Tell us something we don’t know: Bond University has just announced the results of its most recent study into gaming in Australia, and it turns out that South Australian Attorney General is an uneducated dingbat in his war against an R18+ rating for games: The average age of gamers in Australia is 30 years old, and 68 per cent of Australians play video games.
The survey was conducted across 1600 households and involved more than 75 questions in a 20 minute survey. Among the other findings are that 66 per cent of adults aren’t aware that there isn’t an R18+ rating for video games, and 91 per cent of both gamers and non-gamers believe that the rating should be introduced.
It also found that gaming is a social, family pastime, with 70 per cent of parents in a gaming household playing games and 80 per cent of those playing with their kids.Some of the other key findings:
*The average adult gamer has been playing for 11 years.
*The average game play session is one hour.
*Older players mainly use PCs and play Board/Card, Puzzle and Strategy games.
*Younger gamers and young adults make up the bulk of handheld and console game device users and prefer Action, Racing, and Adventure games.
*The Australian computer games industry is growing at more than 15 per cent
per year and conducted sales of AUD1.3 billion in 2007 according to GfK point of sale data.
*17 per cent of adults in game households admit to having pirated games in their collections with nearly 10 per cent of all games in Australian homes being illegal copies.
The author of the report, Dr Jeffrey Brand from Bond University, perhaps summed up the R18+ shamozzle best when he said:
“78 per cent of parents stated that an adult is present when games are purchased and 92 per cent of parents are aware of what games are played in their house.
“The proposed R18+ classification for computer and video games will not result in the availability of games containing excessive violence or explicit sex. Material within the R18+ classification would be strictly in line with permissible content as set out in the classification guidelines.”
And that guy’s a doctor. What evidence do you base your opinions on, Mr Atkinson?
A full copy of the report is available from the IEAA website.
[IEAA]