My fellow Australian Giantbomb and whiskey family members.
It is time you all stopped bitching about the banning of games in Australia and learned about a magical place called New Zealand. Now along with hobbits, wizards, conchords and ents New Zealand has an 18+ rating for videogames. This means that you can import it for around the same price if not cheaper than buying it in Australia. I call your attention to the website http://www.mightyape.com.au/ . Now I don't work for mightyape, but I can say that I have had great success buying the uncut version of left for dead 2 along with the unreleased Demon's Souls from their website.
So please stop moaning about the government, the R18+ rating will hopefully be implemented soon. In the meantime there are really easy ways to get around it. So go buy MK online like me, import it and enjoy. The goverment cannot interfere with this in any way, they aren't waiting on the border with patrols to destroy copies of MK or anything.
Now if only we could do something about the $110 price point...
Attention Australian Members: A PSA on Banned Games
also http://www.ecogamer.com.au/
Why would you want to play video games when your neighbors are wizard hobbits that can play awesome songs?
" Gray Marketing isn't going to help the cause. "Since when is international shipping gray marketing? As far as I now it is perfectly legal. It can get somewhat iffy when you import from Asia, but that's mostly a logistical problem.
" @Aronman789: FUCK YOU AUSTRALIA IS THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!111 "Not if you can't play a game simply because it has a bit of blood or they mention something bad.
" Or you know... buy from websites like Zavvi in the UK for literally half the price, with free shipping. "The shipping isn't as free as you might think, you still pay if you're not a UK customer.. but I guess the deals you get cover for it. Although it wouldn't hurt them to put "FREE SHIPPING FOR UK ONLY BITCHES! WOOOOOOOO!!" on the front page, it would avoid a lot of misunderstandings.
I think people over estimate the problem of not having an R rating here. Australia is generally less strict in ratings than a country like America in basically every way. It's just a problem when something does go outside of the ratings that we do have, which rarely happens. I think part of it is that Americans must assume that anything that gets a Mature rating in America must be automatically banned here, when it's basically never actually the case. 99.9% of the time, it just ends up with our MA rating, which is 15 years and up. What's Mature for American games? 17? Same with our movies. Although we have an R Rating, about 90% of stuff that is rated R in America is either M or MA here.
I can't think of anything that I know is actually banned here besides Mortal Kombat. Um... Soldier of Fortune 3 maybe? I think Manhunt was, but it's not anymore. That game sucks anyway >.> It's not like there aren't any instances of games being released here that were censored or cut in some way for their American releases. Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy was uncut here, the sex was cut out of the American version.
I was totally kidding in my last post, but I do feel like there is a misunderstanding of how much the lack of an R rating affects us. The answer is basically it doesn't. It's not like we're massively oppressed, either. It's just a bureaucratic problem of one crotchety old attorney-general can stop amendments to the classification system. The whole thing is farcical anyway; refusing the option for an R rating is basically saying the system doesn't work at all anyway.
If one game is refused classification every couple of years, I don't quite think it's worth leaving the country for. Especially when it's THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD FUCK YOU ALL
" @Damodar said:Last things I bought from Zavvi, I got free shipping. Marvel vs Capcom 3 for $54, arrived 6 days after launch. I also have a current order pending for 2 copies of BlazBlue on PC and there's no shipping cost on that either." Or you know... buy from websites like Zavvi in the UK for literally half the price, with free shipping. "The shipping isn't as free as you might think, you still pay if you're not a UK customer.. but I guess the deals you get cover for it. Although it wouldn't hurt them to put "FREE SHIPPING FOR UK ONLY BITCHES! WOOOOOOOO!!" on the front page, it would avoid a lot of misunderstandings. "
I did pay shipping on the order before that, but it was a negligible amount like $4. So I dunno what the deal is with shipping, maybe it's free on international now where it was not previously?
So I dunno, I'm not sure what the deal is there. It still ends up being much, much cheaper than buying locally. I can't believe EB actually charge $110 and that people actually pay it, that's disgusting. Especially since my nearest EB is in an arcade literally 3 doors away from a JB Hifi where it's all about $10-$20 cheaper. Although $90 still makes me sad. That's why I <3 Zavvi.
" As a New Zealander, it is at this point I would like to state that we don't have Wizards, but this still looks fucked up to me. "You may not have wizards, but I hear you have red headed twins that have a magical power called the twiness. Apparently while taking place Under the Mountain.
I read in another forum that customs would be getting all up in people's grill about importing the game and possibly slapping people with a ridiculous fine. Is this still true? If you import from New Zealand, are customs a little more chill?
Or since you guys are so close, can you just bypass the man completely like you're saying?
" @Tebbit said:What happens Under the Mountain stays Under the Mountain." As a New Zealander, it is at this point I would like to state that we don't have Wizards, but this still looks fucked up to me. "You may not have wizards, but I hear you have red headed twins that have a magical power called the twiness. Apparently while taking place Under the Mountain. "
I don't think they'd catch very many copies coming through anyway.
" I read in another forum that customs would be getting all up in people's grill about importing the game and possibly slapping people with a ridiculous fine. Is this still true? If you import from New Zealand, are customs a little more chill? Or since you guys are so close, can you just bypass the man completely like you're saying? "Close? Australia to New Zealand is like the UK to Africa, Florida to Venezuela, Canada to Russia etc.
America, land of the free and the home of the brave....or Canada, they don't ban games there either!
The problem isn't just banning it. It's illegal to import it and customs are specifically looking out for it. If you get caught for can be fined up to as much as a drug or weapons smuggler($110,000).
@blacklabeldomm said:
" America, land of the free and the home of the brave....or Canada, they don't ban games there either! "They just wiretap your phones and data information if they suspect you of pirating like they would a terrorist. That's much better.
"Hey, parts of the PATRIOT Act just expired and we're working on the rest of it. Give us a break!
@blacklabeldomm said:" America, land of the free and the home of the brave....or Canada, they don't ban games there either! "They just wiretap your phones and data information if they suspect you of pirating like they would a terrorist. That's much better. "
Customs doesn't give a shit about you importing a copy of MK, they're not going to confiscate it and they're not going to fine you. Now if you are a business importing it for sale in Australia that may be a different story. You can however buy it from overseas and have it sent to you as it has been refused classification. It's a different thing to being banned, people forget that it's only being refused classification and therefore cannot be sold by a retailer in Australia. It's not that it's banned and all copies seen being brought in will be burned in a bonfire on the border.
So to reiterate, import without any fear of customs interfering, they honestly have bigger things to worry about and wouldn't do anything anyway. So please stop implying that we live in a police state that confiscates everything. And no they can't fine you as you aren't importing for purpose of sale.
" @aerious What you say makes sense, but are you really sure of that? How do you know? "I'm absolutely sure. It comes down to the way the classification laws work. In order for a game to be sold in Australia it must carry with it a rating classification. What has happened with MK is that it has been refused classification because of it's content existing outside current classification guidelines. Therefore it cannot be sold in Australia as it isn't assigned a rating classification.
This doesn't make the game contraband. The government hasn't deemed the game to be damaging to the Australian people and thereby illegal. The classification laws just make a game effectively banned because it was refused classification. It isn't actively policed as being banned, it just cannot be sold by a retailer as it hasn't been classified by the OFLC.
It is not illegal for a citizen to buy MK overseas and have it shipped to Australia. The classification laws pertain only to retailers selling the game, not the game itself. Customs will not have any problem with it, and you will definitely not be fined in any way.
If the government had deemed MK as contraband, by banning it outright and ruling against possessing it, it would be a different story. Only very rarely has the Australian government acted in such an extreme way with a piece of media.
I hope this clears things up, there's a lot of confusing reports out there on this issue.
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