The avid gamers amongst us would have been closely following the news today regarding the R18+ classification for computer games and the subsequent postponement of a decision until 2011. I can only imagine that many people are disappointed that there wasn’t a definitive result but by the same token it does mean that it is not yet ruled out entirely given concerns raised over protection for children.
The wheels of politics turn slowly but they do turn, a little.
Personally, I am not surprised that a definitive outcome went begging this time around. With the absence of Michael Atkinson (former Attorney-General for South Australia) it appears there was at least some constructive dialogue as opposed to an outright refusal in previous years. However, whilst the road block appears to have been lifted, there is much discussion to take place to make up for lost time. It’s very much a shame that this couldn’t have taken place over the preceding years but there’s no better time than the present.
Gaming has been one of the modern social outlets that has been part of many lives of the younger generations with a considerable amount of voting age. Things have come a long way from the bleepy bloopy days of 8-bit gaming where developers did the best they could with the hardware available at the time. Games like Mortal Kombat pushed the envelope in the 1990s with digitised actors and a good amount of blood, guts and gore (at least in versions other than the Super Nintendo instance).
Technology has unrelentingly marched forward over the decades but legislation has failed to keep up. Hopefully 2011 will see a positive outcome with regard to computer games classifications.
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