The Australian Classification board has rated Bethesda's upcoming NASA punk action roleplaying game Starfield, R18+ for "high impact" drug use.

Australia is world renowned for video gaming classification strictness and this decision would appear in line with previous ones but we reckon this game is a special case.

Why?

Science fiction entertainment is known to have inspired many scientists to pursue careers in that field.

Though we don't have a local equivalent to NASA which sends oztranauts into space, we do have a national space agency and a burgeoning space industry.

Bethesda have long been widely regarded as making some of the most popular and successful video games.

At a time when humanity is on the precipice of spreading out beyond our small blue globe, Bethesda have made this NASA punk roleplaying game.

NASA punk - that's a term worth mulling over.

Starfield is set in the 24th century which puts it in the general vicinity of Star Trek and The Orville, but its technology appears to be much less advanced and much closer in appearance to those being used and developed right now.

Their Earth suffered a major catastrophe and was abandoned which likely slowed advancement and makes the game's technology more near future than those and many other sci-fi franchises.

Aspirational but also graspable.

Whatever Bethesda's motivations might be for these choices, it presents a singular and golden opportunity to capture the imaginations of and delight and young children and influence their career trajectories.

Children who enjoy Starfield and dream of living in that world can see it developing around us and realistically envision playing a part in it.

In gaming Hogwarts Legacy has taken off in a huge way this year but the only thing that game is likely to encourage is buying Harry Potter merchandise.

That'll be great for publishers Warner Bros. and author J. K. Rowling but isn't likely to alter the course of human history.

Starfield conceivably could and the long-term effect of slapping an R rating on it could be that Australia's scientific and technological future suffers.

Unlike previous games which the board has classified stringently or outright banned, objections this time could come not just from gamers, game developers and advocates of drug decriminalization, but other government departments, education, science and potentially every sector of industry because at some level they would all rely on science.

We also wonder if our board might be making an unfair distinction between fantasy and science fiction games.

For example, fantasy action roleplaying game Skyrim made by the same developer includes a wide variety of potions (common in fantasy gaming) made from herbs and animal parts to produce special effects.

Unlike earlier games, the alchemy skill line was moved from magic into stealth but our board likely didn't notice or focus on that detail and regarded potions as harmlessly magical.

Presumably Starfield includes comparable consumable items with temporary beneficial effects but being science-fiction those are pharmaceutical, i.e. "drugs".

If this is what earned it the R rating, that would be unfair in our view but previous decisions (eg. Rimworld) suggest that they object to "drugs" which don't have serious drawbacks.

Starfield will release on September 6 on PC (Steam) and Xbox X|S.

[ Main Image: Starfield. Credit: Bethesda via Steam. ]

References

Australian Classification (March 15, 2023). Starfield.

Steam. Starfield. Bethesda. (viewed March 17, 2023)

Wikipedia. List of banned video games in Australia. (viewed March 17, 2023)