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.