14 DAY TRIAL // The Australian Classification Board, best known in the last few weeks for the row surrounding the Left 4 Dead ban for the territory, has announced that Blizzard’s MMO World of Warcraft has received an M for Mature rating and will now be labeled as such on store shelves.
When the most popular subscription-based MMO was initially released in 2004, the Classification Board stated that it could not rate a multiplayer-oriented videogame because of the fact that most of the experience was determined by how the other players were behaving.
In the United States, most titles that have a significant multiplayer component are rated in relation to the single player elements and a warning is issued about the fact that multiplayer might be very different.
Now, the Classification Board is saying that it has the means to determine the rating of World of Warcraft and that the M rating is given because of the high levels of “fantasy violence.” The board stated that “It is the Board's view that World of Warcraft meets the definition of a computer game provided in the Classification Act and therefore can be classified. This is consistent with the intention of the National Classification Scheme to provide parents and consumers with classification advice on the content of games.”
Blizzard is saying that it has been trying to get a classification ever since 2004 and that the current move is important as it allows potential customers to make an informed choice. Meanwhile, developers are still looking to see whether the M rating will be used in the same manner for videogames as it is for movies. Left 4 Dead 2, the Infected and Survivor-oriented title from Valve, initially refused classification, which effectively meant a ban from sale, because of the high level of violence towards enemies that resembled humans. Now, an edited version of the game is set to be released on the original date in Australia.