...Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge.
Who'd have thought that the first game to be rated Australia's new equivalent of the ESRB's M rating would be a game published by Nintendo?
Anyway, congratulations to the Australian gamers for the new rating.
...Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge.
Who'd have thought that the first game to be rated Australia's new equivalent of the ESRB's M rating would be a game published by Nintendo?
Anyway, congratulations to the Australian gamers for the new rating.
Good for the Aussies. Looking at Wikipedia, the list of banned games is really weird. I mean, Marc Ecko's Getting Up was actually banned.
It would still be banned under our R18+ rating, from what I understand. It "promotes illegal activities", or however they want to put it, with it's graffiti stuff I guess.Good for the Aussies. Looking at Wikipedia, the list of banned games is really weird. I mean, Marc Ecko's Getting Up was actually banned.
We didn't really end up with that much stuff actually banned.That's great, hopefully they can actually get more games now. Heard prices are still crazy, though.
@dungbootle said:
That's great, hopefully they can actually get more games now. Heard prices are still crazy, though.
It depends how you look at it really. Games cost ~$100 to America's ~$60, but our minimum wage is ~$15 to America's ~$6 so it kind of balances out.
Congrats Aussies! Finally some blood, boobs, and drugs! Maybe you guys will finally get Marc Ecko's Getting Up.
Not unless whoever owns it wants to pay the fees for it to get reclassified. Then there's the fact that it would still get refused based on it promoting crime/criminal activity, which is still 100% in the refused classification category. I assume real drug use would be exactly the same.Congrats Aussies! Finally some blood, boobs, and drugs! Maybe you guys will finally get Marc Ecko's Getting Up.
@Vamino said:
@TheUnsavedHero said:Not unless whoever owns it wants to pay the fees for it to get reclassified. Then there's the fact that it would still get refused based on it promoting crime/criminal activity, which is still 100% in the refused classification category. I assume real drug use would be exactly the same.Congrats Aussies! Finally some blood, boobs, and drugs! Maybe you guys will finally get Marc Ecko's Getting Up.
That seems real dumb I mean... murder is a criminal activity, no? I just... I don't understand the logic on that one.
Why are people freaking out at Neon Genesis Evangelion? Yea, it had dumb moments, but come on, you guys.
Oh, it's incredibly dumb. The logic doesn't really exist. I guess the key in the language is "Detailed instruction or promotion in matters of crime or violence." Even then it's totally stupid and there's a massive double standard between movies/tv and games. I can see someone do some tagging on a TV program here and it's not exactly hard to "learn" that just from seeing.@Vamino said:
@TheUnsavedHero said:
Not unless whoever owns it wants to pay the fees for it to get reclassified. Then there's the fact that it would still get refused based on it promoting crime/criminal activity, which is still 100% in the refused classification category. I assume real drug use would be exactly the same.Congrats Aussies! Finally some blood, boobs, and drugs! Maybe you guys will finally get Marc Ecko's Getting Up.
That seems real dumb I mean... murder is a criminal activity, no? I just... I don't understand the logic on that one.
Valve would have to pay fees to get the game reclassified, which I can't see them doing (and wouldn't blame them for).congrats, I remember Left 4 dead 2 was TOO INTENSE for the AU. Now you can taste blood
@Slab64 said:
YAY
So what you're really saying is that Australia has run out of money and is now trying to screw with our heads?
@Vamino said:
@NegativeCero said:It would still be banned under our R18+ rating, from what I understand. It "promotes illegal activities", or however they want to put it, with it's graffiti stuff I guess.Good for the Aussies. Looking at Wikipedia, the list of banned games is really weird. I mean, Marc Ecko's Getting Up was actually banned.
From what I remember it was just really unfortunate timing. At the time graffiti was the hot topic of debate and A Current Affair had just done a story the week before on people train surfing and tagging with all sorts of CCTV footage and their usual totally unbiased reporting. Councils were blaming their overspending on having to clean up graffiti, and then someone died train surfing. Someone found out there was a game with graffiti in it coming out in the next couple of weeks and they turned to blaming video games for all their problems for a while. Parent and church groups put pressure on the Classification Board which reacted by banning it.
The first I ever heard of the game was when it was being blamed for that poor kids death by some member of council trying to drum up support. Sometimes I roll my eyes and change the channel, other times I find myself getting really pissed and wondering if all these people really are that stupid and how did it get to the stage that the country is run by idiots that don't even realise they're idiots or if everyone in those positions are straight sociopaths.
Our classification board was a joke for the longest time as they let most stuff in with MA ratings (quite a few that were worse that the games the banned) and only really banned a game when the geese got their feathers ruffled and people started sending in letters. What does it say that guidelines can be over-written because some do-gooders get on TV and make some noise.
That does ring a bell actually, now that you mention it. I don't think I was really paying too much attention to the topic back then, and I generally try to limit what I see of ACA/TT to what they show on MediaWatch. The promotion of crime/criminal activity is definitely the scapegoat they used to justify the banning.@Vamino said:
@NegativeCero said:It would still be banned under our R18+ rating, from what I understand. It "promotes illegal activities", or however they want to put it, with it's graffiti stuff I guess.Good for the Aussies. Looking at Wikipedia, the list of banned games is really weird. I mean, Marc Ecko's Getting Up was actually banned.
From what I remember it was just really unfortunate timing. At the time graffiti was the hot topic of debate and A Current Affair had just done a story the week before on people train surfing and tagging with all sorts of CCTV footage and their usual totally unbiased reporting. Councils were blaming their overspending on having to clean up graffiti, and then someone died train surfing. Someone found out there was a game with graffiti in it coming out in the next couple of weeks and they turned to blaming video games for all their problems for a while. Parent and church groups put pressure on the Classification Board which reacted by banning it.
@ArbitraryWater said:
@Slab64 said:
YAY
So what you're really saying is that Australia has run out of money and is now trying to screw with our heads?
boom
@Hailinel: I can't go down that route, for as much as I might wish. At least End of Evangelion has an ending, for as profoundly disturbing and nightmare-inducing as that ending is. Regardless, I can't wait for the rebuild movies to finish up so people can get angry about however that one turns out.
And to all the aussies out there: Congratulations.
@Travissty said:
Come on Telltale. Pay that extra cash and get Walking Dead that R18+ and let me play that game already.
You can buy it on steam.
I think there's been a fair bit of misunderstanding about the whole situation anyway. I think a lot of Americans, Brits etc just assumed that if a game got an 18+ rating in their country, we'd never see it in Australia, but 99.9% of the time, we'd get the exact same game just with a 15+ rating (The highest rating we had for game classification before the introduction of 18+). Our rating systems for films and games etc actually seems more lenient than most in a lot of regards, the lack of 18+ was just a weird hole in the system that was held up by one old fart politician. It was rare that we'd actually miss out on a game. In this case, it's fairly plausible that if we didn't have the R18+, NGIII would have come out anyway with a 15+.
But whatever, I'm happy that it's all done and dusted now, if not just so it's in line with our film rating system.
@dudy80 said:
Glad to hear some of there draconian laws are letting up. I'v always found that stuff kinda disgusting.
That's kinda the misunderstanding I'm talking about. I think Australians were way less fussed by all of this than anyone else :P
@Travissty said:
Come on Telltale. Pay that extra cash and get Walking Dead that R18+ and let me play that game already.
It's been on our Steam store from the start, so it must have passed classification as an MA15+.
@Damodar: Nah, you don't have to submit a game for classification if you dont want to sell it in brick and mortar stores. They never submitted The Walking Dead so it was never refused classification and is fine for Steam.
Funny shit, you actually have to pay to have your game banned.
@troll93 said:
@FlarePhoenix said:
@dungbootle said:
That's great, hopefully they can actually get more games now. Heard prices are still crazy, though.
It depends how you look at it really. Games cost ~$100 to America's ~$60, but our minimum wage is ~$15 to America's ~$6 so it kind of balances out.
I don't know about you, but I buy all my games from JBhifi and you can get most new releases for $75-80 bucks.
Well yeah, there are cheaper options for sure (which is why I said around $100). My point was that the more expensive price for games down here makes a bit more sense when you factor in our minimum wage compared to Americas.
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