A new study has confirmed that the average age of Australian gamers has gone up to 30 years old.
I can understand that games are more interactive than other mediums (a major reason why I like games) and by extension I guess you can say that it might be easier for games to influence a little one's mind but (1) a ban on R18+ game ratings won't prevent a child getting their hands on a game targeted at adults thanks to the wonders of the Internet, (2) a lot of MA15+ games that are coming in are actually probably more appropriate as a low-impact R18+ but due to the lack of an R18+ rating, this makes it very hard for the OFLC to draw the line, since banning a game means lost revenue for local distributors, (3) a lot of gamers are above the age of 18 so preventing them access is clamping on civil liberties (and as mentioned, Australia is one of the only developed nations to not have an R18+ rating).
I don't actually like overly violent games to be honest but if the game itself has a strong plot and great gameplay, I can usually live with it. The Fallout series is a perfect example. True the game is bloody violent but behind it was a really engrossing sci-fi RPG . Fallout 3 nearly got banned but fortunately they re-worked it to get rid of the realistic drug references and by doing so changed the version the rest of the world would get too - which ironically, actually gave the Australian game censorship issue more coverage worldwide! Australia is now a bit of a laughing stock to the rest of the global gaming community.
I can understand that games are more interactive than other mediums (a major reason why I like games) and by extension I guess you can say that it might be easier for games to influence a little one's mind but (1) a ban on R18+ game ratings won't prevent a child getting their hands on a game targeted at adults thanks to the wonders of the Internet, (2) a lot of MA15+ games that are coming in are actually probably more appropriate as a low-impact R18+ but due to the lack of an R18+ rating, this makes it very hard for the OFLC to draw the line, since banning a game means lost revenue for local distributors, (3) a lot of gamers are above the age of 18 so preventing them access is clamping on civil liberties (and as mentioned, Australia is one of the only developed nations to not have an R18+ rating).
I don't actually like overly violent games to be honest but if the game itself has a strong plot and great gameplay, I can usually live with it. The Fallout series is a perfect example. True the game is bloody violent but behind it was a really engrossing sci-fi RPG . Fallout 3 nearly got banned but fortunately they re-worked it to get rid of the realistic drug references and by doing so changed the version the rest of the world would get too - which ironically, actually gave the Australian game censorship issue more coverage worldwide! Australia is now a bit of a laughing stock to the rest of the global gaming community.
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