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.
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I plan to campaign against Australia ruining this game by voting it 1/5 on some retail site or another.
@Esha: Rock. On.
@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.
Not anymore apparently
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?
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.
Fewer films have been refused classification, however, because there are dedicated adult ratings. This is a key difference.
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.
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.
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.
So, we’re getting upset that it’s being changed to something like the original Fallouts…is that right?
Stupid aussie censors
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.
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
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
I PROTEST WILDLY!
/waves arms about
@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.
Wasn’t it Germany who wanted to be able to jail people for, basically, fragging people to an emotional wreck in online shooters?
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
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!
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
Sorry for my country, folks! I feel so ashamed…
EDIT: Though, reading Esha’s sentiments, maybe I don’t.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
:)
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.
“GB – no violence caused by female characters (they censored Patricias rage in True Romance)”
Whu?
@Nick:
I guess they were scraping around at the bottom of the barrel looking for something to pin on the Brits.
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.
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.
I don’t like to call people pussies
Then why not find a less misogynist approach?
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!
“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.
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.
The generation gap continues to close, all will be good in time. ;)
Quote from his Wikipedia page, I should have said.
Well drugs are evil :P but in any kind of arts? i don’t think so
Requiem for a dream
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…
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…
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! >:(
;)
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.
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,
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.