The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
MB: Is it as simple as introducing an R classification?
TC: Absolutely, that would solve the problem; it would bring us in line with the rest of the world, and it would ensure that games that are presently refused classification, or shoehorned inappropriately into the MA15+ bracket can be appropriately rated.
MB: Perhaps they should get some Xbox 360’s and PS3’s into the cafeteria up there in Canberra, get the politicians gaming?
TC: I played video games with [Senator] Stephen Conroy [Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy], he’s a decent bloke, and he....
MB: Did you beat him? Is he any good?
TC: ...He’s actually not too bad; he spent a lot of his youth playing arcade machines, put up a decent fist first time up playing one of our games, unfortunately it is not his decision on this issue...
MB: Have you had a chance to play with the South Australian Attorney General yet? [Michael Atkinson is the AG most vehemently opposed to the introduction of a R18+ classification for interactive entertainment in Australia]
TC: No, well, ha ha, this fellow is of course the problem, he has been interviewed whilst playing games before, but clearly this is a guy that doesn’t get it, and to be honest, I don’t think, ever will get it. So the battle is unlikely to be won while this gentleman is the Attorney General of, I am embarrassed to say, my home state.
MB: You mentioned you travel widely, and we are the butt of many a joke, how do other countries classify titles such as World of Warcraft, games that are on shelves but are largely an user generated content experience?
TC: Its tough isn’t it? And it is a bit of a moving feast as to how you classify that content. And it gets more complex again when you have user generated content, where you not only have a developer that is putting out download or add-on packs with new content for a title, but you also have users generating content too. It’s another area, I guess, where the law needs to evolve and move with the times, it’s incredibly complex.
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
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