
Poor Australian gamers. Not only do you often get neutered versions of M-rated games, but sometimes they don't even get to come out at all. You guys should really do something about that, because the archaic rating system has struck again against a poor WiiWare game.
This time, Gameloft's port of cell phone game Sexy Poker has been given the boot. Why? Boobies, of course!
The Classification Board explained the ban as such:
In the Board’s view Sexy Poker offers depictions of nudity as an incentive or reward to interactive game play. In the Board’s view, the general rule in the Guidelines for the Classification of Films and Computer Games prohibiting depictions of nudity as an incentive or reward, applies to the game play described above, as the player is shown increasingly detailed amounts of nudity following successful game-play
In the view of the Board, the impact of the game exceeds strong as except in material restricted to adults, nudity and sexual activity must not be related to incentives or rewards. As such the game cannot be accommodated in a MA15+ classification.
Despite the existence of an R18+ rating for movies in Australia, the max game classification only reaches MA15+, (even though the average Aussie gamer is 28 years old) which leads to games down under seeing cuts or downright bans more often. Other games to fall victim to Aussie regulations include Fallout 3 for its drug references, Dark Sector for violence and Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure for, uh, promoting graffiti.
Gotta keep those streets of Melbourne clean, y'all.
[source gamepolitics.com]
Comments 54
WOW... I feel sorry(ish) for Australia, although I don't get games with nudity in them.
man i feel bad for Australia
This game is going to be poor so you are not really missing out, however it is the principal of the matter that is important here, if this can happen to a mediocre wiiware game that isn't exactly showing graphic pornography then there is something wrong and it is definitely over-censorship and an infringement of peoples free will in my opinion.
At least the ESRB rated this game as M for Mature for WiiWare, so it's possible we'll see Sexy Poker in the North America region.
Well it happens here all the time.
We had came so close to an R18+ rating just only one guy got in the way of that hapaning & thats Michal Hopkins South Australian Attorney General.
While i can understand that theres physological effects from games but this is plain stupid .
Good, games like this should never be made in the first place. Kudos to Australia!
Wow, that really bites. I understand not allowing violence in games (even though I love my games just like my steak... bloody) because it rewards hurting, dismembering, decapitating, maiming, and even goring which could (I'm not saying it does) warp some more impressionable minds... But c'mon, no nudity? What's the worst thing that can happen? Some guy gets "happy" and spends some ca$h at the local "fun house"? That's actually good for the economy, if you think about it...
Oh well, I'm happy I live in Brazil, where nudity runs rampant and I have no problem with it.
I agree with XD375 that games like this should never be made in the first place. So the way I see it, Australia is the only place with enough sense to refuse it a place in the market.
The other games mentioned towards the end of this article did not deserve banning imo, however. So I'd say overall that Australia is too uptight, but managed to get it right this time.
Who didn't see that one coming?
I can't beleive that people think it's cool to shoot someone between the eyes and watch their brains splatter, but the moment they see a boob (which we sucked on for the beginning of our lives by the way) they think it's too much and it must be banned.
To be fair, BrazCanaMan, I'm not the world's biggest fan of overly excessive video game violence, either. I understand your point, though; it's kinda weird.
They shouldn't be making games like that anyway!
I'm definitely anti-censorship. I, personally, agree that this was a pretty appalling attempt at a concept for WiiWare...but I also feel that the gamers should make that decision. Release it and let it flop; that's the way they learn their lesson. If you do this, it just turns them into a martyr.
And besides, if there's some sad, lonely gamer who, for some reason, wants to shell out Nintendo points for the change to play poker against naked sexy nurses...well...who are we to tell him he can't?
If it's rated M, how is that supposed to be enforced online?
Obviuosly this game would flop if it came out. I'm just wondering if there would be as strong a censorship and controversy on this, if, instead of sexy girls stripping there were terrorists who would constantly swear during the round and whose head would explode every time you get three of a kind or something.
@Chicken Brutus: How do you know it's sexy nurses? =P
@Adam: Maybe by using credit card authorization, XBLA uses your birthday you enter at the initial setup of the system (obviously not everybody uses their real date, and I think you can change it in setup.)
The Aussie rating system is broken. Then agan, being a lover of the arts, I'm very anti-censorship.
That's a REALLY good question, Adam. Let's find somebody who's downloaded Splatterhouse 2 and ask them (EDIT: I just posted a forum topic asking this very question). I don't think BrazCanaMan's idea makes much sense because that would keep adults from downloading these games using Nintendo Points cards (not everybody uses their credit card online, even if they have the option).
Well, I don't want to see this garbage ANYWHERE! It's just porn! If you really wanted to see that on your Wii, why not just use the stupid Internet Channel? I'm not usually for these censorship things, but I really think that this is just in poor taste, and a gross depiction of women. And I'm not even a girl.
Okay, rant over. Perhaps I'll take out my anger on Glass Joe. Yep. I will.
Its the job of the developer to know better not to make stupid games like this. They should never even make a game like this, thus resulting in no arguements of censorship or peoples rights to play it!
@ Adam - I believe the Wii Parental Control would prevent minors from downloading a M/18 rated game, assuming they are set. It is only the same as the internet, if parental controls aren't set, the chances are kids will look at things they shouldn't.
@Kizzi
What are talkin' about? The developers can make whatever the hell they want. It's the rating dude's job to tell them whether or not they can sell it. If they want to make a strip poker game, fine. Doesn't mean it'll sell, but still, they can make it.
Anywho, no big loss here. Really, who'd want a strip poker game anyways?...oh wait, I guess that would be me.(although I can just get them off the internet, so still no biggy)
Just because they can doesn't mean they should! (that was my point)
@Kizzi: Just because you don't think they shouldn't doesn't mean they shouldn't.
Well what they do is their own problem.
In my own moral opinion, I don't think they should even make a game like that, let alone put it on wiiware. But that is what I believe.
I'm saying they aren't allowed to. (although I wish they would)
Edit: I'm NOT saying they aren't allowed to. (avoid confusion)
Fair enough, yo. I didn't mean to jump you or anything, but people saying this game shouldn't even exist bothers me. If people don't like something, fine, but that doesn't mean it should be banned.
Not to jump on you or anything, but do you really believe it SHOULD exist. I don't WANT it to exist but I EXCEPT it. Do you actually think it SHOULD exist? (emphisis just to show point)
Yes, I do. Why not? Someone will enjoy it, and I don't feel it harms anyone, so I see no reason for it not to exist.
@Kawaii: You mean Michael Atkinson. The jerk.
I kinda hate it when Europe gets a VC/WiiWare game and Australia doesn't. It just doesn't seem right, when we usually get identical releases. Damn Commodore 64 and all that crap... ;_;
I don't get some of people's reactions. Those are just tits. And tits are a beautiful thing.
Give me some boobs in Beer Pong and Hockey Allstar Shootout and I'll buy them If one likes breasts in games and in real life it doesn't mean he/she is sad or lonely. It just means that he or she has higher standards fo aestethics
I'm going to buy this and enjoy it.
Remember Fallout 3?
All of the hype and all that happened was that they changed a drug's name from morphein to Med-X. Similarly, this is no great loss.
Now, back to declaring war on the South!
The worst part is, sometimes we miss out on games for no reason like Pheonix Wright 3.
Big A2: We got Phoenix Wright 3, I bought it from JB Hi-Fi over a year ago.
This is EXACTLY why I bought my Wii and my DSi from America, I have a LOT more choice in what I get to play. Not what the South Australian Attorney General feels I should play.
F You Mr Hopkins!
@ Chunky
Could you change your country if you're Aussie then?
We must band together to repel the Americans!
Strip poker, I'm not interested in. Now if some enterprising companies start bringing strip mahjong games to the Japanese WiiWare service that will get my attention!
Strip Bubble Bobble would be a day 1 download for me.
@Kim Jong-II: My situation's pretty confusing I guess, I had the Aussie flag for a while but people got confused when I was talking about downloading games from the North American site. I'll probably change it back again since most people know what I have now lol
Australia is getting the bad end of the deal, just move to a country that doesn't have such strict gaming rules.
@Kizzi: Writing properly, especially when placing emphasis (ACCEPT not EXCEPT), will help in future arguments.
I had this game on my cell phone and at work I would play it on my smoke breaks. It made me a better poker player today. I love any game that celebrates the human body in it's natural form. But then you mix blood in and you have the only reason why I bought a PS2, God of War.
this better come here.
Here's what I don't get: why is playing games where you murder people OK, but games where you might see a boob not?
Last time I checked murder was illegal, seeing a woman naked / in her underwear is not.
"If one likes breasts in games and in real life it doesn't mean he/she is sad or lonely. It just means that he or she has higher standards fo aestethics"
Or just is a heterosexual male.
Oh come on.
It's pretty obvious the game isn't being focused on the gameplay, people.
It seems like an excuse for some people to watch nudity. x.x
@Adamant
Or a lesbian/bi-sexual female
@Ferret75
But then again, any excuse for that is a good excuse.
^But the thing is, if there was someone obsessed with porno/nudity (I sure as heck am not x_x), they wouldn't be playing POKER to look at it, they would just look it up I guess.
@35. chunky_droid: It was probably an import then.
Also, Hopkins has a point. Australian parents can't decide what they're children play correctly. If we want an R rating for games, then the aditude of parents buying games for their kids needs to change.
@Big A2: JB don't do imports on games, only CDs and in special cases DVDs. 'Sides I've seen it in my local GAME and EB stores, K-Mart even had copies at the time.
If you have an R rating, then parents will have a better clue that games like the Resident Evil series, BioShock and the Grand Theft auto series really aren't suitable for kids 15-17, if you saw that content in a movie they would seriously be R rated instantly.
On a completely different note they should have ratings on books too. Parents that buy their 8 - 12 year old children the last 3 Harry Potter books clearly are unaware of its content too.
@chunky_droid
GTA movie would be awesome except they should base it on Tommy Vercetti,Carl Johnson and the deaf guy on GTA3 all meeting each other
Now I'm getting my hopes up for nothing
@Ferret75
But playing poker to see breasts is a different experience to writing "tits" to google to see them It's all about earning to see great visuals and giving some credit for it (by buying the product with the pictures)
@Airola
"Or a lesbian/bi-sexual female"
Can't they just pull off their top and look in a mirror?
Damn, lesbians have it good.
i don't really want my family see "Sexy Poker" when they buy a game, i am not a fan of naked women anyways.
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