Its a real shame people are just rolling over and accepting this as written in stone. Someone needs to stand up against the almost Big brother aspects of the Austrialian rating system... Its just so sad to see a country having to be constrained by a government who leaps at shadows. | |
Perfect, why don't gamers as a whole roll over and die in a sea of indifference to the BS censorship so that way other places start to think it's a great idea. It's so ingenous. Your attitude of giving up and slowly crawling to a dark hole to become complacent and rot to death is a model we should all follow. /sarcasm | |
Wasnt the name of the game Twisted Metal rather than Twisted Medal?
On the plus side Twisted medal could be an interesting fusion of Twisted metal and Medal of Honour, running over Nazis in armoured cadilacs? Whats not to love? | |
probably.... but meh. also who want's a Australian immigrant to move to there Censorship free country?....anybody? | |
So far I haven't cared about any of the games that have been censored in Australia, but with each new game banned, the chances increase that I may actually want to buy one of these banned games. We better get an R18 rating soon just so devlopers should fight for one and not just roll over. | |
I couldn't agree with you more. Though I doubt anything Jaffe could say will change matters at all, it's still a disappointment to see him be so...dull. That's like if J.D. Salinger came into the public eye, only to instruct us on how to use a comma, before fading back into obscurity. Anyway, the last thing Australian gamers need right now is a famed game designer preaching utter hopelessness on their part. It's upsetting. | |
Gee, if only there was some legally mandated way for Australians to effect change in their government, or something. then maybe game developers could encourage Australians to stand up for their rights and demand them from their elected officials, or replace them if they refuse. | |
ah-ha! It took years but I finally have something to legitimately dislike David Jaffe for! Just kidding, but seriously if people went around taking the status quo even when it was wrong then the US would still be a colony of Britain and slavery would probably still be legal. Granted those are both extreme examples of this but the point is you can't just roll over on it but ultimately it is the people of Australia and other censorship-heavy countries that have the make the push for change. | |
I find it odd Jaffe doesn't take a lesson from all the politics that happen in the United States. Alan Greenspan, the man who is a fervent libertarian when it comes to the economy knew he could not make the change from the outside. However being involved in the government he could make the change from the inside. This is what the video game industry and the fans need to do. We just need to walk that tightrope so that those who have a passion for games does not hurt the industry they are trying to help. Of course to even be elected we would need much more than policy ideas that would help the government to create lax ideas on violence and ratings so adults could actually buy mature(i.e. violent and erotic) games. | |
There is a way to fight the Australian government and the crotchety old bastards that run it. If companies that put out the games that they frequently ban over there refused to even consider the Australian market it would send a very heavy message to the legislatures. Sadly this hurts ultimately the fans, but one way to look at it is if Valve opts to not even try releasing LFD3 in Australia thanks to the bullshit that took place with 2 it would piss alot of fans off, and hopefully those fans would get angry enough to start seriously petitioning the government in mass for changes to the rating system. | |
This if people can get past this common stereotype then video games will finally be accepted as a true medium. | |
Bah...One day this government will be replaced with the current in-school generation Then we'll have some fun! | |
You could just buy the game... I mean, whats the penalty? And how the hell would the authorities find out if you have an illegal video game? | |
You could always fire-bomb city hall... What!? Just sayin'. But seriously, you Aussie's live in a democracy right? Isn't there someone you guys could vote out/in to make the policies change? | |
The bottom line is that nobody wants to run at the head of the pack and spend the money needed to fight. You CAN fight City Hall, and it doesn't even take firebombs usually. You might notice my more serious suggestions have included things like Valve organizing a "million nerd march" against the censorship policies or something of the sort. On free speech issues actual violence is perfectly reasonable, BUT this is not to that point yet. For all my comments about Baby Boomers, they kind of demonstrated that yes you CAN fight City Hall and in the end it's not them who has the power, it's you. Really I think the fan community needs to go after the game companies and pressure them to fight censorship any way nessicary. The bottom line is simply a lack of backbone, with all the millions of gamers out there we can be a much bigger societal force than we think assuming someone with the resources and voice rallied us. | |
I agree entirely. I guess a lack of political activism isn't just a problem in America, huh? | |
Yes you can. You totally can. Just rolling over and letting types like Atkinson have their way never did anything for progress. People need to stand up against this kind of rubbish. And even if Atkinson himself and the rest of his ilk never relent in their idiotic ways, games will be recognized as an artform equal to books or films, it's just a matter of time. They'll die off sooner or later, and will be replaced by a generation of politicians that were or still are gamers themselves. | |
Yes you can fight city hall, how the hell has there been any abolition of such horrors as segregation and censorship the videogame industry as a whole should lobby the australian government to form the mature rating for their videogames and films. as someone who appreciates having the right to free speech what the australian government is doing is a violation of human rights. they claim they are doing it for the children but that's BS. atkinson and his supporters are a bunch of old farts who live in the dark ages and think that certain forms of entertainment incite "evil" in people. I am American and I appreciate what this country has given me in terms of access to different forms of entertainment. Are they for everybody? Absolutely not. But they should be nonetheless accessible. I would like the people of Australia to know my joy when I play these uncensored games and I think it's time for the industry to fight back against the government and usher for an evolution of the system | |
This is what you're going to do, or what you should do anyway. Don't release them here. Simple as that, just refuse to release them in Australia. Offer them as downloads while neglecting to make provisions to restrict them to the country or just release them as region free. Those who want to pay will either import or download it, with the filthy pirates pirating as they usually do. How much is the Australian games market worth anyway? Obviously not enough, as the Government here does not seem concerned with the tax revenue they're not getting from blockbuster titles that are being refused classification. | |
There is something you can do, ignore the law and download a less-than-legal copy of the game. Since the game isn't available here, they can't really cry that they are losing money unless the Cartels plan on suing the OFLC. | |
Sorry but i am not willing to give in no matter who else does. | |
Actually there was a gaming organisation that commissioned a survey to see whether or not the Australian public cared about an R18+ category. The survey was carried out by Bond university here and the results were for a R18+, but the results were twisted by Michael Atkinson, his logic being that if 91% of people supported an R18+ category then children would likely get there hands on these games as people would buy them.
I'm also pretty sure that he attacked the survey based on the fact it was funded by a gaming group so yeah.... yay Australia. | |
ozzies, vote with your feet | |
I actually had a solution to the Australian censorship crisis, if David Jaffe doesn't feel like fighting for it: 1. Have Microsoft make another Halo game Trust me, if they're bold enough to buy exclusives from other consoles, they'd be willing to tear up the Aussie censorship board for their titles to be released. Microsoft would not miss out on such a large consumer base. Maybe then it would open the way for r rated games. But you can only dream about it, I guess. :( | |
I completely agree with Jaffe on this. He is absolutely right. Bottom line this is a government thing. A government of another country. It is none of our business and not our fight (unless you happen to be reading this as an Australian citizen then git off yer ass LOL). We don't have to like it but we should at the very least respect their government and the citizens who voted them in. Has history taught us nothing? | |
I really think the publishers and developers should refuse to make any changes in their games to satisfy the Australian ratings board. They refuse to rate the game? Screw them. The public will still get their games through illegal imports and downloads, and the government will miss out on any tax revenues the game sales might have generated. Bottom line, you folks down under really need to vote some of the assholes out. They're making you look bad. | |
I think this is Jaffe's attempt at being "mellow" He really sucks at it. | |
Wait, isn't Australia the most dangerous country in the world? The place with more kinds of dangerous animals than anywhere else? If Michael Atkinson doesn't want to play ball, put a shark in his bathtub, or a poisonous spider on his pillow. | |
This guy clearly has NO IDEA how government works. | |
The people need to make their voices heard and play hardball considering the matter of Australia's censorship. If everyone just rolls over and accepts it, it won't do anybody any good. | |
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David Jaffe Says You Can't Fight City Hall
Formerly-outspoken game designer David Jaffe doesn't like the censorship that plagues the videogame industry in Australia but says that at the end of the day, there's really nothing anyone can do about it.
David Jaffe is best known for two things: The Twisted Metal and God of War games, and his f-bomb-laden tirades on Twitter, YouTube and his blog about everything from used videogame sales to Sarah Palin's MILFness. In August, Jaffe finally got tired of his own act and essentially banned himself from the internet, a vow of online celibacy he's done a surprisingly good job of keeping, but comments he recently made regarding the censorship of videogames at the Game Connect Asia Pacific conference in Melbourne, Australia, have still managed to find their way through.
Rather surprisingly for a guy who seems so naturally combative, Jaffe sounded almost entirely resigned to the censorious attitude of the Australian government toward videogames. "There's a government board and if they say it's too offensive, in that case there's no fight to fight - it is what it is. There's not much you can do if you're making games aimed at a mature audience," he said. "We never like to cut it, but what are you going to do? You're dealing with governments."
Despite his feeling of helplessness, Jaffe is clearly unhappy with the current state of affairs. "There's absolutely an inconsistency in the consciousness about video games," he added. "The reality is people still see a lot of these things as kids' toys. It's utter BS."
I'm a little disappointed. I never paid much attention to Jaffe but I always had the impression that he was the kind of guy who wanted to stick it to The Man, not roll over for him. The game rating situation in Australia may seem as entrenched as it is outlandish but this attitude of, "Eh, whaddaya gonna do?" is still misplaced. I can't be too critical of studios who choose to cut their games in order to crack the Australian market (although I definitely prefer it when they won't) but pretending that the status quo is either untouchable or perfectly alright should never be on the books.
Source: iTWire, via GamePolitics
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