Australia Grants MA15+ Rating to "Aliens vs Predator" Game

It was recently announced that the "Aliens vs Predator" reboot for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3, will in fact no longer be banned in Australia, and will appear on shelves uncut, contrary to previous speculation. It was also announced that it will carry an MA15+ rating, prohibiting anyone under the age of 15 from purchasing the game. Although this is seen as a victory for the gaming community, it has left some people wondering whether there should be a steeper rating category than MA15+, which is currently the country's highest rating before refusing to sell a game altogether.

There has been a lot of buzz in the gaming press about this title mostly because of the roller coaster ride that it has gone through in the Land Down Under. I've always been fascinated with the issues of censorship that are constantly bubbling up there, and it really seems to be a world apart from where we are in the US of A.

Ratings issues have always been non existent to me because when I was younger I typically had access to R rated movies and M rated video games thanks to my two wonderful older brothers. I'm often puzzled when I hear debates about ratings, because I turned out to be a relatively well adjusted adult despite watching routine disembowelment on film and executing numerous head-rips in video games since I was 8 years old.

The question I would ask is this: Is a 15-year-old less able to separate the fiction of tearing people's heads off as a Predator than an 18 year old is? What do you guys think?