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In 6 Months, Australia Bans More Than 240 Games

Posted by timothy on from the it-gets-easier dept.

dotarray writes with this snippet from (apropos) Player Attack: In the 20 years from 1995 to January 2015, there were 77 games Refused Classification in Australia. After January though, more than 240 games have been effectively banned by the Classification Board — an average of 40 per month. Most of these games are mobile- or digital-only releases you're unlikely to have ever heard of, with names like League Of Guessing, 'w21wdf AB test,' Sniper 3D Assault Zombie, Measure Bra Size Prank, and Virtual Marijuana Smoking showing up in just the first few pages. What games are banned in your country?

9 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. FFS RTFA It's a TRIAL by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Informative

    From TFA

    While this current trial will only last 12 months initially ...

    So the Oz government has signed up with a global, unified ratings system from the IARC. And all that is required from the game publishes is to submit answers to a bunch of questions to set a ratings level for their game. For free.

    Sure, the OZ government has probably tailored how the answers to the question map into the desired Australian ratings system, but this sounds like a great step forward with consistency and transparency. Also from TFA

    It's worth noting that the IARC has also submitted plenty of games which have been accepted by the Classification Board - we're still figuring out the exact number, but there are hundreds of digital/mobile only games classified R18+, MA15+, M, PG and G which have passed through the IARC process.

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  2. Re:What does "banned" mean? by bloodhawk · · Score: 3, Informative

    nope, it means the game was refused classification and it is illegal to sell it or import. Even after they opened up the classification laws we still have a range of games that will never be legal to be sold here, anything that shows illegal drug use, violence on woman etc etc. The summary makes it sound like the bans have gotten worse, in actual fact the laws have become far more relaxed here in the last few years with the introduction of an R classification, just the proliferation of people trying to cash in on cheap gimmick apps to attract immature buyers has increased 100 fold.

  3. Mino and other independent tetromino games by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    The game Mino is banned in the U.S. because a district court ruled three years ago that The Tetris Company owns the exclusive right to make falling block video games using the seven one-sided tetrominoes. Tetris v. Xio . And I expect an eventual lawsuit against the Free Software Foundation over M-x tetris in GNU Emacs because Tetris co-founder Alexey Pajitnov believes that free software "should never have existed" because it "destroys the market".

    1. Re:Mino and other independent tetromino games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      To be fair, Xio duplicated the game's color selection for the pieces, the rotation mechanics (there are many variants of how to rotate pieces in a tetromino game), the drop slide mechanic, etc. It was as close to a copy they could make without duplicating assets. The courts did not rule that no one else could make a tetromino game, just that Xio tried to duplicate Tetris.

      I've made several block dropping games, and there were fudsters incensed by sensational media claims all over the place at the time of the trial. Some people actually canceled their own block dropping games. It's sad, really, since if they had read the judges decision they could have just chilled out.

      They didn't just duplicate the game, they also duplicated the precise "look and feel". It would be like me drawing a pixel perfect reproduction of Mario sprites, backgrounds, etc. then duplicating the gameplay as closely as possible. Only a pro would be able to tell the two apart. They didn't say the code infringed copyright, but the appearance did, right down to the specific way Tetris does T spins.

  4. Mortal Monday by Spy+Handler · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mortal Kombat was banned simultaneously in Australia, Germany, U.K. and several other countries on what became known as Mortal Monday, 1993.

    Fatality!

  5. Re:My 0.02 by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Informative

    I read about this and I'm really glad I don't live in Australia right now. America still has SOME freedom left although it is rapidly dwindling.

    Read TFA .. the ESRB has signed up to the same service as Australia and both Goole Play and Firefox Marketplace support the IARC.

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  6. Banned for being too similar by tepples · · Score: 1, Informative

    They can't be banned for content objectionable to parents, but they can be banned for being too similar to an incumbent's product. See, for example, Atari v. Philips (similarites between Pac-Man and K.C. Munchkin for the Odyssey2 console), and Konami v. Roxor (similarities between Dance Dance Revolution and the StepMania-powered In the Groove).

  7. Re:fewer and fewer... by cheesybagel · · Score: 2, Informative

    Australia can't have a game with blood in it and Germany can't have a game with Nazis in it.

  8. Re:fewer and fewer... by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can have games with Nazis in it in Germany. But it has to be censored and all Nazi symbology has to be replaced or removed.
    For example, the new Wolfenstein game from Bethesda is available, but the swastikas in the German version are replaced by the stylized "W" from "Wolfenstein", and "SS" symbols like the deathshead or the "SS" itself have been removed entirely.
    Also, one scene where you wake up in a gas chamber surrounded by corpses has been altered and all corpses have been removed.

    The original "Wolfenstein 3D" was completely banned in Germany, because there was no censored version available.

    Personally, I think that is bullshit. Nazi symbols are generally illegal in Germany, but allowed under special circumstances such as for "artistic purposes". But then for some reason, they don't have to be removed from movies, such as Indiana Jones... I really don't see the justification for allowing it in movies but forbidding it in video games.

    But that's not all. Extreme kinds of violence in videgames are almost always also banned in Germany unless softened for the German market. Fallout 3 for example, where you can blow up individual body parts, is also altered to be less violent.