The Big Question: Do You Think The R18+ Rating Has Helped?

This is something I hear a lot on this site and on Twitter, mostly when a video game gets refused classification: “nothing has changed!” There’s a widespread feeling, it seems, that the addition of an R18+ rating for video games has done little to change the situation of gamers in Australia. I’m keen to know how widespread that feeling actually is?

So here’s the question: do you think the addition of an R18+ rating for video games has helped gamers in Australia?

I think the answer is a clear yes. I think there’s a wide difference between what people expected and what we actually received. That might be the reason for some of the dissonance here.

Some expected the R18+ rating to be this catch-all thing where every single video game would go no matter how violent, no matter how debased. What we ended up with was another box with a slightly broader tolerance for aspects of adult video games.

So games like Mortal Kombat X? Totally fine. Games like Hotline Miami, which features sexual violence? Not quite. It is still the job of the Classification Board to enforce the broader values of the Australian general public and that has not changed, but it has changed enough — I think — to have helped in some way.

What do you think?


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