Mad Max Won't be Set in Australia

[Techno Squidgy]

I am really, really tired of hearing American accents every time I start up a game.

I agree so much with your first comment. And then you post Bill Hicks as well, my favourite comedian, you sir, are a most agreeable person.

I'm afraid you are wrong. The Shire is squarely in Matamata, North Island, New Zealand. I've even climbed Mt. Doom, it's not volcanic any more - what with Sauron being defeated at the end of the Third Age. We now call it Mount Ngauruhoe and it's a right ***** to climb, entire thing is just volcanic rock and every step causes the stones beneath you to shift or give way.

I wasn't being serious about Lord of the Rings, ya dink! Of course it isn't real!

I didn't say it wasn't filmed in New Zealand, just that it wasn't a defining feature of the movie, especially as I'm pretty sure Tolkien never went there, so couldn't have intended NZ to be Middle Earth.

Most of the descriptions of the Shire sound like a fairly typical English country village, and yes, Peter Jackson managed to put that in New Zealand perfectly.

I think you just failed humour. I didn't even know that was possible.

 

[TheKwertyeweyoppe]

Pretty much every location in the series is based on places he grew up in. If I remember rightly, Mordor is based on some factories or something?

I've heard it was based on the battlefields of WWI. Probably a bit of both.

 

[rapidoud]

I don't agree with the decision. That said, when Australia is probably going to end up banning the game for being too violent (because, y'know, Australia), then I kind of understand not bothering to try and appeal to that market.

Fallout 3 was changed for Morphine to med-X iirc.

AvP2010 got through with pulling head with spine from a person 30cm from your face.

L4D2 was banned because MA15+ wasn't enough to cover cutting open people and having their guts spill out all over the place.

Manhunt was banned during MA15+ time for I think suffocating people with plastic bags.

What does Mad Max do? Oh yeah cars and apocalypse and yadda yadda.

Anyway, screw the person (people) who decided this. I don't give a shit that Americans apparently only play games made by Americans with everything American, I'm sick to death of the shit. It'd be nice to not have 99% of media shoved down my throat as American because apparently your main audience is too retarded to deal with people speaking about bloody kangaroos.

This is going to cost you with reviewers as a first strike. The Xbox One doesn't have anything wrong with it for the average American (because hey no one else gets those TV features and all your exclusive games are 'MURICA) with a daily internet connection (although I suspect that will be changed when the average buyer finds out about it with the enormous backlash that will ensue). But this? Imagine setting Boardwalk Empire in Australia with a fictional prohibition. It wouldn't freaking work and the audience would hate it as our country wouldn't do that!

It's not the first time the yanks have done this to media, and it won't be the last. Although the usual case is they re-invent if for American audiences who may not have seen the foreign media like Quarantine, The Killing, House of Cards, or Kath and Kim (which only works in Australia you bloody fools), rather than just saying NOPE to backstory.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Pretty much every location in the series is based on places he grew up in. If I remember rightly, Mordor is based on some factories or something?

I've heard it was based on the battlefields of WWI. Probably a bit of both.

Thinking about it, it might have been The Eye of Sauron that he based on a couple of chimney's at a factory he lived by. I'm not sure what exactly he based on factories he lived near but I know something was. Something menacing!

 

[octafish]

I have only one thing to say to this guy: "We'll see you on the road Scag! See you on the road, like we saw the Nightrider..."

I'm going to tell Vernon Wells about this and the Mighty Wez might just come-a-knockin'.

EDIT: If you wanted an American Mad Max surely it would have been cheaper to buy the rights to The Postman or Waterworld.

 

[Jamash]

So, it will remain faithful to the original US release of Mad Max, the one that was dubbed from English with an Australian accents to English with American accents?


I suppose as long as the game is good then it shouldn't matter too much, but it is annoying when they do things like this and hijack the nationalities of established characters (or historical events).

 

[Vie]

*Headdesks*

Can somebody please shoot the market research or marketing people they used who said that setting it outside of Australia for THE FIRST FREAKING GAME was a good idea?

Ok, with your first game you want to build up a potential franchise (oh come on, you know they will try and milk this one for everything they can.) To do that you first need to work from the source material and build up the basics. With a second game, or DLC, you can explore other parts of the world in the same universe.

 

[Glaice]

Congratulations Sundberg, you just alienated a whole lot of fans looking forward to this game. I hope you suffer poor to mediocre sales because of this stupid choice. As an American, I am kinda sick of post-apoc games being set in the US (Metro being an exception), tho having an Aussie post-apoc would have been a breath of fresh air over the typical American dubbed protagonist and location.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

I will be very disappointed if this game is set in America. I really hope this was a publisher or out of touch studio head decision.

What if it's not set in America and is set in Manchuria?

 

[Flames66]

So they are removing the only unique thing about this post apocalyptic setting and making a generic action game. There's one I have no need to check out.

 

[Something Amyss]

How else is Nolan North going to voice Mad Max?

 

[rdaleric]

I am getting sick of this now. Why do so many companies assume Americans won't like anything not set in America!! The Australian vibe is one of the things that made Mad Max great!

 

[Lovely Mixture]

"It's really a game to do with the relationships between different people in this world."

"It's really a game to do with the relationships"

"It's really a game"

"The setting - where it is in the world - has really nothing to do with the Mad Max video game."

Sums it up really. "Original material? Fuck that, we're making a videogame here."

Yeah, you know the whole reason Australia was the setting for the films was that it avoided the brunt of the apocalypse right?

This game is being handled with the care of a trash compactor.

 

[VanQ]

I just...no.

OTOH, they were going to set Harry Potter in the US in the movies, until Rowling told them no.

No way, I can believe the article in the OP because the games industry is retarded but I can't believe that Hollywood would try to set the Harry Potter movies in OH GOD I JUST LOOKED IT UP IT'S TRUE!

What is wrong with America? Why must everything be American? I get loving your country, I love Australia. But that's just over the top.

 

[Thaluikhain]

What is wrong with America? Why must everything be American? I get loving your country, I love Australia. But that's just over the top.

Well, when everything is American, and has been for ages, people don't like the idea of anything else. Like the way people complain about having gay characters in games, designers "ought to" cater exclusively to the majority demographic, which just happens to fit the complainers.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Let's take one of the most iconic Australian properties, and remove the Australian part! That's sure to work!

 

[David Simon]

I was really excited about this game, but taking it out of it's Australian context? Idiocy incarnate. Mad Max is fundamentally Australian.

This is like making a Crocodile Dundee movie but changing it so Mick Dundee comes from Florida and wrestles alligators rather than crocodiles. Sure, it might be a decent film, but why call it Crocodile Dundee in the first place?

And, no offense to my many American friends and colleagues, but I really am sick and tired of hearing American accents in my games. Give me an Australian protagonist, please.