Risen - Refused Classification in AU

OFLC may generate more interest in the games they refuse to classify on such wonderful grounds. They are building a nice track record ;)

Glad to hear that the weed and prostitutes are back -- good ol' Gothic style!
 
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I understand the distinction that you're making but my point still stands. I've personally seen probably hundreds of movies in my lifetime that glamorize sex, drugs, violance, murder... insert any other deadly sin you can think of. I've read books that depict prostitution as a 'victimless' crime or in other words, a rewarding experience.

Pretty Woman much? I trust that was banned in Australia too. Right?
 
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Where's the problem? Importing from the UK is cheaper than buying in an Autralian store would be.

Bingo! A longer response when I have the time but this won't bother me personally at all. I get basically all my games from digital sources or GAME in the UK otherwise.

Not to mention it will either be appealed or reworked - there are essentially no major games that don't make it here in the end.
 
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It is unfortunate for the local distributors. They took a risk in supporting a quality German RPG.

Some people won't want to play a cut game. They will want all the quest content and weed smoking included. So will order a foreign version over the internet.

Of all the things to worry about, they are concerned that a German RPG will corrupt the minds of young Australians.

I don't think Gothic had a serious realistic tone. You spend a lot of the game running around killing wierd looking animals. And the translated German dialogue had a light hearted feel. It did not influence my real life behaviour. I don't know whether they are qualified to censor games.
 
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Ok so mass murder in a video game is acceptable but drug use is not? That thinking is beyond my understanding.
 
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I don't know whether they are qualified to censor games.

Easy answer to this. No, they're not. Facts to support this conclusion: See the title of this thread.

If this was Taiwan we were talking about I would suspect corruption. For example: PB couldn't cough over the dough and so got rejected.

However Australia isn't Taiwan so it probably is just some kind of stupid decsion by some ego driven group that doesn't like computer games.
 
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Easy answer to this. No, they're not. Facts to support this conclusion: See the title of this thread.

If this was Taiwan we were talking about I would suspect corruption. For example: PB couldn't cough over the dough and so got rejected.

However Australia isn't Taiwan so it probably is just some kind of stupid decsion by some ego driven group that doesn't like computer games.

From what I understand this government office is responsible for classifying a range of things like books, television, films and games.

I think you need to regularly play games recreationally to make those kind of judgements. Just because a censor is good at classifying films or books does not mean they should be considered qualified to classify games.

Or they may be using a flawed set of criteria. That says that prositutes and drug use is regarded as really bad.

The reasons for banning it seem so trivial. There could be a novel where the main character is taking drugs and sleeping with prostitutes. You might be more immersed and in the characters head there than playing a game.
 
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For a good overview of the Aussie standpoint in the gaming world i suggest reading..."Sensory Overload" at the Australian Gamespot site posted 2008.

1. The history of game classification in Australia.
2. Australia against the world.
3. How games classification affect you.

http://au.gamespot.com/features/6188493/index.html

Thanks for that link. Definatly an interesting article on just what is going on with this.

Favorite quotes:

"I'm all in favour of free expression, provided it's kept rigidly under control." (Alan Bennett, Forty Years On, 1969)

"I find censorship today in Australia a mass of confusing and conflicting laws..." -- Bill Hayden, Former Governor-General of Australia
 
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Of all the things to worry about, they are concerned that a German RPG will corrupt the minds of young Australians.

I spent about a month in 3 different place in Austrailia. Sydney, Brisbane, and Cairns. While I find the people of Austrailia to be quite friendly and decent, believe me when I say that the young people of Austrailia aren't going to find any 'new' ideas from a German videogame.
 
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Ever since I read this news bit I've been curious as to why Australia bans so many games. I found this tiny article over at Destructoid. It's about how one politician is an avid gamer and is trying to change the laws there or at least bring attention to the absurd rating system.
http://www.destructoid.com/australian-politician-is-an-avid-gamer-oxymoron-a-go-go--97372.phtml

The article is a little old, but it is new to me since I never really knew that Australia had such a hard time getting games over there. I figured it was sorta like Taiwan in that it just took longer to get over the Pacific Ocean for some reason ;)

BTW, Jim Sterling, the author of that little article, is a huge douchebag. Even when there is someone on the side of gaming he still feels the need to ridicule and make lame jokes at Greg Tannahill's expense.
 
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