So not many people take the time to understand this issue properly.
The ratings system we have here for games was made in the early 90's when most games were made for teens and kids. The games industry wasn't taken very seriously by adults at that point so the ratings system they created topped out at MA15+, which worked perfectly well for many years.
As the kids who played games grew up, more and more games with adult content started appearing to account for the maturing tastes of gamers. And for a while it was OK to shoehorn these games into our ratings system. Sure some of the games probably shouldn't have been classified at that level, but gaming was still such a small industry that no-one really noticed.
Nowadays there is a massive audience of adult gamers hungry for complex themes and mature content. It's great! We're seeing interesting games like Heavy Rain and hilarious gorefests like MK. In my mind playing MK is no different from enjoying some of the over the top horror movies of the 80's. It just so happens that it's a great game as well, so lots of people here want to buy it and they make a lot of noise.
Now I can't speak for any other countries, but changing the legal system here can be quite a lengthy process. Big changes like this don't happen unless there is either a serious and urgent reason to do so, or massive public support. Contrary to what people on the net might say, gaming isn't exactly high up in a governments list of priorities, so it's taken a while for this issue to get resolved. It also didn't help that in the past most of the violent games that were getting banned here were generally pretty tasteless so no-one really cared. Then there was the whole GTA4 issue and people started to wake up to the fact that we might be missing out on quality experiences. So it wasn't until recently there was a decent amount of public sentiment behind this issue.
So in Australia, as stated by an earlier poster, religion isn't really a big deal. However the religious lobby groups here still hold onto a disproportionate amount of power. When they sensed that change was in the air they started making noise and for better or worse the media picked up on it and ran with it. Politicians became scared about what would happen to them if they supported an R18 rating, and they started getting swayed by the reasoning of these very small groups. This gave rise to people like the former SA Attorney's General Michael Atkinson, probably the public official most responsible for opposition to the changes, taking up the cause of the anti R18 folk. He went around on behalf of the lobby groups and tried to convince other people to go the same way, with a frightening level of success. However in the process of doing so he turned it into a national debate, the results of which became very clear after the government sought public submissions on the issue. There was overwhelming support for a new system that included an R18 rating, with something like 99% of the replies in the positive.
Yet to change the ratings system for the country required the unanimous agreement of the AG from each of our seven states and territories. They have so far had a couple of meetings where around five out of the seven gave their support for the new system, with the other two either abstaining or voting against it. Even with public support, it is proving difficult to get the AG votes required to make the changes.
HOWEVER in the last few months our federal attorney general Brendan O'Connor has laid down the ultimatum to the States that if they don't make the changes the federal government will take issues into their own hands and override the states by creating an R18 rating. It was a massive victory for the pro R18 crowd, and a very positive (in my mind) sign of changes to come. I feel that it won't be long now before we see a new ratings system here, but for now it's still tied up in the bureaucracy of government.
Maybe that answers your question. We might not have an R18 rating yet, but that doesn't mean we're not progressive.
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