All are sold as boxed sets in retail stores across the country without classification by the Classification Board or the appropriate labelling, for instance M or MA15+. A spokesman for NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said the NSW Classification Enforcement Act prohibited publishers and retailers from selling unclassified computer games.

"The NSW legislation covers computer games bought online as well as those bought in stores, and treats single, multi-player and online games the same way," he said. The spokesman added that enforcement of the act was the responsibility of police but penalties for breaking these laws ranged from $1100 to $11,000 for individuals and/or 12 months' imprisonment. For corporations the fines were approximately double. "If there is any suggestion that any business is trading illegally, police need to know, and it should be reported," he said.

A spokeswoman for Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said that, although it was up to each state and territory to enforce game classification requirements, Commonwealth legislation also had no loopholes for online games. "The National Classification Scheme does not distinguish between games based on whether or not they contain a single player component," she said.

"Online games are computer games within the meaning of the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 and are covered under the existing legislation." But Ron Curry, chief executive of games industry body the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia said he believed that online games without a single player component did not require classification by the Classification Board. He said the issue centred on how one defined the term "computer game".

"A disk [in retail packaging] that provides access to an online computer game is in itself not a computer game for the purposes of the Classification Act," he said. Although the state and federal attorneys-general have said that online games are computer games as far as the legislation is concerned, police do not appear to be enforcing this aspect of the law.

A spokesman for NSW Police Minister Tony Kelly urged members of the community to contact local police if they saw retailers selling computer games illegally. The spokesman did not respond when asked why police needed to wait for complaints when virtually every game retailer in the country was selling the online games without classification. "Police officers in the NSW Police Force will respond to complaints received from members of the community or other agencies to investigate alleged breaches of either the Commonwealth's or NSW's Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Enforcement Act 1995," he said.

Shane Stockwell, merchandising director at EBGames, said the retailer was always compliant with the law and "we do not believe we are selling an illegal product". The issue was first picked up by Melbourne games journalist Tateru Nino, who writes for the MMORPG blog Massively.com.