Australian MMO Controversy Resolved

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Written by BuckGB on February 6th, 2009

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Blizzard told us:

"Blizzard Entertainment and its affiliates work very closely with the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia to ensure that we are in full compliance with Australian law as it relates to the distribution and operation of our games, including World of Warcraft.
We'd like to reassure all of our players that World of Warcraft is currently, and has always been, distributed and operated legally in Australia."

So why did the Federal and NSW Attorneys-General both claim, when speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, that online games such as World of Warcraft have to be classified? To be honest, we're not sure.

We spoke to Paul Hunt, former Deputy Director of the Office of Film & Literature Classification (OFLC), and now a regular advisor to the wider games industry. Hunt says the Attorney-General Department's reported statement to the SMH that "Online games are computer games within the meaning of the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995..." is incorrect.

Indeed, the AGD does not have any authority under the Classification Act to determine if something is a computer game or not. That is the responsibility of the Classification Board.

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