Legal Niches

AU Christian Lobby Head: Games Similar to SAS Training

By pete_gallagher

As noted here a few weeks ago, the Australian Christian Lobby publically came out against the addition of an R18+ rating for videogames in Oz. The group's head, Managing Director Jim Wallace (pictured), recently subjected himself to a handful of questions on the matter at GameSpot.

Wallace was asked why he was against adding the additional rating category. He began his answer by recounting his command of an SAS regiment, and how in training, the key was to break a 'very natural reluctance to kill someone else.' Wallace sees videogames serving as a similar kind of training simulator for the general public:

I think you'd agree that for SAS personnel involved in counter terrorism to do that is a necessary evil so to speak. But for us to be condoning games that did that for the general person out in the community, particularly when we're going to get some of those people who have a predisposition to violence simply doesn't make sense, and it's not in the individual's interest, and it's not in the community's interest.

Wallace admitted that he was not 'overly familiar' with the classification system for games and was then asked why his group supported an R18+ category for movies but not for games:

You've got a completely different situation with games because games are interactive; increasingly interactive, and have high levels of simulation. It's simulation and interactivity and repetition all of which are ascribed to games that make them a particularly dangerous form of medium to be flooding the community with. We're not talking about movies that are a one off viewing or you might see a piece of violence in a 90 minute session.

Wallace agreed with South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson that the R18+ topic would hold little sway over the coming elections:

The only people who are going to be into this are the games people, so I don't think the outcome of this particular study will represent anyone's view but the games industry. I can't see a whole lot of other people becoming motivated on it because they won't realise it's on, because it's the gamers and games industry sending in all the responses.

More over at GameSpot.

Thanks Ryan!

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on February 08, 2010 (boomark / email).