Attorney General blocks change to the "M15 or dead in the water" video games classification system
A lot of people, especially gamers, have tried for years to get the video game classification system changed in this country, so that there is a control on what's made, but not an overzealous control, and on the edge of it finally changing, our own Attorney-General has denied what a lot of his SA citizens want.
THE head of Australia's videogames industry body says there is a way to solve the R18+ videogame rating issue but the South Australian attorney-general has dismissed it as "pornography".
Ron Curry, chief executive of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia, said an R18+ rating could still be introduced into federal legislation.
The issue will be discussed for the first time since 2005 at the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) next month.
South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has reaffirmed his opposition to an R rating, which would prevent the full consensus required for legislative change.
However, Mr Curry said a classification can still be banned in one state even if it is permitted in Australia.
Porn huh? Granted, there's fake violence and some nudity, but the closest thing to a sex scene was the locked GTA side game Hot Coffee, which was only unlocked on the PC version using a patch (it was still totally unavailable on console versions), but the media went nuts on another "video games warp and destroy our kids!" witch hunt, which isn't the first time the media's feasted on video game related scandal for readers/viewers.
Anyone recall Leisure Suit Larry? DOOM? Mortal Kombat? Duke Nukem 3D? Lara Croft? Apparently games like these made us into killers and perverts from childhood on (1987-now)
I'm not sure about the rest of you, but my criminal record hasn't even got a hint of a warning in it, and I've played many games of many types, of many varying levels of rating, from Super Mario to 3D shooters to imports classed here as banned.
(Relax, I mean games like GTA 3 and Jet Set Radio Future, before the government took a knife to them. And the latter was about spray painting virtual walls in colourful patterns, not simplistic tagging. And the government banned it, saying it thought the game would encourage graffiti! That's akin to saying "GTA games will make you car-jack, shoot/hit people and become a gangster for a crime syndicate".)
The whole story is here at News.com.au:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23295644-5014108,00.html
(The imagery used in this article doesn't help, but the story does.)
To talk to the man behind the deadlocking, Attorney-General Michael Atkinson can be contacted here:
Email: attorney_general@agd.sa.gov.au
Phone: (08) 8207 1723 (SA Attorney-General's Office)
Address:
Attorney-General Michael Atkinson
P.O Box 464
Adelaide
SA 5001
Best options I was told were written letters. No doubt emails might be ignored more easily, and apparently the A.G is hard to get on the phone too.
Remember, nothing threatening, insulting or the like will get his attention. More likely it'll strengthen his case against us.
If you put your case forward, including how old you are, what you think of the ratings system and why it should be changed, it'll give him more reason to actually consider what his citizens think instead of deciding FOR us than deciding the vote based on what we wish for.
It'd be nice to see it work properly, since how long has music and film had an R rating for now? Total Recall, when it came to video stores in 1990, got an R rating(These days it's an M rating). Music by rap artists gets an R rating. Both still get released.
So why is gaming left out of the loop still? Gaming was around since before the Betamax VS VHS battle!
THE head of Australia's videogames industry body says there is a way to solve the R18+ videogame rating issue but the South Australian attorney-general has dismissed it as "pornography".
Ron Curry, chief executive of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia, said an R18+ rating could still be introduced into federal legislation.
The issue will be discussed for the first time since 2005 at the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) next month.
South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has reaffirmed his opposition to an R rating, which would prevent the full consensus required for legislative change.
However, Mr Curry said a classification can still be banned in one state even if it is permitted in Australia.
Porn huh? Granted, there's fake violence and some nudity, but the closest thing to a sex scene was the locked GTA side game Hot Coffee, which was only unlocked on the PC version using a patch (it was still totally unavailable on console versions), but the media went nuts on another "video games warp and destroy our kids!" witch hunt, which isn't the first time the media's feasted on video game related scandal for readers/viewers.
Anyone recall Leisure Suit Larry? DOOM? Mortal Kombat? Duke Nukem 3D? Lara Croft? Apparently games like these made us into killers and perverts from childhood on (1987-now)
I'm not sure about the rest of you, but my criminal record hasn't even got a hint of a warning in it, and I've played many games of many types, of many varying levels of rating, from Super Mario to 3D shooters to imports classed here as banned.
(Relax, I mean games like GTA 3 and Jet Set Radio Future, before the government took a knife to them. And the latter was about spray painting virtual walls in colourful patterns, not simplistic tagging. And the government banned it, saying it thought the game would encourage graffiti! That's akin to saying "GTA games will make you car-jack, shoot/hit people and become a gangster for a crime syndicate".)
The whole story is here at News.com.au:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23295644-5014108,00.html
(The imagery used in this article doesn't help, but the story does.)
To talk to the man behind the deadlocking, Attorney-General Michael Atkinson can be contacted here:
Email: attorney_general@agd.sa.gov.au
Phone: (08) 8207 1723 (SA Attorney-General's Office)
Address:
Attorney-General Michael Atkinson
P.O Box 464
Adelaide
SA 5001
Best options I was told were written letters. No doubt emails might be ignored more easily, and apparently the A.G is hard to get on the phone too.
Remember, nothing threatening, insulting or the like will get his attention. More likely it'll strengthen his case against us.
If you put your case forward, including how old you are, what you think of the ratings system and why it should be changed, it'll give him more reason to actually consider what his citizens think instead of deciding FOR us than deciding the vote based on what we wish for.
It'd be nice to see it work properly, since how long has music and film had an R rating for now? Total Recall, when it came to video stores in 1990, got an R rating(These days it's an M rating). Music by rap artists gets an R rating. Both still get released.
So why is gaming left out of the loop still? Gaming was around since before the Betamax VS VHS battle!