So.. Australians already pirate games because we don't like waiting two to four months after our US counterparts to play the latest games. Will I be pirating this one simply because I can't actually buy the real version over here?

There are two main classification problems in Australia.

1. Videogames do not have an R18+ rating, unlike film. This means that if games cannot be rated MA15+ then they must be refused classification. Unfortunately, for this rating to be added to the options the classification board have, all 8 state Attorneys-General must vote in favour of it, and at the moment one is holding out (South Australia). There have been several reviews, surveys and petitions and each have called for an R18+ rating, including from the Office of Film and Literature themselves.

2. There is gross inconsistency within the ratings for games. Recently Refused Classification were NFL Blitz: The League for drug use, Mark Ecko's Contents Under Pressure for promoting an illegal act (graffiti), BMXXX for nudity and now Fallout 3 for drug use. Yet Fallout 1 and 2, Max Payne 1 and 2 and more recently Bioshock all also used explicit drug taking to boost performance. GTA:SA has graffiti tagging (and many other illegal acts) and The Getaway had the same level of nudity as BMXXX. Many games are squeezed into the MA15+ rating by a mostly sympathetic OFLC (the classification board is drawn from ordinary citizens), rather than effectively banned.

Some publishers resubmit games after editing them - this happened most famously for GTA3, in which the ability to have sex with hookers was removed for Aussie release. This was because sexualised violence is automatically Refused Classification - and the ability to kill hookers immediately after having off camera sex with them was deemed too close a link. This feature is of course present in GTA:VC and GTA:SA (rated MA unedited), once again showing the inconsistency. Other publishers simply do not offer the game for sale in Australia.

Of course importing is a practical option, although laws do exist to make it illegal to import or possess banned games. In reality, single copy imports will not be prevented.

Australia has had a very conservative government for the last 10 years, and the new Labor government which replaced it is also generally conservative in nature. Without an active Videogame Consumer Group in Australia, the mutterings in a few forums, some online petitions and a handful of letter to parliamentarians seems unlikely to change matters soon.

There was a big review into videogame classifications done a year ago my Dr Geoffrey Brand from Bond Uni with over 300 submissions, which when put with his studies on the demographics of gamers (average age 28) was the best chance Australia had of changing the current system. The recommendations were ignored and it seems that nothing is likely to change in the near future without some grassroots level activism, which would involve the organisation of Australian gamers into an effective lobby group.