Australian Attorney General Calls For Violent Videogame Ban

[Radelaide]

Is the Australian clown-in-chief telling the adult men and women of Australia the things that they are mature enough of enjoy in the privacy of their homes?

Didn't know that the GOP had opened up an office across the Pacific Ocean.

She frankly doesn't give two shits really.

I do have one question:

"Any game with sexual violence will be refused classification. [Smith] need not worry, sexual violence is refused classification now, and it will be refused classification once R18+ passes," O'Connor said.

That could ban GTA, yeah? Since Smith had it pretty right; you get out and get your money back.

 

[Rol3x]

Does Australia even have Freedom of speech?

Honestly I dont know if is a fundamental right but there are less consequences for saying things people don't like, our TV is alot less restricted and censored than US TV and people are less likely to try and force you to be silent on certain issues.
In alot of ways you are much more free to speak here than in the US games just happens to be an issue that we have not made enough of a fuss over to get the change needed.

 

[EPICGunner]

For.Fucks.Sake.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

*sigh* 1 step forward, several dozen steps backward.

 

[SkyKitty]

Doesn't he know violent games are the only way people learn to fight back against those monster insects? D:

 

[Aedrial]

Does Australia even have Freedom of speech?

No. We have the implied Freedom of Political Speech.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

There are no words that describe how utterly... tired I am.

Spoiler: I've had enough of this

 

[svenjl]

poor poor Australian, they have idiots for leaders.......

still if this somehow passes, Yanthzee will likely have a video in which he rages about it, should be fun to watch.

Though I bet it has like a 00.00000000000000001% of passing.

Oh look, the first in a long line of ignorant comments about Australia from people who don't live here. Can't we just go back to American bashing?

 

[svenjl]

And one more thing! :-D

My humble apologies to anyone who has pointed this out, the guy is Attorney General of a state within Australia. He IS NOT the Australian Attorney General. The reason he is a stumbling block is that the passing of R18+ legislation requires the agreement of all the AG's in the country. Dumb system, but still - he is the only one holding out. Everyone else important, including the actual government, wants an R18+ rating. Any Australian feel free to correct me if they believe this is incorrect. Cheers.

 

[Grant Delmore]

"I think they should be banned," Smith said in a televised report on Australia's 7 News. "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?"

Hold on, GTA is a sandbox game. Meaning "YOU" do what "YOU" want.
Which means if greg did indeed play GTA, and do those things, it's because he wanted to do it. Even if only subconciously. So how is it the fault of Rockstar that this twat only wants to kill hookers, but then complains about the fact that he got to do it?

 

[NoNameMcgee]

What is it with people bringing up the exact same scenario everytime they condemn Grand Theft Auto? I don't get why people think its the worst thing in the game that you can hire a prostitute and then kill her. It's not even like a feature its just one of the many violent things you can do.

I was playing GTAIV earlier actually and since I got bored I decided to steal a car, and drive the wrong way down Times Square on the sidewalk hitting pedestrians. Dozens of them rolled over my bonnett or got launched into the air, then I handbraked and went back down the road, parked my car in front of traffic, got out, and fired a rocket at my car, blowing it up and causing a chain reaction destroying about 6 cars and killing more pedestrians.

I'm really glad these people don't know what else is possible in this game if they seriously think that tired old example is one of the worst things you can do.

 

[smudgey]

Doesn't really worry me. Like a lot of my fellow countymen/women, i import games from the ol' dart anyway, where they are damn near half the price we're charged locally. Problem solved!

 

[DTWolfwood]

*sighs* Gamers of Australia, why does your country hate you so much?

they don't make the government enough money from their shopping habits? XD

 

[sordcooper]

wow, and i thought MY government was stupid, but lo and behold; down under some jerk ass who dosnt even have all that high of a political office is impeding legislation that gags the free expression of artistic ideas and simulated giant dildo beatings

...

wait thats happening in my government right now but with much more important legislation... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!

 

[Jeebz]

Can I just ask who gives a flying ass really, and more importantly, what makes these wankers think that everyone agrees with their bloody moral opinion?

Yeah, so a game is violent, who cares? We've had violence in media other than games for decades before games came about, now all of a sudden because a bunch of silly blotchy pixels on a screen along with user interaction suddenly its a reasonable excuse to give an outcry about this is why people are violent?

Why in Australia of all bloody places too, strictly speaking its one of the safest developed countries in the world to live, n bloody games are what they are worried about? I'm surprised these tits don't get their asses kicked by angry gamers thinking.. " well I cant simulate a kill, how about I go kill the asshole who put forward a law saying I cant do it via a controller "

 

[UnSub]

Hold on, GTA is a sandbox game. Meaning "YOU" do what "YOU" want.Which means if greg did indeed play GTA, and do those things, it's because he wanted to do it. Even if only subconciously. So how is it the fault of Rockstar that this twat only wants to kill hookers, but then complains about the fact that he got to do it?

It's Rockstar's fault for including the potential to do it. That a player could do it is reason enough to consider it as an issue.

As such (and from memory) GTA was censored to remove the ability to hire prostitutes for sale in Australia.

Also, Fallout 3 had its drugs renamed so that they weren't real drugs, and there have been a number of other games that have been changed to get around the ruling of censors.

Most games end up sliding into the MA15+ rating without dramatic changes.

I'd like to see games get the R18+ rating in Australia but (unlike movies, books or other expressive media) it's hard to find a good reason that shows why it is needed since most of the R18+ resistance is on sex and / or extreme violence. The best argument is really the economic "the retail industry loses sales" one, but even that is weakened by the fact that more and more people are importing titles from other countries for significantly lower prices thanks to exchange rates.

 

[DarkBlood626]

If we are going to ban content that contains a large amount of violence sex (sexual deviancy) and has a negative effect on the people who are exposed to it and has no appreciable benefit can we start with the bible please?

 

[arithine]

To everyone freaking out the fact that these rules have "justified by the context" everywhere and you still don't like them only shows your own immaturity. Everything in a game should be justified by the context, anything that isn't should not be a part of it regardless of what it is. If you really want context-less violence that badly you are as deranged as people like him think you are.

You couldn't really expect video game content to remain so unregulated forever did you? Nothing on that list is unreasonable, it may be sub optimal but its not worthy of such strong reactions. The Video Game industry is one of the least regulated industries, while I feel in needs more regulation in other areas (mandatory improvements to working conditions for starters) this is going to keep happening. Besides by the time it does most of you will be over 18 anyway.

did you even read the thing? it's not about the ratings but a possibility of a ban. australia already refuses to sell some games and forces developers to make changes to the game. it is not qbout the ratong system(though if you knew anything about free speech the question that should be running through your mind is "who determines if it's 'justified'"

 

[Saris Kai]

To everyone freaking out the fact that these rules have "justified by the context" everywhere and you still don't like them only shows your own immaturity. Everything in a game should be justified by the context, anything that isn't should not be a part of it regardless of what it is. If you really want context-less violence that badly you are as deranged as people like him think you are.

You couldn't really expect video game content to remain so unregulated forever did you? Nothing on that list is unreasonable, it may be sub optimal but its not worthy of such strong reactions. The Video Game industry is one of the least regulated industries, while I feel in needs more regulation in other areas (mandatory improvements to working conditions for starters) this is going to keep happening. Besides by the time it does most of you will be over 18 anyway.

did you even read the thing? it's not about the ratings but a possibility of a ban. australia already refuses to sell some games and forces developers to make changes to the game. it is not qbout the ratong system(though if you knew anything about free speech the question that should be running through your mind is "who determines if it's 'justified'"

I did read it and I suppose I assumed they would be reasonable when determining things. As for not knowing about free speech I'm not familiar with the concept because we don't have it in my country. I get along just fine without it.

 

[Poisoned Al]

Welcome to Australia. Passengers are reminded to set their watches back 20 years.