Australian Christian Groups Collide Over R18+ Ratings

[Manicotti]

I may be missing something here, but wouldn't an R18+ rating keep these dangerous video games out of the hand of their precious children? How's that a bad thing?

According to the ACL site, an R18+ rating is just a waste of paperwork and that the energy should be spent on making better sure that MA15+-rated games are kept out of kids' hands. I don't honestly see the point of this conflict - it's like saying a gun is somehow more dangerous if you put a label on the barrel that says "This is a gun."

 

[snide_cake]

Would be good to get an 18+ rating. Make more sense than what they've got right now. I'd hate to think a kid is out there playing Assassin's Creed II and loving on the bloodshed and interesting ways to kill people. Or Borderlands, with the interesting ways that you can shoot a person's head off or fry their skull. That ain't healthy for a child to be doing! (Probably ain't so healthy for me either ^_~)

 

[Knight Templar]

they need something a little extra so parents understand the game is not for children."

Why not stick up a sign in every store that says "Parents: check the rating, it is important".

 

[Crunchy English]

Let's be frank, this ACL sounds an awful lot like a lobbyist group more interested in headlines than children. Video Games are mere political fodder, probably seen as a springboard to putting one of their men or women in the Attorney-General's chair. It might sound stupid to want to completely censor games, but when Theocratic Censorship IS the ultimate goal, it's just a stepping stone. The ACL isn't stupid, it's evil.

Catholics, on the other hand, are many things, but not evil. They're decadent, certainly. Short-sighted? Maybe. Delusional? Possibly. Here though, they show a practicality entirely unlike other parts of their church. This a double victory, an ally against the immoral for us, and a major step forward as Catholic leadership begins to take reasonable stances on modern issues.

 

[DPunch4]

Let's be frank, this ACL sounds an awful lot like a lobbyist group more interested in headlines than children. Video Games are mere political fodder, probably seen as a springboard to putting one of their men or women in the Attorney-General's chair. It might sound stupid to want to completely censor games, but when Theocratic Censorship IS the ultimate goal, it's just a stepping stone. The ACL isn't stupid, it's evil.

Catholics, on the other hand, are many things, but not evil. They're decadent, certainly. Short-sighted? Maybe. Delusional? Possibly. Here though, they show a practicality entirely unlike other parts of their church. This a double victory, an ally against the immoral for us, and a major step forward as Catholic leadership begins to take reasonable stances on modern issues.

NO! Both are evil in turn, for they deny the true god of thunder THOR.

Evil roman scam lovers. LONG LIVE OUR GOD OF THUNDER!

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Thanks for once again reminding me that, media image aside, Cathoics are by and large not the most conservative Christian group by a wide margin.

 

[Formica Archonis]

It times like this I'm proud to be catholic... No wait I'm always proud but this adds to my my pride. Wait is pride a deadly
sin? Damn it.

Not only that, but it's the worst of them: The wellspring of the other six, the sin of Lucifer, the sin that caused the Fall of Man.

Congrats! You're doomed!

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I may be missing something here, but wouldn't an R18+ rating keep these dangerous video games out of the hand of their precious children? How's that a bad thing?

Well, you see, the theory is that they'll obtain R18+ games via older siblings, adults who don't give a shit and so on...

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

they need something a little extra so parents understand the game is not for children."

Why not stick up a sign in every store that says "Parents: check the rating, it is important".

What? That would mean parents have to make an effort on their own part to make sure their little... darlings... aren't be corrupted by alien side boob.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

15-17 year olds shouldn't get too excited over the ACB submission, their suggested guidelines would shove most MA15+ games into R18 and I don't just mean the ones that should have been R18 in the first place.

 

[TechNoFear]

The majority of submissions (>46,000 of ~55,000) to the government on an R 18+ rating for games were in favor of creating the classification.

The ACL has a 'book membership' of 2-3,000.

Good luck to you homophobic luddites in holding back the tide of change for the better in Australia.

I for one am going to release all my pent up violent tendancies, built up over 30 years of playing violent video games, on the ACL (should they succeed in stopping the R18+ rating).

Who designed that horrible image?

It is the image off the ACL site, designed to make gamers look 'bad'.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Unfortunately, it looks like this issue is on the back-burner for the immediate future. Our hung parliament is struggling over the planned national broadband network, and there's such fragility in the ruling party's grip on power that we're not likely to get a resolution on the R18+ gaming classification any time soon.

The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meets Dec 10 and the R18+ classification proposal is already tabled. The whole deal pretty much has bog all to do with federal parliament except for one of the SCAG attendees is, of course, the Federal Attorney-General.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Interesting, though I notice neither side is argueing the fundemental right of such games to exist as a free speech issue.

That would most likely be because they want to be taken seriously and not to be told to stop watching so much American tv. It's not a free speech issue. We'd need Constitutional guarantees of free speech first for it to be an issue.

 

[Evilsanta]

Bishops that are smart and making sense?

Has hell frozen over? Can someone get me Satan on the phone!?

 

[leviathanmisha]

I have to give some kudos to the Catholics on this one...I hope you Australians settle everything with this, cause I don't really see the point in not having the R18+ rating.

 

[fgdfgdgd]

I may be missing something here, but wouldn't an R18+ rating keep these dangerous video games out of the hand of their precious children? How's that a bad thing?

According to the ACL site, an R18+ rating is just a waste of paperwork and that the energy should be spent on making better sure that MA15+-rated games are kept out of kids' hands. I don't honestly see the point of this conflict - it's like saying a gun is somehow more dangerous if you put a label on the barrel that says "This is a gun."

Nice strawman argument but no, the comparison is unjust and doesn't suit the case, hyperbole shouldn't be used in an argumnet such as this, because like hyperbole does, it gets out of hand. One is a pysical risk and one is psychological, if you're to believe the people at ESRB and any other institute that tells us why this is a good thing, you would know it will help prevent games from being squeezed down into the M15+ rating and exposing the content to minors that outherwise, possibly would never have seen it. Don't get me wrong, i have my own beliefs and you have yours, i respect that, but if someone tries to make their beleif law, then they better have some damning evidence to prove their way is best for everyone and not just their own agenda or pride.