On the Left 4 Dead Ban

[Nova5]

I wonder if Oz gamers will be able to purchase it from the U.S. and still play it...

 

[rayen020]

Well we don't have a ban in rural texas perse... but there is an old lady that for some reason works in the technology department of walmart and looks at me with disdain every time i buy an M rated game or a R rated movie. Sometimes she sniffs or on the rare occasoin it's something really bad like sin city or assasin's creed she'll say something. usually it's the parent line of "Don't you do anything you see in this." well since zombies don't exsist and i'm not a 11th century assassin i don't think i'll be doing those things. there's also the straight downput of "How can you like something like that?" Well frankly clive owen and bruce willis are wonderful actors and the visual ascetic along with frank miller and robert rodriguez's directing is something that, yeah, i think i like.

but on topic, try canada... even crappier beaches but i imagine it's just like austrialia but colder and if the goverment ever bans games the US is within driving distance.

This caught my eye; http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94875-Buddhist-Religious-Leader-Says-Games-Satiate-Aggression

 

[tsolless]

You sure did utilize the whole slippery slope type of argument.

Today they are not releasing a game because there is no mature equivalent rating, tomorrow they are refusing classification to certain humans.

 

[Emilie Diabolica]

dear australians,
please. PLEASE could we organise a protest or something?
we can't just sit on our asses watching as they slowly cut off our freedoms...
D:

gah, i'm gonna go live on the moon, dammit.

The problem is there has already been extensive efforts made to sway the opinion of Michael Atkinson, but he is stubbornly refusing to change his position, and all his counter-arguments are utterly moronic (apparently, it's harder to monitor games in the home than it is to monitor movies. Do you see the flaw in his logic here?).

arghhhhh...
there goes my last scrap of faith in humanity.
psychopathdom here i come!

 

[RaZoR GoZ]

I can't help but feel like this entire article is like walking into a park, and screaming bloody murder at the grass and trees for having the audacity for being grass and trees. The simple fact of the matter is the ACB is doing it's job. They're paid to do this, and they are working while they're at it. They have to watch the dirty movies, have to play the violent games, and are paid to do nothing other than give the game a classification. For the American readers in the audience, this article is the equivalent of attacking the ESRB for giving a game an M-rating.

It's not the ACB's fault that they have refuse classification because there's no classification this game falls under. The office in charge of classification, the Attorney-General's Department of Australia, is the body that is almost exclusively at fault here. The irony though, is that the department is primarily for the creation of an R18+ classification. However, since the department requires a unanimous vote, there is a single opponent to the classification. An attorney-general named Michael Atkinson.[footnote]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Film_and_Literature_Classification_(Australia)#Classification_of_video_games[/footnote]

So, instead of harboring ill-will toward the ACB, it would work more effective to appeal to Mr. Atkinson [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.144722.3256690] to change the ruling. As it stands, he's the only thing between the ACB and a full set of classifications for Video Game media.

And the saddest part is, I severely doubt anyone is going to read this.

Excellent post mate.

It seems to me that there is so much bureaucracy and red tape here in Australia, in comparison with the UK. Things usually take years to change, as it gets caught up in the swamp of different departments, power struggles, conflicting policies & agendas so on an so forth. I guess it's just one of the problems of a Federal system.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Yahtzee, I'd suggest you register a Steam account as an American and run a proxy/IP masking program like Tor [http://www.torproject.org/] to mask your IP as an American one to be able to get the game. It's worked charms for my German friends.

It doesn't solve the problem of the overzealous censorship, but at least we get to play the games we want.

 

[gmanyo]

My father showed this to me on the news, and the first thing I thought was
"oh man, Yatzee will not be happy about this"

 

[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

 

[Void(null)]

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.

 

[Superior Mind]

Here's hoping that Valve don't create an "Australasian Version" that gets enforced on New Zealand too. We actually DO have R18 ratings for games here but because the rest of the world seems to think New Zealand exists only as part of Australia we often get the "Australiasian" version.

So yeah, thanks for that Australia.

On a good note it seems like people's patience with the ACB and Michael "head-up-my-arse" Atkinson is wearing incredibly thin, maybe L4D2 will be the game to finally slay the daemon of idiotic Australian censorship.

 

[Stillve]

I am troubled by this. But not so much as to undertake action, no.

 

[Dabchan]

I think Once Upon a Time, a Man Thought of this aloud:
"Maybe if we get rid of the fake voilence, the REAL voilence will go away!"
They gave this man a medal and named a country after him, but then another man said:
"Shoulden't we spent more time focusing on actual violence instead of fake violence?"
They gave THIS Man a kick to the ass, and made him live in seclusion.

 

[shaun832]

You may need to note that their attempt at 'protecting the children from being desensitised to violence' is futile because most of them already are.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Argh. Why can't they just recognize games as another medium, like film?Plenty of fucked-up films get released all the time.

 

[Blood_Lined]

He's oh-so very right. If anybody at any time during an argument or any other time for that matter says to me "Well, think of the children", the very first thought to cross my mind and sometimes my lips are, "Okay, what is your point and what the Hell do you want?"

That phrase just makes what the intentions are just WAY too obvious. In fact when that phrase is uttered, it tempts myself to go the opposite direction, even if I would rather choose the same decision, simply because I do not want to have anything to do with the group that has the "think of the children" bandwagon attached.

 

[badgersprite]

The logic behind the ban is just ridiculous. I mean, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was MA15+ when it came out and, me being under that age at the time, I was refused sale until my birthday. Lo and behold, the miracle! People can regulate themselves!

What do people like Michael Atkinson think is going to happen? Do they think there are a bunch of shady video game dealers in trench coats hanging outside kindergartens just waiting to push the heaviest violence and gore they can onto impressionable young schoolchildren?

Honestly, I think this anti-video game crusading comes out of a vein of humanity that still considers electricity witchcraft. <_<

EDIT: As far as the slippery slope argument, there is a lot of truth there with the whole, 'for the good of the children' mantra.

I mean, what if, under a socially-conservative government, people on that board largely had the opinion that homosexuality is immoral? Would that mean they would refuse classification to games with gay characters, because it might corrupt children? Or what if they decided that all these female characters in skimpy clothing bouncing around everywhere are inappropriate for children? Will they start withholding games under that criteria too?

 

[Communist partisan]

ACB is real twats why the hell would some1 ban fun games it's like a punch in the face and if the games get released than it would end like wolfenstein 3D on SNES they didin't even let hitler have mustage on the pictures and removed other uncensored stuff and that was low... (i'm not a nazi yust thinked wolfenstein 3D was a good example)

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Damn it, that's sad... I feel sorry for all of you australians out there. Because this crap is Jack Thompson-level.

 

[Sheinen]

Fail!

 

[bjj hero]

Was Call of Duty banned in Oz? World at war allowed for dismemberment, burning people to death with flame throwers and molotovs, running them over with tanks, bayonnet kills as well as depicting torture and executions, some of which you could perform.

I guess its only bad when you are mutilating fictional monsters. Germans and Japanese are fair game.

Even CoD 4 had Price torturing then executing a captive.