by Dylan Blight
We Happy Few Unbanned
Update:
On a blog post on the developer’s website, Compulsion Games has stated that We Happy Few will be coming to Australian audiences without any changes.
We are extremely pleased with the decision of the board and excited that our Australian fans and new players will be able to experience We Happy Few without modification.
This is interesting given that, in the past, titles denied classification usually had to change something in the gameplay, for example Fallout 4 or South Park: The Stick of Truth.
You can read the blog post here.
The Classification Board in Australia has reviewed and reclassified We Happy Few, which was originally refused a classification in Australia earlier this year.
Through the Classification Board’s website today it was announced that a three-member panel of the Classification Review Board unanimously determined that We Happy Few would be classified R18+ with consumer advice for “Fantasy violence and interactive drug use.”
What’s interesting is that the game was originally refused classification due to the game’s drug use. The Classification Board’s rules for games state that games which promote drug use as positive, or reward it through gameplay, will be refused classification. This was the issue earlier in the year.
From May’s Media Release:
Players have the option to conform with NPCs and take Joy pills when exploring the Village or Parade District areas of the game. If a player has not taken Joy, NPCs become hostile towards the player if they perform behaviours including running, jumping and staring. An NPC character called the Doctor can detect when the player has not taken Joy and will subsequently raise an alarm. A player who takes Joy can reduce gameplay difficulty, therefore receiving an incentive by progressing through the game quickly. Although there are alternative methods to complete the game, gameplay requires the player to take Joy to progress.
As such, the Board found the drug use to exceed the R18+ rating and refused classification. What, if anything, has changed between the initial rating and now is currently unknown.
The Review Board is a separate entity to the Classification Board, so it will be interesting to see what the reasons for their rating are when they are published on the Classification website at a later date. You can read the media release here.
For now, though, Australia — we are getting We Happy Few.
