On Monday we posted a story on how Australia’s new Home Affairs Minister, Brian O’Connor, was going to be the saviour of gamers in the land down under. He was the guy who was going to get the six Attorney Generals to endorse a change to the country’s rating system for games. That rating system essentially bans any games from sale that do not fall into the acceptable ambits of a 15+ rating. In order for changes to Australian regulations to take place, all six of the Attorney Generals have to unanimously agree to it.
While O’Connor did manage to bring the matter before the six state Attorneys Generals, it didn’t get very far. It sounds as if those two words that go hand-in-hand with governments all over the world got the better of the proposal: bureaucracy and incompetence.
The short of it is that one of the six AGs was very new to the job (apparently only started a few days before this meeting) and felt unprepared to make a decision; another of the six wanted to consult his cabinet further. This means that the poor koalas and kangaroos in Australia will be stuck with this nanny-state rating system until the next meeting, which will be some time next year.
This is the closest Australia has come to joining the rest of the world insofar as games ratings are concerned. Needless to say, there are probably some pretty disappointed Aussies at the moment. Shame guys, go and drink a lot of VB and try to forget about it while I go and play violent games made for real men.
Source: Kotaku Australia
Last Updated: December 10, 2010
