After many years, the government of Australia has drafted a bill that will allow video games to be rated R18+. If passed by both houses, which seems likely, it will bring to an end years of games being either banned or cut just of the Australian release, bringing them into line with film and television.

The bill is expected to come into effect within a year.

Source: News.com.au

Any Australians here? At least Yahtzee will be happy.

Looks like some baby steps forward are being made:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/167313/Australian_capital_receives_R18_classification_for_video_games.php

Whatever the rating system, the games would still be banned for the majority of gamers.

At least they will be available for purchase.

Yes, but for whom?

I think Iggy's point is that most gamers are under 18. But the last time that was true was probably in the 90s or something, so the joke doesn't really fly...

I really hope it's not the adult players who put Kinect Star Wars or Spyro on the top of the sales charts. I also doubt that they've been buying Sims 3 and its expansions continuously for the last few years for a shere lack of violent and pornographic titles. If the adult players are there, they have the financial means to import their violent games and the know-how to pirate them.

Didn't I read somewhere recently that the average age of a "gamer" nowadays is in the mid-thirties or so? Seems plausible... and then again, most of them have kids as well, so they get a game or two for the kids to play on their consoles or computers.

Yes, but how do you define a "gamer"? The accountant lady at work is a gamer according to the industry because she plays a lot of Solitaire instead of working.

You can't seriously think "gamer" still means nerdy boy with bottle bottom thick glasses, braces and bad skin who dwells in his parents' basement though?

I'm not saying accountant lady, but I'm 32 now and I'm a "gamer", and I'm sure there are lots of "older" people here as prime examples. :)

Nerdy boys with glasses grow older, but they don't necessarily grow up.

Nevertheless, I think adult gamers are a minority, not in the least because of the large amount of time required to play through games.

I think you need to back this with a study or something. There is absolutely no way most of the games on Steam would appeal to "kid" gamers, and always having the means of paying for them isn't an easy feat as well. Adult gamers have varied tastes, so they look dispersed across different genres. Time is a problem, indeed, but that doesn't usually stop adults to invest some time into playing games.

I think the majority of games on Steam seem to be tailored to the interests of boys 12-19 rather than adults, which supposedly have a lot more diversified interests.

I guess most adults in the 25-35 year old age category (that I know) are really 12-19 year old boys in disguise.

Actually that does make sense now that I type it out :)

Both thumbs up man! You have just caught the essence of us - 20-30-40-something gameplaying men.

"You're not a day older than you feel", as the saying goes. :)