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Exclusive: God Of War III And Syndicate Cannot Be Compared – Australian Ratings Board

Exclusive: God Of War III And Syndicate Cannot Be Compared – Australian Ratings Board

Posted by: Ernice Gilbert January 19, 2012 in News 3 Comments

Recently, the Australian ratings board banned EA’s Syndicate from being sold in the country because, according to the firm, “the game contains intense sequences of violence which include detailed depictions of decapitation and dismemberment of humans that are high in viewing impact.” The ratings board went on to say that “[Syndicate] also contains the ability to inflict repeated and realistic postmortem damage which exceeds strong in impact and is therefore unsuitable for a minor to see or play.”

All this was taken from a response letter written by the board’s director, Donald McDonald to Games Thirst avid user and contributor Nicholas ‘Nick’ Mirabito, who is also an Australian studying to become a videogames developer and is now crafting his first title in college. Nick asked the board in his letter why was God of War III, a game that features more dismemberment of body and gruesome scenes than most other games, like the tearing off of another’s head, allowed to be sold in Australian but Syndicate was blocked. In its response to that, the board told Nick comparing God of War III and Syndicate wasn’t “meaningful”.

“I note your view about the MA 15+ classification of the game God of War III,” wrote McDonald, these games have different content and context, different classifiable elements and impact. In the board’s opinion, for these reasons, it is not possible to make meaningful comparisons.”

Later in his letter, McDonald reminded Nick that the government was working on new legislation to introduce an R 18+ rating category for games, adding that, “owning to the widely differing views held in our community, it is not always possible to make decisions which satisfy everyone. I assure you the board takes its responsibility seriously and reflects current community standards when making decisions.”

Syndicate see’s a release February 21st and 24th in the U.S. and Europe respectively for PS3 and Xbox 360, PC.

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About Ernice Gilbert

Ernice Gilbert here. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Gamesthirst. Thanks for stopping by, make yourself at home!
  • nick

    i can see where hes coming from, the problem is the rules are set that post mortem damage, inflicting pain is of a higher impact then doing the same things to a living thing.
    its really stupid, but thats how the guidelines are setup.
    i remember thats why fear 2 originally got banned not because it was of high impact violence, but because when you dismembered enemies they screamed out in pain and reacted to it, and that raised its impact rating this originally getting it banned.
    if syndicate did not have post mortem damage, ie if once a enemy was dead you could not still blow his or her limbs off, then it probably would of been passed.
    silly, i mean whats the difference between blowing a enemies limb off when hes alive, and when hes dead?
    but sadly thats how the rules are setup, they stack so each time you are able to do something goes ontop thus increasing its impact rating.
    so i can see where hes coming from, you cant compare syndicate to GOW3 because one has repeatable damage one does not.
    GOW3 is gory but there is no severed limbs, and once enemies are dead you cant go further inflicting damage on them where syndicate you can.
    probably a better comparison would of been fallout 3.
    in that you could sever limbs, there was copious blood, and you could inflict post mortem damage.
    its almost exactly the same as syndicate!
    so then why did that get passed, and syndicate did not?
    frustrating!
    i just hope they hurry the hell up and get the 18 rating in!

  • http://www.gamesthirst.com Ernice Gilbert

    I see their point, but God of War III is worst than Syndicate when it comes to Gore and all the things that go along with it…. I don’t see how the former gets a pass and the latter gets banned. Strange system in AU, that’s for sure.

  • nick

    its exactly because as i said GOW3 does not have severed limbs, and you cant inflict post mortem damage.
    if you could it would of been banned, but you cant so its fine.
    the extreme gore is not what got syndicate banned, its the post mortem damage and severed limbs that did.
    its the same story with mortal kombat.
    the extreme blood effects, even the fatalities did not get the game banned.
    the game got banned because of the high detail xray system.
    think of it as a scaling system.
    GOW3 has high gore thats it so its 1 point.
    MK has high gore, and high detailed internal damage models, and severed limbs, so thats 3 points.
    syndicate has everything MK and GOW3 had, plus post mortem damage thus making it 4 points.
    its ok to have one or 2 things, but as i said they stack so the more controversial things the worse.
    if there was no severed limbs and high gore, then post mortem effects would of been fine.
    but add in everything else and it exceeds high impact and thus must be banned.
    its a stupid system but i can see why this got banned and GOW3 did not.

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