Grand Theft Auto 4 edited for Australian release

It’s all just a little bit of history repeating. Also all just a big bit of drugs, sex, violence and language. And this time Atomic delivers bonus Politics!

Has anyone else got deja vu? Ah, one big yes from everybody.

Grand Theft Auto is making its own characteristic waves well before its release.

Rockstar, creators of the illustrious Grand Theft Auto series, has created an edited version of the game for Australian audiences. We are still waiting on comments from Rockstar, however it appears that the company did not even bother to send the version of GTA 4 that the rest of the world will be playing to the OFLC for classification.

According to the OFLC’s Classification Database, GTA 4 has been submitted once and was classified as an MA 15+ title. Since we know that Australia will be receiving an edited version of GTA 4 and that the game was classified after a single submission to the OFLC, it is logical that Rockstar has learned from the OFLC’s past decisions that lead to the banning of GTA 3 and GTA: San Andreas.

GTA 3 was refused classification (effectively banned) twice before the third submission left us with the edited MA 15+ game we’re all familiar with. The first submission to the OFLC contained objectionable material in the form of prostitution. Specifically, players were able to pick up prostitutes in a car, have sex with them, watch their money go down and their health go up, then kill them and get their money back. GTA: San Andreas was pulled from the shelves after some time for simulated sex. You may know it better as the infamous Hot Coffee Mod, which was a piece of inaccessible game code that was to be an interactive sex minigame. Third party tools placed the code back into the game.

There is a lot of confusion about the lack of an R 18+ rating in this country. Adding an R 18+ rating is not, I repeat, not, a decision that can be made by the OFLC. It is a decision for the Department of the Attorney General, which requires all the state Attorneys General to agree to change the legislation.

South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson is the only Attorney General who still opposes adding an R 18+ rating for video games. At the last Standing Committee of Attorneys-General -- where, amongst other issues, amendments to the charter that the OFLC follows are discussed -- it was decided that the community was to be consulted to gauge whether an additional R 18+ rating should be implemented. We are awaiting comments from the relevant Attorney General’s office with more information on how to get involved.

It’s telling that the ABC story linked to above was tagged as (among other things) a youth issue. It’s indicative of how the community sees games and gamers as a whole, and is the stereotype that we are trying to shake off. But at least the issue is making steady progress.

I wonder if, should an R 18+ rating be added to the OFLC’s charter, Rockstar would bring the uncut version to our shores? I seem to remember Rockstar admitting that Grand Theft Auto was a game for adults a few years ago while shooting a documentary on the games classification issue (and surely they’ve admitted that somewhere already). Considering just how recognisable the franchise is, it would arguably attract a huge amount of mainstream media attention.

It just seems like the right thing for them to do. Some would even see it as a responsible thing for them to do. If you think about it, it could be an excellent public relations move -- it could even be seen as a charitable choice by a socially responsible corporate entity -- to raise awareness of the change in the classification system on behalf of a mature gaming industry.

And you’d probably get fans who already owned an edited version of GTA 4 lining up for a copy of the director’s cut.