Crikey, let’s take a gander as the Classification Employee tells us about their job:
During the interview, the classifier also took the liberty to explain the actual process of how games apply to be rated in the Country, and what steps they have to take to do so:
AustralianGamer: Can you explain the purpose or role of the Classification Board plays with regards to videogames?
Classifier: The Classification Board are an independent statutory body, so we don’t effectively answer to anybody. Our job, in relation to games, is to classify games upon application.
The interviewer decided to touch on a more interesting topic to games - especially in Australia - of the process of appealing the Classification Boards decision, if possible - and the answer, to say the least, was surprising:
So, the Board technically never reverses a decision - their decision is merely overruled by a separate board. Another interesting part of the interview - which I’m sure developers jotted down on their notebooks - are the things that make the board tick, and lean towards rejecting a game completely.
AustralianGamer: That is a very interesting fact. I’m sure most people never actually knew an appeal goes to a statutory body that is separate from the Classification Board.
Classifier: Which is one of the most frustrating things about working in the Classifications Board. You will commonly see media that publishes headlines like “Board does backflip”. This is untrue, the Board’s decisions stands. It has simply been reviewed by the Classifications Review Board (a seperate body within the Board) and has been awarded a new classification. Sometimes the decision is the same.
It’s interesting to think that if there was a serious drug scene where someone overdosed as opposed to a serious drug scene where they just got high, the serious drug scene with the overdose would seem to have less of a change of a harsher rating, since it discourages drug use. There’s always a fine-line with differing opinions in the business of rating games, but at the end of the day each and every game in Australia has to go by these guys, and their views. (or is that re-views? ba-dum-dum-tish)
AustralianGamer: So it’s basically the categories you see when you see a rating explained?
Classifier: Yes. It’s also to do with the repetition, frequency, level of detail, whether it is stylized or realistic, whether it encourages interactivity, or whether the scenes are prolonged.
What do you think of the Australian Classification Board? What do you think of some of the words said in the interview?
Source: AustralianGamer
