WoW Now Rated M in Australia
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pixiestixy on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 19 Comments Tags: australia, australian classification board, blizzard, gamestop australia, legal, m rating, mmog, online games, politics, retailers
pixiestixy on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 19 Comments Tags: australia, australian classification board, blizzard, gamestop australia, legal, m rating, mmog, online games, politics, retailers 
After five years on the Australian market with no classification, World of Warcraft finally has a rating. Late last week, the Australian Classification Board decided that WoW will be rated M for "Fantasy violence." As one comparison point in the U.S, WoW is rated T for teen for blood, suggestive themes, use of alcohol and violence.Earlier this year, questions were raised regarding the legality of selling the game in Australia since it was not rated. According to a Gamestop Australia article package, the mixup was more of a loophole, since the Classification Board until recently has not had a system in place for rating games with online-only content. This obviously included many online games other than just WoW, such as Warhammer, Age of Conan and Aion. Now, that's changed and WoW has a rating. But no word yet on ratings for any other online games.
Now it seems the biggest contention is that the Australian Classification board is at minimum five years behind the times in terms of finding a way to rate online-only games. There also still seems to be some confusion as to whether there actually is any new classification system, or whether the game finally was just rated as a "computer game," under the same system that was in place five years ago when WoW came out.
Here's what the Australian classification board told Gamespot AU :
“It is the Board's view that World of Warcraft meets the definition of a computer game provided in the Classification Act and therefore can be classified. This is consistent with the intention of the National Classification Scheme to provide parents and consumers with classification advice on the content of games.”
Meanwhile, Blizzard said that the same board told them five years ago that WoW was not classifiable:
“Blizzard Entertainment has always worked closely with the Classification Board for all its titles. However, back in 2004, we were advised by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) that the online-only nature of World of Warcraft was unclassifiable under its definition of computer games at that time. Recent changes at the Classification Board have led to their ability to classify online-only games such as World of Warcraft.”
Whatever the case, at least WoW is now rated, and hopefully that means Cataclysm will have a more certain future on Australian shelves whenever it's released.
Last time this topic came up, our dear Australian readers had a lot to say, many saying that was the first they had even heard of the matter. Do any of you think this will impact you at all, or is it pure politics? And do you think the M rating is appropriate?
Reader Comments (19)
LOL I thought WoW was rated 'M' in America(it should be). Kind of explains how so many kids are playing though..........
meh i think its really unfair on oz land imho
Rated 'M' for Trade Chat.
who ellse thinks that a kuala would make a cool ingame pet?
How do I get into a money society like Japan created to meet all money and financial needs?
*koala
sheesh. talk in trade last night blistered my eyes.
T indeed. . .
I think a 'Mature' rating is about right for an online game. Although, ironically if the only people that played the game met the mature age requirement...the game would no longer need the rating.
At least WoW has an official rating now. It should help smooth the expansion roll-out and, anything that is good for WoW sales is good for WoW in the long term. (Yes, even continuing to tune the game for the 'socials')
((I hate posting on a blackberry but, sometimes its all you have..))
@ cocopuff *else
in america its T with suggestive themes blood use of alchahol and violence. but in austraulia its m for fantasy violence.
i think the 2 countries have different standards
I wonder if they have "Shit load of coarse language" on the rating lol
@ Druidguyy
I think they are pending that right now...
And it seems that countries have different standards and whether they rate it or not, if parents dont know what it is whats the point of it anyway. Most non-gamers have no clue to what ESRB rating is.
I think they are retarded WoW is no where near M rating. Is frogger M too? Cause you can get run over by a car, or maybe mario? Fireballs are dangerous. Just make all games like the teletubbies and be done with it. Oh wait that would prolly be rated teen huh?
M in Australia is 15+
at least last time i was there and i bought soldier of fortune 2 :)
<3 Grammar Police!
Personally, I think it's better. It's cuts the 8 year olds off from spamming the trade chat in Stormwind asking for gold and instance runs.
@cocopuff: I think that would be a neat pet, but a Pandaren far surpasses anything a koala can do :P
no1 ever seen Nyhms song "Hard as Heroic"?
What about the filter (it kinda helps) but rated M?? Over rated when your out questing do you see much of any 1?
sumfari i been trying watch all of his video or as many as i could find since my main comp crashed and i cant play wow on it anymore and this one cant run wow that smoothly i been reluctant to play wow i found i discovered the pleasures of you tube i dont renmber watching that video so thanks
@ Lion. Fair call I guess, but I played a fair bit of GTA3 when I was younger and when I was casually walking along the street noone was having their head blown off!
Trade chat itself definitely deserves an M15+ rating, then there's the chat in raids etc...
M15+ isn't a rating limiting only those 15 years and over to playing the game, it suggests that anyone younger should not play unsupervised, eg. a 10 year old child can attend an M movie with an adult present.
So, as Lion says about questing... there are things that can be done in the game (the majority of the actual gameplay) that should be ok for children to do. The responsibility is the parents to make sure that young children aren't talking shit in trade chat all night long and the M rating is an attempt, all be it belated, to ensure parents are aware.
Yes Australia has very different standards to America and that's to be expected as we're a very different country.
But ahh fuck it, I'm not a parent nor a 10 year old kid so make it R18+ for all I care :) Have fun ppls!!!
when are people going to learn to use the filters? why doesnt blizz just remove am no uses them now a days instad we have to restrain all words that are considered curses
rob@ if you were playing GTA any of am and no one got shot, stabed, blown up, lid of fire, your doing something wrong man thats half the fun of the game did you ever play GTA sandadreas load of the right cheats and you wouldent believe the insane things you could do to people satifys all your racist needs. you never and chances are you never will see the treffic like GTA who would think that one little bomb could make so many preaty exlosions owcurse who ever uses only one bomb load up the tank cheat and the 6 star cheat and its the most fun youl ever have in the game