Fallout 3 banned in Australia - bogus story

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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Since this one reached DaC, N4G, BGSF, Blue's News and here in record tempo, it might be a good idea for us to nip this rumour in the bud.

Some guy claims some guy he knows at the Australian rating agency (the Office of Film and Literature Classification) passed down word that Fallout 3 is refused classification and thus effectively banned for containing morphine/drugs in general (whichever).

Now, despite this being a "some guy I know" post, a lot of people seem to be taking it seriously. Which is probably why GameSpot rushed in to debunk it:<blockquote>The official story: Red Ant Enterprises--the game's distributors in Australia--responded with a flat "no comment" when contacted by GameSpot AU. Coincedentally, Red Ant was also the distributors for Blitz: The League, which was also banned in Australia in early 2007. Blitz was refused classification due to its in-game drug use.

When GameSpot AU then contacted the OFLC, we were told no final decision had been made on Fallout 3, although the game had been submitted for classification. Fallout 3 is scheduled to hit Australia in October 2008 on the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. The OFLC spokesperson said when a final decision is made, details will be made available on the OFLC Web site within 24 hours.
(No such details had been published at the time of posting this article.)

Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus for now, given the OFLC's official statement to GameSpot AU. But given Australia's track record, we'll be keeping a close eye on this situation and inform you with more details as they come to hand. For more information on Australia's game classification system, check out our special Censory Overload feature. </blockquote>That's not to say Fallout 3 isn't a possible candidate for censorship under the OFLC, it's just saying it hasn't happened yet.

Link: Fallout 3 Banned In Australia! on GameSpot Forums
Link: Fallout 3 banned in Australia? on GameSpot Rumor Control.
 
Meh, at worst it's just having to rename morphine in game to quadrilithium and re-recording the dialogues where morphine is mentioned.
 
Brother None said:
Fallout 3 is scheduled to hit Australia in October 2008
Click to expand...

Only two, three months left. I can not believe, that we have nearly no infos.

At topic: I say it could be possible, that Fallout 3 will be banned there. It also could be possible, that Fallout 3 will be banned in germany because of the gore.
 
Doubt it. At worst they'll just release censored versions in these countries.
 
I kinda feel the need to
(spread my seed with a few ladies, drink a homemade brew, while watching the molerat mabo. maybe hit gizmo's loose a few chips. and blow up a kid or two because they have all the rocks and BB's. What can i say. Its all illegal somewhere.)

Ohh and morphine? yeah since when is that a bad thing if used by doctors?

It must be a scene in which someone uses it for unmedicinal purposes.

And since when has morphine been in fallout?
 
Wild_qwerty said:
I hope they ban the bastardised thing world wide...
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Then, everybody wants to have it, because it is banned everywhere and it is so evil and a really really really bad thing. The kids will love it. :>
 
the whole german censorship thing was a pest. they made the children invisible, but they could still steal from you in FO2. censorship in games = ruining the whole experience.
 
Stupidity in people with money = stupid people without money getting angry...
 
I actually do know some people who work in the OFLC and the word is that "concern has been expressed" about the whole dismemberment thing¹.

The Official OFLC Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games (approved by all State, Territory and Commonwealth Ministers) clearly states:

RC REFUSED CLASSIFICATION (IE: B&!)
Material which includes any of the following will be refused classification:

Violence:
  • depictions of realistic violence, even if not detailed, relished or cruel (eg. excessive and serious violence such as realistic depictions of dismemberment accompanied by loss of blood to real life images);
  • depictions of unduly detailed and/or relished acts of extreme violence or cruelty.
You'll note the highest possible rating (MA15+) clearly classifies acceptable violence for that level as "depictions of realistic violence of medium intensity (eg impactful punches, kicks, blows and blood-shed to realistic animated characters or real-life images)".

¹There's a small chance that I may in fact just be making this up in order to spread the rumour².

²There's a smaller chance that I may have added the small print to detract from revealing anything serious or getting people into trouble.

³This is just here to see if you'll bother reading the small print. Hi there, how you doing?
 
Banning won't help.
People will just hit the zeraw site and search for the game.
Then they will tell themselves "Thank god for the banned of this crappy pieces of amphibian shit!" :ugly:
 
More of this banning nonsense. I didn't know that Australia has become part of this turn-away-attention-from-what's-important machine, that tries to justify all the failures of todays parents with violent video games.
 
DarkUnderlord said:
I actually do know some people who work in the OFLC and the word is that "concern has been expressed" about the whole dismemberment thing¹.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised, but it's better to wait for official word either way.

Fallout 3 is on the likely list for censorship in a number of countries, including Australia and - why not - Germany. I doubt Bethesda will let them be banned tho', they'll just adapt the game to censorship, as Interplay did way back when.
 
actually, that would be pretty ironic if the whole "extreme violence and gore for fun and dark humour and in first person to make it look more realistic" would backfire like this. just imagine the game without it's main advertising point. what would be left if they were forced to remove the gore?
 
Voice Of Reason said:
actually, that would be pretty ironic if the whole "extreme violence and gore for fun and dark humour and in first person to make it look more realistic" would backfire like this. just imagine the game without it's main advertising point. what would be left if they were forced to remove the gore?
Click to expand...

It would show that the world is more of a prude than I thought.
 
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