Australia has been the source of much gaming controversy over the years, and a new one has recently emerged.
We're all familiar with Australia's Fallout 3 drama and other similar episodes. Now MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) have become a target. As of this morning, February 3, Australian retailers and publishers will no longer be allowed to sell unclassified online games. Anyone who is caught doing so are risking hefty fines and possible jail time.
Online games like World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan and the like have never been classified by the Classificiation Board because they don't have a single-player feature. As such, they were originally exempt from labeling, escaping classification laws via legal loophole. Now the Board wants to fix this problem by banning the sale of such unrated games.
"The NSW legislation covers computer games bought online as well as those bought in stores, and treats single, multi-player and online games the same way," said a spokesman for NSW (ew South Wales) Attorney-General John Hatzistergos, stating that the NSW Classification Enforcement Act prohibits retailers and publishers from selling unclassified titles. Enforcement falls upon the police, but individuals who break the law can be fined up to $11,000 and/or sentenced to 12 months in jail. Corporations usually receive a bigger fine, approximately double that of a smaller party.
"If there is any suggestion that any business is trading illegally, police need to know, and it should be reported," he added.
Another spokeswoman for Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland stated that online games fall within the parameters of the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995, and the multiplayer aspect does not exclude MMOs from any legislation. However, chief executive Ron Curry for the gaming industry body of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia feels online games must be treated differently.
"There are different classification requirements for games depending on how they are accessed by consumers. For instance, for a game sold off the shelf, where the media material is stored on a disk in the package, the classification requirements are straight forward and you will see the classification label on the box," Curry explained.
"However, in some instances the box sold in a retail outlet contains an access key to the game which can only be accessed online. If such a game is hosted locally it falls under the jurisdiction of the Broadcasting Services Act, but if it is hosted internationally, it’s classified in the country that hosts the game, rather than in Australia."
For now, the government isn't listening to people like Curry. Instead, they're trying to address the alleged threat of such online games by filling in the legal cracks. A spokesman for NSW Police Minister Tony Kelly urged concerned community members to contact local authorities if they see retailers selling unclassified products.
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