politics

I'm a strong believer in an R18+ classification for video games in Australia, and have ranted about it previously (here and here). I don't want the classification because I feel games need more gore, that would just be stupid. But it's quite clear that some games get classified as M15+ when it's quite clear that they should be R18+.

Developers often have to censor a game for the Australian market for it to be classified (see Left 4 Dead 2 as the latest example of this). Of course, most knowledgeable gamers won't stand for this. Sony made a lot of mistakes with the Playstation 3 but the best choice they made was for games to be region free. What does this mean? That Australian Playstation 3 gamers can simply import an uncensored copy of whatever game they want from any other country - countries that have up to date video game classification policies.

Beware Stephen Conroy, your time in parliament will soon be coming to an end.

Anti-internet-censorship protests took place around Australia today in seven cities. While the Sydney protest might of been only around 300 strong, the next protests will be bigger and louder.

It also seems that the only major ISP interested in running a trial of the censorship filter is also very outspoken about why they want to be involved in the trial - to prove that it will not work.

I'm hoping that when the censorship plan is shelve, that Stephen Conroy is shelved as well.

Funniest thing I've read in a newspaper article in a long time...

Since there are only two people left in the country who think Australia doesn't need an R18+ rating for games – those being South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson and the sock puppet on his hand – I won't preach to the choir and labour that point.

That quote comes from this opinion piece written by Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame.

I'm a big believer in a proper rating system for video games in Australia. Yes, that means an R18+ rating. No I'm not a axe murdering, blood loving, crazy person (or am I?). Why shouldn't an adult in Australia be able to play the video game as it was intended.

The average age of the gamer in Australia is now 28. Twenty-freaking-eight. Our rating system needs to reflect that. Not some crazy "games are bad, mmmkay" thinking by Michael Atkinson where if a game can't by played by a child then no adult can play it either.

As a side point, I'm also a big believer in parents not being complete fucking asshats about games. If you buy your precious snowflake Timmy GTA4 for his 13th birthday, you have absolutely no rights to complain about the violence or themes in the game as it was clearly marked MA15+ on the cover. Take some damn responsibility for your own choices for once and stop trying to ruin everyone else's fun.