So, here's the latest twist regarding games classification in Australia. The head of the OFLC Donald Mcdonald (seriously, how did his parents not see that on the birth certificate) has recently drafted a letter to the Commonwealth Censorship Minister Brendan O'Connor regarding the iPhone. He is concerned that certain apps and games available over mobile phones, specifically the iPhone, and games available for download are not being submitted to the board for classification.

On top of this the OFLC have done an appallingly disjointed job of censoring and classifying games so far. Case in point Grand Theft Auto IV, resubmitted with substantial modifications to meet the OFLC's standards. One year later GTA IV for the PC is released in its original form, with all the previously banned content included, not long after that the first downloadable Episode is released over Xbox Live which also has all the previously removed elements, gory blood spray, graphic sexual activities, all that fun stuff. It makes a terrible mockery of the classification process and completely defeats the purpose of Rockstar having to edit the first release of the game. There's just no consistency across their decisions and the method by which they judge games is notoriously obscure, a fact often lamented by game developers.

Are there really that many Apps that are so scandalous and offensive that it requires the OFLC to receive millions of tax dollars to classify them? Is Pacman going to get slapped with a PG for the implication of drug use? Apple all ready has pretty stringent rules on what can be released over the App store and they self monitor pretty effectively with apps getting slapped down at the first hint of a quivering morale outrage.

Generally this feels like another poorly thought out and impotent move by a government body, that's keeping the import industry in thriving shape, while they make procedures up as they go to respond to a small vocal section of the community.