Project Lore

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?

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