Australian Duders, I need your help!

I'm in the process of writing a college research paper on how video games are treated and portrayed in the media and presented to a general audience. One of my talking points is games being censored and banned in various parts of the world, particularly Australia. Living in America, I can't accurately say how much this affects Australian gamers, or anyone in any other country that deals with serious censorship issues for that matter. So I would love to hear the thoughts of some you guys if possible.

Has the censorship or banning of any games had a serious impact on your gaming habits?
Do you view these strict policies as sensible in any way or are they things that the consumer should decide on?
Has the addition of the R18+ classification made a noticeable difference?
Do you often circumvent the banning of games by importing? How difficult is this?

These questions and anything else you may have to say on the topic would be of great help to me! I'm looking to get a few comprehensive thoughts for quotes in my paper. If I decide I want to use what someone has to say, I'll shoot you a PM and request your permission to use your quote and full name as a source.

Thanks in advance to anyone who gives this time and consideration.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/censorship-and-the-games-people-play-20130705-2phnp.html

Decent article that notes that people were setting up us accounts for state of decay.

I would love to help but about to leave for a work trip for a week so can't write anything of a layout, good luck though. Our newspapers have enough articles so i am sure you can find some stuff on there. Probably a few uni papers on media censorship somewhere too.

Edit: more links if I find them

http://techliberation.com/2008/12/01/australian-video-game-censorship-does-it-work/

Honestly? Censorship hasn't really effected me much at all - but I'll answer your questions.

Has the censorship or banning of any games had a serious impact on your gaming habits?

No - almost none of the games I've ever been interested in has been censored or banned. The one outlier that I can think of was The Witcher 2, where they apparently censored some of the sexual content here in AUS.

For that game, I ended up purchasing it digitally to get the uncut version - not because I really cared much for romancing the female cast, but rather because I wanted to experience the game as originally intended by CD-Project. In any case, you could possibly say that any impact of censorship on my gaming lifestyle has been balanced out by the now easily accessible global economy. On the other hand it means that I've started looking more and more towards purchasing directly from online retailers and overseas rather than local games stores.

Do you view these strict policies as sensible in any way or are they things that the consumer should decide on?

Sensible. I don't agree with all of the restrictions, but they are comparatively clearly set out and have been quite consistent over the years - it's pretty obvious what is going to get censored or banned well before the latest "omg, it was censored in Australia" story hits the gaming press. Also, I don't need nor want most of that shit in my games.

Note, the restrictions are currently set out to only censor or ban when there is no narrative/artistic justification for the offence. You can do most reasonable things in your game (eg. to the level at which films get away with) so long as you justify it in context.

Has the addition of the R18+ classification made a noticeable difference?

Yes. The Last of Us would certainly not have released here uncut a couple of years ago without this classification some elements being the Hyper-violence, the implied instigation of rape of an underage female character and other adult themes.

Do you often circumvent the banning of games by importing? How difficult is this?

Yes (see above) - and very easy. It has certainly effected my purchasing decisions and expectations.

I'll comment briefly on my perspective and gaming habits regarding censorship in Australia. I don't believe entertainment (movies, TV, games, music) should not be censored and it should be up to the consumer to decide what is appropriate. The R18+ has helped allow a few retail games to be sold that previously never appeared on shelves, but recently Saints Row 4 was still censored with content removed for our region, so it still hasn't achieved the ideal outcome for consumers or developers. If I was to buy SR4 today I would import it (and rather easily with the help of the internet - either digitally or physically) as with any other game that has content modified or removed, the main reason being I want to experience a product the way the creators intended.

Has the censorship or banning of any games had a serious impact on your gaming habits?

No, there aren't enough games being censored or banned (that I am aware of) to have a serious impact on my personal habits.

Do you view these strict policies as sensible in any way or are they things that the consumer should decide on?

No way are they sensible. There should absolutely be ratings and they should be enforced but the governing body should not force an "Australian" edition be made just for us because they won't rate it otherwise. If it's that bad, put the highest rating on it and let the consumer decide.

Has the addition of the R18+ classification made a noticeable difference?

No. There are black "R18+" labels on games instead of red "M15+". The classification board simply finds other reasons not covered by the R18+ classification to deem the game "unrate-able".

Do you often circumvent the banning of games by importing? How difficult is this?

Yes. I don't have to often but Left4Dead2 I made sure to get uncensored. I haven't played Saints Row 4 yet because I can't find a guaranteed way to get it uncensored on PC. So there are varying degrees of difficulty. L4D2 was as simple as getting an imported retail copy. My understanding in the case of SR4 is that a US cd key would still be censored based on the region that I'm redeeming the key in.

Just to put a bit more on the R18+ rating, effectively this gives the rating board a little bit more flexibility when it comes to rating games here now. Last of Us would never have made it on the previous system and as such was rated R here in Aus, however the ratings boards still has steadfast points that they will not rate games on no matter the rating. These points seem to relate to mostly drugs and actual rape (subtly implied rape seems to be allowed in R ratings now).

L4D2 is a perfect example, under the new ratings system it would have made it into Aus in its full state as an R rated game. SR4 is an example of one that didn't make it even WITH the R rating due mostly (or entirely) on its drug related content.

::EDIT:: Also you can very easily import illegal games into Australia, I have never had a package personally checked and have always received them. Whilst I am no expert on the matter it seems that its not illegal to own but it IS illegal to sell it.

I import over 90% of my games, which is more about the price than censorship these days. I saved around $200 on my Xbox One order by importing 7 games instead of buying them locally.

The R18 rating hasn't changed all that much. The games that could not be released before it was introduced and can be released now are a tiny sliver comprised almost entirely of Mortal Kombat. The only real difference is that a huge number of games are now getting rated R that almost certainly would have been released uncut at an MA without the change.

The games that would have been banned mostly still get banned. There is still a set of very specific things that games are just not allowed to do. The wording they use is "drug use related to incentives or awards," which is a thing that happens in that one mission of Saint's Row IV. You smoke drugs that confer super powers, which fits the description exactly. These rules are now followed more strictly than they were before the change. The upcoming remake of the original Fable has been rated R, because it contains "incentives or awards related to sexual activity." As far as I can tell, they're talking about the fact that you can have children in the game. There's probably an achievement for doing that, which wouldn't help matters. That said, Fable 2 was released at the advisory rating M, which carries no age restrictions whatsoever, and if I remember correctly, there's an achievement in that game for talking two prostitutes into a threesome.

When games were being banned on a regular basis, I was importing all of the banned ones. Aged 26, I don't like being told what entertainment is inappropriate for me, I guess. I finally bought my first game with the big black R rating on the cover the other day at the Xbox One launch in the form of Dead Rising 3. It's the only time in my life I've been asked for proof of age for a video game.

Has the censorship or banning of any games had a serious impact on your gaming habits?

None, less than none. The majority of gamers I know don't buy at Australian retail. We import from the UK because it's so much cheaper. By doing this we also avoid getting the "censored" version of the game.

Do you view these strict policies as sensible in any way or are they things that the consumer should decide on?

They're old politics, we're getting better but our politicians can still be extremely outdated about certain things. The consumers I know have decided to completely avoid the issue by importing because it's cheaper.

Has the addition of the R18+ classification made a noticeable difference?

No, Saints Row 4 still got banned for drug use, an altered version was released here. Jeff talked about it pretty extensively on the bombcast when it was an issue.

Do you often circumvent the banning of games by importing? How difficult is this?

I don't buy games because they've been banned, I buy games I want. As I almost always import, banning isn't an issue in the slightest. Potentially it gets seized via customs but as the games are released here in altered states most of the time, customs won't pick them out. Mortal Kombat 9 the one exception for a game I bought that was outright banned before the R18 rating, still got it just fine.

I'm not a citizen, but I am currently living in Australia so I guess I can answer the questions.

Has the censorship or banning of any games had a serious impact on your gaming habits?

Not really, it's just annoying that I can't buy and may need to go an extra mile for some games. There are times where I'm discouraged from buying a game just because it would take some extra effort.

Do you view these strict policies as sensible in any way or are they things that the consumer should decide on?

I guess I'm a bit libertarian in thinking that any government should not have the means to enforce this kind of policies. I mean, this is literally censorship (as opposed to the "censorship" many people on the internet keeps complaining about.) But I don't really care, since they're not too difficult to circumvent and I'm not even a citizen.

Has the addition of the R18+ classification made a noticeable difference?

This one's a bit interesting. Some people seem to be pushing reclassifications of some MA15+ games to R18+ for political reasons. Other than that, it doesn't seem to have changed much. Saints Row IV and State of Decay got censored, and most of the games that were banned or censored before are not going to be reclassified.

Do you often circumvent the banning of games by importing? How difficult is this?

Sometimes.It's usually not very difficult. Sometimes I wonder why they even bother with censorship and region locking. It's kinda like the situation with DRM.

Edit: by the way, I mentioned the reclassifications as a noticeable difference (and political) because they're actually pretty expensive.

This is excellent and very insightful, thank you guys! I'll see what I end up using a little later in the week when I have time to continue my paper.

Has the censorship or banning of any games had a serious impact on your gaming habits?

No, it's just an annoying hassle. If the internet wasn't where it is, there would be more of an impact.

Do you view these strict policies as sensible in any way or are they things that the consumer should decide on?

Having guidelines is fine, but some of the ones they've written are completely ridiculous. Also, they should be guidelines. Not written in such a slanted way to technically make them laws if certain conditions are met. If you are legally an adult, the government should probably stop trying to baby you.

Has the addition of the R18+ classification made a noticeable difference?

Not so far. Saints Row IV still had to jump through some hoops, because of a fake drug, set in a virtual reality, in a fictional game. That's just retarded.

Do you often circumvent the banning of games by importing? How difficult is this?

Yes. Not very. They can technically seize it at customs, but they generally don't. For PC, it's usually just as easy as getting a ROW steam code and activating it on your account as normal.

If you're interested in falling down a deeeeeeeeeeeeep hole, Kotaku Australia followed the R18+ issue very closely, and there were heaps of discussions in the various comment threads if you're willing to dig: http://www.kotaku.com.au/tags/ready/

I'm currently at work, but I'll try to answer your questions in greater detail myself if I get more time!

Has the censorship or banning of any games had a serious impact on your gaming habits?

Not really. We complain a lot (and rightly so), but few games are ever actually outright banned. Not only that, but it's also laughably easy to get banned or uncensored version of games from overseas, both digitally and physically.

Do you view these strict policies as sensible in any way or are they things that the consumer should decide on?

Obviously they're the result of a generation completely out of touch with the real world, but they're also the result of Australia's different legal landscape compared to the US. Freedom of Speech is a guaranteed in right in the US, but is not so here. This has both it's advantages and disadvantages, censorship of games being one.

Has the addition of the R18+ classification made a noticeable difference?

Not really. There was still stuff stripped out of the Australian version of Saint's Row IV, but as I said before, this is easily circumvented.

Do you often circumvent the banning of games by importing? How difficult is this?

Often is probably a bad descriptor. Whenever there is a game that has been banned or censored, yes I will circumvent the banning or censorship, but I'd hardly say that it happens "often". Also it is incredibly easy to circumvent. Getting someone from the US to gift the game to you over steam works, as does numerous services that sell CD keys. There are also a number of services that exist specifically to sell and ship US retail copies of games to Australia.