What? MW2 not banned in Australia? Not if I can help it

[Eri]

In a statement to AU GameSpot, South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson said he plans to appeal Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's MA15+ rating in the region. If successful, the game will be banned in Australia and this would be Atkinson's first time intervening on a rating by the Classification Board. Atkinson explains, "I worry about any game that encourages gamers to perpetrate extreme violence and cruelty on screen, but this game allows players to be virtual terrorists and gain points by massacring civilians." Those points for killing civilians aren't the only ones Atkinson is missing.

The anti-game antics of Atkinson are coming dangerously close to reminding us of the United States' disgraced, former attorney Jack Thompson. The Age reports Atkinson was recently on Aussie national radio and expressed that the Classification Board in Australia "does everything" to "get games in under the radar, and film, generally." Later, he stated that he has "no trust" in the board to apply guidelines, thus drawing up guidelines for games to have an R18+ classification "would be to draw them up in sure and certain knowledge that they would be stretched and then broken." So, games aren't being rated properly, but he won't support an R18+ rating. Feel free to drop your "facepalm" reactions below in the comments.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/24/australian-attorney-general-atkinson-plans-appeal-of-modern-warf/

 

[Ftaghn To You Too]

"Get Points"? Seriously, if you're going to hate someone, know about the modern parts. People don't rage against 120 Days of Sodom anymore for a reason. (Don't look that up.)

 

[Valkatron]

I gained no points in killing those civilians, i feel ripped off now. As for his comments of having no trust, i do believe it is now time for him to step down as he is making himself bigger than the position he holds.

Bye bye crazy man!

 

[Vainglory]

So to get this straight, he's saying that Mewtwo is too violent for MA15+ (too violent for people who can buy MA15+), but doesn't think it's necessary to add in another rating for people well above that age?

oh, and

/facepalm

 

[Beatrix]

You don't get any points for it do you? >.>
In fact, do you get 'points' at all in the single-player part?

Not that I'd care if they'd ban MW2 anywhere though.

 

[FightThePower]

I find it incredibly hypocritical that Michael Atkinson is so rigid on his stance on videogames, yet he declares that the issue of instigating a R18 rating is a trivial issue and carries no weight with his constituents.

 

[Tears of Blood]

THERE ARE NO POI- ARRRRGH!

This guy must be channeling Jack Thompson's living spirit or something.

 

[Eri]

THERE ARE NO POI- ARRRRGH!

This \\guy\\ must be channeling Jack Thompson's \\living\\ spirit or something.

Hopefully that will change..

 

[Zing]

I have no words for this hypocritical ignoramus moron, any longer. Hopefully he continues to make a fool of himself until he gets enough notoriety as a giant fucktard that he gets ousted or put in his place.

His ridiculous undemocratic bias is so frustrating. He refuses to allow an 18+ rating for adult gamers, but aims to get every game that doesn't conform to his ideals of gaming banned because there's no 18+ rating.

For fucks sake, it's just getting ridiculous how Parliament can allow him to act like this.

 

[Kollega]

Idiot. You don't get any points for killing civilians there. All you can potentially get out of that sequence are nightmares. What the fuck was he smoking - the DVDs he was burning, maybe?

 

[w-Jinksy]

australians i fell very sorry for you though not as much as the germans its even stricter there.

 

[SweetNess_666]

i really do have to laugh my ass off about people banning video games fcuk me sideways its pathetic the game comes with a fcuking warning when you turn it on about the mowing down 100s of innocent civillians in a moscow airport but come on its ooooooooooooonly a GAME!!! A fcuking game for fcuk sake ROOOOAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! Stop being so overfuckingsensitive there pixels very good nice looking in HD pixels but they have no feelings they are not6 alive they dont care how many times they get shot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhh also the only person i would ever wish to mow down with anything i can possibly lay my 2 working arms on is this Attorney General Michael Atkinson guys i"m so glad i live in the uk where people seem to realise (so far) its only a game and what does he mean you get points for shooting all the people in the airport??? Has he ever played mw2 himself and where the devil are my points lol??? Phew gonna go grab a cuppa tea now lol

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

FED. THE. HELL. UP. OF. HEARING. ABOUT. THIS. BLOODY. GAME.

 

[Danish_4116]

What is he going to do? Go and personally find all of the people who own copies of MW2 and snatch it away? This guy is an idiot and I personally think he should be removed by ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

We need Task Force 141 to 'interrogate' him.

 

[Dok Zombie]

Points?

Mebbe you get an achievement for only using the knife on "No Russian".

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
OJ SIMPSON

 

[Zing]

Well I'm artistically challenged and used paint, but I think this gets the point across.

 

[TheWerewolf]

i really do have to laugh my ass off about people banning video games fcuk me sideways its pathetic the game comes with a fcuking warning when you turn it on about the mowing down 100s of innocent civillians in a moscow airport but come on its ooooooooooooonly a GAME!!! A fcuking game for fcuk sake ROOOOAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! Stop being so overfuckingsensitive there pixels very good nice looking in HD pixels but they have no feelings they are not6 alive they dont care how many times they get shot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhh also the only person i would ever wish to mow down with anything i can possibly lay my 2 working arms on is this Attorney General Michael Atkinson guys i"m so glad i live in the uk where people seem to realise (so far) its only a game and what does he mean you get points for shooting all the people in the airport??? Has he ever played mw2 himself and where the devil are my points lol??? Phew gonna go grab a cuppa tea now lol

It's all just because old people think that anyone who plays violent video games is a heartless, souless killing machine, even in real life. The goverment does this stupid stuff just so they wouldn't "provoke" any "killing sprees" (Where'd people even think up that stereotype that games with violence make you want to kill people in real life? There has to be a story behind it.). Also, if you're under the age raring, don't buy the game. And please, use proper grammar man. Texts where there are only a lot of !'s and ?'s but no other form of punctuation make me think that if the person would say that text, he would say it like if he had 10 cups of coffee and couldn't stand still.

 

[kingcom]

i really do have to laugh my ass off about people banning video games fcuk me sideways its pathetic the game comes with a fcuking warning when you turn it on about the mowing down 100s of innocent civillians in a moscow airport but come on its ooooooooooooonly a GAME!!! A fcuking game for fcuk sake ROOOOAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! Stop being so overfuckingsensitive there pixels very good nice looking in HD pixels but they have no feelings they are not6 alive they dont care how many times they get shot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhh also the only person i would ever wish to mow down with anything i can possibly lay my 2 working arms on is this Attorney General Michael Atkinson guys i"m so glad i live in the uk where people seem to realise (so far) its only a game and what does he mean you get points for shooting all the people in the airport??? Has he ever played mw2 himself and where the devil are my points lol??? Phew gonna go grab a cuppa tea now lol

It's all just because old people think that anyone who plays violent video games is a heartless, souless killing machine, even in real life. The goverment does this stupid stuff just so they wouldn't "provoke" any "killing sprees" (Where'd people even think up that stereotype that games with violence make you want to kill people in real life? There has to be a story behind it.). Also, if you're under the age raring, don't buy the game. And please, use proper grammar man. Texts where there are only a lot of !'s and ?'s but no other form of punctiuation make me think that if the person would say that text, he would say it like if he had 10 cups of coffee and couldn't stand still.

Ever hear of Columbine? The school shooters happened to also play Doom. The media ignored their ability to get guns, ignored their obvious depression and fragile mental state, and zeroed in on their ownership of video games. Its not the schools/parents/fear inspiring media/students faults, its the video games. Why? Video games cant defend themselves and all the others watch (or work for) television, and you NEVER go against your viewers.