Whats up Australia?

[Fudj]

So, from the various things i read its hard to get some games released in Australia due to violent content and what-not, and this causes no end of grief to our commonwealth brothers and sisters.

And yet there is no problem with releasing The Human Centipede Part 2: Full Sequence, consider that the first movie was just shock for shocks sake and was'nt very good and from all accounts this movie adds nothing to cinema at all and is just there to be offensive (now i'd like to point out i love horror movies but this just seems to be gross out for the sake of gross out, im sure you can find out what in the movie if you want to look, for the sake of not spoiling anything i wont post it here)

Just strikes me as a movie where a guy wraps part of him in sand paper is okay but persisitent bodies in certain games isnt as a little odd.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/14818807

 

[ExileNZ]

OK, I think that gets my Fail prize for the week.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Its because only kids play computer games.

 

[farq1414]

cause our government is sit dumb

 

[StormShaun]

There goes the respect for the rest of our great country.

*Sigh*

 

[Fitzcaraldo]

It's a sorry state of affairs all right. This exact thing was brought up in our media a few weeks back, and it just goes show how ridiculous the double standard is. This is a film that has banned in the UK for its excessive violence and gore. How can you justify releasing this while banning and cutting down games for what seem to be relatively minor things in comparison?

But there is hope. Recently the Attorney Generals agreed in principle to an R18 rating for video games, so if we're lucky, we may have this rating soon, and be able to play the same games as the rest of the world. Anyway, fingers crossed.

 

[Superior Mind]

It's because films have an R18 rating while games only have MA15+. Any game too violent/sexy/anything else that can not be classified under MA15+ has to either be banned or significantly edited.

However recently there was an in principle agreement between the state, federal and territory attorneys general that an R18 rating for games would be introduced and Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor has said he wants to see the issue resolved by the end of the year. About bloody time too.

 

[Quaxar]

Is the title a hidden joke or is it just me?

OT: Film is art, games are for little kids. It's easy as that. Right?
No wait, that'd make pictures art too and I remember the time Australia banished pictured of women with small breasts on terms of childporn...
I'm baffled. Forget my theory.

 

[Flare Phoenix]

Because a film, regardless of content or quality, is viewed as a legitimate work of art, whereas even the best and most profound video game is considered to be nothing more than a child's plaything.

Films went though the same thing before, and whatever comes after video games will go through it as well.

 

[Zeriah]

It's because movies can be rated, shown and sold up to R18+ (meaning basically everything can be shown but grossly illegal and obvious stuff like bestiality,pedophilia etc) in the theaters/dvd stores but video games are only classifiable to MA15+ which leaves out a huge number of things which would fall under a R18+ rating. There's finally some good progress on that front though so expect to see R18+ video games in Australia soon.

Yes it's horrible for everybody involved (including for the right wing Christian wacko's) but unfortunately it's taking a long time for some to understand that having R18+ games will actually help regulate inappropriate games for children rather than encourage it (since a lot of games right now are being placed under the MA15+ category when they really should be R18+). A lot of people here still consider games nothing more than child play things unfortunately but we are slowly getting there!

 

[Random Encounter]

The censorship in my country has never made any sense to me.

No one has really presented a legitimate reason as to why Videogames can't have an R18+ rating. Especially since it would actually help improve the inaccessability of inappropriate games to younger audiences.

Luckily it seems we may be farly close to finally getting an adult rating over here.

 

[shadow_Fox81]

Australia's not big on art, thats all.

we're like the global suburbia.

 

[LongAndShort]

A little late to the debate, but okay, let's run with it...

The problem with Australian media censorship with the whole Movies vs Games thing is that movies are recognized generally as art, and so are entitled to the privileges of art, while games are not. Where the issue lies is all those people who protest about violent or pornographic art, include video games on their hit list. However all those people who would normally protest back and ensure that this stuff is released uncensored (at least partly because they often have strong roles within Australian film, television and art world - my Dad likes to joke the ABC is run by a bunch of old communist queens), are artistic elitists who don't consider games worth their time protecting. It doesn't help that the games industry in Australia is not valued particularly highly by anyone beyond its members and commentators (whereas Australian film, which produces some of the worst tripe to appear on any kind of screen, keeps on getting money - and low censorship standards - thrown at it).

But have no fear. All those artistic elitists who came to power will die in not to long, and will slowly be replaced by artistic elitists like myself, who play video games.

 

[Funkysandwich]

We don't miss out on too many games, but what really pissed me off is that they banned Left For Dead 2. The censored version is not worth playing, and I really wanted to play that game. And around the same time that AvP came out, and was given an M15+ rating although it's much more grahpic.

Our government is full of idiots. Then again, most people say that about their governments.

 

[LilithSlave]

So basically, this is allowed in Austrailia, but Silent Hill Homecoming isn't?

 

[Vault101]

I was in JB HI FI and "human centipede" was right there on shelves...

I was rather surprised it was allowed in the country (didnt get a cinema release though..I think)

 

[Project_Xii]

The R18+ for games went through recently. It should be implemented within the next 6 months, so we'll finally be up to scratch with the rest of the world in that regard.

And no, next to no movies are banned here. The government doesn't care about movies. Kids don't watch bad or violent movies, cause it trusts the parents to be responsible there...


..... I fucking hate the retards in our government.