In the midst of the R18+ rating debate, we thought that we should review some of the titles that have been banned or ‘refused classification’, and why they had been banned in the first place. We’ve included titles that have eventually got through with what changes have been made and games that caused some controversy.
In this final article, here is an extensive list of the games that caused controversy, either due to the inconsistencies in the classification system, the lack of understanding in the wider community, or due prejudices against video games in the mainstream media. You decide whether these games were worthy of the unsavoury attention that they received, whether children had been or ought to be protected from such material and whether the fuss would have been avoided with an R18+ classification.
If you haven’t done so yet, you might want to consider signing the petition backed by PALGN, Everybodyplays and GAME, supporting the introduction of an R18 classification. If you don’t agree with some of the classification decisions, you may have more incentive to do so.
Head to the new Everyoneplays website here.
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Games that caused controversy
Title: Bully a.k.a Canis Canem Edit
Year: 2006
Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox
Status: Passed classification
Rating: M
Overview: Originally named Bully, and the product of controversy magnets and Grand Theft Auto creators, Rockstar, the game was heavily lampooned by the media as a ‘bully simulator’. Following this unsavoury attention, the game was renamed Canis Canum Edit, to avoid any associations with bullying. It was later found that players were not actively encouraged to attack innocent bystanders or undertake acts of “bullying”, and were not rewarded for doing so. In fact, players would be sent to detention and would have to play through repetitive mini-games while serving time. Incidentally, the missions in the game have the player generally thwarting acts of bullying, exploitation or discrimination. The game was later re-released on the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii in 2008 with the original name and not a peep from the sensationalist media.
If there were ever a gaming storm in a tea cup, Bully would have to be it.
Title: Carmageddon
Year: 1997
Platforms: PC
Status: Passed classification
Rating: MA15+
Overview: Carmageddon was among the first video games to attract controversy, namely because players were awarded bonus points for running over civilians and pedestrians while you were racing around checkpoints. At the time of the classification, the Board was reportedly divided, as aspects such as the dark humour were mitigating circumstance in passing the game with an MA15+ classification. The game was originally banned in the UK and only released in its original form after 10 months of appeals. Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now was released In 1998 and while it was passed with an MA15+ rating, it too was the centre of controversy.
Hopefully, the industry has grown up a bit since the game's release.
Title: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Year: 2009
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Status: Passed classification
Rating: MA15+
Overview: For anyone who played it in 2007, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare includes some of the most confronting material ever seen in a game. No one who saw it will forget ‘the bomb’. Looking to continue with the shock and awe treatment, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was initially passed with an MA15+ rating, but it caught the ire of the mass media and adult rating antagonist, Michael Atkinson, for one particular in-game scene. Playing undercover as a Russian Terrorist in an airport, players are forced through a sequence that includes the killing of civilians. Atkinson has threatened to appeal the classification, but for now, the game is still readily available on shelves.
Would it have been more suitable to place this under an R18+ rating?
Title: Dead Space
Year: 2008
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Status: Submitted twice for classification before being released unmodified
Rating: MA15+
Overview: Even though the horror homage 3rd person shooter Dead Space was released without any modification, gamers were concerned when it was submitted twice classification. According to the developers, the game was submitted at an early stage of development, then resubmitted as a courtesy to show that the game hadn’t changed much since the original showing.
Given history, you can understand some being worried about this.
Title: Dracula Unleashed
Year: 1997
Platforms: PC
Status: Among the first games to have “realistic horror”
Rating: MA15+
Overview: Dracula Unleashed was among earliest titles to get the consumer’s attention by showing that games can show mature content. While the overall content was considered mild by the standards of the vampire fiction, but it was one of the first times that such content was witnessed in a video game. As such, the board of the time deemed it strong enough that an MA15+ was warranted.
They don't make 'em like they used to...
Title: Dragon Ball Origins
Year: 2009
Platforms: Nintendo DS
Status: Rating reviewed from PG to M
Rating: M
Overview: Based on the children’s cartoon of the same name and the precursor to the much more popular Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Origins was originally classified PG. However, it was later revealed that the game contained “One scene involves a girl flashing an older man, then some arguing about her panties. Some brief, non-explicit nudity is shown during a cut scene involving a bath”. As such, the game was reclassified M with sexual references.
Since when was toilet humour deemed mature?
Title: Duke Nukem 3D
Year: 1996
Platforms: PC
Status: Originally passed in a modified form, the original version was later passed as well
Rating: MA15+
Overview: At the dawn of 3D, voicing and the internet, Duke Nukem 3D was another early pace setter for adult-orientated games. It was among the first main stream games to have a brash and irreverent protagonist, as well as content to match. Originally, a modified version was passed off in Australia with an MA15+ rating. However, this modified version merely had the adult mode ‘locked’, and as the first hacks starting appearing on the Internet, many players proceeded with playing through the ‘unlocked’ version. Even though the Board attempted to revoke the classification, it was ruled that since the classification was made on the modified version, that the rating stands. So while the modified version was still left out for sale, players with enough computer skills were able to unlock the adult mode.
The Board ain't gonna stop the Duke.
Title: Fable
Year: 2005
Platforms: Xbox
Status: Minor controversy upon release
Rating: M
Overview: Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie specifically asked the OFLC to make sure that Fable wasn’t promoting violence, particularly against women. A rather slapstick take on the popular RPG genre, Fable allowed players to marry and if they did not treat their wives properly, the wife would divorce the player. The claims that Fable encouraged domestic violence were eventually considered to be unfounded.
Not pictured: His loving family.
Title: Grand Theft Auto IV
Year: 2008
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Status: Submitted modified
Rating: MA15+
Overview: While Grand Theft Auto IV was openly questioned in the mainstream media for its mature content, Australian players thought that they were going to receive an unedited version of the game. Unfortunately, publisher Rockstar had pre-empted the Classification Board by already submitting an edited version. This version had limited camera angles for when players picked up prostitutes, less violence and pools of blood. While it was passed with an MA15+ rating, players were upset at being deceived in the first place.
You're not getting your money back now.
Title: Night Trap
Year: 1992
Platforms: Sega Mega CD
Status: Instrumental in the creation of the computer games rating system
Rating: M
Overview: Despite being a parody of B-Grade horror movies, the use of (rather crude but realistic at the time) full motion video seemed to shock Labor Senator Margaret Reynolds into initiating the process that led to creation of the computer game classification system, which ended up rating the game M (in 1995) and not even MA15+. For the record, Night Trap places the player in the role of a protector of a group of young women dressed in sleepwear who are being threatened with having their blood drained from their necks by a strange race of vampires.
B-Grade is being a bit generous...
Title: Playboy: The Mansion
Year: 2004
Platforms: PC
Status: Passed classification on the back of the Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude ban
Rating: MA15+
Overview: Based of the same gameplay model as the popular dollhouse simulation, The Sims, Playboy: The Mansion was quite similar except that you play the role of Hugh Hefner and were able to have sex with the ‘playmates’. Controversy followed as game was set to be released shortly after the banning of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude and the admonishment of picking up prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It was found that this part of the game was not related to incentives and rewards, and this is possibly why it was passed with an MA15+ rating.
The closest you'll ever get to being Hugh Hefner.
Title: Rule of Rose
Year: 2006
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Status: Never submitted for classification
Rating: N/A
Overview: Rule of Rose was a Japanese style psychological thriller/horror title that not only was heavily aimed at its home market, but a game that caused controversy leading into the UK release. Among reports that the game contained sadomasochistic themes and the burial of live children, the game’s UK release was abandoned among a sea of media pressure. Expecting similar repercussions, the Australian release of the game was abandoned as well, when the publisher did not submit it for classification.
Creepier than your local interest groups.
Title: Scarface: The World is Yours/Stranglehold
Year: 2006/2007
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Wii / PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Status: A different version of the game was released in Australia
Rating: MA15+ / MA15+
Overview: This 2006 game was a pseudo sequel to the 1983 Al Pacino classic, Scarface, and did not have any game play changes. Players took control of film icon, Tony Montana and performed similar tasks to what they could in games like Grand Theft Auto. However, there was an advertisement of the original film, as well as several film scenes that were removed from the game. This was because the movie was rated R18+, so having these in the game were thought to have pushed the game into the refused classification zone. The 2007 release of the John Woo action game, Stranglehold suffered a similar fate, when the Collector’s edition of the game was stripped of its prequel, the 1992 Hong Kong action hit, Hardboiled, since the movie was rated R18+.
Tony Montana is disappointed to miss out on a copy of Hardboiled.
Title: Silent Hill
Year: 1999
Platforms: PlayStation
Status: Borderline on a Refused Classification rating
Rating: MA15+
Overview: Among the scariest games ever made, Silent Hill was played in the town of the same name and players would phase out between the ‘real’ and ‘haunted’ versions of the deserted town. The classification report states that the minority wanted the game to be refused classification, as the school in the game had the walls covered in blood, which was thought to offend community standards. However, it was eventually passed due to the horror context and the lack of detail in the depiction. Furthermore, there were no children depicted in the game.
Another misunderstanding?
Title: Special Force
Year: 2002
Platforms: PC
Status: Never submitted for classification
Rating: N/A
Overview: Brought to the public’s attention by Melbourne ALP MP, Michael Danby, Special Force was a first person shooter game that according to one of the games creators, Bilal Zain, was intended to disseminate the "values, concepts and ideas" of extremist group Hezbollah, as well as to give Hezbollah fans a chance to feel as if they were taking part in attacks they cheered from afar. Apparently, it was also a counterweight to all the games being released at the time that depicted Arabs as terrorists instead of “freedom fighters with a legitimate cause”. While various conspiracy theories arose, including the theory that the Iranian government sponsored this game, the game was never submitted for classification, but apparently there were copies of the game being circulated through out Australia. Mr Danby’s primary concern was to make sure that the game was illegal in Australia, and since it hadn’t been submitted for classification, this was found to be the case. However, given the content of the game, it is unlikely to have passed classification anyway.
Title: V-Tech Rampage
Year: 2006
Platforms: PC
Status: Controversial game based on the Virginia Tech Massacre
Rating: MA15+
Overview: 21-year-old Sydney-sider Ryan Lambourn created worldwide headlines when he created a game based on the Virginia Tech Massacre, in which 32 people were killed in the worst massacre of its kind in US history. Mr Lambourn sparked further outrage when he asked for “donations” of US$2000 to remove the game off the internet, and for a further US$1000, he would apologise. The Australian Communications and Media Authority referred the game to the Classification Board, who passed the game with an MA15+ rating.
Are there any of games that you can remember that have caused such controversy? Is the current ratings system adequate in covering most of the cases where controversy and issues arise? Let us know in the forums.
PALGN would like to acknowledge that the majority of the information that has been found for this article was found at Refused Classification, which in turn gets a lot of information from the Classification Board. Not at any stage, does PALGN claim this information as it’s own, but it’s merely a summary of what is available.
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