Australian Christian Lobby Joins the Fight Against R18+ Game Ratings

[Gigano]

I guess religion and it's minions has found a new minority to persecute... When you don't have the power to burn intellectuals or fight against vaccines any more, at least there's new oppressable minorities to add to the list on which the desperate religious need for oppression and condemnation can be vented.

Like other groups even politically weaker than the religious organizations (Atheists, Gays, African AIDS-victims etc.), Gamers are appropriately unfamiliar to the large majority that religions can safely rip on them.

May the non-existing gods have mercy on us, and shelter us from their followers.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

A religious group for the suppression of human enjoyment and entertainment? Whoda thunkit?

Stay strong my gaming Brothers and Sisters.

 

[teknoarcanist]

I presume we'll be outlawing R-rated movies and violent comics next. Because. Yknow. If children and these things are allowed to exist in the same universe, one will inevitably find the other. And then HORRIBLE HORRIBLE THINGS WILL HAPPEN OH NO OOGA BOOGA BOOGA

 

[Rusty Bucket]

I can almost see room 101...

 

[DrScoobs]

how dare people over the age of 18 want to choose what entertainment to have in their home! the nerve of kids these days! why is it that i feel that australia is turning more and more into a dictatorship? first the great firwall of australia, now michael atkinson and his band of merry cohorts telling you what you can and cant play? this is one of the few times that i am glad to be a brit.

 

[DrScoobs]

I presume we'll be outlawing R-rated movies

well now you have to ask behind the counters at video stores in australia to get R-rated movies

 

[theultimateend]

Oh what a surprise, the Christians hate gaming too...

Oh, hush. I'm a Christian, as are many other Escapists. These are just very badly misinformed flock-minded sheep who don't understand what they're fighting.

How do you know you are the proper Christian and they aren't?

If we were to look deeply into the faith who would be following it more properly?

I'm just curious because I often think people label themselves as something they are not because of what they believe that thing is.

Like when a singer says they are hardcore punk but they are pop. Just because they said they are doesn't mean they are.

Just curious on your insight .

Quite simple: if asked to back up their answers with a Bible, they can't do it without grasping at major straws.

Besides, God and Jesus had some VERY choice words for self-righteous killjoys (brood of vipers, whitewashed tombs, etc...)

. I would then suggest that the 'less extreme' religious types start actually working hard to stop the extremist ones.

Because for every 1 thing I see a 'good' faithful person do I see about 100 things an 'extreme' faithful person does .

I know it might sound unfair but I do think if such rationalizations can be construed from a belief structure in large enough quantities that genocide or (to a much lesser extent) political movements then there must be something there that needs repair.

Just find it odd that I've never really heard someone kill a bunch of people or ruin the enjoyment of others because they are merely optimistic however there are no benefits from faith that optimism itself won't bring you (from a psychological or physical viewpoint). Which to me means that perhaps just pure concentrated optimism is what people really need.

Though I will back down on that the moment I see a really happy suicide bomber taking out a schoolbus in order to spread a message of happiness and understanding.

At some point in there it might look like I'm accusing Christians of Suicide Bombers (since you are I assume Christian and I am responding to you) the following response was partially directed at you but at large just directed at the concept of faiths at all.

They provide nothing (at least in this life) that optimism itself doesn't already provide. The hormones, the positive responses to colds and other diseases, the longer average life span. They do however legitimize extremists, because every time a group of nut jobs get together instead of people stomping on them like they are plague ridden the response tends to be "They are just a bad example of a good thing."

This Atkinson fellow and those like him being a good example. These sort of people shouldn't be given the benefit of a glance much less a political position, there are enough people who share their views to get them elected yet I am to believe that most people under their same belief structure in their global region aren't like them.

Finally I realize that this is hardly the avenue to discuss this . Just wanted to point out the wonderful alternative of optimism . Who knows maybe it'll sweep the world and we'll have global scale wars on FPS's instead. Sounds stupid I admit but if every faithful person were just optimistic and generally happy instead I have a hard time seeing that sort of positive alternative not being a given.

 

[Radelaide]

snip

From studies I've read (and used in a letter to Atkinson) violent video games only increased violent tendencies in children who were already presenting with said tendencies. Children who don't exhibit those tendencies don't show any more aggression than normal.

Which reminds me, I'm fairly sure that the Old Testamate (sp?) is a hell of a lot more violent than any video game, and people use the bible as REAL WORLD proof of the existence of someone that the majority of people can't prove existed. Tell me who can tell the difference between IRL and not. (To any good Christians who were offended, I apologise. That was directed at the ACL, not you. We're cool *fist bump*)

 

[lactose the intolerant]

I know very little about Australian politics, but it seems you Aussies have given up on the battle before it's begun. Mr Atkinson and co would be facing an election fairly soon. (November 24 IIRC.)

sounds good in theory but the major problem is that only one state is the problem and of that state the government dosent see fit to help or hinder atkinsons crusade so only 20,207 people in atkinsons electorate out of an estimated 21,374,000 australians really get to vote on this issue. democracy at its best!

 

[lacktheknack]

Oh what a surprise, the Christians hate gaming too...

Oh, hush. I'm a Christian, as are many other Escapists. These are just very badly misinformed flock-minded sheep who don't understand what they're fighting.

How do you know you are the proper Christian and they aren't?

If we were to look deeply into the faith who would be following it more properly?

I'm just curious because I often think people label themselves as something they are not because of what they believe that thing is.

Like when a singer says they are hardcore punk but they are pop. Just because they said they are doesn't mean they are.

Just curious on your insight .

Quite simple: if asked to back up their answers with a Bible, they can't do it without grasping at major straws.

Besides, God and Jesus had some VERY choice words for self-righteous killjoys (brood of vipers, whitewashed tombs, etc...)

. I would then suggest that the 'less extreme' religious types start actually working hard to stop the extremist ones.

Because for every 1 thing I see a 'good' faithful person do I see about 100 things an 'extreme' faithful person does .

I know it might sound unfair but I do think if such rationalizations can be construed from a belief structure in large enough quantities that genocide or (to a much lesser extent) political movements then there must be something there that needs repair.

Just find it odd that I've never really heard someone kill a bunch of people or ruin the enjoyment of others because they are merely optimistic however there are no benefits from faith that optimism itself won't bring you (from a psychological or physical viewpoint). Which to me means that perhaps just pure concentrated optimism is what people really need.

Though I will back down on that the moment I see a really happy suicide bomber taking out a schoolbus in order to spread a message of happiness and understanding.

At some point in there it might look like I'm accusing Christians of Suicide Bombers (since you are I assume Christian and I am responding to you) the following response was partially directed at you but at large just directed at the concept of faiths at all.

They provide nothing (at least in this life) that optimism itself doesn't already provide. The hormones, the positive responses to colds and other diseases, the longer average life span. They do however legitimize extremists, because every time a group of nut jobs get together instead of people stomping on them like they are plague ridden the response tends to be "They are just a bad example of a good thing."

This Atkinson fellow and those like him being a good example. These sort of people shouldn't be given the benefit of a glance much less a political position, there are enough people who share their views to get them elected yet I am to believe that most people under their same belief structure in their global region aren't like them.

Finally I realize that this is hardly the avenue to discuss this . Just wanted to point out the wonderful alternative of optimism . Who knows maybe it'll sweep the world and we'll have global scale wars on FPS's instead. Sounds stupid I admit but if every faithful person were just optimistic and generally happy instead I have a hard time seeing that sort of positive alternative not being a given.

Sounds fair enough, but the big difference between religion and optimism is that religion rewards after death. If anything, religion IS optimistic.

 

[FROGGEman2]

Just... fuck...

"One of the strongest opponents of R18+ computer and video games is the South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson. He has described their content to include such horrific act as "running down and killing pedestrians on the pavement (Umm... GTA), raping a mother and her two daughters (What? WHAT? WHEN HAS THAT EVER HAPPENED?), blowing oneself up in a market (Do you even know what you're talking about?), cutting people in half with large caliber shells (Well... OK, probably, even if I can't bring a specific example to mind), injecting drugs to win an athletics event (Yeah, I read that on the back of the box of a game... IN AUSTRALIA!) or killing a prostitute to recover the fee one just paid her (OK, you got me.)""

Half of those are bullshit.

Like, damn.

 

[Lewieroo0]

oh bloody hell, the last thing we needed is some religious nut bags to get involved in this. By putting their point of view onto this issue they are going to make alot of ridiculous claims and if they tighten the law on the already broken down rating system then they'll just destroy the system all together and as a Christian i must say that this is going to give us a bad reputation.

 

[Lewieroo0]

pretty much since the stupid law was put in place, we've been stuck in that list for ages

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

I'm sorry to all my Aussie Escapists for having to put up with this shit.

Seconded. This shit is getting extremely out of hand.

 

[Wildrow12]

Oh what a surprise, the Christians hate gaming too...

Oh, hush. I'm a Christian, as are many other Escapists. These are just very badly misinformed flock-minded sheep who don't understand what they're fighting.

How do you know you are the proper Christian and they aren't?

If we were to look deeply into the faith who would be following it more properly?

I'm just curious because I often think people label themselves as something they are not because of what they believe that thing is.

Like when a singer says they are hardcore punk but they are pop. Just because they said they are doesn't mean they are.

Just curious on your insight .

Quite simple: if asked to back up their answers with a Bible, they can't do it without grasping at major straws.

Besides, God and Jesus had some VERY choice words for self-righteous killjoys (brood of vipers, whitewashed tombs, etc...)

. I would then suggest that the 'less extreme' religious types start actually working hard to stop the extremist ones.

We are. But the media at large doesn't seem to pay us much heed, since people are more entertained by controversy and extremists.

Do you hear that much about Muslims fighting those who would twist their faith to serve a mad agenda? No?

http://www.freemuslims.org/

http://islamantiterrorism.com/

Now you do.

Do you hear much about Christians going against those who would warp our faith to harm others?

http://www.integrityusa.org/

http://www.freedomfriends.org/FF-Faq.htm

Heck, I myself work with Soulforce ( http://www.soulforce.org/ )

With a little leg work, you'll find other groups like them.

The point is this: We are here. We are at work. It is dangerous work. It is work that provides no glory, or fanfare. But we do it anyway.

Sorry for the derail. I just wanted to say that.

 

[seule]

ya know i could care less for the frickin rating (Well not really but i prefer to make my arguments on that through channels more likely to gain attention than responding to the 5th page of a thread), but tell me this...

Game comes out in the US, lets take Mass Effect 2 $49.95USD digital download... $59.95USD for the deluxe edition... convert this to Aussie dollars and you get roughly $60AUD and $70AUD.

So why the hell do we get charged $100 AUD from the steam store, ea store, any store that we can buy the game from? It sure as hell has nothing to do with ratings, I know that much. Can't tell me it's because it costs too much to import... Fix that rip off and worry about ratings later, the rest of the world seems quite happy to kick a stink about the ratings for us.

 

[Samurai Jim]

These ACL clowns would probably campaign to get the Australian equivalent of the "R" rating removed if they could. Using their logic, Shakespeare should be banned because children could get their innocent little hands on a copy of Titus Andronicus their parents bought. Ban Shakespeare, think of the children!

 

[Wildrow12]

These ACL clowns would probably campaign to get the Australian equivalent of the "R" rating removed if they could. Using their logic, Shakespeare should be banned because children could get their innocent little hands on a copy of Titus Andronicus their parents bought. Ban Shakespeare, think of the children!

..or worse still: the children could get ahold of copies of "Annie", which would cause theater competitions and talent shows to be flooded by even more renditions of "Hard Knock Life", boring whole populations out of their skulls, leading to the end of human civilization as we know it!