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NEWS: Atelier Totori for Vita Listed as R18+ by Australian Rating Board


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Tukuyomi



Joined: 11 Jan 2013
Posts: 22
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:40 am Reply with quote
HitokiriShadow wrote:
No, there's definitely fanservice. There's a an extended swimsuit scene late in the game (and it should make you really uncomfortable when watching it, not sure if that was the intent though) but you have to work for it. There's also several other fanservice scenes, though it is possible to finish the game without seeing them ("finish" being getting the Normal ending).


Okay, I can't really speak for the swimsuit scene as I have only seen some screenshots, but it didn't seem THAT bad. They looked pretty cute, even.

I mean, Dead or Alive Xtreme2 had REALLY bad and skimpy swimsuits...and even that only got a 12-year-old rating over here^^

I wonder if Australia is as harsh on violence in games as well...
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:16 am Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
How conservative Australia is when it comes to this stuff never ceases to amuse me. How much of a prude do you have to be to consider Totori an 18+ game?


While I understand your indignation you are commenting from a position of ignorance. This rating is actually a victory for gamers in Australia. Until the R rating was brought in a short time ago, games that failed to gain the next highest rating were simply banned. This was out of step with Australia's liberal censorship regime for film, DVDs, BDs, magazines and books. An R rating for video games was campaigned for by both gamers and civil libertarians in Australia. This particular game may not warrant such a high rating in your opinion but it does mean it is freely available to anyone 18 or older. Further, Australia hardly ever polices who purchases or views such material. Any under 18 who wants to play the game will have no difficulty in doing so. The best thing is that the existence of the classification has silenced the wowsers.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:59 am Reply with quote
Tukuyomi wrote:
Oh wow, to think Atelier Totori is deemed appropriate for 6 year olds over here in Germany... Very Happy
Wouldn't wanna change with you guys.
I mean, seriously, Totori is nothing but cute and innocent, there's not even fanservice comparable to Disgaea or the like.
Rating it 18+ is REALLY ridiculous.

Witness the brilliance of man-made law.


errinundra wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
How conservative Australia is when it comes to this stuff never ceases to amuse me. How much of a prude do you have to be to consider Totori an 18+ game?


While I understand your indignation you are commenting from a position of ignorance. This rating is actually a victory for gamers in Australia. Until the R rating was brought in a short time ago, games that failed to gain the next highest rating were simply banned. This was out of step with Australia's liberal censorship regime for film, DVDs, BDs, magazines and books. An R rating for video games was campaigned for by both gamers and civil libertarians in Australia. This particular game may not warrant such a high rating in your opinion but it does mean it is freely available to anyone 18 or older. Further, Australia hardly ever polices who purchases or views such material. Any under 18 who wants to play the game will have no difficulty in doing so. The best thing is that the existence of the classification has silenced the wowsers.

Aren't there some AU states that still prohibit R18 games? Anyways, I don't think it's a good idea as it just establishes perpetual government intervention. Those civil libertarians should telling the government to get out of the way. The whole idea of a government censorship board, the OFLC, is anathema to libertarianism. The R18 rating creates a legal restriction that even if not enforced much, could still be easily enforced that carries a punishment. Selective enforcement is in many ways worse. At the very least, rather than push for the current regime of R18, they could have pushed for M18 instead, as recommendation, but not punitive/restricted.
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ianiceboy



Joined: 05 Sep 2010
Posts: 27
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:23 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Atelier Totori Plus: The Adventurer of Arland

More like Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of R18+ Land.
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:09 am Reply with quote
@ configspace,

The federal government lacks the constitutional power to make laws censoring any sort of publication (other than in the territories). Such powers reside with the states. What the federal government does is try to act the broker in order to bring about uniform laws. There is always a tension between those states with more permissive attitudes (South Australia, Victoria & Tasmania) and those with more conservative attitudes (Western Australia and Queensland). The remaining state, New South Wales, tends to take more of a middle ground. Of the territories, ACT is permissive while the Northern Territory is all over the place.

The federal government is, however, responsible for customs, so it can, and very occasionally, does ban the import of items it wishes to restrict. You then have the odd situation where getting an item into Australia is illegal but, if it's produced here, it's perfectly legal.

As regards government intervention in general, although Australia is tending towards the American model, Australians don't share Americans' hatred of government (although we loathe our politicians just as fiercely as anyone else).
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:30 am Reply with quote
It's probably wrong to say Americans hate government - a lot of them tend to say they do, but given that most of those will then turn around and call for more government, it's more of a carryover from the American Revolution(and the ensuing war of secession) being founded in said hatred. Heck, the Republican Party only picked up the small government rhetoric from Democrats who jumped ships thanks to FDR's socialism(they were founded as a pretty well open corporatist/protectionist party).
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14746
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:54 am Reply with quote
Well, Australia did do this:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/01/simpsons-powerpuff-girls-porn-nets-jail-time-for-australian/

So it's just par for the course. Laughing


Cecilthedarkknight_234 wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
How conservative Australia is when it comes to this stuff never ceases to amuse me. How much of a prude do you have to be to consider Totori an 18+ game?


not to shocking really look at neptuina games here in the states. There is very, very low tolerance for young anime girls in games in this day/age that people will not call you sick freak for liking.


That's pretty much a lot of it. Western gamers aren't really prude - they enjoy skin as much as anyone else. Just look at Lara Croft. It's just that when the girls are young-looking and/or -acting (forget the ages - age is just but a number in fictional work). Just look at the new Lara Croft - they make her younger but not looking too young. It's like the mindset among Western gamers is: t'was a long hard road to get gaming treated into social acceptance and a legitimate hobby, that they don't want gaming be treated back again as creepy stigma like being into fetishizing young girls lead to. Dead or Alive barely passes off that hazy line. What to take away from this is: make 'em look old enough, and they're fine with it (e.g. Cammy often polls highest in Street Fighter to retain, and she shows the most skin).


Chagen46 wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
How conservative Australia is when it comes to this stuff never ceases to amuse me. How much of a prude do you have to be to consider Totori an 18+ game?


Sexual themes and fanservice, I'd presume. The entirety of the west has some seriously giant collective sexual dysfunction thanks to Christianity screwing everything up.


"Sexual violence" according to the Australian ratings board.


Cecilthedarkknight_234 wrote:

Which is why america has one of the highest rate of sex-offenders than many other developed nations.


America arrests sex people for every little thing. Laughing

Which leads to below...................


Kougeru wrote:
Cecilthedarkknight_234 wrote:

Which is why america has one of the highest rate of sex-offenders than many other developed nations.


I just wanted to specify that this is the highest rate of known sex-offenders. Our country has a much more active awareness on the issue compared to most others, from what I've seen anyway. I could be wrong since I'm only basing this on stuff I've found online. An example of one country that may have a lot more than what they have recorded is Japan. It seems that more often than not in Japan, the victims stay quiet and so the sex offenders are left unknown while here in the US we're taught from pretty early on to tell people ASAP.


................ It's not just that in Japan it's under-reported. As a Japanese put it in a funny context, about Japan reporting lower sexual violence rate than other nations: "it's because what's illegal there is legal here!"
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:35 am Reply with quote
errinundra wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
How conservative Australia is when it comes to this stuff never ceases to amuse me. How much of a prude do you have to be to consider Totori an 18+ game?


While I understand your indignation you are commenting from a position of ignorance. This rating is actually a victory for gamers in Australia.


How is rating a kids friendly game 18+ a victory for anyone? The original game was rated PG in Australia. There shouldn't even be a discussion of it being banned in the first place... its like saying a criminal got only 20 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit instead of life, so he should be happy.
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Catseyetiger



Joined: 20 Oct 2009
Posts: 779
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:46 am Reply with quote
I have played the PS3 game and did not see where they could get the R18! can someone explain why they added this to this game and where did they find such in it?
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:51 am Reply with quote
Catseyetiger wrote:
I have played the PS3 game and did not see where they could get the R18! can someone explain why they added this to this game and where did they find such in it?


The only significant thing are new costumes like bikinis and other types of outfits like that. MAYBE it would raise it from PG to the Teen rating Australia has, but anything higher is just a joke.
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partially



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 702
Location: Oz
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:31 pm Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
HitokiriShadow wrote:
What's really strange about this is that the PS3 version was apparently released with a lower rating of "PG" Source


The only real difference between the two is some bikini and other fanservicey types of costumes. Is that really enough to change the rating from Kids friendly to porn level?


Well they also rated Azumanga Daioh MA here purely on the basis of that male teacher who would occasionally make creepy faces, in an otherwise PG show. So sure an R because of bikini's is par for the course.
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Timic83



Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 2:14 am Reply with quote
partially wrote:
So sure an R because of bikini's is par for the course.


Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 got a PG.
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ScruffyKiwi



Joined: 25 Oct 2010
Posts: 672
Location: New Zealand
PostPosted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 2:13 pm Reply with quote
What I don't understand is why has this being rated at all? Game companies submit their games for ratings and as far as I know no english release of the PSvita game has been announced and no english translation has been done.

Anyway, the 'sexual violence' means that there is a rape or sexual assault, which definitely was NOT in the PS3 game. The Atelier games are more cute than anything else. Someone must have got turned on too much by all those frilly dresses Smile
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 2:20 pm Reply with quote
ScruffyKiwi wrote:
What I don't understand is why has this being rated at all? Game companies submit their games for ratings and as far as I know no english release of the PSvita game has been announced and no english translation has been done.


Game releases are often leaked these days through Rating board submissions like this. So now we know its getting an English localization.
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Nephtis



Joined: 21 Jul 2005
Posts: 138
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 2:29 am Reply with quote
I know nothing about this title or any related games (just so we're clear).

I do know however a bit about how classification works here.

First: if the publisher disagrees with the decision they can appeal. Regardless of the outcome of the appeal the way in which the board comes to its decision is published for all to see (so they would detail the sexual violence references in question).

Second: sexual references and sexual violence references are two completely different things. It's also worth mentioning for example if a character mentioned 'rape' this rating wouldn't have ended up coming to light.

Third: how about instead of comparing it to previous titles or the game on another console how about waiting for the game to come out before going right off about how another country's legal system is stupid.

This game clearly has something the board believed warranted an adult only rating. If that's the only descriptor it must be strong references (note plural) and probably be harsher than you'd realise. Let's all calm down and see what happens.
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