Escapist News Now: Saints Row 4 Denied Rating in Australia

Escapist News Now

New member
May 10, 2013
481
0
0
Saints Row 4 Denied Rating in Australia

The game was still refused despite the recent introduction of an R18+ rating in Australia.

Watch Video
 

neppakyo

New member
Apr 3, 2011
238
0
0
Nope. Big can of Nope. Unless it's a raping simulator, games shouldn't be banned. 18+ ratings sure, all in all it's up to the consumer, and parents, otherwise it's a failure of parents to watch their kids. Imho.

Anyone who takes actions in video games and other media to heart and applies it in RL, needs some major help. The majority of us know right and wrong.

...stupid governments..
 

6unn3r

New member
Aug 12, 2008
567
0
0
This all comes from a country that has pretty much legalized prostitution....was the term "double standards" not something that got carried over on the prison ships?

Other fun laws include:
-Children may not purchase cigarettes, but they may smoke them.
-Taxi cabs are required to carry a bale of hay in the trunk.
-Bars are required to stable, water and feed the horses of their patrons.
-Only licensed electricians may change a light bulb.

Maybe its all that sunshine they're getting? Making them go slightly nutty...
 

Nurb

Cynical bastard
Dec 9, 2008
3,078
0
0
So you KNOW it's good!

neppakyo said:
Unless it's a raping simulator, games shouldn't be banned.
That's the sort of arbitrary litigation of fictional "murder simulators" that caused this whole mess about ratings in the first place.

cap: face the music
 

Shamanic Rhythm

New member
Dec 6, 2009
1,653
0
0
MinionJoe said:
For having the coolest president in the world, Australia still has some awfully bogus laws on the books.
Ah, being lectured to about the validity of our legal system by someone who demonstrably doesn't know the first thing about the Australian constitution. Priceless.
 

vxicepickxv

Slayer of Bothan Spies
Sep 28, 2008
3,126
0
0
Given all the fun that was stripped from 3 vice 2, I fail to see a problem here. As for a country, those are values, while a family is morals.
 

Karma168

New member
Nov 7, 2010
541
0
0
6unn3r said:
-Children may not purchase cigarettes, but they may smoke them.
To be fair that's the same as in the UK. A 16 year old can get drunk and smoke as many cigarettes as they want, their consumption isn't illegal, only the purchase of them either by or for someone under-age is.


OT: Yeah stupid rule. If it's bad slap an 18/21+ rating on it and let mature adults decide for themselves.
 

Evil Smurf

Admin of Catoholics Anonymous
Nov 11, 2011
11,597
0
0
MinionJoe said:
For having the coolest president in the world, Australia still has some awfully bogus laws on the books.
Firstly: we have a Prime Minister called Kevin Rudd, secondly I have arranged a friend from the UK to pre order Saints Row 4 and gift it to me.
 

Micah Weil

New member
Mar 16, 2009
499
0
0
They're probably just jealous that there's no Australia gun that shoots huge goddamn spiders and murderous pieces of nature.
...uh...Australia is still actively trying to kill the people inhabiting it, right?
 

Redlin5_v1legacy

Better Red than Dead
Aug 5, 2009
48,836
0
0
Micah Weil said:
...uh...Australia is still actively trying to kill the people inhabiting it, right?

I would say so.

OT: So... do we need ANOTHER new rating down there or something? Seriously, Aussies can't catch a break.
 

A3sir

New member
Mar 25, 2010
134
0
0
This decision is stupid and is only going to hurt our local businesses and economy. In a world of digital sales and international shipping, there is no chance of them keeping it out of Australia, it just means we will be putting our money into the economies of other countries. And if *somehow* they managed to ban imports and digital sales, well our own government will be forcing us to do something illegal and hurtful to the companies that make and produce it. I'm still sore about the toned down version of L4D2 Australia got, and the fact that even on steam, we can't buy the proper version here.
 

Silva

New member
Apr 13, 2009
1,122
0
0
I think that it's appalling that our R18+ rating is just being dodged because people feel scared of drugs. We fear drug use incentives more than murder incentives? Really?

I suppose the argument for it in the conservative mind is that it's easier to be teased into drug use than to be teased into murder. But even assuming that drug use is immoral, and I would call THAT a double standard - we do use many legal drugs to boost ourselves, like caffeine - how is an R18+ rating not enough to guard people from being influenced so heavily?

The answer is that as usual we have a bunch of very old religious or otherwise ignorant people deciding what genuine adults want to do with their time, including shoving their barbaric, over-fearful stances towards drugs right down our throats. As a gamer and as an Australian, I've had enough. They have not seen the end of the movement for the R18+ rating. As word spreads that the rating is not enough to fix everything, I am sure that we'll have a storm of angry people ready to force the system not to do this or else practice civil disobedience and find their own way to this content.

At least this mess started with a game that was not looking like it would be that great to begin with.

6unn3r said:
This all comes from a country that has pretty much legalized prostitution....was the term "double standards" not something that got carried over on the prison ships?
Apart from your borderline prejudiced and ignorant language here (really, our country existed before "prison ships" - there were indigenous people here for up to 40,000 years before any Europeans arrived, not to mention the many people who brought and worked with the convicts), I must take issue with the idea that this is somehow related to the double standard at work here. Where is the connection between prostitution being legal and the game being banned for giving incentives to drug use?

On an unrelated note, prostitution being legalised is an excellent idea for societal stability. It creates a good source of tax income for governments, reduces potential rape and the dangers involved in actually using the service of a prostitute due to regulation - and there are people, for example, with mental disabilities, that deserve their chance to enjoy a sex life if they can afford it, or at least the experience. Legalisation also brings down the connection between other crime and prostitution, removing it almost completely from the underworld social circles of the countries where this is done.

Other fun laws include:
-Children may not purchase cigarettes, but they may smoke them.
Of course this is how it is. This makes a lot of sense. How would you enforce a rule that stops people from smoking cigarettes, say, in their own home? There's plenty of reason not to smoke as a minor as it is if the cops will come up to you and ask who gave you cigarettes, then finds out who. What do you think the person who got in trouble will do?

-Taxi cabs are required to carry a bale of hay in the trunk.
-Bars are required to stable, water and feed the horses of their patrons.
Where are these laws enforced, if they even exist? None of this is true or at least practised, I can tell you as an Australian myself. And if it's a joke, it's in poor taste.

-Only licensed electricians may change a light bulb.

Maybe its all that sunshine they're getting? Making them go slightly nutty...
This may - MAY - be true, but I don't think that this stops a lot of people from changing their own light bulbs.

As for the nutty comment, I might ask who's talking. Making assumptions is definitely insane. There's a light bulb you yourself might change.
 

Shamanic Rhythm

New member
Dec 6, 2009
1,653
0
0
Silva said:
By and large I agree with you. I think the depiction of drugs in videogames still receives undue weight in classification ratings because of this idea that being 'interactive' is more convincing and indoctrinating than a non-interactive form of media. This hasn't been conclusively demonstrated by various studies, but it forms the backbone of this policy. What's most ridiculous is that they can get around the restrictions by just changing the names - this hardly implies that the system is working as intended.

But given that the other half of why Saints Row was banned involved raping people with anal probes, you can't say it didn't have it coming.
 

MrHide-Patten

New member
Jun 10, 2009
1,309
0
0
Evil Smurf said:
MinionJoe said:
For having the coolest president in the world, Australia still has some awfully bogus laws on the books.
Firstly: we have a Prime Minister called Kevin Rudd, secondly I have arranged a friend from the UK to pre order Saints Row 4 and gift it to me.
Did Julia quit when I wasn't looking?
 

Evil Smurf

Admin of Catoholics Anonymous
Nov 11, 2011
11,597
0
0
MrHide-Patten said:
Evil Smurf said:
MinionJoe said:
For having the coolest president in the world, Australia still has some awfully bogus laws on the books.
Firstly: we have a Prime Minister called Kevin Rudd, secondly I have arranged a friend from the UK to pre order Saints Row 4 and gift it to me.
Did Julia quit when I wasn't looking?
she held a vote within the labor caucus against Kevin, with the loser to retire from politics and the winner to be the PM. She lost thankfully :D
 

leviadragon99

New member
Jun 17, 2010
1,055
0
0
Oh Goddamnit Australia, I thought we were past this... I mean I wasn't going to purchase the game itself after the third instalment tried way too hard to escalate the wackiness, but still...
 

Matthewmagic

New member
Feb 13, 2010
169
0
0
Glad I don't live in australia.


Of course games don't have a responsibility to be moral. People have a responsibility to be moral. What is the point of escapism if I can not say "Screw my responsibilities" in that escapism. Same reason that in most games you don't have to go to school, get a job, pay bills or taxes, and respect other peoples feelings.
 

TheRussian

New member
May 8, 2011
502
0
0
Good. Now Yahtzee won't have to play this game. If only the rest of the world had good taste in games.