IGN has an update to recent news that Silent Hill: Homecoming had become the latest game to feel the sting of the Australian government's ban hammer.

Included are details of game content which drew the attention of censors at the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC):

...the OFLC cited several high impact scenes in the game, mostly focusing on drilling into and severing body parts. One scene in particular that was highlighted as a problem involved Alex (the main character) having a drill forced into his right eye socket, which caused a lot of blood to spray out. A couple of other scenes mentioned include one where Alex forces the drill up into an enemy's skull and another where Alex is cut in half by an enemy.

 

We haven't seen the Silent Hill scenes in question but based on the descriptions we find it hard to understand why the OFLC refused to permit them, considering the famous Resident Evil 4 chainsaw decapitations of Leon were passed without issue.

Atari, which is distributing SH: Homecoming in the Australian market, hopes to work with Konami to scale down the violence sufficiently to earn an MA15+, the most restrictive rating currently offered by the OFLC.

Following last week's news that Silent Hill: Homecoming has become the latest video game to run afoul of Australian censors, GUComics couldn't resist poking fun at Down Under politics...

GameSpot reports that Konami's upcoming Silent Hill: Homecoming has fallen victim to Australia's notoriously ban-happy censors.

Silent Hill: Homecoming thus joins Dark Sector, Shellshock 2: Blood Trails, and Fallout 3 among the ranks of games which were refused classification (i.e. a rating) in 2008. Dark Sector and Fallout 3 managed to get back on board, however, after making edits.

From the GameSpot story:

An Atari spokesman (Atari is the local distributor for Konami titles) confirmed the game banning to GameSpot AU, saying that Australia's Classification Board found issue with the high impact of Silent Hill's violence. Examples used by the Board in its report include copious blood spray in the game, decapitations, partially dismembered corpses, numerous scenes of attacks, fights, torture, and death.

 

The spokesman said plans for Homecoming's Australian release are now "on the backburner until early next year" pending discussions with Konami to see if any changes can be made to accommodate Australia's classification regime.

Silent Hill: Homecoming is scheduled for North American release on September 30th.

The man behind the Muslim Massacre controversy seems unwilling to relinquish his 15 minutes of fame. Although Eric Vaugh issued a widely-reported apology for his game, the object of which is "wipe out the Muslim race," he now claims that the apology was a scam.

We know because Super Columbine Massacre RPG creator Danny Ledonne, himself no stranger to controversy, has shared with GamePolitics an e-mail conversation with Vaughn which took place on September 15th:

Danny Ledonne: It is too bad that you pulled your game simply because some people didn't understand your political message (I for one gleaned a satirical criticism of Bush's foreign policy from "Muslim Massacre" whether you had intended it or not)... I believe by complying with demands of censorship toward the Danish cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad and games like "Muslim Massacre," we are enabling a culture of taboos that are ultimately unproductive in cross-cultural dialogue...

While I recognize my serious/satire game "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" merely pissed off a vocal but benevolent PTA instead of Muslim extremists... it is disheartening whenever an artist (however amateur or vulgar) raises the white flag at the first sign of social disapproval...

Eric Vaughn: The apology was actually fake. I put the site back up shortly after. Now the media is in a total bind and doesn't know what to believe.I was just f***ing with everyone the entire time and have had great success.

[GP: Indeed, the Muslim Massacre site, which had been down, is back up]

Danny Ledonne: Erg. I get it. But I don't. I mean, you have an actual message ( I presume?) and I think you could legitimately stand behind it. Please don't tell me you're just another Ryan Lambourn... doing it for "the lulz." If I were you, I would define success as the opportunity to think more critically about the elements your game addresses...

Eric Vaughn: Not exactly, basically my message was the Muslims need to suck it down and stop getting offended by everything. If they learnt to just ignore people, things would be better. It's not just a message for Muslims, it's for people in general. There are people all around the world who will do things that make you mad. If you search for them, they are easy to find. Just get on with your life.

GP: Readers may recall that Ryan Lambourn, mentioned by Ledonne, created the execrable V-Tech Rampage last year (see: V-Tech Rampage Creator Demands Payment to Remove Game).

By the way, Playing Columbine, Danny Ledonne's film detailing the controversy surrounding his game, will be screened at the AFI FEST in Los Angeles later this year. We'll have review of the film coming up on GamePolitics in the near future.

Yesterday, Edge Online broke the news that Fallout 3 would ship worldwide next week with the same gameplay edits that were made to clear censorship hurdles in Australia.

The issue for Australian censors was the game's ability to use virtual morphine as a health power-up. Down Under, of course, the highest rating is MA15+.

After posting about the news, I realized that last week's GamePolitics story which reported that the BBFC had rated Fallout 3 "18" for the U.K. market contained a huge clue that the Aussie edits had gone global (a clue that I failed to fully pick up on). Here's what I wrote then:

Fallout 3 has been cleared for sale in the U.K. with no content edits required...

 

Curiously, a "consumer advice" note posted with the rating decision does not mention the drug use which got Fallout 3 banned in Australia earlier this year. The only reference to content is "Contains very strong bloody violence and gore."

So, yes, I noticed that the BBFC hadn't commented on the game's virtual drug use but didn't make the connection that it might have been edited out. Doh!

Until a few minutes ago, only Australian gamers assumed that they'd be getting an edited version of the hotly-anticipated Fallout 3. However, Edge Online has learned that everyone will be getting what we might call "the Australian cut."

GamePolitics readers will recall that specific references to morphine as an in-game power-up initially caused Australia to nix Fallout 3. After changes were made, the game was authorized for sale Down Under with an MA15+ rating, Australia's most restrictive.

The EO report quotes Bethesda's PR exec Pete Hines:

We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform.

 

An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names. To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories.

 

I didn't want people continuing to assume the version in Australia was some altered version when it's not. There are no references to real world drugs in any version of Fallout 3.

Nothing like waiting until the last minute, eh? Fallout 3 ships next week.

GP: Thanks to Just Chris for the heads-up!

Game developers Down Under have been fighting for government incentives for some time. Their argument usually includes the fact that movie makers in Australia have access to such tax breaks.

But, as IT Wire reports, at least one filmmaker apparently wants to keep all of the money for himself and his cinematic colleagues. The site quotes an anonymous "film industry insider," who argues that Australia's numerous small gaming studios should be left to their own devices, in a Spore-like survival-of-the-fittest competition.

The problem with the games industry in this country is that it is full of many small studios that should be left on their own to see who survives.

Naturally, Aussie game developers disagree. Tom Crago (left), head of the Game Developers’ Association of Australia, responded:

...it's a bit rich for the film industry to say that games should go it alone. The fact is, we have gone it alone since day one, receiving no federal support whatsoever. In spite of this, we have been able to become far more viable commercially than our friends in film. The bottom line here is that screen culture in all its forms should be treated equally.

 

Funding programs that are available for film should also be available to games. The film industry should actually be embracing this opportunity. It's unfortunate that some in film feel such a need to protect their patch so zealously. It demonstrates a very blinkered approach to the ever-changing entertainment landscape... It's sad because we're missing out on opportunities to work together.

Via: Gamasutra

The product manager for Fallout 3 has told CVG that content restriction variations from country to country are frustrating.

Pete Hines (left) said:

The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different 'hot buttons'.

 

In one place nudity is a big deal but violence is fine, and in another place drugs are a problem but nudity is fine. I guess that's the way of the world - not every country is the same. You're not aiming at one target, you're aiming at six different ones, worrying about how each one will feel about different things.

 

We just go through and make the game that we want to make. We have our eyes wide open, mindful of the things that could be flagged up and how we're going to resolve them if that becomes a problem.

As GamePolitics reported earlier this year, Fallout 3 was refused classification (i.e., banned) in Australia over in-game depictions of drug use. The ban was subsequently lifted following edits by Bethesda.

In 2006 Bethesda suffered through an ESRB re-rating of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the U.S. market following post-release concerns about the game's level of violence as well as a user-created mod which rendered female characters topless.

GP correspondent Colin McIness served up this terrific interview with Oblivion modder Maeyanie at the time...

GamerChip is reporting that the Australian government's ban on Fallout 3 has been lifted following edits to the game for the Australian market.

The site bases their story on information from a pair of game retailers:

...according to EB Games and GAME representatives, Australia will be receiving the game, albeit in a modified format. The new, friendlier version, will have the drug use removed that saw the game banned in the first place. Both EB Games and GAME are currently taking pre-orders for the title. One representative from GAME, contacted this Thursday night... said that he had read on their internal communications only an hour before that Fallout 3 would be released this year.
 

We note, however, that Australia's official censorship body, the Office of Film and Literature Classification, continues to list Fallout 3 as "refused classification" (i.e., banned).

Readers may recall that Australian gamers received a watered-down version of Grand Theft Auto IV after the game's hooker animations were removed to satisfy the OFLC.

While some Australian politicians want to ban mature-themed games and others don't even seem to realize that their nation has a rating system, at least one would-be legislator Down Under not only understands games, but is a hardcore gamer himself.

As reported by Kotaku Australia, ACT Democrats candidate Greg Tannahill makes no bones about his gaming. A press release issued this week says:

Affordable housing, quality education and comprehensive public transport are the issues that Greg sees as key to Canberrans, but gaming remains close to his heart.

 

"Politicians don't understand videogaming and aren't interested in learning", says Greg. "There's good reason for people to be angry about the way games are treated by our parliaments, our media, and our classification board. I think gamers want to see leaders who have real respect for what they are passionate about, both as a pastime engaged in by millions of Australians from all walks of life, and as a multi-billion dollar industry which our governments should be attracting and nurturing".

While Tannahill has a campaign website, he also maintains a game blog, where he describes last week's Q&A program as "frankly terrifying":

Censorship is odious because it removes community choice. Censorship says that the thought is the action; that the common person can't distinguish between depiction and actuality... Censorship says, "Let me decide who talks."

And games are talking. They're talking very loudly, to a great many people, in strong and clear voices. They're speaking in places that have never read a newspaper and in houses which have never listened to politicians. It's okay to be worried by what games are saying. It's okay to disagree. But it's not okay to stifle those voices. It's not okay to kill the game.

On Friday GamePolitics reported on an incredibly clueless TV performance by a panel of Australian politicians and media types. 

For example, while bashing video games at length, the panel members did not even seem to realize that Australia has a rating system for games in place.

Their ill-informed rhetoric came in response to an audience question about game censorship and Australia's proposed R18 rating. As it turns out, the guy wearing the Fallout 3 t-shirt who asked the question (left) is an editor with Aussie site GameArena. "Joaby" describes the experience:

As you can see, what happened was far from a serious discussion on the merits of an R Rating for video games and government censorship. Instead, at large, the panelists were led into a discussion of violent video games and, due to archaic views of the average gamer, the discussion primarily devolved into the same "protect the children" commentary the public has heard for years.

Fortunately, what occurred on the show only served to highlight the exact issue at hand... Due to the format of the show it was nigh on impossible for me to refute even the more ludicrous and fantastic claims (Avatar: the rape game by Barnaby Joyce was particularly hard to keep quiet about) meaning the show simply continued to propagate the same antiquated idea already present in the general media about video games.
 

GP: Check out Friday's story if you missed the video. It's a classic. We've also created a helpful transcript to go along with the video...

A panel of Australian politicians and pundits made a sorry show of themselves on ABC's Q&A program last night.

The rampant cluelessness begins when an audience member (sporting a Fallout 3 t-shirt) raises the issue of banned video games due to Australia's lack of an R18+ rating. The announcer mentions the recent Fallout 3 ban, which was based on in-game drug use.

The panel's answers are astounding. Aside from their immediate willingness to censor games, they seem not to even be aware that Australia has a system for rating games. One member of the panel even raises the spurious "rape in games" issue - and almost seems to compare banned games to snuff films. Only Sen. Mark Arbib comes across as unbiased:

Announcer: Okay, so here's the question... Should there be censorship of these things, or should people over the age of 18 be able to buy these things with an R rating and play them, even though, as we've just heard, they're obviously extremely violent?

Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group, Heather Ridout: Look, I mean if they're over 18, they'll find one way or another to get hold of it, Tony, and they do. But, as a mother of three kids, two of whom spend an awful lot of time playing these sorts of games, I mean I just find the whole thing appalling, the minds that come up with this stuff. Now Grand Theft Auto is one of the more famous games that seemed to turn everyone into a car thief, you know?. My Jordan thankfully didn't do that. But... I mean I'm not a censorship girl... But violent games, violence breeds violence. It's not nice.

Senator Nick Xenophon: I think we need to listen to the psychologists who've looked into this. And this is different in the sense it's interactive. People get immersed in these games and I think there's a real risk. I think as a society we can live without it.

Announcer: But does the risk warrant censorship?

Sen. Xenophon: Look, I think it does, when you look at some of the concerns of what it can trigger in some minds, then I think we need to be just a bit cautious about it.

Sen Mark Arbib: To actually ban them they must be terrible games. So, personally, I'm probably thinking R rating over the age of 18 is fine because as you said, if you wanna play to game, you're going to get it somehow. But I haven't seen the games so I really can't judge whether they should be banned or not.

Announcer: ...these things are being banned because there isn't a rating system on video games... that means anyone of any age can buy them...

Sen. Arbib: As I said, I think there's a strong argument to actually have a rating system, for all games, no doubt about it. And not just an R rating, but ratings just the same as ratings for the movies... so yeah...

Sen. Barnaby Joyce: You can't just say you can see it, therefore you should be allowed to see it, otherwise you legalize snuff movies and all sorts of profane things which I don't think take our society ahead... we had the thing with avatars, is that the right term, where people can actually go out and rape people. Now, this is not acceptable. You have to draw a line... you must take into account... those who are vulnerable to influence, how they would be affected by that. And if you don't, well you suffer what comes next. I, too have four kids... I want these kids to grow up in quiet, unaffected streets. And if there's someone playing a video game where they're raping someone, I'm not feeling good about the place, so, knock it out.

Christine Jackman, Journalist: I agree, we urgently need a rating system. I'm not a pro-censorship person, either... (to the audience member in the Fallout 3 t-shirt who asked the question) Can I throw it back on you... why would you want to play it...?

Audience member: I want to play the game because it's a story-driven experience that you could experience in a movie... however the Australian government won't let me.

Christine Jackman: And how many hours do you think you or your friends would be playing those games a day?

Audience member: It differs between everyone... the average gamer is anyone nowadays. The Queen has a Wii... it's not a question of who's playing them or how long they're playing them, it's a question of whether we're allowed to as adults...

Other audience member: ...I'm not a gamer, but in terms of restricting people's right to choose... how can you make that distinction between pokies [slot machines] and games which might be socially unacceptable when gambling itself, in our society in particular, has so many social problems than what might be caused by violent games? 

GP: Thanks to reader Michael 'sod' Pearse for the heads-up!

Following last week's disturbing news that the highly-anticipated Fallout 3 would be banned in Australia, website Australian Gamer has remarks attributed to the man blamed by many for the ban.

Australian Gamer has posted a scan of what appears to be a letter from Michael Atkinson (left), Attorney General of South Australia, to an unnamed constituent. Atkinson's continued opposition to the introduction of an R18+ rating for the Australian games market has meant that games judged unsuitable for 15-year-olds are routinely refused classification. The country's highest rating is currently MA15+.

From the Atkinson letter:

I am aware that statistics show many game players are adults. Indeed, a whole generation has now grown up with computer games. It is not surprising that those who enjoyed gaming as children... play electronic games with their own children... 62% of Australians in these gaming households say the classification of a game has no influence on their buying decision...

 

Given this data, I cannot fathom what State-enforced safeguards could exist to prevent R18+ games being bought by households with children and how children can be stopped from using these games, once the games are in the home. If adult gamers are so keen to have R18+ games, I expect children would be just as keen. I have publically argued that because electronic games are interactive, the violence and other adult content in games have a strong impact. I am particularly concerned about the impact these games have on children, who can spend a lot of their unsupervised leisure time gaming.

As most GamePolitics readers know, Bethesda's highly-anticipated RPG Fallout 3 became the latest victim of Australian censors when it was refused classification (i.e., a rating) this week.

news.com.au now has more info on the Fallout 3 situation. The site is reporting that in-game drug use led to the game's ban Down Under and quotes from a report by Australia's Office of Film & Literature Classification:

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 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.

news.com.au notes that disappounted Aussies have reacted badly to the news about Fallout 3. In an online posting, one gamer asked, "What are the syringes in Bioshock filled with – magic fairy dust?"

Australia's lack of a rating that scales beyond the 15-year-old level is apparently at fault. As GamePolitics has previously reported, South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson has been a major force opposing the addition of an R18+ rating.

According to GameSpot and other sources, the long-awaited Fallout 3 has been refused classification by Australia's Office of Film & Literature Classification.

The decision effectively bans Fallout 3 from being sold by retailers Down Under. From the GameSpot report:

While the OFLC website has no details on why Fallout 3 was banned, a user in GameSpot's PC forum last week suggested it could be due to the use of the drug morphine within the game.

 

Australia's 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.

Fallout 3 thus joins Shellshock 2 and Dark Sector as games which have run afoul of Austrialian censors in 2008. Fallout 3, however, is surely one of the most high-profile games ever to face such action.

As GamePolitics reported earlier this year, Dark Sector, developed by Digital Extremes and published by D3Publisher, was refused classification by Australian censors over violence concerns.

PALGN is now reporting that edits made to the game have toned down its level of blood and gore enough to earn an MA-15+ rating. From the PALGN story:

The game was originally considered by the OFLC to be too strong for our shores, as a "violent and sometimes gruesome game with a sinister storyline and ominous outcome. The violence and aggression inflicted upon the protagonist is of a high level, naturalistic and not stylised at all."

 

...It appears that this version... features no decapitation...

GP: Thanks to several GamePolitics readers who pointed this news out...

GameSpot is reporting that hugely-anticipated role playing title Fallout 3 may be subjected to the Australian government's notorious ban hammer.

While GameSpot is careful to add that the Fallout 3 ban is still a rumor at this point, it points to a seemingly well-informed post in its PC Games Forum:

I have a friend that works for the government body here in Australia that reviews movies, books, music, magazines and...computer games... I was told by my friend that Fallout 3 has just very recently gone through the initial review process by the board of the OFLC and has been refused classification...

 

Apparently the game includes the use of Morphine by your character. (I assume as some sort of "healthpack" or "stimpack"). By all accounts this did not sit well with the Board as the portrayal of the unregulated use of proscribed substances is a bit of a no no and will damage the fragile minds of Australia's game-playing populace.

 

The key issue here is that, unlike movies, our computer game classification ratings only go as far as MA 15+... But due to our archaic and conservative laws, we don't have a computer game R 18+ rating and thus Fallout 3 and games like it will continue to be Refused Classification.
 

GP: This rumor is entirely possible. Readers may recall that Australia banned Marc Ecko's Getting Up over its grafitti theme. 

GameSpot reports that the upcoming Shellshock 2: Blood Trails has been refused classification by Australia's Office of Film and Literature classification over concerns about violent content:

Shellshock 2 is an Eidos game slated for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms, and was due for release in 2009. The game places players in Vietnam War-era Cambodia, where a mysterious chemical dropped into the jungle has had some strange effects on people. An [Australian distributor] Atari spokesperson said there were currently no plans to appeal the banning decision.

The last game to be RC'd by the OFLC was D3's Dark Sector.

According to a report on Kotaku, the Game Developers Association of Australia (GDAA) and the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA) have banded together in an effort to lobby for government tax breaks.

Of the fight for incentives, GDAA president Tom Crago said:

Australian game developers cannot be expected to be internationally competitive when global market conditions are 'not level'. We owe it to the companies themselves to offer these incentives and we also need to make an investment into Australia's 'smart economy'.

IEAA CEO Ron Curry added:

Interactive entertainment is a huge, mainstream business and like our home grown film and television industry, it's vital that our local games developers are given the best chance to be competitive on the world stage.