Internetville this weekend was all aflutter over the rumor that the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has refused Fallout 3 in their classification process. According to voices whispering on the GameSpot PC forums , the OFLC is objecting to the in-game use of the drug morphine as a stimulant. Refusing to give Fallout 3 a rating would keep it off game store shelves, since Australia has no rating for games above M15+.

Now, drug use is always a touchy subject in games, but keep in mind that Australia gave Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots a M15+ rating, and that game also allows players to use a drug (diazepam) in order to calm their nerves in battle. Is the objection specifically to stimulants, I wonder, or perhaps to morphine specifically? Would it be okay if we instead downed a couple valium with a fifth of vodka? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Fallout 3 screens on GamePro.com

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Lynxara

It's worth noting that diazepam is part of the World Health Organization's list of basic necessary medications and is only mildly addictive, while morphine has fallen out of medical use worldwide because of its extremely addictive properties (and since addicts use needles, it's IIRC a significant spreader of hepatitis).

So, to play Devil's Advocate a little, if use of a mild medical drug in conditions vaguely analogous to its real-world use pushes MGS4 into the harshest Australian rating, then it is probably expectant that a much harder, more addictive, less medically useful and historically dangerous drug like morphine would make a game right out.

Since what I know of morphine's use in Fallout 3 is highly unrealistic even by Fallout standards, then the easy way out of this would be for Bethesda to do a find-and-replace in their game code that changes "morphine" into... oh, I dunno. "Australiansucksium" or "oflcisdumbenzoate" would probably do, and they wouldn't offend anybody, right??

The alternative is that we all point and laugh at Australians having to buy pricey imports (or wait for a cracked version to hit the nets) in order to play Fallout 3 at all, which works for me, too. Ha ha, your government censorship board sucks and can't actually stop you from playing games!

ahead

Good point, Arturis!

I don't think including morphine in a fantasy setting as a stimulant should be censored unless we actually lived in a post-apocalyptic world. If that were the case, people might be more heavily influenced by a video game to use it; and in that situation, I'd say it's okay.

...But I think they should rename it to "Roflonase"

KouAidou

Fallout has always used stimulants so it must be specific to Morphine (I can't remember if earlier Fallouts used it or not). Or just the ratings board being arbitrary about their standards from year to year. (Probably the latter.)

Lynxara

Wait, let me put on my Dork Hat, now...

Morphine isn't a stimulant. It's specifically an opiate, a family of drugs that are now more known for their addictive and illegal uses than their medical uses. When used medically, they have no value other than numbing pain (and in severe trauma cases I think cocaine is still administered to kill pain). Morphine's name actually comes from Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep.

... oh man, I'd better get this Dork Hat off...

... hey, roflonase is an awesome name! I'd rather be able to take that in a Fallout game than morphine any day!

ImpAtom

Ah, Fallout 3. The only thing I look forward to more then you is the ensuing anger from rabid fans over how you're untrue to the old Fallout games. With that in mind, I do have to say that using morphine in Fallout 3 seems a bit silly no matter how they use it. Stimpacks, Buffout, Mentants and such are all fine and dandy 50's Medical Items and probably wouldn't bother the ratings board at all.

KouAidou

Well, let's keep in mind that it's only a rumor. Is it possible that there's no morphine involved and someone was misquoting someone, or using it as a generic term for drug? I mean I think we've covered numerous reasons why "morphine" makes no sense in the context described. The simplest explanation seems to be that the rumor is false or at least misquoted.

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