The short version
Computer games distributed in Australia are classified under a national scheme, and the classification comes with consumer advice describing why it was given. Check the specific title on the Australian Classification Board's own site rather than inferring a rating from the art style or a store listing. For anything involving chat, contact or online interaction, the eSafety Commissioner is the Australian authority with practical advice.
Age suitability is the question this site is asked to answer most often, and it is the one where guessing does the most damage. Battle collection RPGs look approachable. The art is stylised, the combat is turn-based and bloodless in most titles, and the interface resembles a card game. None of those surface features determine how a game is classified in Australia, and none of them describe the parts of a modern live game that most affect a younger player: purchasable randomised items, chat with strangers, and content that changes every few weeks.
Who classifies games here, and what that produces
Australia runs a national classification scheme covering films, computer games and certain publications. The Australian Classification Board classifies computer games distributed in Australia and publishes the resulting classifications along with consumer advice — the short line that explains what in the game produced the rating. The Board's site is also where the national classification database sits, which is the place to look up a specific title rather than relying on a storefront's own label.
Two features of that output are worth understanding.
- The classification itself
- A letter or symbol indicating the audience the content was assessed as suitable for, ranging from general audiences through to restricted categories. Some categories are advisory and some are legally restricted; the Board's own material explains which is which, and that is where to confirm it rather than a summary elsewhere.
- The consumer advice
- A short description of the elements that drove the classification — violence, themes, language, online interactivity, in-game purchases. For a parent deciding about a specific game, this line is usually more useful than the rating, because it names what is actually in it.
Classification arrangements in Australia have been amended in recent years to address games containing paid randomised items and games containing simulated gambling. We do not restate the current rules here, because a rule restated inaccurately is worse than a link: check the Board's own site for the position that applies now.
Checking a specific game properly
- Look the title up on the Board's site Use the exact name of the game. Search for the classification and read the consumer advice alongside it.
- Read what the vendor states about online features Chat, clans, alliances, direct messaging and user-chosen names each carry different exposure to other players. Vendors describe these in their own documentation.
- Check whether purchases are possible and how they are authorised On a shared computer this is the difference between a hobby and an unexpected bill. Platform and operating-system level purchase controls exist and are worth setting.
- Look at the chat and contact settings inside the game Many titles allow chat to be limited or disabled entirely, and the defaults are usually the most permissive option.
- Decide about randomised items separately from everything else A game that sells a chance rather than a thing raises a different question from a game that sells a cosmetic item, and it deserves its own decision.
This site does not describe any game that contains purchasable randomised items or simulated gambling elements as suitable for a person under 18. That is not a classification judgement, which is not ours to make; it is an editorial line about what we will and will not imply. Where a household decision is involved, the classification, the consumer advice and the vendor's own description of purchases are the three things to read.
The parts a classification does not cover
A classification describes the content as assessed. Three things sit largely outside it and matter a great deal in practice.
- Other players. Chat and alliance features put a young player in contact with adults. The eSafety Commissioner publishes advice for parents and young people on gaming specifically, including how to use in-game reporting and blocking tools, at esafety.gov.au.
- Live content. Live games change on a schedule. A title assessed at launch may run events, add characters or introduce modes afterwards, and the ongoing content is worth an occasional look rather than a one-off decision.
- Time pressure. Daily login rewards and limited events create obligation, which is the aspect of this genre parents most often report as the problem. It is not a content question at all, and no rating will flag it.
Practical arrangements in a shared household
Desktop play changes the household picture, because a computer in a shared room is used by several people and often holds a saved payment method. A few arrangements do most of the work, and none of them require software beyond what the computer already has.
- Separate user accounts on the computer. Game sessions, browser logins and family use stay apart, and purchase details are not shared by accident.
- No stored card in the platform or browser profile the young person uses. A purchase that requires re-entering details is a purchase with a pause in it.
- Chat settings reviewed together at setup. Doing this with the player rather than to them makes the reporting and blocking tools familiar before they are needed.
- An agreed weekly rhythm rather than a daily one. The genre's daily systems pull hard; a household agreement about when the game happens is the simplest counterweight.
- A periodic revisit. Live games change. So do players' ages. A decision made at eleven is not a decision that holds at fourteen.
Where to report something that goes wrong
If a young person experiences serious online abuse, image-based abuse or harmful content in a game, the eSafety Commissioner is Australia's regulator for online safety and operates reporting schemes. If the problem is someone attempting to obtain money, account details or personal information, report it to Scamwatch, run by the National Anti-Scam Centre. If personal information has been mishandled by an organisation, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner handles privacy complaints. Our account safety guide covers the account-specific side of this.
What we will not tell you
This site does not state the classification of any particular game, including the title advertised on it. We have not been given one, classifications can change and vary by version, and a rating repeated second-hand is exactly the kind of claim a reader should not have to trust. The Board publishes its own decisions; use those.
The publisher of Raid: Shadow Legends describes it as a battle collection RPG built around assembling an alliance of Champions, with dungeons, Clan Boss fights and a fully voiced campaign across twelve locations, and the advertised action is to register, install and start the tutorial. Its classification, its online features and its purchase arrangements are all matters to check at the sources described above before making a decision for a household.
Paid link. Pulse Group Online is paid a fixed fee if a reader registers and starts playing through it; it has no effect on what anyone pays.