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BANNED
BANNED
DEBATE over the lack of an R18+ rating for video games is set to be reignited after another game title was denied classification in Australia.
The video game Fallout 3 was this week denied a rating by the Office of Film and Literature Classification, banning its sale and promotion in Australia.
Video games in Australia must qualify for a rating of MA15+ or less to be available locally, due to the lack of an adult R18+ classification similar to that given to films.
Fallout 3, developed by Bethesda Softworks, is set two centuries in the future and follows a survivor who ventures out of a fallout shelter into a post-apocalyptic world.
The game is the third major title in the popular Fallout series. The first two titles were jointly named one of the best five games of all time by PC Gamer magazine in 2001.
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According to documents given to Australian Gamer, the classifications board denied Fallout 3 a rating due to its depiction of realistic drug use.
"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 board's report said.
"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."
The board made explicit mention that the game's violence "could be accommodated at an MA15+ level of classification", leaving its concerns about the depiction of drug use as the sole reason for refusing classification.
The decision has prompted a backlash from video game blogs and message forums, with claims that the ban was inconsistent with the board's previous ratings.
"What are the syringes in Bioshock filled with ? magic fairy dust?," read one post on Australian Gamer.
In Bioshock the player must inject themselves with "plasmids" that grant them special abilities such as telekinesis or the power to manipulate fire.
The game, set in a city that has been overrun by deformed zombie-like humans, also includes references to people becoming addicted to the plasmids and turning into the zombies.
Bioshock was rated MA15+ in Australia and last year won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Game of the Year.
Overseas website Wired also commented on the decision, saying Australia needed to review its classification standards.
"Games are only going to become more like Hollywood films ? and reality, for that matter ? in the future, and if (Australia) 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 introduction of an R18+ rating for video games in Australia has in the past been blocked by South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson.
A unanimous decision by all state and federal Attorneys-General is required to alter classification guidelines in Australia.