Australias Office of Film and Literature Classification has refused to issue a rating to Bethesda Softworks Fallout 3, reports Gamespot Australia.
The highest rating available for games in Australia is "MA 15+." Any game whose content the OFLC deems inappropriate for 15-year-olds is "illegal to sell or promote" in the island nation.
Fallout 3 is currently awaiting classification here in the U.S., though presumably it will garner an "M" rating simply based on the level of gore and violence inherent in the series post-apocalyptic world. The game is scheduled to hit shelves at the end of this year.
Though the OFLC gives no reason for its refusal to classify the title,
Gamespots Randolph Ramsay believes the use of the narcotic painkiller
Morphine within the game was deemed offensive.
"Australias game classification rules state that titles that depict, express or otherwise deal with 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 will be refused classification," he writes.
Perhaps this is a sign that the OFLC needs to rethink its ratings structure.
Games are only going to become more like Hollywood films and reality, for that matter in the future, and if they refuse to rate any game that depicts something as commonplace as drug usage or sex, the number of games being banned will increase to unacceptable levels very shortly.
The highest rating available for games in Australia is "MA 15+." Any game whose content the OFLC deems inappropriate for 15-year-olds is "illegal to sell or promote" in the island nation.
Fallout 3 is currently awaiting classification here in the U.S., though presumably it will garner an "M" rating simply based on the level of gore and violence inherent in the series post-apocalyptic world. The game is scheduled to hit shelves at the end of this year.
Though the OFLC gives no reason for its refusal to classify the title,
Gamespots Randolph Ramsay believes the use of the narcotic painkiller
Morphine within the game was deemed offensive.
"Australias game classification rules state that titles that depict, express or otherwise deal with 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 will be refused classification," he writes.
Perhaps this is a sign that the OFLC needs to rethink its ratings structure.
Games are only going to become more like Hollywood films and reality, for that matter in the future, and if they refuse to rate any game that depicts something as commonplace as drug usage or sex, the number of games being banned will increase to unacceptable levels very shortly.
