Lol, oh wow. For the first time ever, i'm glad that I live in the UK.

So, let me guess, you're 15? Personally I'd rather have the otherwise banned games unbanned than fuss over restrictions that don't restrict me.

I am fascinated to see the word "innards" used in a report otherwise filled with bland, bureaucratic language.

I actually mentioned this on a tweet earlier and Gabe sent me a predictable reply.
"@Delixe Yeah, I don't have any doubt we'll get it released in Australia, we're working on it, but it gives us some nice pr for zombie killin"

"Gentlemen, I have good news: Ulysses has been banned in Boston. Print another hundred-thousand copies."

The main difference, of course, is that this is voluntary action on the part of the US retailers, and the ratings agency is not a government body. As I understand it, it is illegal to sell unclassified games in Australia. AO games are available in the US, just not at the big retailers like Walmart and Target.

Yep. And since online-only games technically don't have to be classified, there are talks that the gov wants to ban World of Warcraft and other MMOs.

Australia needs to come up with a 18+ rating.
It's as simple as that.

http://kotaku.com/5147424/no-world-of-warcraft-has-not-been-banned-in-australia
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/02/blizzard_wow_is_sold_legally_in_australia_after_all/
Sorry, it seems that my previous assertion wasn't completely accurate. It's not 'the gov wants to ban MMO', it's just Sydney Morning Herald spotted the loophole in the law (online-only games are not 'computer games') and sought confirmation from various organisation overseeing OFLC.

I don't have the official PDF/media-release for Necrovision, as it was not public and I'm not going to pay the fee to do so (nor am I a relevant party to do so).
Anyway, this is what I gathered from second hand reports: Due to in-game depictions of violence that exceed a strong playing impact.
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When the player shoots an enemy combatant, a large volume of blood spray results and the enemy may be dismembered or decapitated. Injury detail is high with pieces of flesh seen flying from bodies when shot or a high level of wound detail visible on bodies. Post mortem damage occurs when bodies are shot resulting in blood spray, dismemberment and decapitation.
This level of blood and injury detail occurs frequently and throughout the game and in the Board’s view, exceeds a strong playing impact and therefore cannot be accommodated within the MA 15+ classification and so must be banned in the absence of an R18+ certificate.
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Quite a descriptive language there...
For the modified version we have:
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The Board notes that blood detail appears throughout the game as a grey “dust” effect when enemies are hit. Zombies fly into the air or their bodies jerk when bullets impact. However no further injury or wound detail is visible.
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This gets it past RC and even past the MA15+ into the softer M15.

thanks, these are some really nit-picky reasons. Australia could have such a better image in my opinion if they banned non-violent video games for being non-violent and only allowed the sale of violent ones..
anyway, what was the change on sexy poker? no nudity?

As far as I can tell, the RC ban on Sexy Poker stands (The same with 'Risen'), and a modified release has yet to make it here.
This is All I've been able to find on the title: ref source
"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," the statement said.
"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." Because there is no R18+ rating for games in Australia, the highest classification level for a game is MA15+.

Sexual content being a reward contributed to Risen being banned (as did its drug use, despite the drug using a fictional name as with Fallout 3). I'm not sure what their problem is with L4D2 since the first game was presumably sold there; the only real change L4D2 would make to the gore level is the addition of melee weapons (and that's certainly not going to be anywhere as graphic and bloody as the chainsaw attacks in the Gears of War games which are not on the banned list).
The side-effect of the OFLC's actions is that it can affect NZ too; in some cases distributors won't bother with New Zealand either once Australia is out of the picture. This is despite NZ's ratings board now being separate. If this results in me needing to import Risen I will not be happy. :(

Yes, the ESRB situation is a bit crap, but we're fairly fortunate in that the government doesn't meddle much in our gaming.

I still find it laughable that we have an M15+ and an MA15+. Absolutely no legal difference, how fucking redundant is that?
The last I heard there was a discussion paper going to be released "soon" (this was in april) and then no mention of it again until a gamespot interview a few weeks back which might as well have been called "no comment" for all the content it had
The thing that irks me is that I'm MOSTLY on the side of the people obstructing it, I personally think that a LOT of games are rated too low because there's nowhere higher to go and too much money at stake to RC everything that crosses the line. I mean that xmen origins wolverine game looks pretty damn gory (and shitty) mostly just for the sake of it being gory and gears of war lets you chainsaw people in fucking half! The texas chainsaw massacre is rated R but gears is MA, hmmm.....

I think internet stuff counts as a transaction in the country the business is based in, as if you went to poland & bought a copy directly from the GOG staff