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South Australian Attorney General wants to remove MA15+ games rating
Australia's Standing Committee of Attorneys-General are in the process of actively discussing the implementation of a (long overdue) R18+ rating for games in the territory, following the approval of said rating by the nation's federal cabinet earlier this month. However, South Australian AG John Rau recently introduced a thought-provoking idea to the committee: Should the R18+ rating be adopted, Rau believes that the MA15+ rating currently used by the Australian Classification Board should be removed altogether. Rau, who replaced longtime anti-R18+ advocate Michael Atkinson earlier this year, explained to Gamespot, "My reason for wanting to get rid of MA15+ if an R18+ is passed is that it will provide a crisper delineation between adults-only games and games that are for children." He later added, "if MA15+ comes out of the mix altogether, I think parents will have a clearer idea what games are for children, and what games are for adults." Should the MA15+ rating be repealed, the next-lowest rating used by the ACB would be M, which the board applies to games which "contain material that requires a mature perspective, but is still not enough to be deemed too strong for younger viewers." There's no age restriction applied to these games at Australian retailers, making it roughly equivalent to the Teen classification used by the ESRB. Rau's got a compelling argument, here -- but it won't make much of a difference if the Committee fails to approve the R18+ rating in the first place. C'mon, guys! We believe in you!
Retailer-backed pro-R18+ petition draws over 72K signatures in Australia
[Destructoid] Though new South Australian Attorney General John Rau seems to be straddling the fence on the prospect of introducing an R18+ rating for mature games in the land down under, a large force of gamers are attempting to pull him over to their side. A petition started by electronics retailer GAME six weeks ago has garnered over 72,000 signatures in support of the new rating, which would ostensibly reduce the number of games that are censored or outright banned in the region. EB Games and special interest group Grow Up Australia have started a similar petition, gathering over 46,000 signatures for the cause. GAME plans to bring its petition before the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General meeting on May 7, though it's not certain that the R18+ issue will be on the agenda. If it is, however, the petition will be difficult to ignore -- according to GamePolitics' calculations, it's well on its way to becoming the largest petition in the nation's history.
New Australian AG backpedals on R+18 rating
Remember those fuzzy, triumphant feelings we felt when new South Australian Attorney General John Rau supposedly voiced his unswerving support for adopting an R18+ rating for violent video games in the region? Yeah, those feelings have officially been depleted -- in a recent interview with GameSpot, Rau stated that he "can neither support nor wisely argue against a position if I am not aware of the relevant factors." No, it's not like Rau's adopted the staunch anti-violent game stance of his predecessor, controversial AG Michael Atkinson. However, considering Gamers4Croydon president Chris Prior said Rau's stance on the issue was that it would be "just common sense to introduce" the mature rating to the territory, his actual, noncommittal stance is a little disappointing. We're not sure our delicate emotions can take much more of this back-and-forth. [Via GamePolitics]
Replacement Australian attorney general open to R18+
It was a happy day for many gamers when Australian attorney general Michael Atkinson stepped down. As the biggest hurdle in pursuit of a R18+ rating in the country, he obviously wasn't very popular with gamers sick and tired of playing edited titles or, more importantly, not being able to play at all. His successor, John Rau, is apparently more hip to the cause. Gamers4Croydon party president Chris Prior, who recently met with Rau, told news.com.au that Rau called the current lack of a R18+ rating "absurd." He further added that Rau said "it was really just common sense to introduce it, considering the vast majority of adult content is already available under the MA15+ classification." If that doesn't fill our brethren down under with the warm fuzzies, we don't know what will. [Via Kotaku]
