A Deepdive Into Australian Censorship In Video Games
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- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
- Throughout the years Australia is known as one of the strictest countries in the world when it comes to the video game market. This video explores how much of an impact this has towards not just Australians, but also worldwide.
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Chapters:
0:00 - [Intro]
5:16 - [Chapter 1: Classification Statistics]
36:14 - [Chapter 2: Board Inconsistencies]
46:05 - [Chapter 3: Government Interference]
1:04:08 - [Outro]
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Refused Classification Website:
www.refused-cl...
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Music Credit:
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
On the cool side
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Hard Boild
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Surprised this has very little views. Great video!
Also small correction: OG postal 1 has been available on steam for awhile now for free
Yeah I was aware of postal 1 being available on steam since 2019 as freeware I believe. There's a reason I didn't add it as unbanned. When researching I've found out that postal 1 isn't the only game that got the refused classification rating that is still on steam. Not for most of them but for some. For example Getting up: Contents under Pressure. If you are up to that part of the video (Chapter 3) and the amount of pushback it got from politicians to get it banned in the first place, and yet its somehow still on steam.
Basically I didn't add postal 1 and getting up: contents under pressure as unbanned is because to this day they still have the refused classification rating even though they are available on steam. Tbh I should've added a section in the video that talks about games that have the refused classification rating but are still on steam. Hope that clears it up a little bit
@@EdNarrativeunderstandable have a nice day
This just popped up into my UA-cam and decided to share this. This is an eye opener that Australian media facing censorship 😮
This is extremely underrated. You should do Australian movie censorship next but in 4 parts.
Hehe oh boy don't get me started with that!
We foresee you blowing up quickly with this level of quality !
Haha thank you for commenting. I only expected this to get a few views only but glad this reaching out. I'm glad that you also enjoyed this video as well.
You're the least subscribed to UA-camr that UA-cam has ever recommended to me. Great video, keep it up.
Here before your channel blows up
Great video it’s a shame a well made video like this only has 2k views
Shame indeed. Gonna have to try harder to please the youtube algorithm then haha
Brilliant quality video well done, this deserves much more views.
I'm literally 5 minutes in thinking to myself "nice...this is good content"
Then i realize the low count views...after 9 months.
Obviously the yt algorithm is not doing its job so heres my sub hoping for a boost
I've always found the amount of game (and I think film/book) censorship in Australia has made it stand out among Western countries. Here in the UK, the BBFC is responsible for rating content (which it does for video games under the PEGI system) and as far as I know has only banned or censored a very small number of games, the majority of which have later been fully overturned. Unlike North America's ESRB which is technically a voluntary organisation, the BBFC does have statutory powers, however unlike the Australian board it is run as an independent organisation (but has certain designated legal powers) which probably means that there is more oversight and less political pressure on its decisions. The BBFC did historically take a more active role in censoring content (for example it used to refuse classification of content with any depiction of nunchaku) but since about 2000 its focus has been almost entirely focused on classification rather than censorship.
I thought video game censorship in Australia was largely a result of there being no R18+ rating until a few years ago, meaning that games rated MA17 in North America or 18 in the UK often had to have certain content removed or modified in order to receive an R15+ rating (the older GTA games are notable examples). Given that there is now an adults only rating for games in Australia, I'm surprised that stuff is still being banned which hasn't been in Europe or North America.
I think the UK's 18 game rating is technically more permissive than the US MA17 rating (although MA17 is more permissive than the UK's 16 game rating), and its direct US equivalent would be the AO rating, however unlike the AO rating, all stores and publishers are willing to stock/release 18 rated titles in the UK. GTA San Andreas had the US rating of the original unpatched version raised to AO when the Hot Coffee scandal came to light, and the unpatched (and already censored for the Australian market) version was banned entirely in Australia, while the unpatched and uncensored game's rating remained unchanged at 18 in the UK.
I believe Australia rates literature covering certain subjects, which isn't the case in either Britain or the US. While the UK has never had a formal book rating system, government censorship of literature de-facto ended in the UK about 60 years ago.
I always find it interesting about Australia and other Western countries on how their age rating system works differently from one another as you said. It's still surprising that products to this day even with the 18+ rating added a few years back it is still affected by it possibly being banned. But that is based on certain content tho, like Sexual or drug themes among those being heavily impacted.
It's also interesting you say the BBFC used to censor content before the 2000s, but now has changed its stance and now only worries about classification ratings. It does make me think of the future of the classification board on whether they lessen their grip on censorship in the years to come. These are the same people who made noise about the first mortal combat on how violent it is, and now looking at its remake counterpart, the original is nothing compared to that and now we hear no noise about it being too violent. I'll admit tho this was a time before the age rating even existed, but the point still stands on the different attitude the board has with games now when compared to years ago.
Wow, learnt a lot from this video. Great stuff mate.
Great video
This video is fire
how the hell does this video only have 500 views and you only have 24 subs???
The youtube algorithm works in many ways that we simply don't understand haha
Make that 26 subscribers now
I think a lot of the boards problems can be chalked up to it being run by skeleton crew of people who don’t know what they’re restricting.
The one consistent thing in all these games being banned is that the government went out of their way to find them or someone brought them to the governments attention.
The whole reason I’m back in the “games banned in Australia” is because The Coffin of Andy and Leyley got pulled from Steam in Australia. The blame allegedly lies on a Kotaku Australia journalist who complained about the presence of incest in a game about cannibalism.
The rest get ignored because not even the government can waste the kind of money it would take to comb through the entire medium. It’s just a matter of chance. Like pulling a marble out of a blind bag but that bag contains any video game ever released.
It’s why I don’t see the ABC being anymore censorious. The internet has rendered them largely irrelevant and they’ve had the past decade to let their powerlessness set in. TCOAAL getting pulled from didn’t stop its files ending up on my hard drive just like it didn’t stop Postal or GTA. I own games I bet the ABC would ban without a second thought but they won’t because they’re powerless to make a difference.
This extends beyond video games too. Banning No Game No Life won’t stop me ordering a hard copy over Amazon if I don’t just download a pdf. Remember when SA Senator Sterling Griff threw a hissy fit over anime during question time only to be promptly ignored by the rest of the house? I do. It was really fucking funny.
The days of governments micromanaging what their citizens can and can’t read/watch/play are over.
The future is now old man.
I believe that the 'skeleton crew' you mentioned does stem from them not knowing how games work in the real world.
You are correct that games have been banned when someone has brought their attention to the controversy of the game. Not sure how much you've seen my video but there has been time and time again that when a supposed controversy arises with a game, depending on the kind of level of attention it receives will either get banned or completely change the rating to ease the reactionaries.
This is the same board that allowed "Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure" through as an MA15+ rating game, but because of the massive reactions it caused from politicians, they later banned it as it "promoted crime." Yet as we know most games that exist have elements of promoting some sort of crime and yet they are not affected.
Or when "Dead or Alive: Dimensions" was PG, but then revoked it when the media said there was "Child pornography" in the game, but then READDED the game back in only as an M-rated game when it was re-reviewed.
So yes I do agree that some games are banned because of certain levels of power play. But in saying that though this kind of thing doesn't always play out for the reactionaries.
You'll probably know by now that the Coffin of Andy and Leyley game is no longer banned and is available to play again on Steam. But even with it being unbanned, we've seen quite a few examples of games that shouldn't even get banned in the first place.
Awesome video
I 200% think gta was allowed because of the sheer amount of money the government would make on gst
In saying that, it will make me curious to what they will do when GTA 6 releases because as we know, rockstar always like to push boundaries.
Gothic wa Mahou Otome (Gothic Magical Maiden) = not mentioned because this gacha game not made it outside of Japan regarding about Deathsmiles?
With Gothic Magical Maiden not mentioned, i haven't heard of this product before you mentioned it,. After checking on the refused classification website plus the classification board website there's no mention of this product. I think this is mainly because this product is region locked for japan only as you said, meaning the board nor the refused classification website aren't aware of this product excising as it was never presented to them in the first place.
That why I game