Due to a new classification model brought out by Australia’s Federal Government, over 200 computer games are now banned. The games include some interesting titles, such as Douchebag Beach Club and HoboSimulator. The goal behind all of this is to help regulate the massive amount of games that are available now online to the public.
You Can’t Stop the Releases
While over 200 games are now banned (they’re not super popular games either), one can’t help but wonder if this really is accomplishing anything. There are about 180,000-200,000 digital games that get released in the span of a year, so good luck trying to classify and approve all of them. There are more independent companies releasing games than there are people to make sure they meet a certain criteria, but I feel for their cause. I could easily see a game called “Love Everyone,” and it ends up being a bloody game where you dress up as a rabbit and go around killing people. This is just an example, but this sort of thing can (and probably has) happened.
The Global Scheme of Things
Australia is also participating in a global pilot program, with the goal to regulate all the online/digital games, and they’re not alone. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, and most of Europe are also involved in this. This is the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) model, and before this, digital storefronts did not have to receive a rating from the Classification Board.
So the are more steps now to start classifying and approving the digital games, and I think this is a good thing. Hopefully it will help parents in keeping their children from playing inappropriate games, but with all the games out there, I don’t see how they will cover even half of them.
