Australian Attorney General Calls For Violent Videogame Ban

[Jailbird408]

I'd love to move to America, but all my games and consoles are region-locked to Australia, and I don't have the money to replace them.
Where was I?
Oh yes.
Down with Greg Smith the etc.

 

[[The]Rock]

when will this country harden the fuck up!?

if you all recall that escapist podcast when it was said "Americans are hyper-violent sexual prudes and the British are over-sexed pussies." well that means that Australians are sexualy prudish pussies. this all comes from our leadership saying "If it's not good enough for them, it's not good enough for us". so if america can't have sexual content, neither can australia, and if great britain can't have violence, neither can we. screw being a republic, we need a decent leadership first, and with the choices available, we're going to have a hard time with finding one.

 

[Vault101]

if they ban SR2 then there will be hell to pay....

 

[JET1971]

Notice how this follows right behind that SA university study?

Since when has the University of Queensland been in SA?

My bad i was thinking of Adelaide when I wrote my reply...

 

[MercurySteam]

I feel so bad that Aussies have to endure complete fuckwads for attorneys general.

Why, precisely, do they need a unanimous vote if everyone is pulling in different directions?

Because it gives them justification to sit on their asses and do absolute jack-shit. In politics everybody never agrees on a single thing, that's why anything takes forever to get introduced because and backwater retard can put up their hand (and many often do) and say 'nope' and parliament gets stuck on the same bill for weeks. It doesn't help that the shitty system is also run by incompetent pricks.

 

[ctuncks]

All I know is that he article had the words "sexual violence" I like my violence sexy, OH YEAH!

This sudden heal face turn stinks of a shift in the political atmosphere. I think the voteing public might have changed or some sort of election must be coming up. Maybe someone can convince him that his constituents have lots of gamers concerned over the issue and change his mind.

You see what happened was there was an election in new South Wales earlier this year where the previous Labour (Sorta Left) government was chucked out for the Coalition (Sorta Right) which means the former AG got the arse and they installed their own AG (Greg Smith) so where before we might have had an AG will to vote yes, now we have one who says no and as I stated before the chance to give him the arse won't happen for another 4 years, though 8-12 is more likely, as a new government is unlikely to last just a single term.

 

[MercurySteam]

hes just the attorney general of a state not of australia. hes just a speed bump in the march to an R rating

And that's the thing. Why the hell do we even have a state government? It eludes me as to why a county of 22 million people need so many levels of government. It means more idiots are paid shitloads of taxpayers dollars to sit around and debate about what we shouldn't do.

 

[uguito-93]

Does Australia even have Freedom of speech?

Nope, technically we don't have any sort of constitutional right to free speech, which is why our censorship is considered one of the strictest in the western world.

 

[rapidoud]

Different state, different Attorney General.

Yanks know nothing.

 

[notimeforlulz]

SEX:
Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is "simulation, yes-the real thing, no".

I'm not sure what this point describes... Is it simulated sexual activity such as in a movie vs real sexual activity such as in pornograhy. I hope this in no way permits import of japanese porn games, not just because I don't want to see that shit on the shelf at my game store (so if it does make it's way in, relegate it to a game section at an adult store please; where I never have to look at it ), but also because I don't want to see the pro-R group have to try and sell games with R level violence, and fucked up japanese hentai games, to the bible brigade at the same time, the non christian part of Australia ( the majority) aren't going to give a shit but we don't seem to use majority rule in this country; and the rulers are going to have a hard time convincing themselves to let people make their own choices in any case.

Also; why is it R for sim when it's MA for sim in movies, and why is it MA for implied when it's M for implied in movies.

 

[notimeforlulz]

Does Australia even have Freedom of speech?

Mate, you don't even want to know the full amount of things we should but don't have.
1- Free speech
2- Magna Carte, I think we had it at some point, but the ACCC manage to get themselves a by pass from John Howard because of the 'threat' of terrorism (Note that the bypass to the magna carte has never been used against actual terrorists, like America's extradition treaty with Britain)

 

[CryoSynth]

Using the whole prostitute murder thing as an example really only shows he hasn't properly researched the game. That's been recycled so many times its evident anyone who uses that as their sole damning evidence is simply basing their view on what they've heard rather than checking facts for themselves.

In other words, he doesn't WANT to do the right thing. He simply wants to have a go at games and will use any convenient fuel laying around.


It's saddening but not surprising that the people in power don't actually look into issues properly before charging ahead with their actions. I'm sure if he sat down and played the game, just for a while, he would realise there's more to it. And unless you specifically set out to find a prostitute to murder, you won't end up doing that.

It's the same as other aspects of politics. They're out of touch with regular citizens, because they just go off what they hear rather than trying to look into things personally.

Though I gotta say, going into the media and spamming the idea of murdering prostitutes with rifles is probably the best way of getting people to actually do it, in the games, which aren't banned yet after all.

 

[ctuncks]

hes just the attorney general of a state not of australia. hes just a speed bump in the march to an R rating

And that's the thing. Why the hell do we even have a state government? It eludes me as to why a county of 22 million people need so many levels of government. It means more idiots are paid shitloads of taxpayers dollars to sit around and debate about what we shouldn't do.

Because back before Australia was a Federation the states all governed themselves and even with the advent of federation they didn't want to give up the power they had, for better and for worse.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

So, he's getting worked up about something people have to go out of their way to do? I'm pretty sure in order to have sex with a prostitute and then get out of the car and shoot her with a semi-automatic the player needs to actively find a prostitute, go somewhere, do the deed, get out of the car themselves, pull out their semi-automatic of their own free will, and then fire it on their own. And that the only in-game incentive for such a thing is getting back the money that was spent on the hooker-sex in the first place.

 

[lacktheknack]

"It involves a prostitute giving sexual favors for money to a man in a car, and then when she gets out, he comes out with a semi-automatic rifle and shoots her dead."

And it's rated MA15+.

I'll let that speak for itself.

 

[pjm]

When i read this it makes me happy i live in New Zealand where we have the r18 games.

 

[weirdee]

What a dick. And I am getting really tired about the whole "you can have sex with then kill a prostitute" line. People who keep parroting that obviously know nothing about what they are talking about. They just keep repeating that bloody line over and over because they heard someone else say it. All of them neglect to mention that it's entirely optional and the game doesn't give you any reason to do it at all. They also seem to neglect to mention what game it's from! They're just all like "You can do that in these video-game things you know! They're evil!" They have no idea. I really hope the rest of the Australian government see sense and just tell this guy to go fuck himself.

Judging by the 'decade of progress' line, I think they've been trying to move on for ten years, but this guy is like some kind of dickwad barnacle.

 

[42]

Does Australia even have Freedom of speech?

what we have is freedom of speech, but what we don't have is intelligent politicians nor people who can run the country because they're too busy trying to solve the worlds issues.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

"It involves a prostitute giving sexual favors for money to a man in a car, and then when she gets out, he comes out with a semi-automatic rifle and shoots her dead. Now what good does that do anybody?"

I'd just be happy if they finally used a different example other than this one.