Jumplion:
EDIT: You know what? Fine, let's all sit on our asses and complain. I'm not kidding, let's just sit around and see what happens. God i'm angry at you guys right now...

That is all we can do! We have tried writing petition, harassing the OFLC, sending abusive letters to our heads of Government (well I'm sure someone has) and even going on TV to bring this to the publics attention but it hasn't worked! If you can think of something that will work, tell us!

Fire Daemon:
And the annoying things is, is that all we can do is complain, complain to people who don't understand what the fuck were talking about. And if people don't care about the Fallout 3 scandal why the hell will they care about release dates or costs?

Given that Oz still has that fannatical obsession with outdoor sports, gaming is seen as socially backward and only a few steps off being a crazed gunman. The 'Meet the Sniper" video gives a good description with the phonecall. My guess is that gaming stands against the three state religions: Football, Rugby and Cricket...

I actually registered just to post in this topic.

Australian politicians don't care about the small percentage of their voters who actually give a damn about gaming and so they don't need to pay any attention to our continual complaints and such.

I don't think that we could ever achieve anything like lowering the prices of games in Australia unless we somehow managed to convince every gamer in Australia to stop buying until prices drop and our chances of that are roughly equivalent with the chance of me walking around my backyard and tripping over a huge bar of gold, a time machine and a mosh pit full of topless girls. Just in case anyone is unsure that isn't ever going to happen.

I think that it is possible however that we can change people minds about introducing a R18+ rating in games. Previously in the thread someone said something about everyone complaining and not actually doing anything to which i reply 'get bent'. Does anyone here have any website that we can add a petition or something to? I would suggest using a thread in a forum but i doubt that would be anywhere near as effective as a huge list of upset Australian gamers all wanting changes to be made. The main problem is that pain in the butt OFLC guy who for some reason thinks that realistic drug use such as depicted in Fallout 3 is bad whereas running over prostitutes in a car such as in GTA is perfectly okay as long as we cut the sex scenes. anyway long story short Aus sucks for gamers but rocks for everything else and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong :)

Jumplion:
And yet, what the hell are you doing about this guys?

We had this exact sort of thing happening a few weeks ago, everyone was all roudied up and threatening (notice the word threatening) to start up petitions and file complaints and in the end what happend?

NOTHING!! I highly doubt that you Aussies are so great if you can't even get off your asses and do something.

If that insult stirred you up slightly, good, turn to the dark si- err, use that anger to fuel your feet to get off of that chair.

Oh and Americans? Apple Pie doesn't come from America, it's made in China. If that statement got you pissed, then use that anger to fuel YOUR feet to get off of that ass!

BROTHERS!! WE MUST STAND AND FIGHT! THIS ATROCITY MUST NOT GO ON!! YOU PEOPLE DISERVE WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD IS GETTING!!! YOU ALL DISERVE FREEDOM!!!!!

On a more serious note, if anybody actually gets off their ass and does something to start a petition or whatever, I'd be more than happy to sign.

FOR THE BROTHERHOOD! You sound like Kane!

rylo93:
I love Australia but we do get the short end of the stick. It's costing me $119.95 for a copy of Spore Galactic Edition...The games are crazily overpriced. I understand if they are slightly higher than America cause they have to import them and the dollar but we are getting ripped off. Thank god we can buy PC games in US and play them here but sadly that is only for some as companies can't decide whether they will issue us with European or US versions. Ach...Aussie Aussie Aussie indeed, we just need to elect some gamers to parliament. :P

Why dont you do what im gonna do, use EA games download manager and get spore of cheap....they havent caught on like steam has :P

But yeah there has been plenty of people who have written into government offices and they all come back with the same attitude...games are for kids and kids shouldnt play 18+ games...

How about a mass protest? with myspace, youtube and various other online media,Im sure any gaming store would let people put flyers up etc (I hope), we could have a protest on Fallout 3s date of realse (as an example) there are enough gamers out here im sure if we get enough people in atleast 2 capital citys it might be atleast a start...

Fire Daemon:

Jumplion:
EDIT: You know what? Fine, let's all sit on our asses and complain. I'm not kidding, let's just sit around and see what happens. God i'm angry at you guys right now...

That is all we can do! We have tried writing petition, harassing the OFLC, sending abusive letters to our heads of Government (well I'm sure someone has) and even going on TV to bring this to the publics attention but it hasn't worked! If you can think of something that will work, tell us!

The United Asses of the Lazy Ass would like you to join the side of the Lazy Ass. Join us, and you shall be rewarded with such devices for the even more lazy asses.

Together, we shall create a new generation of Asses! Together, we shall PREVAIL!@!!

HSIAMetalKing:
Trust me, we understand. The Aussies on this board whine about it all the time.

We don't whine!

We... INFORM others about our crappy gaming standards! Ha!

Radelaide:

HSIAMetalKing:
Trust me, we understand. The Aussies on this board whine about it all the time.

We don't whine!

We... INFORM others about our crappy gaming standards! Ha!

OMG I CANT BELIVE YOU USE RADELAIDE AS YOUR NAME *shakes head* people from adeliade should be shot... i should know i live there >.<

IMO the rating is not so much the problem, Bioshock was passed unedited, so the problem is the overtly hatefull moralistic tone in how goverment rates things, and the government itself(mostly the AG) refuses to change because they are uptight nazistic Aholes.

I think Australia is just a terrible place in general.

ZippyDSMlee:
IMO the rating is not so much the problem, Bioshock was passed unedited, so the problem is the overtly hatefull moralistic tone in how goverment rates things, and the government itself(mostly the AG) refuses to change because they are uptight nazistic Aholes.

Unfortunately its exactly that kind of attitude that is why they are trying to prevent a R18+ rating from being put in place. I think though that the people in power need to realise that although they think games are for younger audiences there is a huge amount of older gamers and that is only increasing. Perhaps if we did do a petition we should add our ages to the petition just to show the government idiots that not all gamers are 12 or 13 years old (except those who have a Wii). There must be someone in power who we can get on our side , we are many and we must band together and fight this injustice, gather signatures and support my brethren and together we will change our world. Yeah i know it made me sound like a tard but the point is sound we do need to rally and show the government that we aren't just going to send them abusive emails that we are actually going to protest this injustice. I think that rallies in public places in the capital cities of each state would send them a message. As a West Australian I think we should meet in the city in forrest chase on the day that fallout 3 is supposed to be released. Anyone who will actually turn up wanna send me a PM so i can get some numbers?

Reaperman Wompa:

Edit: AND we might not be getting Fallout 3, dammit we own the short end of the stick with videogames.

looks like we are now getting Fallout 3 after it was crammed into an M15+ rating [source].

will probably just import it anyway so no content has been shaved off.

Dakeyras-Way:

ZippyDSMlee:
IMO the rating is not so much the problem, Bioshock was passed unedited, so the problem is the overtly hatefull moralistic tone in how goverment rates things, and the government itself(mostly the AG) refuses to change because they are uptight nazistic Aholes.

Unfortunately its exactly that kind of attitude that is why they are trying to prevent a R18+ rating from being put in place. I think though that the people in power need to realise that although they think games are for younger audiences there is a huge amount of older gamers and that is only increasing. Perhaps if we did do a petition we should add our ages to the petition just to show the government idiots that not all gamers are 12 or 13 years old (except those who have a Wii). There must be someone in power who we can get on our side , we are many and we must band together and fight this injustice, gather signatures and support my brethren and together we will change our world. Yeah i know it made me sound like a tard but the point is sound we do need to rally and show the government that we aren't just going to send them abusive emails that we are actually going to protest this injustice. I think that rallies in public places in the capital cities of each state would send them a message. As a West Australian I think we should meet in the city in forrest chase on the day that fallout 3 is supposed to be released. Anyone who will actually turn up wanna send me a PM so i can get some numbers?

Ya I believe that the AG(Robert McClelland??) is the leader of the mindset that a R18 level is unneeded games are for kids.
http://gamepolitics.com/
had a article with video with the silly out of touch politicians being out of touch, but alas GP is down right now thus I can't directly link to the article, was acouple months back.

like government once the "corruption" changes things improve lil by lil.

at least you guys get games, nobody sells legit games where I live. The only chance I get to buy games(which costs 1000+) is when I visit our capital city which is once a year.

An Aussie here, I do adore this country, however, we do get a bum wrap games-wise, oh and our internet speed could rival geriatric tortoise. It is slow, unreliable and expensive. Plus no matter what time I go onto xbox live, I will encounter about 7 noisy, abnoxious, racist hooting American d*ckholes. I am NOT calling all Americans dickholes, I just think you have a higher population of dickholes over xbox live than other countries. Oh and a higher population of little turds whose testicles have yet to descend and feel the need to abuse me when I beat them. If the game is MA15+, don't buy it for 10 year olds. What was this thread about again? Oh, yeah, so anyway us Aussies didn't just cop the short stick, we copped a great, big, lubed up one, ready to stike as we lay there, helplessly bent over a table.

For a thread about Australia, which I assume has mostly aussies posting in it, there's alot of spelling "Arse" as "Ass". While I'm at it, say "Zed" dammit, it's not freaking "Zee".

I live in Norway, we usually get our games now or then (a few months later or perhaps through play.com). Problem is, release cost for games here is 100USD for PC games, 120 for Xbox and PS3 games. Beat that!

Dakeyras-Way:

ZippyDSMlee:
IMO the rating is not so much the problem, Bioshock was passed unedited, so the problem is the overtly hatefull moralistic tone in how goverment rates things, and the government itself(mostly the AG) refuses to change because they are uptight nazistic Aholes.

Unfortunately its exactly that kind of attitude that is why they are trying to prevent a R18+ rating from being put in place. I think though that the people in power need to realise that although they think games are for younger audiences there is a huge amount of older gamers and that is only increasing. Perhaps if we did do a petition we should add our ages to the petition just to show the government idiots that not all gamers are 12 or 13 years old (except those who have a Wii). There must be someone in power who we can get on our side , we are many and we must band together and fight this injustice, gather signatures and support my brethren and together we will change our world. Yeah i know it made me sound like a tard but the point is sound we do need to rally and show the government that we aren't just going to send them abusive emails that we are actually going to protest this injustice. I think that rallies in public places in the capital cities of each state would send them a message. As a West Australian I think we should meet in the city in forrest chase on the day that fallout 3 is supposed to be released. Anyone who will actually turn up wanna send me a PM so i can get some numbers?

Ya I believe that the AG(Robert McClelland??) is the leader of the mindset that a R18 level is unneeded games are for kids.
http://gamepolitics.com/
had a article with video with the silly out of touch politicians being out of touch, but alas GP is down right now thus I can't directly link to the article, was acouple months back.

like government once the "corruption" changes things improve lil by lil.

Acaroid:

Radelaide:

HSIAMetalKing:
Trust me, we understand. The Aussies on this board whine about it all the time.

We don't whine!

We... INFORM others about our crappy gaming standards! Ha!

OMG I CANT BELIVE YOU USE RADELAIDE AS YOUR NAME *shakes head* people from adeliade should be shot... i should know i live there >.<

Two things.

Firstly, you spelt Adelaide wrong and you live there. Something is wrong.

Secondly, my name is Adelaide. Radelaide is a nickname from a mate at TAFE.

Idiot.

Jolly Madness:
I live in Norway, we usually get our games now or then (a few months later or perhaps through play.com). Problem is, release cost for games here is 100USD for PC games, 120 for Xbox and PS3 games. Beat that!

Our prices are the same so yeah not really beat that but equal that. But i can bring up the whole fact we only get watered down versions of games so yeah Australia wins the losing battle (makes total sense if you think about it)

EDIT actually i do have to admit the aus dollar is less than the US dollar but its pretty close still.

We have a censored version of No More Heroes.... We get black square polygons instead of either red ones or gibs that seem to be a homage to Doom 1.

Just a heads up people.

I'll be writing an article soon which hopefully clear up why the SA Attorney General Michael Atkinson is anti-R18+ classification, so I'll let you guys and girls know ASAP what he says on the issue (I'm hopefully securing an interview this week). I'll also be interviewing civil libertarian peak bodies, parenting bodies and Australia's Game Industry body (I forget what they're called) to give their two-bits about the who shamozzle.

Kinda OT but I felt like sharing

I tend to just import from the UK if a game is cut for Australia, and it's cheaper to usually.

I'm Australian and yeah we do pay more, wait longer and have a stupid rating system. It makes no sense.

Fire Daemon:

Jumplion:
EDIT: You know what? Fine, let's all sit on our asses and complain. I'm not kidding, let's just sit around and see what happens. God i'm angry at you guys right now...

That is all we can do! We have tried writing petition, harassing the OFLC, sending abusive letters to our heads of Government (well I'm sure someone has) and even going on TV to bring this to the publics attention but it hasn't worked! If you can think of something that will work, tell us!

Well, as opposed to the rest, I can already tell you that writing a petition or creating one online is useless and futile, it would probably be better to go on strike or mail an envelope with Flour in it to the OFLC.

Fire Daemon:

That is all we can do! We have tried writing petition, harassing the OFLC, sending abusive letters to our heads of Government (well I'm sure someone has) and even going on TV to bring this to the publics attention but it hasn't worked! If you can think of something that will work, tell us!

Vote in record numbers for free speech?

Regardless of the negative opinions people have expressed towards this I have created a petition that we can all sign and i will get as many people as I know to sign in an attempt to change the OFLC's mind. If you want to add your name then here is the link. http://davidjoseph.edublogs.org/petition-to-oflc/. Please DONT be abusive in there and please make sure you follow the guidelines on the page!

Janus Vesta:
I've heard Australia don't even have Rock Band yet, and Rock Band 2 is set to come out this year for the yanks. Is this true?

Yeah, and now there's even talk of not releasing Rock Band (either of them) at all in Australia. Sucks to be them.

Acaroid:
Those who dont live here dont understand....

all our video games are $90+ for new releases, which is understandable when our dollar was half that of america...but now it is close to even... why should we have to spend twice as much on games... we cant even buy games over steam because of this...

we have to wait months and months to even get games that everywhere else has been out for ages.

we only get the ass end of games, if they dont do well in japan and america, fat chance in hell of us seeing it (ive been dying to play front mission 4 and 5 but it never made it here).

We dont have R18+ rating, so alot of games get banned, or re-realse with stuff cut out and or changed....

wtf this country sucks for gamers.....

This is why in south america the 99,9% ( I have never actually met someone who doesn't ) of gamers buy pirate copys of games or download games from Internet.

understand us. 1$ = 3USD +taxes+exporters being greedy= average game cost = 300$