Australia rejects R+18 rating (AGAIN)

[Cazza]

Not surprised. Our government doesn't like change. They don't want to cause any problems with the "Think about the children" groups.

The debates I heard were

For

Adults get adult content
Most gamers are over 18
It will help parents decided what is right for thier children

Against

With R Rating games in homes kids are more likily to play them


The big I didn't hear was in the for For

Games like Fallout 3 slipping under the radar by being slighty modified. They did what to it? Change the drug morphine to med X. I thought the issue was an addictive drug use. Not the name of it. Thats not to start on all the gore. Oh look your heads in hundreds of little bits. Thats okay for 15yrs to see.

With the biased government there was only a little chance that it would actually pass.

 

[Sark]

People don't understand the issue at all. Anyone over the age of 18 with the mental capacity of someone that age has a means of aquiring video games that have been refused classification or can access a non-censored version.

If you aren't smart enough to work around the system, than most likely you fall into the dangerous catagory of people who would be influenced by games to commit crime and other such nonsense.

The refusal of classification only really applies to people under 18, who shouldn't be playing these games anyway. It is the best way of preventing minors from viewing material that they are unsuited for, as their families often buy games without understanding the content, as they think all video games are for kids.

 

[Ldude893]

"This is about serving the interests of an industry that is purely profit-driven and it's absolutely disingenuous for it to try to pretend that it wants an R18 rating to pro-"

Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP.

*goes off to the ACL website to find a comment section to troll*

 

[Bob_F_It]

I'm confused. Is this a good thing because a large number of games get to keep the 15+ rating or is it a bad thing because some of these 15+ games are not rated 18+ when they should be and possibly ensuring other games don't go through the Fallout 3 and L4D2 acception process?

It's a bad thing. As pointed out somewhere on the escapist (I think it was one of Shamus Young's columns), by not having an R18 rating, games with contents meant for adults only get enough trimmed off so that it fits in the new highest catagory. It remains an adult game, but no longer labeled as such, poorly informing parents as to what the game is like.

 

[Diablo27]

Gore and porn is on the internet which is available to children much younger than the ones who play video games.
Gory movies are everywhere, like the Wolfman and Zombieland which while rated MA15+ didn't have gore in any of the trailers so what would've happened if a parent took their child to see a fun comedy movie like Zombieland?
Porn movies are right next to the fucking kids movies in video stores.

But when it comes to games? Fuck that we need to ban the bad ones.
FUCK YOU AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT!

 

[moretimethansense]

Does anybody understand their logic even a little?

Yes. Yes, I do. You see, this is so mind-bogglingly stupid, that I believe this is Michael Atkinson returned from his disgusting pig-sty of a career, and has adopted a new disguise.

Think. Who else would be stupid enough to say, "Companies want money selling goods to adults, instead of goods to children. SEE THEY ARE EVIL!"? He once said that a vote he lost was "unfair" because. and I'm not kidding, only people who cared about the topic voted.

Based on the fact that nobody else could possibly be that stupid, I think that their logic is based on a lack of understanding of Earthling behaviour, and Atkinson and his cronies are alien dog-creatures, here to kill fun with the spiked bat of "morality".

See I'd have just said there was no logic, but I like this awnser so much I am adopting it in to my personal cannon. XD

 

[Cid Silverwing]

I thought This would stop being a fucking issue since Atkinson left. How many idiots are there in the government.

Actually, don't answer that question. The response would probably depress me.

Scary. You read my mind perfectly.

I thought they replaced that crotchety old fuck Atkinson with someone who was going to fight tooth and nail to BRING IN the 18+ rating.

 

[Merkavar]

i wish that the government/AGs would stop faffing about and just make a 18+ rating. whats the worse that could happen?

but i guess getting on with their jobs would be against their employment contracts or something and cause then to get fired.

 

[The Journey]

God - freaking - damnit.

This country is full of complete and utter fuckwits in administrative positions of authority. Go suck a tailpipe and give everyone else a break.

Christ almighty....

Edit:

Ok that was perhaps a little harsh, but seriously, what is the hate against the 18+ rating? To the christian group, who cares what the industries reasoning is for having it, it only benefits your campaigns to protect the little kiddies as an 18+ label does, if only momentarily, make people think twice. And some store clerks too.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

To think I once thought of someday moving to Australia. I thought the UK government were a bunch of daft cunts but THIS...this is just off the scale of stupidity.

 

[rees263]

There still members of my government I have to respect their decisions and even if I didn?t insulting them won?t change their minds.

You absolutely do not have to respect their opinion at all. You live in a democracy and (in theory) you have as much right to your opinion about the law and government as the next guy. Sadly, while you don't have to respect the decision, you do have to live with it, until someone, hopefully, overturns it.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

There still members of my government I have to respect their decisions and even if I didn?t insulting them won?t change their minds.

I don't think we, as Australians, need to dogmatically defend the decisions of our government. Patriotic jingoism tends to be the purview of the gun-totin' right wing Americans (though, i do note the 'America can't be wrong' attitude seems to cover mostly Republican politicians...)

If you want to go there, in America you might respect the office regardless of who holds it, but you don't have to respect the person who holds it, or their decisions beyond "yep, it's the law, I'm legally obligated to follow it now." The whole "America can't be wrong" attitude you mentioned applies to the choices of the country as a whole, primarily in cases of war; individual politicians can be and often are widely hated. Also, even in times of war, there will be plenty of people who think America is in the wrong; the nationalists just tend to be the loudest, whether their position is in the majority or the minority -- and either case is possible in a given conflict.

OT: That sucks for Australia. I had a feeling this was going to happen when I found out how few dissenting votes it would take to block this piece of legislation, but it's still incredibly stupid. The good news is that it's only a matter of time before these guys are too old to do any more damage. The bad news is that may be 20 years or more off. :/

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Argh, MY COUNTRY IS GOING DOWN THE POOPER!

...Another reason to move to the U.S for me

Australia can be so cool in some aspect, but it's outweighed by some many retarded things! My brain is bleeding right now! I'm amazed it's the only thing bleeding

hey! don't move here! our healthcare is all fucked up! please just go to canada and save yourself a LOT of misery

yeah. my country sucks too

anyways OT: WTF?! and here i had high hopes the government would actually have common sense now that atkinson is gone...

 

[Vrach]

I respect the Attorney-General's decision even if I don't agree with it.

Aside the fact he's pushing the age old "uncaring and profit driven" bullshit, how exactly can you respect it when it isn't present for other mediums? Where I come from, we call that hypocrisy and around here, it's not very much worth of any sort of respect.

 

[Hippobatman]

My dearest sympathies to all who lives under this oppression of free speech in Australia.

 

[Rivers Wells]

I'm wondering how Yahtzee's going to react. Maybe the idiocy of the government where he lives has lost all interest to him at this point. It'll just be on of those "Well, of COURSE they cocked it up!" kind of moments for him and other gaming Aussie's.

Also, an industry is profit driven?
...SCANDALOUS!!!

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I predict a video game disk shrapnel bomb placed very near to Micheal Atkinson home simply signed [i/]Yahtzee[/i]....

 

[Mr Companion]

So the companies want to sell the games, the consumers want to buy the games, and the government would make money off the increase in a lucrative industry. Yes you are right everybody involved is being so selfish Australian government thank you for putting this in such a rational perspective.