Syndicate Banned in Australia - UPDATED
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
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Pornography (along with alcohol) has been banned in various Aboriginal communities in the NT under the Federal Intervention thingy, which has yet to solve anything.Sexy Devil said:
What?!? The Australian government is going to make it mildly inconvenient to get the new Syndicate reboot when it comes out?
Oh no!
Oh no!
and what,s going to prevent people from importing it?
y'know Australia this is only going to force people towards piracy or smuggling.
y'know Australia this is only going to force people towards piracy or smuggling.
I don't think I shall get this game... it rapes my childhood too much.
As for Australia... hell, we ban more games then CHINA and that should tell you all you need to know about the Australian government and their view on computers.
As for Australia... hell, we ban more games then CHINA and that should tell you all you need to know about the Australian government and their view on computers.
Am I the only one who thinks that Australia banning violent videogames barely counts as "news" any more? I don't hold it against Australia, it's just what it does. To use a Yahtzee-ism, trying to stop Australia banning videogames is like trying to convince a dog to stop sniffing its own a-se.
Now if Australia banned "Barney's Singalong"... THAT would be news.
Now if Australia banned "Barney's Singalong"... THAT would be news.
You mean their view on their own citizens, don't you? Computers are just those magical boxes with the flashing lights that make the pretty pictures appear on the screen. Citizens are poor ignorant savages who must be saved from their own poor impulse-control.Jinx_Dragon said:
Yep. A game that would be rated R (or MA at least) is too violent for kids, so we don't get it. Typical.
only one way to describe my anger at my government... FUCK YOU GUYS!!! I blame this all on Julia Gillard, first she screws the economics, and now delaying R 18+ games to be alowed?!?! now that out of my system, Im so damn sick of the Australian government thinking that parents are irresponsible, so they dont allow any good things in, like Mortal Kombat 
atleast Dead Island got through i guess...
Well, lucky im moving to the UK in 3 months time
atleast Dead Island got through i guess... Well, lucky im moving to the UK in 3 months time
Am I the only one who came in here with a sort of sense of understanding from knowing the Aussie government has done this in the past, only to get somewhat pissed off when I discovered that the actual reason the game is being banned is nothing more than 'too much gore'?
I just really think this is a fucking stupid way of judging things. Here we have a game which personally I think is the first game I can think of which I genuinely would feel somewhat uncomfortable playing, due to the way you (as the player) are committing horrific actions in a genuinely evil, fucked up world, and yet this is glorified with a straight face and seen as perfectly okay.
I have no qualms at all about playing as an evil character, doing terrible things, but there's something about this game that I just don't like, and I think it's that there doesn't seem to be any explanation or justification for this evil. It's not darkly cynical like the first Syndicate game (from what I've seen of it). It's not over-the-top, comedic evil, like Evil Genius. It's not evil which is actually treated as evil, like the No Russian level in Modern Warfare 2. It's just... Evil for the sake of evil.
I think it's the bits where you stab a guy in the head and take the chip from his brain while a calm, cheerful voice congratulates you that get me - along with the casual killing of innocents who pose no threat at all to you. I just don't like the way that not only is there no attempt to portray this as a horrific action - either within the game's fiction or outside it, to the player - but that it's almost glorified.
Has anyone else thought anything like this or am I being a baby?
I just really think this is a fucking stupid way of judging things. Here we have a game which personally I think is the first game I can think of which I genuinely would feel somewhat uncomfortable playing, due to the way you (as the player) are committing horrific actions in a genuinely evil, fucked up world, and yet this is glorified with a straight face and seen as perfectly okay.
I have no qualms at all about playing as an evil character, doing terrible things, but there's something about this game that I just don't like, and I think it's that there doesn't seem to be any explanation or justification for this evil. It's not darkly cynical like the first Syndicate game (from what I've seen of it). It's not over-the-top, comedic evil, like Evil Genius. It's not evil which is actually treated as evil, like the No Russian level in Modern Warfare 2. It's just... Evil for the sake of evil.
I think it's the bits where you stab a guy in the head and take the chip from his brain while a calm, cheerful voice congratulates you that get me - along with the casual killing of innocents who pose no threat at all to you. I just don't like the way that not only is there no attempt to portray this as a horrific action - either within the game's fiction or outside it, to the player - but that it's almost glorified.
Has anyone else thought anything like this or am I being a baby?
Well, theoretically this could be symptomatic of the themes of the game's setting. In the original Syndicate, your agents were all brainwashed, usually by your mind-control ray gun or, memorably, by hitting them in a car and carrying them away.random_bars said:
So this could be an attempt to portray the process of that brainwashing, that these insanely violent actions are positively reinforced by the agent's environment, and that their suggestible state leads them to utter obedience to a sinister overlord organisation. In many ways it could cast an intimidating shadow on the player themselves, as they interact with the game through their skinner box.
"This is you." The game says, "This is how easy it is to control you."
...
That or it's a shitty FPS knockoff of a classic game with a terrible departure from the original aesthetic and advertised shock value.
You know, one or the other.
TL
R, Don't fuck with Bullfrog classics.
Look, I have no strong feelings about this one way or the other. Australian government doesn't want this product being sold? That's fine. Gamers want it to be sold? I can see the argument there as well. But in the end what I cannot stand is the blatant hypocrisy that's in play here.
Compare what's going on here to the "Bloody Mess" perk in the new Fallout games (at least I assume New Vegas has it as well). I mean, it's in the same category, but Fallout 3 is perfectly acceptable to the Australian government? Come on, now.
I'm not saying that they should now ban Fallout games as well, but it's clear to me that they're now just being nit-picky to make a point. This game isn't even released yet and they're already fine-combing the trailer to see if it has even a glimpse of something they could ban it for. And I would bet my bottom dollar that no-one ever did that for Fallout 3, because there wasn't as much of a big deal about it back then as there is now.
Once again, the Australian government can be agaisnt whatever it wants as far as I'm concerned, but they should stop embarrassing themselves by being so pendantic. It's not just unseemly, but I'm sure it's wasting plenty of government resources doing so.
Compare what's going on here to the "Bloody Mess" perk in the new Fallout games (at least I assume New Vegas has it as well). I mean, it's in the same category, but Fallout 3 is perfectly acceptable to the Australian government? Come on, now.
I'm not saying that they should now ban Fallout games as well, but it's clear to me that they're now just being nit-picky to make a point. This game isn't even released yet and they're already fine-combing the trailer to see if it has even a glimpse of something they could ban it for. And I would bet my bottom dollar that no-one ever did that for Fallout 3, because there wasn't as much of a big deal about it back then as there is now.
Once again, the Australian government can be agaisnt whatever it wants as far as I'm concerned, but they should stop embarrassing themselves by being so pendantic. It's not just unseemly, but I'm sure it's wasting plenty of government resources doing so.