By John Walker on September 10th, 2008 at 1:44 am.
Fallout 3 has removed all references to real-world drugs, in order to appease the Australian classification boards, and in turn, the rest of the world’s. Edge Online reports that Bethesda, needing to get around the decision to refuse to even rate FO3 down under, has agreed to remove names of drugs like morphine from the game.
The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (there’s a clue in the name) had announced that they would be refusing FO3 a rating due to its content, which in turn would have meant it wouldn’t be stocked and sold in Oz. The office explained, “material promoting or encouraging proscribed drug use” is refused classification. Not material in film and literature, obviously – that would be crazy! But in games it’s simply too much.
With the news that the Australian version was being toned down in some ways to ensure a classification, it was then assumed that the antipodean game would be different than that released to the rest of the world. Not so says Bethesda PR man, Peter Hines. He told Edge,
“We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform.”
Which means that, yes, all versions will lose the drug names.
“An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names. To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories.”
Amongst the muddle over this was the belief that the Oz board was refusing the rating over issues broader than drug use, but it seems removing these names was enough, and FO3 has now been awarded an MA15+ for the game. At the time Edge reported that they said,
“The board… found that [the] relationship between drug use and incentives and rewards is not such that it promotes or encourages the use of prescribed drugs. Therefore the game does not warrant to be Refused Classification and can be accomodated at MA15+ with a consumer advisory of ‘stong drug references.’”
Fictional names of drugs now stand in, meaning the game still includes the use of liquid painkillers, presumably opium derivatives, injected intravenously to cause pain relief. But, you know, not “morphine”. Carry on.
What’s most stunningly peculiar about all this is that the morphine was never being used recreationally in the game. It was being used for its intended purpose – as an extremely powerful painkiller, albeit in somewhat less than pharmaceutical circumstances. I’m just dumbfounded by this. While I could not sympathise with an argument that said the depiction of drug abuse within a game was cause for adult concern (especially when declared by a body that would never think twice about awarding a rating to a film that contains the same, nor even need to rate it when it happens in a book), I can at least stumble a few steps down the train of thought that could lead to such a decision. But morphine applied with its intended use, and not, say, for chipping a methadone script… Huh?
I don’t blame Bethesda for just swapping out the name of the drug. It’ll clearly have no significant impact on the game, beyond unnecessarily fictionalising that which could have been a window to realism. If that’s all it takes to get around such a draconian and mind-boggling ruling, then hell, whatever you need.
I can’t be bothered to write out a paragraph about the duplicity of imposing such wildly different standards upon games – we all already know it. But hopefully this example will stand to exploit the immaturity and bureaucracy of certain classification boards.
10/09/2008 at 01:46 Fumarole says:
Boo.
At least we can still use Jet.
10/09/2008 at 01:55 Dead Fish says:
Mind officially blown.
10/09/2008 at 02:04 adam says:
As an Australian, this is embarrassing and annoying.
10/09/2008 at 02:11 JulianP says:
Sad. I shall continue to wait for the day when the cultural value of video games will be recognized as equal to that of film and literature.
10/09/2008 at 02:15 Trousers says:
I don’t like to call people pussies, but this just reeks of stale fish.
I will now hug my rig everytime I hear “morphine administered”, as it is from here on ruled too indecent for my virgin ears.
edit: IB get the sand out of your vagina AU, “something something darkside”
10/09/2008 at 02:19 Ben Abraham says:
I wonder if this story will get any traction around the rest of teh interwebs.
I wish I could realistically hope for an outraged response to get something done (It’d read: “ZOMG Australian Classifications are censoring my US free speech rights!!!!!!!!!1!”) but in reality I know that our best hopes are middle aged men in suits who currently hold the gaming population to ransom… *I’m looking at you Mr South Australian Attourney General Michael Atkinson*
10/09/2008 at 02:20 Esha says:
I really hope they’re going to call it Murfine or something like that. That would not only be highly entertaining but it would be believable, too.
A lack of education within any culture causes words to gain new meaning, a fine example of this was seen in Firefly (gorram this and shiny that) and even within our day to day lie today as average test scores continue to plummet.
Therefore, naming it something like Murfine could have arose from someone trying to market the drug after The Apocalypse.
“I got yer Murfine right ‘ere, y’all. S’good fer what ails ya an’ it’ll fix up a mess o’ things, sort y’all out right proper if ya get mah meanin’. Murfine, that’s right folks, Murfine’ll see ya through.”
But then, I just have a colourful imagination.
10/09/2008 at 02:21 Trousers says:
Everyone go vote it 1 out of 5 stars.
Down with DRM, up with freedom of virtual drug use.
10/09/2008 at 02:22 Esha says:
Or rather, a lack of education causes new words to gain old meaning, which is more precise.
10/09/2008 at 02:27 Cedge says:
It’s not really a big deal. If anything, it’s more in line with the old Fallout games, which didn’t use real-world drug names, either.
10/09/2008 at 02:28 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
Australia:
Wow, and here I thought Germany was bad.
10/09/2008 at 02:29 Lh'owon says:
@Cedge: Before this gets completely derailed, no-one is saying the change is a big deal for the game. It’s the reasons for the change that are drawing criticism.
10/09/2008 at 02:35 Derek K. says:
Also, it’ll probably cost AU users about $100 to buy the game.
I don’t think I’m ever going there. At least, you know, gaming wise.
10/09/2008 at 02:42 lethu says:
Sad but true. (Not a Metallica fan)
10/09/2008 at 02:45 Weylund says:
They also have some of the world’s most dangerous snakes and biggest spiders.
Just sayin’.
I always have to laugh when Yahtzee at ZP says he can’t get a game because he’s in Australia. I feel bad, but I still laugh.
Edit: Even if you don’t like Metallica, you still have to give them props for some of their best stuff — Master of Puppets is one of the single greatest tracks post-classic rock has produced.
10/09/2008 at 02:45 NegativeZero says:
As an Australian, I’d like to personally apologise for our retarded censorship board’s inability to be remotely progressive and as a result cause unwarranted, unnecessary and frankly absurd changes to be foisted off onto the rest of the world. It’s bad enough when they’re only screwing us over.
10/09/2008 at 02:46 Chris Hepner says:
Thank God for that!
10/09/2008 at 02:49 Shawn says:
Jesus Christ ….you’ve got to be f’ing kidding me. Human beings really suck, and the older I get the more I realize this.
This has “religious right” written all over it, if it was in the States that’s the first thing I would take a guess at.
10/09/2008 at 02:55 lethu says:
Sure I give them props, I should have added “…anymore)”.
PS: No offence to current fans o7
10/09/2008 at 02:57 suchchoices says:
thanks for showcasing our bizarre classification board’s decisions, John.
perhaps if we had an 18+ rating for games that would go some way to mitigating this kind of debacle in future, but i guess ultimately we need a complete reform of the classification process.
10/09/2008 at 03:02 Andrew Doull says:
I’m confused: John Walker put up a story about the Spore prototypes 2 hours ago, but it appears to have disappeared. So I’m going to randomly comment on this story instead (Hint: get forums). I’m guessing that it was because it was a massive dupe of stuff posted elsewhere… or is there more censoring in Spore than Sporn?
[This was because it turned out Alec had mentioned them in a post a month ago, and I was a lame-o - John]
10/09/2008 at 03:02 Weylund says:
@lethu: Ahh. “…anymore)” also applies to me, I just grew up learning to play guitar, and Master of Puppets (along with a couple of their other good songs) was a stumbling block for a good six months when I was nine-ten or so. So I have great respect for them… but not much fanly love. :-)
@Shawn: I dunno, man, lots of countries tend to be very conservative when you look at their political bases. If the US was allowed to do stuff like this, religious right or not, you’d be looking at many of the same changes, if not more.
10/09/2008 at 03:14 Cibbuano says:
I remember when I first played Fallout 2… I was housesitting for a family friend, and played it on his computer. His teenage son had a save game and I loaded it to play from there…
..only I couldn’t really do anything. Every character in the game was massacred and everyone ran away from me. I had all the worst reputations and seemed to possess a lot of drugs.
Now, probably that kid just thought, ‘let’s see how bad we can get’ in a clinical way, but I knew him and he was cold-hearted before I stumbled on his save game. He’s probably hoping for a little apocalypse.
10/09/2008 at 03:21 Vagabond says:
Down here in Australia, everyone wants this changed. The majority of the public, the OFLC itself, and the majority of our politicians all support fixing this problem.
Unfortunately, our computer game classification rules were written way back when you could almost understand the fact that they left out an “18 years or older” rating. Basically, our constitution requires amendments to the legislation in question to be unanimously supported by all State Attorney Generals, plus the Federal AG. As other commenters have alluded to or guessed at, the AG for South Australia, one Michael Atkinson, is opposed to the introduction of an R-18 rating for Computer Games for more or less conservative religious reasons (“wont somebody think of the children”). I believe he has even stated on the record that if he had his way the R-18 rating for films would be removed as well (to further “protect the children”). Unfortunately this guy holds his seat in Parliment by something like a margin of 25%, so he isn’t going out of office, or likely to change his mind anytime soon.
I guess this is a chance for the rest of the world to experience the “WTF! are these guys smoking crack?” moments that we get at least half a dozen times a year when something has its drugs, prostitutes, or over the top violence removed…
Although, my main question is how many minutes after it is released do you think it will be before the mod that replaces the fake names with the real world versions is available?
10/09/2008 at 03:26 Chris Charabaruk says:
If BethSoft allows Fallout 3 to be extensible like it did the last two Elder Scrolls games, no doubt one of the first mods will be to give morphine its name back.
10/09/2008 at 03:32 lethu says:
@Weylund, That’s nice, I however grew up within an atmosphere mostly composed of metallica among other things (I used to like G’nR too), my brother’s atmosphere… so I guess I was forced to like Metallica too. I think he can consider himself as a fan, he has been to their last concert in Ireland, I wish I had attended that with him.
I used to play guitar too, but it was for a short period and it was the acoustic one, we call it “dry guitar” here, don’t ask me why :)
PS: sorry fo the ‘lil hijack.
[Edit]@Chris, Very well thought, guess they must have re-used atleast a part of the previous game engine (Elder Scroll’s), so the extensibility might be part of that.
10/09/2008 at 03:43 groglvr says:
its their game and they can do what they want but i find it weak to change your vision to suit someone elses. that is, you know, if we’re actually talking about videogames as an art form.
10/09/2008 at 03:47 harrumph says:
I imagine the logic behind holding games to a different standard is that the medium is interactive: “I used morphine in my video game and it made me stronger; I shall use morphine in real life as well, as I am an idiot and cannot tell fantasy from reality.”
That said, and simply putting double standards aside, I can’t abide censorship under any circumstances.
Do you mean “expose,” not “exploit,” in that last paragraph?
10/09/2008 at 03:52 wcaypahwat says:
They’ll probably confiscate my bobble-head next… :(
10/09/2008 at 03:59 SixStringSamurai says:
I’m not australian, but I live here. I’ve been waiting for fallout 3 for 11 years and OMG that was a close one. Hell i even ordered the survival edition off my friend in the states in case that censorship thign went through and i got screwed to playing the game later than everyone else in the rest of the world as I waited for it to be delivered here.
whew. close. and now i’ve got two copies. yays.
10/09/2008 at 04:01 araczynski says:
retarded, disappointed in bethsoft for just bending over. i believe this game is open to modding correct? i’ll be in line for the mod that puts things as they were meant to be.
perhaps i’ll ‘stick it to em’ even more by just buying a used copy…. still have to finish off that damn shivering isles…
10/09/2008 at 04:16 Esha says:
@Those apologising for Oz.
Don’t.
Every country has a grand measure of mooncalfery (to put it mildly) in its ruling bureaucracy and it’s generally almost always pretty much the same amount, it’s just in different areas. The problem with a ruling body is that it often embodies the very worst and the very best of any given culture, and rarely any logic or reason to balance that out.
So if you’re going to apologise, I say we compare national embarrassments and I’ll raise you Margaret Thatcher.
Seriously, despite any jokes we might make, I think everyone realises that a ruling body does not represent the people that live in any given country – wherever you’d care to name.
Every nation has its embarrassments, but we’re not responsible for them. I just look forward to an age where we stick all these embarrassing bureaucrats into a rocket and fire them into the nearest applicable star when that happens.
10/09/2008 at 04:31 Nick says:
Hmm, I don’t care.. I can’t think of any real life drugs in Fallout 1 or 2 either.
Stim-packs and jet and buffout and psycho and mentats and all that.
10/09/2008 at 04:41 Thiefsie says:
Don’t have to order it from overseas now (apart from the substabtial savings to be had)
Still… I don’t trust this for one minute. It reeks of last minute defense (and publicity) to garner up some more local sales. I bet they have adjusted more than just the names of drugs.
Anyway the real question with Fallout 3 is whether it can be modded or not. If not, it’s not nearly worth as much as it could be.
10/09/2008 at 05:30 watever says:
Vagabond hit it on the head!
There is no R rating for games in Oz and since the country is run by old farts who think games are for kids, it wont change any time soon. Only the AG in SA has a clue.
I’m just surprised such a small game market would have any bearing to overall sales.
Gamers with a clue import games or *drumroll* pirate them.
The “fuck u we have the best beaches tax” still stands.
10/09/2008 at 05:35 Alex says:
According to the Fallout 3 wiki page it isn’t just about renaming – “.. the animation showing the actual usage of the drugs was removed”.
Well, that won’t do. I want to see ALL intravenous action or I’M OUT!!
10/09/2008 at 05:42 Nick says:
They should replace it with the use animation from Fallout 1 & 2!
Fumbling your hands in front of you for a second.. that would be great.
10/09/2008 at 05:45 sigma83 says:
Silly though it may be, it doesn’t really have a significant impact on the game, so not a big deal for me. The dealbreaker is the precedent; is this behavior okay?
10/09/2008 at 05:45 Caiman says:
I think if all Bethesda had to do was change the name slightly so that it became a “fantasy drug” and not a real one, then good on them for getting past the draconian rules in the simplest manner. Only particularly anal people are going to be bothered that it’s not called “morphine” and, given that it’s set in a fantasy environment anyway (I use the word “fantasy” loosely of course) there’s absolutely zero loss in renaming the drug. Bethesda are probably happy that the whole incident got them some extra publicity without any actual loss.
10/09/2008 at 05:51 suchchoices says:
alex: ideally all intravenous action would be seen in extreme close up, with quick cuts to animations of dilating pupils.
10/09/2008 at 06:15 Alex says:
YES with Clint Mansell mangling the Kronos Quartet YES!
10/09/2008 at 06:21 Jetsetlemming says:
“it promotes or encourages the use of prescribed drugs. ”
I assume Captain Novolin is banned in Australia as well.
10/09/2008 at 07:10 Muzman says:
This is annoying because I can’t order it from overseas and get the full/unedited version like a good little armchair subversive.
But this is also great tactically speaking. Previously, overseas people had no reason to complain about our ratings idiocy except on principle, as it only affected us. Now, everyone who hates this from absolutely everywhere should write to the OLFC and complain immediately. (it’ll probably just swell Atkinson’s head at his influence but you never know)
OLFC
10/09/2008 at 07:27 Kevin Lee says:
As long as I get my Jet, Mentats, Buffout, Psycho and of course, Stimpacks :D
10/09/2008 at 07:39 Satan says:
Weylund says:
They also have some of the world’s most dangerous snakes and biggest spiders.
Just sayin’.
I always have to laugh when Yahtzee at ZP says he can’t get a game because he’s in Australia. I feel bad, but I still laugh.
Edit: Even if you don’t like Metallica, you still have to give them props for some of their best stuff — Master of Puppets is one of the single greatest tracks post-classic rock has produced.
Not necessarily. I can think of a lot of single tracks post classic rock that have been wickedly superior to anything Metallica has done. say for example – Legions of the Black Light by the band Watain off of their latest album: Sworn to the Dark. Theres countless others but this sticks out at the moment. Great album by the way. And Metallica is fairly mediocre. Even for their time there were far more intense and inspiring bands one could listen to within the US (Death, dare I say… Slayer, etc) or across the seas.
As for on topic BS… all this does is make me think Australia is full of wimps… plus the shit Stallone went through recently.. im not so sure about wanting to visit Australia anymore.
10/09/2008 at 07:46 fanciestofpants says:
Also apologizing for our retarded censorship board.
I’m getting my copy of FO3 from a friend who will be leaving canada for here on the 28th, so I might actually get my copy before it’s released here :3 $40 cheaper to boot.
On topic: Seriously though? A re-naming of the drugs couldn’t be THAT hard to mod in. I’d give it a week.
10/09/2008 at 08:11 Rii says:
Why are Australians apologising to others for the decisions of the OFLC? The OFLC didn’t force these changes to the game through, nor did the OFLC cause said changes to be applied to versions of the game sold outside Australia. Those decisions were made by Bethesda, and the OFLC bears no responsibility for them.
10/09/2008 at 08:34 fanciestofpants says:
@Rii:
Your right that it was Bethesda’s decision to apply the changes to all versions, but the OFLC is absolutely responsible for being stuck up it’s own ass about drug depiction in games, among other things.
I’m sorry but i can’t even count the amount of films and literature that is fully endorsed by the OFLC that not only starkly depicts drug use, but in many cases glorifies it, promotes it even. In contrast to fallout 3′s(former) use of real-world drugs; it’s hardly recreational or promoting their use in anything but a wholly appropriate context(ie: as life-saving pain relief). There’s no incentive to say, drop acid and drive to Las Vegas with your lawyer, for example.
So the OFLC bearing no responsibility for the changes? While technically true(in that they didn’t flat out say “change the names of the drugs to fictional ones”), they forced Bethsoft’s hand, who would be stupid to let a whole potential market go by the wayside over such a trivial change. And that’s why it’s absolutely pigheaded; it’s trivial and it’s a double standard which belies the OFLC’s utter ignorance when it comes to media.
10/09/2008 at 08:45 Turin Turambar says:
@Satan: Or you have shitty taste. :P
10/09/2008 at 09:00 An hero says:
Hey kids! Are you so ghetto that you’re still playing Max Payne on cold-water-extracted codeine? Do you fancy an upgrade in time for FALLOUT 3? Try J Collis Brownes mixture! It’s MORPHINE, neither proscribed nor prescribed, over the counter and for less than the price of a pack of smokes! That’s right! And it’s peppermint flavoured too! Yum!
And for those of you reading from Australia: 404 bitches.
10/09/2008 at 09:06 Ian says:
I plan to campaign against Australia ruining this game by voting it 1/5 on some retail site or another.
10/09/2008 at 09:09 Martin Kingsley says:
@Esha: Rock. On.
10/09/2008 at 09:13 Rii says:
@fanciestofpants
I’m merely interested in the correct assignment of responsibility. The OFLC does not make policy, it enforces policy. The OFLC does not alter media content, it rates media content. It is not the OFLC’s fault that there is no R18+ rating for games in Australia, nor is it the OFLC’s fault that Bethesda is willing to compromise their game so as to conform to the Australian MA15+ rating in pursuit of profit. The OFLC no more forced Bethesda to compromise Fallout 3 in the United States than obnoxious DRM forces gamers to pirate games.
Concerns regarding the OFLC’s consistency in applying their guidelines to games as compared to other forms of media, on the other hand, are appropriately directed to that department.
The clusterfuck that is our rating system is an Australian issue that creates problems for Australian gamers… and that’s where it stops.
10/09/2008 at 09:21 Muzman says:
Not anymore apparently
10/09/2008 at 09:26 Optimaximal says:
Wait, i’m confused… Why does the lack of a R-18 certificate ‘protect the children’? Is it because games are automatically either AO or MA-13 or something?
If so, are we just back to governments policing the responsibilties of parents/retailers?
10/09/2008 at 09:35 Rii says:
Films are often targetted at a certain rating. When a film is on the borderline between one rating and another, edits are often made to the film such that it can sneak through at a lower rating and thus garner a wider audience.
Those blaming the OFLC for edits made to Fallout 3 should, if they’re consistent, likewise blame the MPAA (in the United States) for compromising the theatrical cuts of each of these films.
10/09/2008 at 09:41 Muzman says:
Fewer films have been refused classification, however, because there are dedicated adult ratings. This is a key difference.
10/09/2008 at 09:49 Rii says:
In each case the choice is in the hands of those producing and distributing the media in question, balancing creative needs against the drive for profit. There are no circumstances under which the OFLC can compel changes to a game or film.
10/09/2008 at 10:03 James T says:
I should note that, by having John Howard as PM for 11 years, we actually elected a Thatcher clone after seeing what the original article did to your country. You’d think we were on the mend now that the highest office held by a Tory is the mayor of one state capital, but Aussie Labor’s led by a pack of free-marketers too — and they wouldn’t be in power otherwise (although the Torys’ hubristic anti-worker legislation helped). We are a country prancing downhill!
Meanwhile, Australia’s censorship system* is unacceptable both in and out of the gaming sphere, leading to unconscionable bannings of all sorts of stuff… but yes, I’m not so sure that the worldwide bowdlerism of FO3 can be entirely pinned on the Australian system* — seems to me like Bethesda were at least expecting problems in multiple countries, otherwise they’d [i]surely[/i] have released an Aussie-specific censored version — hey, Take 2 do it with GTA!
The ‘should’ve stuck to their guns!’ talk strikes me as a touch absurd. This is a very Boolean operation — modify some text in a way which requires so ridiculously little effort that it is fiscally invisible, and then get a release and MAKE BIG MONEY, or ‘stick to your guns’, get no release and lose a ton of customers. ‘Sticking to your guns’ isn’t going to impress the lone fundie dipshit holding Australia’s classification system* hostage — the only thing that’ll budge/elide him is either a legislative shakeup that lessens the power of jumped-up little punks like him in regards to this piddling crap, or the loser Tory state governments transforming themselves into something people would actually vote for — the defacto one-party system at the state level has created terrible indolence and corruption in that tier of politics, so people like Atkinson are free to do whatever they want without fear of losing their position. As terrible as the thought of Tories having domestic power may be, the threat needs to be there for state government politicians (like Atkinson) to buck their ideas up.
* note that I say ‘the system’, not ‘the OFLC’ — while one’s first instinct is to rail against them, they’re the executive — they do not write the laws, but they do have to follow them. Many times I have heard anonymous complaints (maybe even some named ones from time to time) in the media from OFLC officers who are not happy that their options are limited this way.
10/09/2008 at 10:03 Muzman says:
Re: one above
Well, here we get all hung up on ‘compel’. Clearly this is true, technically speaking. But Wal-mart not carrying R-rated material to be ‘family friendly’ wasn’t compelling any media creators to be so either. The prospect of not appearing on the shelves of the worlds largest retailer, however, introduces motivation in a particular direction. Likewise, you can’t make any money publishing in Australia if you can’t get your stuff released. Is someone therefore not compelled to abide by the rules (or in this case, ruling)?
It turns out not to be cost effective to make an Australia-only version and here we are.
10/09/2008 at 10:11 Dhruin says:
So, we’re getting upset that it’s being changed to something like the original Fallouts…is that right?
10/09/2008 at 10:36 rocketman71 says:
Stupid aussie censors
10/09/2008 at 10:51 Calabi says:
I’m amazed that we believe ourselves so civilized when the entire world can be held to the thrall of a single man. The world is getting stupider one step at a time.
10/09/2008 at 11:03 The Sombrero Kid says:
i love to say it but i told you so!!!!!!
this is exactly what i said when RPS covered F3′s classification refusal except that part about Australia fucking over the rest of the world, it’s actually very clever for Bethesda to do this.
instead of this pissing of a load of shrimp cooking yokels that the Australian government clearly deems to dumb to think for themselves anyway, this will piss of everyone and maybe get something done about Australia and Germany clearly outdated and anti games policies on censorship
10/09/2008 at 11:04 Alarik says:
Wow! And now the only thing missing is to finally replace guns with walkie-talkies! I vote for them, now! I bet censors are already preparing some action like that :)
So, is there some general rule? Like:
US – guns, killing and mutilations are fine, drugs and sex not
AU – no drugs
GE – no guns, no swastika
Will be tough if there are more developers/producers who would like offer all ‘fans’ same experience XD
10/09/2008 at 11:29 El_MUERkO says:
I PROTEST WILDLY!
/waves arms about
10/09/2008 at 11:31 Dr Ham says:
@Optimaxal
The lack of an 18+ rating means that any game which would not fall into the lower classification brackets gets banned or modified.
Examples of which are all of the GTA series, having the ability to sleep with hookers removed.
I send games back home for friends who want teh real experience.
It’s a really average situation, Australia as far as I’m aware has the most restrictive gaming laws in the world. not something to be proud of.
10/09/2008 at 11:31 Ian says:
Wasn’t it Germany who wanted to be able to jail people for, basically, fragging people to an emotional wreck in online shooters?
10/09/2008 at 12:25 maxmcg says:
It’s a daft decision, particularly that it’s coming from Oz. I thought they were all pretty relaxed about things down there.
/pops Mentats
10/09/2008 at 12:36 Kong says:
So, is there some general rule? Like:
US – guns, killing and mutilations are fine, drugs and sex not
AU – no drugs
GE – no guns, no swastika
FR – only sex
GB – no violence caused by female characters (they censored Patricias rage in True Romance)
AT – anything goes, all hail the pope!
10/09/2008 at 13:36 antonymous says:
The “lack of an 18+ classification” is also the way censorship works in China, but there it extends to cinema as well.
BUT: Who cares? Foblivion are idiotic anyway
10/09/2008 at 14:36 James says:
Sorry for my country, folks! I feel so ashamed…
EDIT: Though, reading Esha’s sentiments, maybe I don’t.
10/09/2008 at 15:09 Michael America says:
Kong:
What makes you think that drugs and sex are not okay in US movies? As long as nobody shows off their giblets, the US is fine with it. Even if there is a penis displayed for under a minute, it would just get an NC-17. And drugs? Come on now, look at all the stoner movies that have been made. Past that, two words: Pulp Fiction.
I know I’ll be supporting a mod to change all of these fake meds to real-life equivalents. I want it to go further than changing “Murphine” or “Murphy” or “Painkiller X” back to Morphine, I wanna see something like Buff-Out changed to Anabolic Steroids, or Psycho changed to PCP. Really upset the fundies.
10/09/2008 at 15:17 Bobsy says:
Going off on a semi tangent: Wolfenstein and Germany.
Is it just me or have Raven cut back a hella lot on the use of swastikas for Wolfie? I’d imagine it was so there was less to remove for German localisation when the time came.
10/09/2008 at 16:33 Kommissar Nicko says:
Drugs are fine in the States. Just no blatant sex.
Keep in mind, however, that mutilating someone before a brief allusion to sex is acceptable. You may also rape them, but so long as you don’t see the parts.
Esha’s right. The only reason that your sexy character in Enclave power armor and the supple Ms. Bishop couldn’t enjoy a tender moment of explicit sapphic lust in Fallout 2 was probably due to their conforming to US rating standards. That, and it was like…1998, and they’d have had to find FMV actors.
Oops. Freudian slip.
10/09/2008 at 17:48 Bob says:
So, is there some general rule? Like:
US – guns, killing and mutilations are fine, drugs and sex not
AU – no drugs
GE – no guns, no swastika
FR – only sex
GB – no violence caused by female characters (they censored Patricias rage in True Romance)
AT – anything goes, all hail the pope!
Long live the Netherlands, where drugs and sex are part of our cultural identity.
10/09/2008 at 18:04 JonFitt says:
They might have to be careful about the changed names:
Murphine might be fine, but it might be banned again in Australia if it has references in it about doing Crock!
:)
10/09/2008 at 19:33 MadTinkerer says:
You know what would be made of win? If they actually worked it into the back-story somehow that the explicit reason all the drugs in the future have different names is because of some bureaucrats somewhere wanting to discourage “drug use”.
I’m actually looking forward to “Murphine” now.
10/09/2008 at 19:39 Nick says:
“GB – no violence caused by female characters (they censored Patricias rage in True Romance)”
Whu?
10/09/2008 at 19:55 Lazy eye says:
@Nick:
I guess they were scraping around at the bottom of the barrel looking for something to pin on the Brits.
10/09/2008 at 20:29 MetalCircus says:
I fully expect australians to pirate this now. Go on. I support it.
I think this says more about Bethesda than australia though. It shows they care more about sales than, say, making something breathtaking, which admittadly the game may still be, but come on Bethesda, grow some fucking balls.
10/09/2008 at 20:32 Ted says:
Why were they changing the names of the drugs from the original games in the first place? I would have found that to be a glaring and totally unnecessary change. Australia did us a favor if we get stimpacks and the like back.
10/09/2008 at 21:22 jfpbookworm says:
I don’t like to call people pussies
Then why not find a less misogynist approach?
10/09/2008 at 22:08 SixStringSamurai says:
hello, once again, i’m still in australia, and OMGZ did you know WALL-E is not out here yet? i’m not sure if it’s still going through the censorship board, but
GOOOOOO censorship!
10/09/2008 at 22:24 Kong says:
“Long live the Netherlands, where drugs and sex are part of our cultural identity.”
You lucky bastards. I would have moved to Amsterdam a long time ago if it was not so damn close to the sea and the Netherlands in general below sea level.
“GB – no violence caused by female characters (they censored Patricias rage in True Romance)”
Whu?
I imported the movie from GB, a nice VHS edition with a tshirt that said: “true romance, sex, drugs and gratitious violence.” It turned out to be cut.
A mafia killer tortures Alabama (portrayed by Patricia Arquette) and when she finally gets the upper hand she goes berzerk and beats him to a pulp. This pulping of the torturer was cut to my surprise and disappointment. From then until eternity I like to believe that the British censors are afraid of violent females. The reasons for this might be found in the psychocomplex of thatcherism.
Relax, the Brits remain to be among my favourite drinking buddies in Europe. Cheers mate.
11/09/2008 at 02:23 Fraser says:
Two things about the OFLC: one, nobody knows why the word “literature” is in its name, since we don’t have a rating system for books. Two, they don’t technically decide to refuse classifications – they have a checklist, established by law, on what merits what classification. Their opinion should not come into it, just like a policeman who supports drug legalisation still has to arrest crack users. It really is entirely South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson’s fault.
11/09/2008 at 02:35 Chandrose says:
The generation gap continues to close, all will be good in time. ;)
11/09/2008 at 02:47 Fraser says:
Quote from his Wikipedia page, I should have said.
11/09/2008 at 09:34 Loki Lyesmyth says:
Well drugs are evil :P but in any kind of arts? i don’t think so
Requiem for a dream
11/09/2008 at 11:49 Kong says:
Loki Lyesmyth says:
Well drugs are evil :P but in any kind of arts? i don’t think so
Requiem for a dream
Drugs are on the contrary very useful (yes I saw the smiley). As long as they are distributed through the black market exclusively they are being made into the problem as we know it.
Chandrose says:
The generation gap continues to close, all will be good in time. ;)
Nature has a solution for everything, a pity that there is no such thing as a time compression…
11/09/2008 at 11:50 Kong says:
Loki Lyesmyth says:
Well drugs are evil :P but in any kind of arts? i don’t think so
Requiem for a dream
Drugs are on the contrary very useful (yes I saw the smiley). As long as they are distributed through the black market exclusively they are being made into the problem as we know it.
Chandrose says:
The generation gap continues to close, all will be good in time. ;)
Nature has a solution for everything, a pity that there is no such thing as a real life time compression…
11/09/2008 at 20:57 M.P. says:
I believe the only proper course of action in response to this is for us all to go to thomascooke.com and rate package holidays to Australia with 1 star! >:(
;)
12/09/2008 at 00:22 Robin says:
If this wasn’t coming out on the consoles Bethesda could’ve just accepted the ban in Australia and make the uncut game available online.
Which doesn’t excuse Australia from seemingly being governed by halfwitted 19th Century farmhands, of course.
12/09/2008 at 05:47 Kong says:
It all makes sense.
Germans should not see swastikas because they may become nazis again instantly and when the Australians read the names of drugs they could become a colony of chaingangs again.
It is not censorship, it is protecting the people from harm. Really,
30/10/2008 at 10:33 Tony says:
I never used drugs in the orriginal fallout games besides Jet. I thought using my skills would be better then using game drugs besides I don’t want an addiction and end up spending over 500 coins just for jet to satisfy my addiction.