The federal and state governments have reached an in-principle agreement to provide an R18+ rating for video games.

The proposal has been debated at a meeting of attorneys-general in Adelaide.

Gamers have argued the rating would protect children from games containing inappropriate material, while giving adult gamers a choice.

The New South Wales Attorney-General abstained from the proposal.

South Australia has previously indicated it will also scrap the current MA15+ , meaning all violent games will be restricted to adults.

Federal Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor welcomed the in-principle agreement saying it is a "big step forward in the long-running debate on classification".

"The introduction of an R18+ classification for computer games will provide better advice to parents and help prevent children and teenagers from accessing unsuitable material," he said.

"Once introduced, the new classification will also afford adults the opportunity to view material designed for adults."

"It is a credit to all jurisdictions that the meeting has now been able to achieve agreement over what is a complex matter in classification policy."

A national telephone survey conducted by Galaxy last year showed that 80 per cent of the 2,226 people contacted said they supported the introduction of an adult only category for games.

Draft guidelines presented at the last attorneys-general meeting have since been amended and this requires some states to seek approval from their respective cabinets.

Once that is achieved, the Federal Government can begin drafting the legislation to introduce the new classification.

Under the proposed guidelines, games containing high-level violence will be restricted to adults, while games containing extreme violence will continue to be refused classification and banned from sale altogether.

The agreement has won the cautious support of the Australian Christian Lobby, which criticised the previous draft guidelines.

The lobby's Rob Ward does not want a barrage of extreme games coming into Australia, but he has welcomed the new agreement.

"What this appears, and again depending on the details, is that there'll be no loosening and no increase in the number and types of games that will be available, but rather a classification change," he said.

More gore

Gamer Grant Moritz says video games are often censored and heavily edited. But he says the changes may actually see an increase in the level of gore in games.

He says games that were previously censored for the Australian market will be allowed entry in their original form.

"I think that a lot of the games that are coming in as censored versions or being refused classification are going to actually be able to [be brought] in in their entirety," he said.

"So hopefully it's going to open up a lot more games that developers may not consider bringing over... [and gamers would get] the same experience that the rest of the world is getting with that type of media."

Mr Moritz says gore in games adds to the realism and allows gamers to be immersed into the experience.

He says gamers are not attracted to violence and gore "for the sake of it".

"As an example there is Left 4 Dead 2, which was a game that was censored for the Australian market," he said.

"There was a lot removed there. I think the entirety of all the blood was removed from the game, which kind of took out a lot of the experience from that kind of game.

"Left 4 Dead 2, being the theme is kind of zombie apocalypse, you kind of need that visceral gore in that kind of game to make it real.

"I have played the censored version and it is completely different and it's kind of like shooting cardboard cut outs really."