Australia is Tired of Being a "Laughingstock"

[teknoarcanist]

Australia: Unfortunately for you, you exist in the physical universe. You cannot completely stop children from getting hold of violent games anymore than you can completely stop them ever getting hold of porn. It's just completely and utterly impossible, short of a total police state and Orwellian levels of omnipotent surveillance of culture consumption.

What you CAN do is look at other, more effective systems than your own that have been implemented by other countries...and then implement them. And worry about improving upon them later.

 

[RingaFiar]

@OP

Nah Australias not a laughing stock. Perhaps your legislature needs shaking up a bit but every Aussia I've ever had the pleasure of meeting is a good joey and/or sheila

E.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV3tfauw3vQ

 

[Logic 0]

Once the government repeals the ban then I'll stop laughing.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

Damn straight!!!!
Those guys better figure this shit out soon so i can do my fatalities in piece on my couch!
Or i might be forced to done some black and yellow costume and go "FINISH HIM" on of em just to send a clear msg X_X

Damn its just so lame how can they not be able to figure a thing like this!!!

 

[infohippie]

They've taken so long it's hardly relevant any more. Every Australian gamer knows avenues to get uncensored versions of games and games that simply aren't released here.
Retailers, take note! You can thank Michael Atkinson and those that think like him for gamers turning to importing or even pirating.

 

[Superior Mind]

Thank you Brendan O'Connor, whoda thought you'd end up being the champion of logic.

Not a huge amount of faith in the new SA Attorney General John Rau - better than Atkinson but that's not difficult - what he's said so far on the issue has made it clear that he doesn't know the first thing about video games. Hopefully a boot up the arse from the Federal Government will sort that out.

Got to laugh at the Christian lobby group's belief that not having an R18 rating protects children. If they had their heads any further up their arses they'd be able to give themselves a tonsilectomy with their teeth.

 

[OldAccount]

Well this has been a long time coming.

Shitty deal for some 16 year old Australian gamer though.

 

[Jake Martinez]

Note that some of us live in areas other than the US... and yes we have a different rating system in Canada too. Imagine that!

What? This is news to me. Unless you mean Quebec or something I wouldn't know, but the ratings are pretty much exactly the same as they are in the states.

OT: I wouldn't exactly call them the laughing stock, and as Eico mentioned, they actually do have a rating for "mature" games (to be fair, I didn't actually know that either which is probably the result of always hearing about they don't have one over and over again). Hopefully they can get things back on track.

It's insanely stupid how people think we receive games.

We receive every single game (barring a few fringe cases - one or two in history) that the U.S receives.

Know why all this started? 'Cause that idiot Atkinson stuck his nose into the L4d2 issue. We have the game. The game has all its blood. The game is the EXACT same. I was playing it not three days ago.

It's all nonsense.

did you ship it though

because i think most of us here saw

<youtubev=OH7QCtuaXgI>
and start yelling "stop oppressing us"
mind you i was never overly fussed about blood *shrug*

No. I bought it at JB.

You're full of it. I bought the same exact game from JB HIFI and the differences are:

1) No blood on infected.
2) No blood/impact marks on infected when you shoot them (This actually makes the game hard to freaking play as you have no visual cue that you've shot the bugger)
3) Bodies "disappear" into the floor when killed.

There are probably more differences, but those are the ones I noticed. But suffice it to say, the game is not the exact same and if you indeed purchased it from JB HIFI they technically sold you an illegal copy that was not rated for sale in Australia.

 

[the clockmaker]

Okay, Yanks, enough!

This is not Australia blocking this, this is a few dumb arsed pollies who think they know what's best. The people of Australia are not some kind of inbred hicks or fundamentalists, we are a vibrant, modern nation with a higher standard of living than the united states, and I might note, a higher democracy rating. (http://www.democracyranking.org/downloads/method_ranking_outcome_2009_A4.pdf)

So, before you feel safe to judge a nation which has managed to secure parity with your dollar at less than a tenth of the population and who managed to get through the Gfc almost unscathed, fix your own goddamn house, because when it comes down to it, I would rather live in a nation that has our issues, than one that has yours.

...and we are not paranoid, we just have a healthy respect for danger, coems from the wildlife.

 

[Angry Camel]

Great to see SOMETHING might happen Down Under. And the Australian Christian Lobby almost makes me embarrassed to be a Christian. The Punisher should have gotten the R18+ sticker on it like lightening, but we let 15 year olds stick heads in fans and in pools of Pirhanas.

 

[Saelune]

Are you allowed to import system and games? If so, why don't you just boycot your Government and hurt your retail market and teach them who is really in control.


Also, America does have a 18+ rating, it's just that retailers will not sell them in their stores, so developers have to sell them themselves (Postal).

I wish you all the best of luck.

Importing the new Mortal Kombat (when released) will have it confiscated at the border and you might be fined up to 1000$ (whatever they use).


Good. When I found out the above mentioned, I was shocked.

Side note: Australia is technically eastern. Kinda funny calling the (geography wise) eastern most place in the world western.

 

[finndor]

Glad you find our accent so funny,

Not having an 18 rating for videogames doesn't make you guys a laughingstock. It's that hilarious accents that prevents me from taking you guys seriously

Don't worry, we find your whole country hilarious. (You're from the States according to your profile)

On a more serious note It's actually nice to hear some politicians speaking out for an R rating. It is ridiculous that so many games are banned because of some stupid notion that only children play games or something.

 

[aubreym]

that Christian group can go suck something phallic and vaguely resembling a gun. I want my games

 

[ilspooner]

Not having an 18 rating for videogames doesn't make you guys a laughingstock. It's that hilarious accents that prevents me from taking you guys seriously

Oh, you americans, thinking we have weird accents.
OT: Yay! Even though I'm too young to buy these games, it would be good if old Aus agreed on this.

 

[BabyRaptor]

I wonder if they've ever considered moving to a majority, instead of having to have total unanimity. There are way too many ways for that to be exploited.

 

[Nexus4]

I don't know if that really makes Australia a "laughing stock"

Shhhh! Don't tell them that, we are soo close...

 

[Alexnader]

Note that some of us live in areas other than the US... and yes we have a different rating system in Canada too. Imagine that!

What? This is news to me. Unless you mean Quebec or something I wouldn't know, but the ratings are pretty much exactly the same as they are in the states.

OT: I wouldn't exactly call them the laughing stock, and as Eico mentioned, they actually do have a rating for "mature" games (to be fair, I didn't actually know that either which is probably the result of always hearing about they don't have one over and over again). Hopefully they can get things back on track.

It's insanely stupid how people think we receive games.

We receive every single game (barring a few fringe cases - one or two in history) that the U.S receives.

Know why all this started? 'Cause that idiot Atkinson stuck his nose into the L4d2 issue. We have the game. The game has all its blood. The game is the EXACT same. I was playing it not three days ago.

It's all nonsense.

Mate relax. It's too hot and the kangaroos are too loud for people to be getting worked up. Anyway I'm pretty sure the version of L4D2 you're meant to be playing has reduced blood and corpses that disappear. What you've got there is either an import or a cracked copy, the point is that those older than 18 year shouldn't even have to try and circumvent the system to get at the uncensored versions of games like L4D2 (doesn't matter how easy that may be to do).

Of course I haven't touched my copy of L4D2 in aaaaaages so something may have changed. It's true that we get almost all the games America does in unedited states, however the fact that we miss out on some games is silly.

 

[jackpipsam]

I don't think we are a laughing stock