Earlier today, we broke the news that Outlast 2 was refused classification in Australia.
The only description provided was that the game broke a pretty generalised rule, which was deemed not fit to be fit for regular people.
Kotaku Australia has obtained the reasoning behind the refusal of classification from the Australian Board of Classification. It appears that implied sexual violence was the reason behind the refusal.
In one cut-scene in the game … a female creature prepares Blake for a ritual. She says, “I want to see your true face. Your seed will burn this world.” Shortly afterwards, he objects to having psycho-active dust blown into his face, yelling, “Nope! Nope!” before he stumbles into a forest clearing.
His vision blurring, he witnesses what appears to a ritualistic orgy. His wife, Lynn, calls out for his help, saying, “It hurts! Oh god!,” as she hangs from chains on a raised platform at the front of the clearing. Humanoid creatures, their skin grey, spattered with blood and scarred, implicit have sex as others pray, or chant, or gesticulate.
One creature has another bent over a rock, thrusting as they implicitly have rear-entry sex, another sits astride the pelvic region of a creature prone on the ground, moving their hips rhythmically as they too implicitly have sex. Two other pairs of creatures in the clearing are also implicitly having sex.
As Blake yells for the creatures to “Get away from her!” a female creature, her greyish breasts bared, pushes him onto his back, holds his arms to the ground and repeatedly thrusts her crotch against him. As Blake protests, saying “No! Stop that!” the creature thrusts again, before placing its face over his midsection and then sitting up and wiping its mouth.
Although much of the contact between the creature and Blake is obscured, by it taking place below screen, the sexualised surroundings and aggressive behaviour of the creature suggest that it is an assault which is sexual in nature. The Board is of the opinion that this, combined with Blake’s objections and distress, constitutes a depiction of implied sexual violence.
In the Board’s opinion, the above example constitutes a depiction of implied sexual violence and therefore cannot be accommodated within the R18+ classification category and the game is therefore Refused Classification.
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This just goes to show the big divide the classification have with Video game and Movie ratings and shows even more how biased they are against video games.
I'm pretty sure rape scenes aren't allowed in movies either.
What the fuck was the point in us getting the R+18 rating, notice the plus symbol that means 18 and above, that means no child should be playing it but stupid parents just don't care these days ruining it all for the older gamers, people who buy an R+18 should know what their getting themselves into and if a parent buys it means they're willing to accept the responsibility of their purchase for "their" child.
If they actually enforced the ratings with the correct penalties in legislation then there wouldn't be an issue.
I don't think there's anything the government could do if a parent legally buys the game. The worst that can happen is that the game store would get a slap on the wrist and the parent would be told never to do it again which they will. The R18 rating didn't work with GTA.
There is legislation that says they can do something, they just wont because they don't care enough about video games as a classification. While legislation says there's heavy penalties I doubt they would be enforced.
Yet as soon as a teen/young adult kills someone it's "let's blame it on video games, movies/tv, music, comics" anything to avoid the actual problem.
Yea I know that which sucks. I did some digging a while ago and got in touch with the Classification board of Australia and they gave me a list of legalities regarding the supply of R rated material to minors. Believe it or not the penalty's are almost identical to buying cigarettes for minors in regards to penalty units issued and fines. Although no one polices it.
It can be child abuse to constantly expose themy to classified material that can seriously harm their development.
Then why are there parents buying their kids R+18 games? They should have their children taken away from them for being so ignorant and not abiding by the ratings system that's in place to protect their child. Thees games are for people aged 18 and up and by then we're already fucked up.
Usually its the kids who want the game and their parents don't care enough to check the games out. Next thing they're at home screaming at them to get off the game and they'll just start blaming the game for their kids poor behaviour.
This is why I buy my games, each year I came of age for a particular category like MA15+ and R18+, M is a grey area for me cause the code of conduct says 17 but I was watching M movies when I was 10 so I guess M for me was around 12 in gaming terms, or tho I was quite mature for my age.
Be interesting to see how Red Barrels respond to this, I doubt they could censor it as all the scenes in Outlast games makes up the whole experience. Buying from overseas it is then.