Im not sure if its accurate to say that ACT will be the first to be able to purchase R18 games. Although ACT does have a habit of things like that (eg, X-rated movies, as mentioned already), this reads more like ACT are just the first to put legislation in place to be ready for when the R18 rating is introduced at the start of next year. I dont think they can actually get the R18 content until the rating comes into place, and by that time the other states and territories will most likely have introduced their own legislation too.
risenbone: Well thats not the Australian motto really thats the Motto for ASIO or the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation which is Australias CIA,NSA,FBI,US Marshals all rolled into the one organisation.
They like to promote that image, but ASIO is not our equivalent of the CIA, it is only the FBI/Marshalls equivalent.
Our CIA/NSA equivalent is ASIS, the Australia Secret Intelligence Service. They have a website, etc, but keep a much lower profile and stay out of the news as much as possible, unlike ASIO.
Fappy: Its so sad that it took them this long. Say what you will about the US but at least our freedom of speech/expression isn't hung up in red tape.
Considering 99% of games were released in Australia unaltered it wasnt exactly stopping our freedom of speech, most "R-18+" games were just rated MA15+. It's really not going to change much except the occasional game that will now be able to get in as R-18+. Glad to see it's done, even just to stop ignorant foregners from thinking we don't get R-18 games before hand.
Valanthe: Yay, welcome to the 21st Century Australia, here's your complimentary cupcake and party hat.
We've been here all along, just needed a few bookeeping changes to categorise games better :P, after all owning said games was never illegal, just selling them here.
Therumancer: Interestingly I wonder how this will affect previous games that Australia didn't get. I wonder if there will be a rush to bring them into Australia. Not to mention how it will influance releases and what impact the Australian market plays, do they go by Canberra, or the rest of the country?
Being in the US I also wonder about regional laws. If you look at the case of Geohot you'll notice that the guy got nailed for possessing marijuana but had a liscense for it from another state which didn't help. If someone in Australia decides to head to Canberra and buy a game that isn't approved in another part of the country, can they be arrested there for making the purchuse, or for possession of the game?
I don't know, when I hear about one city doing this, capital or not, I have thoughts of regional law enforcement deciding to put game stores under pseudo-suerveillance so they can shake down game purchusers who live in their area or travel through their territory. Similar to how police have unofficial quotas of tickets they are supposed to hand out when they town needs money so they harass motorists, or even give tickets arbitrarly.
You know... cop knocks on the door and serves a fine for possessing a game illegal in the current area, which he knows about because he was "informed" of it's purchuse someplace where it was legal and being brought to that residence.
It sounds crazy, but with a hot button issue like this, and all the crazies involved, a slow transition like this seems like it's going to create a lot of problems.
Generally if you have say, a firecracker in Sydney where it's illegal that you bought in Canberra, you will still be charged for possession of an illegal item. As for video games, they'll be released federally at once, I'm guessing Canberra is doing it first to set an example of how it'd work, making it easily to enforce it on other states. As already stated in the news it'll be for the whole of Australia at the start of 2013, so even if your court with on in Sydney I doubt the police will care, as possession of said game is not illegal, only the SALE of it. I can get mortal combat if I wanted it, just not legal to sell it here.
i live in canberra, and i don't believe a word of it. if it happens, great, about bloody time. but fool my once australian government, shame on you, fool me six times, shame on me.
Antitonic: Wait, there's a sensible politician still left? When the hell did that happen?
I can shed some light on this. It's not that the ACT government is 'sensible', it's just that the ACT is really just a piddly strip of land around the nation's capital and only holds some 300 thousand citizens, so the ACT 'government' is really just a glorified local council. As such, they're all made up of wanabees who can't break into Federal politics, and thus spend all their time doing things that make them feel like they're up with the big boys, like having a human rights charter, dedicating public art to themselves, legalising gay marriage, and now this.
So yes, there's a lot of benefit to their actions, but they're not motivated by common sense, only a desperate desire to have their name attached to something.
More like what makes the ACT so good is the fact that it's basically one single city full of middle to upper class public servants who aren't held back by the reactionary rural redneck and outer suburb bogans that those of us in the states have to deal with.
To address your points, while the laws in the ACT may only affect 350,000 people, it's better that there's at least one sane, if tiny, place in the country. Charter of rights? Every single other western nation has one. Do you think it's just a coincidence that Australia is the only country that doesn't have one and also has a government that censors entertainment on a scale much larger than just about any other Western democracy? If we had a federal charter of rights we probably would have been playing R18+ games since the beginning.
As for legalising gay marriage, the ACT does not have gay marriage, they have civil unions, just like Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. Yeah, real crazy, out there stuff. If the climate wasn't so fucking miserable and it wasn't so tiny it'd be the best place to live in the country by far.
Good on the ACT for doing this, I say, though of all the pros and cons of the place, R18+ games is pretty insignificant, and will be completely insignificant by the time it's rolled out in the rest of the states next year.
Chaosweaver: Oh and btw, we're not "within NSW". Slight error in the article there. NSW is a separate state which surrounds the ACT, but we are not part of it.
Damn beat me to it. Yeah the ACT is a state of it's own (No good reason why). Also I'd like to thank the Escapist news team for keeping track of this for me.
Chaosweaver: Oh and btw, we're not "within NSW". Slight error in the article there. NSW is a separate state which surrounds the ACT, but we are not part of it.
You're within New South Wales in the same way Vatican City is within Italy. It's a separate thing, but New South Wales is like a box that contains the Australian Capital Territory.
Welcome to the 20th century australia. og wait, your still 100 years behind. darn. and its not even in till 2013 anyway so yeah....
Also a bit of a mistakehunting. 18+ rating does not "give guidance to parents", it forces parents to do the shopping for kids, because all it does is make kids play those games illegally. there are ratings that work like guidance, but 18+ is definitely not one of them.
More like what makes the ACT so good is the fact that it's basically one single city full of middle to upper class public servants who aren't held back by the reactionary rural redneck and outer suburb bogans that those of us in the states have to deal with.
To address your points, while the laws in the ACT may only affect 350,000 people, it's better that there's at least one sane, if tiny, place in the country. Charter of rights? Every single other western nation has one. Do you think it's just a coincidence that Australia is the only country that doesn't have one and also has a government that censors entertainment on a scale much larger than just about any other Western democracy? If we had a federal charter of rights we probably would have been playing R18+ games since the beginning.
As for legalising gay marriage, the ACT does not have gay marriage, they have civil unions, just like Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. Yeah, real crazy, out there stuff. If the climate wasn't so fucking miserable and it wasn't so tiny it'd be the best place to live in the country by far.
Good on the ACT for doing this, I say, though of all the pros and cons of the place, R18+ games is pretty insignificant, and will be completely insignificant by the time it's rolled out in the rest of the states next year.
Relax, buddy, all of it is a sweet deal for the people who live here. I'm just too cynical of politicians to believe that they'd do a good thing for any reason that isn't purely motivated by self-interest. But hey, if you can get their ego to work for you, you win.
Fappy: Its so sad that it took them this long. Say what you will about the US but at least our freedom of speech/expression isn't hung up in red tape.
Considering 99% of games were released in Australia unaltered it wasnt exactly stopping our freedom of speech, most "R-18+" games were just rated MA15+. It's really not going to change much except the occasional game that will now be able to get in as R-18+. Glad to see it's done, even just to stop ignorant foregners from thinking we don't get R-18 games before hand.
Valanthe: Yay, welcome to the 21st Century Australia, here's your complimentary cupcake and party hat.
We've been here all along, just needed a few bookeeping changes to categorise games better :P, after all owning said games was never illegal, just selling them here.
To be fair most of the news about this subject we have been privy to has painted the situation in this light. Blame inaccurate journalism if you're going to blame anyone at all.
Fappy: Its so sad that it took them this long. Say what you will about the US but at least our freedom of speech/expression isn't hung up in red tape.
The U.S. has red tape out it's ass--every country does. Not to mention the laughable joke of "freedom of information." Remember: we Australians have to pay for our beaches, low crime rate and general awesomeness somehow. It wouldn't be fair if we had the best of every world.
risenbone: Well thats not the Australian motto really thats the Motto for ASIO or the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation which is Australias CIA,NSA,FBI,US Marshals all rolled into the one organisation.
They like to promote that image, but ASIO is not our equivalent of the CIA, it is only the FBI/Marshalls equivalent.
Our CIA/NSA equivalent is ASIS, the Australia Secret Intelligence Service. They have a website, etc, but keep a much lower profile and stay out of the news as much as possible, unlike ASIO.
More or less, yeah. One important distinction is that ASIO agents are unarmed, they call upon the Federal Police to arrest people rather than training their own seperate armed units.
...
As an Australian, "meh".
I know I say this every time this comes up, but while fixing the rating system would be a good thing, it's a very low priority issue. Just about anything that makes the news is going to be more important than that, which is why nobody really minded Christian groups getting in the way of progress on this.
Chaosweaver: Oh and btw, we're not "within NSW". Slight error in the article there. NSW is a separate state which surrounds the ACT, but we are not part of it.
Glad somebody finally clarified that little piece of nonsense. 'Self governing enclave'? WTF! It makes it sound like a seperate country to the rest of the Federated Commonwealth. Its only the territory set aside to house the capital city of Australia after Federation in 1901 afterall.
Revolutionary: Yeah the ACT is a state of it's own (No good reason why).
Canberra and the ACT it roughly half way between Sydney and Melbourne. Back when the colonies were trying to sought out which city would the capital of Australia naturally Victoria wanted it to be Melbourne and NSW wanted it to be Sydney. The other colonies said fuck off to both of them.
To keep everything from falling apart the 'founding fathers' reached the compromise of having a seperate territory within NSW 160km from Sydney and whilst the new capital was being built Melbourne would be the temporary capital.
Im not sure if its accurate to say that ACT will be the first to be able to purchase R18 games. Although ACT does have a habit of things like that (eg, X-rated movies, as mentioned already), this reads more like ACT are just the first to put legislation in place to be ready for when the R18 rating is introduced at the start of next year. I dont think they can actually get the R18 content until the rating comes into place, and by that time the other states and territories will most likely have introduced their own legislation too.
They like to promote that image, but ASIO is not our equivalent of the CIA, it is only the FBI/Marshalls equivalent.
Our CIA/NSA equivalent is ASIS, the Australia Secret Intelligence Service. They have a website, etc, but keep a much lower profile and stay out of the news as much as possible, unlike ASIO.
... but maybe Ive said too much *hides under bed*