This is joke right? Right? Anyone... Oh, they're serious.
When the original Fable was released way back in the wild heady days of 2004 our illustrious classification board gave it a solid M rating at the time. Was this because of sex, or drugs (the usual suspects)? Nope. It is very combat heavy and you have the choice of being nice (only fighting bad guys, and often sparing their lives) or nasty (kill anything that gets in your way). So why on earth would the HD remake suddenly become an adults only R18+. Well, it's because of sex.
Apparently, under the updated classification rules, the fact you can get married and consummate said partnership comes under the "Sexual activity related to incentives or rewards". Below is what happens in this game. Before you click play remember this is something the classification board is deadly serious about...
Well that is about as interactive as a brick that is sitting on a high shelf. But then there are the "incentive or rewards" from this little piece of fade to black. So what advantages does your character get from this sordid encounter? Nothing. Not a thing. The original article above suggests you and your partner can have a child but that little feature wasn't introduced until Fable 2.
The inconsistent and just plain ridiculous decisions relating to games since our pretend R18+ rating was introduced really shows that the system is still broken. If this decision stands then I guess the next Sims game will have to be R18+.
The ongoing review by the Australian Law Reform Commission has a possible answer. An industry based classification system like the ESRB in the US and PEGI in the UK is the real answer. This doesn't take government regulation out of the picture since any developer or publisher can still have their rating reviewed should there be reports of inappropriate material for any given rating.
As for the Fable decision... seriously I actively participated in the R18+ campaign for over a decade and THIS is the outcome...
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