Australia's iGEA Cautiously Welcomes New R18+ Guidelines

The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (iGEA) has cautiously welcomed the final Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games, which come into effect January 1, 2013.

“We, along with many other stakeholders, have worked for many years to have the classification scheme acknowledge that adults play and enjoy video games and are due the respect of a classification category that reflects ‘age appropriate’ content for adults," reads a statement released by the iGEA. "The new guidelines released today show that they have been crafted to try to balance the concerns of those who have resisted an R18+ classification and adults who want to play video games designed specifically for mature audiences and that are readily available in other developed democracies."

The statement, however, does goes on to criticise the new guidelines for holding games to stricter criteria compared to film and maintaining the interactive nature of video games increases the impact of various classifiable elements.

“Given the opposition to the introduction of an R18+ category from a vocal yet unrepresentative section of the community, along with a largely conservative group of Attorneys-General, it is no surprise the new guidelines hold video games to a higher standard across a number of categories compared to film and what originally existed for video games," continued the statement.

“As we have previously stated, we are concerned with the acknowledgment in the guidelines that interactivity has greater impact on players, despite the Federal Attorney-General’s office publishing a literature review in September 2010 that found no evidence to support these claims. There will be continued debate about whether the interactivity of video games has a greater impact than other forms of media, and we will continue to refer to the lack of the evidence to support these claims."

The iGEA expressed these same concerns on the release of the amended draft guidelines in November last year.

The iGEA will now "wait to see" how the Classification Board will go on to interpret and apply the newly revised guidelines and "trust that they will reflect the standards of morality, decency and propriety accepted by reasonable adults, not just the vocal ones."

Source : ign[dot]com