Several local government representatives were brought to E3 this year courtesy of the Games Developers Association of Australia (GDAA) in an effort to create a greater awareness and understanding of the importance of the games industry.
One of those representatives was former Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, who endured many questions at the expo on why Australia didn't have an R18+ rating classification for games. He felt compelled to write an article for The Australian on his thoughts on why an R18+ rating for games is needed and provides many hard hitting facts to back up his reasons. From theaustralian.com.au...
(Peter Beattie)...providing a classification of R18+ gives parents more information, to guide their choices and keep their children away from games with excessive violence, inappropriate language or sexually explicit material. It will empower parents.
We've done it with movies for years. In a way, we do it with the labelling of food ingredients. More information helps consumers avoid the things they want to avoid.
There's no difference here. Introducing an R18+ classification for video games in Australia is a no-brainer.
One can only hope that the words from influential people like Peter Beattie nudges that elusive goal of a new adult rated classification for games just that little bit closer.
R18+ is not the only move the government needs to make
An R18+ classification is a step in the right direction. But IMO the Australian government needs to give the games industry the same tax concessions that the Australian movie industry gets.
I'm 6 months from finishing a degree in games design, and at the moment the best prospect for work looks to be overseas. This then creates a problem for a government that has paid for my degree. As far as I'm aware after earning an income outside of Australia for 180+ you are no longer required to pay taxes under the Australian tax system. If i dont pay tax i dont pay back the huge debt that i have incurred through the course of my degree.
Im sure that im not the only person thinking to moving OS is going to be the best way to get a job in the industry.
However if there was something to attract publishers to look to Australia there might be some companies already established that would need to increase their numbers. Also startups working on smaller projects would increase as well, creating more work opportunities for new grads.
Im hoping that Tony Reed will use his new position in the GDAA to push these two issues more in government. But by the time anything does happen I'm likely to be working overseas.
I disagree
I disagree, I don't think the Australian industry should rely on Government handouts. Be also careful what you wish for with the tax concessions, because having those kinds of benefits would likely force us into creating Australian content - what I mean is look at 90% of Australia movies made. They are almost all about Australia, almost all exclusively for the Australian market. We don't want that same trend happening in video games that are made here, we want to be taken a bit more seriously than that. We actually want to sell our games overseas.
I'm not sure how you believe that an overseas developer is going to hire a no-name Australian fresh out of Uni, either. All the guys I know working overseas all had at least 3-4 years industry experience under their belt first.
R18 does not have a
R18 does not have a significant impact on local development. It's a sensible idea but not really a priority for the GDAA.
Tax breaks specifically for games development would indeed help, but realistically are not going to happen. They have been a major focus of the GDAA for years, and they really have worked hard at trying for them. There are lots of other schemes which can help developers and Tony is already doing great work highlighting these.