On the Left 4 Dead Ban

[SandroTheMaster]

Argh. Sometimes, I hate the fact of how Brazil is socially backwards and only gets into the good stuff when its not cool anymore. Rock and Roll? It started in the late 80s here.

But in this aspect, I'm sorta grateful. Politicians tried to make a fuss about DOOM and Carmageddon in their time, but they noticed that so much people went "huh?" and even fewer cared that they just sort of shrugged and went for RPGs and TV. Still, this means that Gaming policies literally NEVER get anywhere and we are doomed to buy games at roughly 3 times their price in the 1rt world countries.

Today, the biggest branch in gaming here is the PC (because consoles are prohibitively expensive, even handhelds), and this is plagued by rampant piracy of a society that doesn't even care when they can afford it. Still, I'm optimistic for the near future. There are signs of change, and recent reviews of the classification policies point it this way. Every aspect of entertainment is comprehensively classified all the way to adults without a fuss about the content going to children. The fact that Japanese animations here come so badly mutilated is more of a lazy act than outright censorship, as it is easier to just import the mutilated US versions than getting it directly from Japan.

I just hope this trend just FUCKING ends! "For the children" is such a tired and agenda-driven non-sense that people should've catched-on to that. Oh, right. I forget. People are stupid. And the level of stupidity is directly proportional to the size of the groups. Democracy works so fucking well...

EDIT: Yeah, my bad. The government actually banned Counter Strike and Everquest last year. Counter Strike because of the MOD-made map Rio, with a bullshit made up story that in the game "You played as drug dealers who kidnapped UN representatives and gain 1000 points for each PM (Military Police Enforcer) you kill with AKs." Anyone who's ever played the game can tell you the only thing right in this made-up crap is the existence of AKs in the game (That's even worse than the Hot Coffee incident, since it is completely user-made, not a hidden in-game code Easter egg).

Everquest (or maybe it was Guild Wars, too tired to fact check) was supposed to be banned because it gave the player "Moral Choices" and... yes. That's it. Since I never played either, and considering they're MMOs, and that the last "Moral Choice" I had to make in an MMO was to decide if I wanted to make a Goblin or a Dwarf character, I'd still be inclined to call this bullshit on grounds of "WTF!?"

And no, these games aren't anywhere near new here. This just shows how laughingly poor is the efficiency of my country's government.

 

[4fromK]

concerned ausfag reporting in: will the ban affect a steam purchase of the game? because, if not, the ACB can suck it....
EDIT: theres a petition to sign http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/ozgamers and it seems as though it is gaining some traction

It most likely will mean that you will not directly be able to purchase the game from steam... but someone can buy it for you in their country and then Gift it to you in Australia.

ok, thats ok i suppose just make a new foreign account and gift it to yourself?

 

[TheTygre]

As an Appalachian, I have to pridefully ask... why Appalachian trail?

 

[Prince Poetic]

While I agree that we are a little to sanitized, I don't get why He is so hateful towards America.

 

[Dr. Whiggs]

Slippery slope fallacy! Woo-hoo!

 

[Odjin]

Well a few things to say here, firstly this is more of an issue with one guy, as has been said before.

Then ironically, in refusing to create an R-18+ rating the people in charge of these things are actually exposing more violent games to children at a younger age than those in the US and such places.
See aside from the odd refused classification (Which I might add seems to be completely arbitrary and has little to do with actual content) most of the games get through unchanged with an MA-15+ or an M-15+ rating where in america they would have gotten an R-18+ (Or do you guys call it T-18? I forget). So the average australian 15 year old actually has access to more violent content in games than the average american one.

As a whole honestly australia seems to be more laid back when it comes to these things than america, it's just that we have some odd bureaucratic choke points that we can't seem to get rid of.
Another example is the ratings bored continued banning of the odd (again arbitrary) film that contains depictions of nudity despite having absolutely no problem with hardcore X-rated porn movies which in any case have content far more gratuitous than any non-porn movie.

Of course the gameplay is the most important part but if devers would respect this then there would not be such a huge pile of mediocre or bad games. Now to the point of gore as selling point. Just look at recent games on your favorite game news site or whatever place. Many present themselves better or buy-worthy because they have as much gore, violence or sex possible. Why do they need this? Because the game itself is a run-of-the mill mediocre FPS/RPG/whatever. Instead of innovating in gameplay they try to make as much gore/sex/violence as they can. But the truth is that a good game with good gameplay, catchy story and god challenges does not require gore everywhere. In fact the best game I know has little blood or gore but is one of the best selling games every. This is why I say this should be taken by game devers as a sign to rethink this more-gore=better-sales crap they have going on.

I enjoy the odd bit of gore because it's simple mindless fun, that's it. Nothing more is needed sometimes. I also resent you citing left 4 dead as a game barren of interesting gameplay. Left 4 dead and others like it (Like gears of war) have quite advanced competitive multiplayer in them and are simply topped with a bit of gratuitous fun that happens to come in the form of buckets o' blood.

Granted this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I can assure you that if they were as lacking in gameplay as you seem to think they are they wouldn't have spawned such successful competitive scenes where so many other games have failed to.

There had been times where players had been gamers meaning they had a sense of quality and didn't take anything as great. In the mean time the so called "casual gamer" entered on stage. This kind of people ( which by the way have grown larger in numbers than actual gamers ) have to be pleased by watered down games since they don't have the butt to learn a game nor do they care for what is important in a game. This is why FPS games have grown so famous. You need no brain nor being smart just having a spastic pointing finger. And if you have a watered down game mechanics that you can't pimp anymore with more watered down concepts you crank up the gore. This has been done since a couple of years now. The result has been people getting more and more pissed at games ( politicians as well as real gamers ). So this is not about what taste somebody has but a simple observation of a dangerous trend which ( if not stopped ) is going to kill the gaming industries in the long run.

 

[crystalsnow]

Apparently the ACB isn't smart enough to realize that 'B' comes before 'C'.

 

[[AU]Specter]

Yes, the OFLC are cunts for not realizing the market in over 18 gaming. Sure, its perfectly fine to sell pornography in DVD form, but as soon as you add interactability then its a big no-no.

Also i enjoyed the dystopic novel references. XD

 

[Mercsenary]

"The game contains violence that is high in impact and is therefore unsuitable for persons aged under 18 years to play."
- those selfless protectors of the innocent from the Australian Classifications Board

So.... why dont you(ACB) make a rating for 18+ I mean... here in America (hurr hurr) M is 18+. PROBLEM SOLVED. NEW RATING DURR HURR.

 

[[AU]Specter]

"The game contains violence that is high in impact and is therefore unsuitable for persons aged under 18 years to play."
- those selfless protectors of the innocent from the Australian Classifications Board

So.... why dont you(ACB) make a rating for 18+ I mean... here in America (hurr hurr) M is 18+. PROBLEM SOLVED. NEW RATING DURR HURR.

Dunno, our M seems to be your PG-13, so i guess they sorta need that to stay there.

There would be no problem if there was an R18 rating. Would be simple. We have it for Violent movies and Porno, now we need it for games.

 

[Shaoken]

We should so lock Atkinson in a room with Yahtze and let our favourite Trilby-wearing Brit give him a piece of his mind.

Then let him run the ABC for a day, see what happens.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Well.......Yahtzee how is GAMETRADERS ROBINA sounding now?

 

[A-wel Cruiz]

Well, Silent Hill Homecoming was also refused classification in Oz (IIRC), but that didn't stop Yahtzee from acquiring an import copy for review.

I weep for Australian gamers and all the bullshit they have to put up with.

 

[iBroham]

Why does everyone hate blood and gore? It's anatomy. And violence is a natural occurrence. Kids are gonna see it in school anyways...

Do you live in Sparta or something, where blood and gore are an everyday part of school?

Lets all move there, no not Australia, silly, lets go to the place with the Spartan school.
I want my kids to grow big and strong ... or die trying

Failing that lets all put our monies together in one of these
(flicks through to evergrowing list of Nigerian bank accounts requiring my deposit to claim my prize) bank accounts* and buy ourselves a goverment.
... we may need to sell alot of drugs.

 

[randommaster]

Why does everyone hate blood and gore? It's anatomy. And violence is a natural occurrence. Kids are gonna see it in school anyways...

Do you live in Sparta or something, where blood and gore are an everyday part of school?

Lets all move there, no not Australia, silly, lets go to the place with the Spartan school.
I want my kids to grow big and strong ... or die trying

Failing that lets all put our monies together in one of these
(flicks through to ever growing list of Nigerian bank accounts requiring my deposit to claim my prize) bank accounts* and buy ourselves a government.
... we may need to sell a lot of drugs.

I would just like to say thanks for being the first person to get that this comment was a joke and not explain what you did in 7th grade biology.

Also, page 37 has some good bank accounts to check out.

 

[Shanecooper]

I would just like to point out that violent video games don't lead to real life violence. Fucking with the people who play violent video games, may have undesirable effects. I think we should to go and, I dunno, egg the ACB HQ or something? Tip a few cars? or something.

 

[ToenailCar]

There had been times where players had been gamers meaning they had a sense of quality and didn't take anything as great. In the mean time the so called "casual gamer" entered on stage. This kind of people ( which by the way have grown larger in numbers than actual gamers ) have to be pleased by watered down games since they don't have the butt to learn a game nor do they care for what is important in a game. This is why FPS games have grown so famous. You need no brain nor being smart just having a spastic pointing finger. And if you have a watered down game mechanics that you can't pimp anymore with more watered down concepts you crank up the gore. This has been done since a couple of years now. The result has been people getting more and more pissed at games ( politicians as well as real gamers ). So this is not about what taste somebody has but a simple observation of a dangerous trend which ( if not stopped ) is going to kill the gaming industries in the long run.

There are still plenty of other types of games around here, Limbo (thegame) and Machinarium are the ones I'm looking forward to at the moment. They may not be heavily advertised but they do still exist.

Aside from that, for me at least, it's the 'good' games not being good enough that keeps me mostly with the shooters. As I grew up I found that even the most praised games are nothing compared to even simple kids books like Alice in Wonderland or Of Mice and Men. Why play a game for anything other than mindless fun when you can find far more substance in other mediums. I'm not going to settle with banality just because it's in a different package.'
Not that games couldn't rise to the standard of any other medium, it's just that, at the moment at least, they don't.

I would just like to point out that violent video games don't lead to real life violence. Fucking with the people who play violent video games, may have undesirable effects. I think we should to go and, I dunno, egg the ACB HQ or something? Tip a few cars? or something.

Sign me up, I can bring along my cluster grenade launcher too.

 

[Jhales]

Deep down, there is some logic to their argument. But it's the small amount of healthy in a whole truck load of Twinkies. Even in the USA, there is the whole "don't sell M rated games to children," but it happens all the time, because the child asked his mom or dad to buy it for him. What better way to stop teh evil, polluting, murderer creating games out of the hands of the innocent children? Now, I do not believe that games create murderers, or that children are innocent, but I do believe in keeping children safe... from pedophiles and murders. Really, that's what the Australian government should be putting tax money towards.

 

[The Cake Is Annoying]

His name is Michael Atkinson.

(The following is from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Atkinson&oldid=317511751 )

"Atkinson is responsible for maintaining Australia's status as the only Western country without a "Mature" rating for video games,[3] despite overwhelming demand for such a rating. [4] Due to this, Atkinson is often at the receiving end of criticism from the international Video Gaming community. Other related consequences include the sale of what are rated "Mature" games in other countries to minors and repeated inconsistent decisions from the OFLC who are "stuck between a rock and a hard place". [5] He has withdrawn his support for a discussion paper and public consultation on the subject of an "R18+" rating, although the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General still has this issue on its agenda, it is improbable that there will be unanimity which will result in introduction of the rating being almost impossible.[6]"

Perhaps looking up this public figures address and starting a petition to appeal for him to stop annoying Australian gamers would be in order.

That or write to his party (Australian Labor Party) and tell him you're mobilising every voting age Australian gamer you know to protest vote at the next opportunity and get the joyhating twit and everyone else in the party (not just in Croyden) with him OUT of government because of what he is doing. Pressure from his peers may be enough to get him to change his mind quickly.

 

[matnatz]

Wonder where the next Extra Punctuation article is at.