb pain.... So could all the motion-blur and such be part of the the new 'limb pain' mechanic. And I thought it was just for concussions.
 
What if I wanted to play the game as character that didn't take drugs? Oh wait, they already removed all my options.
 
Snackpack said:
Kind of funny that prohibition obviously doesn't work on drugs themselves, and now their trying it on videogames with drugs in them.

Do you Aussies have black market uncensored game dealers? "psst, over here, i got the good shit, the blood isn't green and you can press the morphine button! only 95 bucks!"

make somethin illegal and you only make more criminals

Caribbean Market has plenty of those types, except the games tend to come on DVD-R's.
 
Bodybag said:
Incidentally, how did Fallout handle chem addiction, gameplay wise? I only ever got addicted to Rad-Away (in Fallout 2), and I think that was a bug, since I only used it once in that playthrough, and the only ill effect I noticed was an ADDICTED tag on my character sheet.

You really didn't play much of the classic games, that's pretty clear.



The double standards here are absurd, particularly for anyone that watches Australian cinema or goes to check their online book stores. Pretty irrational stuff.
 
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