When it comes to the Australian government’s take on video games, controversial bans and censoring aren’t anything new.
However, now it looks like the government is going all for nothing in a full ban of DayZ for the in-game use of marijuana.
According to the Australian Classification Board, the ban is coming for the reason of, “illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives of rewards.”
The funny thing is, you can’t even use marijuana in DayZ as of now, and its not certainly clear that you ever even will be able to.
Oh…
— Jamie Dalzell (@Sir_JD) August 9, 2019
Oh god…
The irony…
You can't make this shit up anymore: pic.twitter.com/xZkfRIFZPW
“Through general gameplay, the player is able to collect and use a variety of equipment, supplies and weaponry. One of the options to restore the player’s health is a marijuana joint, labelled ‘cannabis’, which is denoted by a cannabis bud in the player’s inventory.”
-Report from the Australian Certification Board regarding the use or marijuana in-game
Currently, Australia allows in-game drug use in games that bear the R18+ rating as long as it isn’t “detailed or realistic.” DayZ though, was denied the R18+ rating by the board. As of now, the game has managed to obtain an MA15+ rating.
Bohemia Interactive issues a statement on the banning of their game in Australia saying that, “The Australian player base is a big and very important part of our community. At the moment we are looking for the best solution to keep the game on the Australian market and pass the classification according to all regulations.”
Eventually, Bohemia Interactive will most likely see a compromise being made with DayZ so that the game can finally see its release in Australia. Fallout 3 saw some of these same issues for the drug use included in its game. After some time, the game was unbanned due to the “reward incentive” for the game’s drug use being toned down enough to pleasure the Australian Certification Board.
DayZ is currently completely banned via both digital and physical sales in Australia.