Responding to public comments from Australian Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor about the desire to have a consensus about an R18+ game classification at July's SCAG meeting, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has come out swinging. The ACL issued a statement saying that the ban on games that require a classification higher than the current rating of R15 should continue as it is.

First, let's look at what Brendan O'Connor said to ABC Australia:

According to a Eurogamer report (thanks beemoh) Duke Nukem Forever and Shadows of the Damned have both been rated 18 by the UK's BBFC. The game that no one ever expected to be finished has descriptors for "strong violence, sex, nudity, and language & drug references" - among a laundry list of naughty things. Shinji Mikami and Suda51's game Shadows of the Damned has descriptors for "very strong bloody gore and very strong language." Both games remain intact as in other regions.

Shadows of the Damned, published by Ea in the United States, is set for release on June 1 on Xbox 360 and PS3, according to GameStop. Duke Nukem Forever is published by 2K Games and is set for a release in early May for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.

At least both games will see the light of day in the UK.

No Mortal Kombat for you, Australia. An appeal by publisher Warner Bros. Interactive to overturn an earlier decision by Australia's Classification Review Board to deny classification has also been denied. That means that the forthcoming Mortal Kombat reboot has been permanently refused classification in Australia, banning the title from official retail release. In an official statement, Warner Bros. Interactive praised fans in Australia and expressed disappointment in the classification board's decision:

"We're obviously extremely disappointed that the refused classification decision has been upheld by the Classification Review Board. We want to thank the thousands of Mortal Kombat fans in Australia and around the world who have voiced their support during the appeal process."

Mortal Kombat's  reboot will still arrive next month in other territories so you can expect fans that want the game bad enough will simply import it from those regions.

This actual gameplay footage from We Dare, the sassy, saucy, and apparently badly marketed game from Ubisoft shows that the game is probably rated appropriately in Europe. In other words, harmless fun and not necessarily harmless "adult" fun. So if that's the case and the game is appropriate, then the blame for all the fervor over the game's content has to go to Ubisoft’s marketing department, who released a commercial making the game look like a way to get another couple to have a four-way...

Anyway, check out the video and see why We Dare is about as sexually charged as an episode of the Golden Girls.. Thanks to Andrew Eisen for the video link.

The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) rating board, the organization responsible for rating games in Europe, defended its decision to rate We Dare for 12 year olds and above (PEGI 12) this week, even as Ubisoft takes extra precautionary measures to warn parents about the game's content. It's interesting because it undercuts PEGI's stance.

A statement by the ratings board (found on Cubed3D) defends the decision to rate it for such a young age group, stating that "it contains mild swearing, minor assault on a human-like character and words/activities that amount to obvious sexual innuendo, explicit sexual descriptions or images and sexual posturing."

According to Gameplanet.co.nz Mortal Kombat will be available in New Zealand. Australians are no doubt envious of the fact that NZ has a ratings system that goes beyond the 15+ age limit. The reboot of the Mortal Kombat series received a rating of R18: Graphic Violence in New Zealand, ensuring that the game will be released in the region in April.

Mortal Kombat will be available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on the April 21. The game releases here in the United States on April 19, 2011.

So far, Australia is the only country to refuse classification of the game (to my knowledge). We do not know why other than the tired mantra of "protect the children" being at play on some level. If you want to protect children MP's of Australia, give the games rating system the proper adult classification it needs: R18+, please.

In light of a rather racy commercial and confirmation from Ubisoft that We Dare is intended for mature audiences, many are still a bit surprised to learn that PEGI rated the game 12.

Cubed3.com sought comment from the rating board who explained:

According to a report on Kotaku Australia Mortal Kombat has been refused classification in Australia. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment issued the following statement to the media:

Australian Federal Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor wants to introduce the R18+ for games by mid-2011 and said today that he plans to push state and territory attorneys-general to accept the proposed guidelines and finally approve the adult classification. Or at least, that's what he is telling GameSpot.au.

O'Connor told GameSpot AU that he wants this issue resolved by July. A vote could have been possible in March if New South Wales Attorney-General John Hatzistergos did not have to skip the March SCAG meeting in March due to reelection activities.

Australians hoping that the R18+ issue would be resolved at a March Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meeting had their hopes dashed once again as the government pushes the issue back to deal with local elections. New South Wales attorney-general John Hatzistergos confirmed that, because he would not be able to attend the March SCAG meeting, any decision or further discussion on R18+ would have to wait until after his re-election campaign. In order to approve the R18+ rating, all state and territory attorneys-general have to agree to it.

Australians expected to see progress on this issue at the March 4 SCAG meeting in Wellington, New Zealand.

Review aggregation site Metacritic has named Take-Two the best publisher of 2010, citing its own review score data for games released within the year. According to the site, Take-Two's overall average score for the year was 77.1 percent. Red Dead Redemption was the company's highest rated game, with an average review score of 95 percent based on 96 reviews. Take-Two's lowest scoring game was Major League Baseball 2K10 for Wii, which had an average review score of 52 percent. The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, named the publisher's "best original title," had an average overall review score of 83 percent. 

Nintendo came in a close second with an average overall review score of 76.1 percent. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was the highest rated game of the year overall, with an average score of 97 percent. Capcom came in third at 74.5 percent, followed by Microsoft at 73.4, and EA at 72.6. Activision Blizzard missed the top five with 69.3 percent. 

Last week, IGN created a nifty little flow chart detailing the ESRB’s rating process.  GP veterans are no doubt familiar with the process but newer readers may look at the chart and think, “Wait a minute, why doesn’t the ESRB play all the games it rates?”

ESRB media relations guy, Eliot Mizrachi explained to IGN:

Sometimes developers can get carried away with the use of adult words in "mature" rated games (see Mafia II), but Guerrilla Games game director Mathijs de Jonge says that its latest game, Killzone 3, has just the right amount of colorful language.

Speaking to Edge Magazine, de Jonge talks about the merits of strong language in video games - where appropriate - and feels that Killzone 3 hits its swearing sweet spot.

"In Killzone 2 we ended up with too much of it," de Jonge told Edge. "The thing about swearing is that it's highly effective when it's done right, and in Killzone 3 I think there's some swearing but if feels a lot more impactful."

"It's at the right times," adds de Jonge. "In total, I think there's seven 'f*** yous' and one 'mother***er'. I think that's fine."

The level of swearing in Killzone 3 seems minor - almost non-existent, in fact - when compared to Mafia II.

An ESRB ratings entry for BioWare's Dragon Age II reveals some of the "mature rated" sauciness you can expect within the game when it is released on March 8. According to the entry, the game will feature sexually charged dialogue, adult language, and a suggestive scene that "alludes to" an act of oral sex – among other things.

First the description of oral sex:

"In one cutscene, a woman kneels in front of a male character and appears to perform fellatio," says the ESRB entry. "There is no depiction of the sex act; the camera pans out to the rest of the room."

According to a roughly translated report in PCGames.De, Bavaria's Ministry of Social Affairs said that the PSP version of EA's Dead Space needs to be reexamined before it can be approved for release in the region (thanks Cheater87). The title must be tested for the sixth time by the USK, according to what EA told PC Games.

The objection seems to be with the multiplayer mode, which lets human players kill other human players. Germany is notorious for requiring developers and publishers to remove things like gameplay involving killing humans and blood before a game can be released in the region.

UKIE releases a PEGI app for iPhone and iOS devices that help shoppers - especially parents - in the UK get instant access to game related ratings data.

Similar to the app released by the ESRB, the PEGI app allows consumers to browse the database of all the video games that have received a PEGI rating (+16,000 games), get detailed information about the type of content each game contains, and read reviews (if one is available).

The app was created by PEGI S.A., the same group that manages the pan-European video games ratings system. The PEGI app is free to download now at iTunes. An Android version will be released soon. Eurogamer provides the reviews.

Last week Australia's attorneys-general failed to agree on an R18+ rating for video games, pushing the issue off to sometime "early next year," so that commissioners have more time to study the issue and craft solutions. Many in the country had hoped that the AG's would agree on a classification and get to work on implementing it. Sadly that did not happen.

Ron Curry, chief executive of the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association, issued a statement Friday afternoon saying the following:

While some were disappointed that an R18+ rating was not approved by the Australian government, one group was delighted by the outcome: the Australian Christian Lobby. Lyle Shelton, Chief of Staff of the group, seemed delighted that it failed, but not all Christians in the country agree with him or his group's views on the subject.

Anthony Caruana, a technology journalist and practicing Christian, takes offense with some of the things  Shelton has said about the R18+ rating and emphasized that his group doesn't represent all Christians in Australia.

In an article for ABC Caruana said that most video games are played by adults and that the stereotypical gamer is no longer just male and points out that women make up a large portion of the gamer demographic.

A statement from the Australian Christian Lobby (in an article entitled "ACL welcomes refusal of R18+ game classification" that appeared in the Australian Conservative) celebrates the defeat of the measure during the Standing Committee of Attorney Generals meeting last week. ACL’s managing director Jim Wallace was one of the panelists at the meeting speaking against the new rating. Below is some of what Wallace had to say about the meeting and the results:

"It was very clear to me that the great majority of AGs were in a state of bemusement that anyone could want to make or play many of these games and particularly those proposed for an R18+ rating," Wallace said. "It is clear that the meeting failed to get support for the R18 classification as a result."

Update #2: Speaking to Kotaku Australia, Brendan O’ Connor said that the Western Attorney-General was not responsible for the R18+ delay: 

"Ah look," he said, "Christian [Porter] has a really open mind about the subject, and he is genuinely worried about the way games are currently falling into childrens hands under MA15+. Like I said there was a real consensus in the room, and this is a good first step. Changes will be made and the way we adjust the guidelines are a very important part of that process. We have to work out what’s in and what’s out." 

"We also had a new Victorian AG, and he’s only been an Attorney General for a few days, so we really need more time to get everything worked out."

The office of Australian Commonwealth Censorship Minister Brendan O'Connor released the list of individuals presenting views on an R18+ video game classification to the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General today. That list includes:

Donald McDonald - director of the Classification Board.

Grant Devilly - Associate Professor, Psychological Health Research Unit, Griffith University; co-author of the study "The effect of playing violent video games on adolescents: Should parents be quaking in their boots?" and the recently released study "The effect of violent videogame play-time on anger."

Jeffrey Brand - Associate professor and Director, Centre for New Media Research at Bond University. In charge of the Interactive Australia reports, funded by the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association.

Australian gamers concerned that recent elections and the relative silence of politicians on the issue, will be happy to hear that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the R18+ rating. According to News.com.au by way of Joystiq and Gamspot (thanks to Shoutboxer Cheater87 for the tips), Australia's federal cabinet has approved the R18+ rating. This means that games that might usually be banned from the Australian games market will now be available and will avoid having to be edited and then resubmitted for reclassification.

A government report issued by Australian Minister of Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor, in which it was stated rather emphatically that “there is no conclusive evidence that VVGs [violent videogames] are more harmful than other violent media,” seems to have reignited the R18+ videogame rating debate Down Under.

The report (PDF), issued by the Attorney-General’s office, focused specifically on videogame research, and while it noted the “divided nature” of such research and the “insufficient attention” paid to third variables in such research, it was generally pro-videogame.

The R18+ rating in Australia may have support with some attorneys-general, according to this GameSpot Australia report (thanks Ryan O'Meara).

The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meeting set for December 10 may be the place for the issue to get some attention; last week ACT Senator Kate Lundy brought up the benefits of the rating system before the senate, and this week Federal Opposition Shadow Attorney-General George Brandis talked to GameSpot AU about the importance of having an R18+. From Brandis:

"The Coalition recognises there are inconsistencies in the current classification system that need to be addressed," Brandis told GameSpot AU. "We are looking closely at a number of proposals as to how the Australian classification system can be more effective across all types of media, including games and software."

Kotaku Australia rightly points out that, in the aftermath of elections in Victoria, the region is probably going to have a Liberal Government. This means that the most vocal advocate of an R18 ratings system for Australia, Attorney General Rob Hulls, will most likely be replaced by someone who either is opposed to video games ratings, or simply does not care.

Kotaku also points out that it only takes one powerful person in the government to take an issue from full speed ahead to dead-stop and that most of the current or new AG's simply don't care all that much for the issue.

Like America, financial worries, and international tumult are overshadowing the issues related to video games.

The Index Conferences and Exhibitions Organization and the Iran National Foundation of Computer Games announced a new Islamic-based ratings system for video games during a press conference held at the Dubai World Game Expo this week. The ratings system, the Entertainment Software Rating Association (ESRA) was created by a research team at the National Foundation of Computer Game.

"The approach of Islam is based on Human being innateness 'Al Fitra,' and the most important innate trends are truth, virtue, benevolence, excellence tendency, innovation and creativity," said Dr. Behrouz Minaei, the Managing Director at Iran National Foundation of Computer Games. "That's why we made sure that ESRA team are proficient in these areas; Religion, Psychopathology, Educational psychology, Social psychology, Sociology of the family, Family Sociology, Emotional Psychology, Family therapy and Educational technology."

Kate Lundy, Senator from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), (the same party as game hating ex-Attorney General Michael Atkinson), stood up in front of Parliament and argued for the introduction of an R18+ videogame rating.

Senator Lundy tabled, or proposed for consideration, a pro-R18+ petition sponsored by retailer GAME and the organization Everyone Plays which featured 89,210 signatures backing the adult videogame rating.

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) and the Australian Catholic Bishops (ACB) have differing opinions on the introduction of an R18+ adult videogame rating Down Under, which has caused a chasm between the two groups.

A new Rasmussen poll of Americans on the subject of violent videogames found that 54 percent of those polled believed that violent games lead to more violence in society.

The latest survey of 1,000 adults took place on November 8-9 and that 54 percent number held steady from a similar poll conducted in April of this year. In response to the question “How concerned are you about the level of violence in many video games today?” 69 percent indicated they were at least somewhat concerned, while 48 percent were “very concerned.”

Two new editorials appearing online today back California in that state’s Supreme Court fight over a law that would make it illegal for minors to purchase mature-rated violent games.

Writing for the Iowa-based Quad-City Times, columnist L. Brent Bozell argues that requiring a parent to buy such games for their offspring is “hardly shredding the Constitution.” He also infers that the videogame industry is hiding behind the First Amendment in order to stop politicians from “tampering with their sales to minors.”

For the game industry, Bozell writes, “there must be no hurdle for children to go around their parents and grab what Justice Samuel Alito called ‘the most violent, sadistic, graphic video game that can be developed.’”