Freedom Fighters: AustraliaBy Locke on February 10th, 2010
So apparently the Australian Classification Board website was vandalized, as well as tons of affiliated websites and emails maimed by a group protesting a new censorship filter going up at a future date. The censor is the end of a very long chain of bans that Australia has put up in the media. Video Games most of all have been modified so as not to “offend” the Australian public, most notably game cover art. Left 4 Dead’s Australian release was one of the most heavily modified gaming experiences. Zombies don’t bleed much, they never lose limbs, don’t catch on fire, and disappear as soon as they are killed. Does this sound fun to you? The game has been censored in hopes to lower the amount of violence shown to the public, but ironically this game feels less about killing zombies and more about…shooting people. Hundreds of people. Many Australian gamers must try and get foreign copies of the game to get the real deal, and its kind of sad. I’m glad that a few good soldiers are fighting the good fight so that grown ADULTS can buy ADULT games. What do you guys think about all this? Should Australia ease up on the game modifications? Does Australia have a good idea in keeping these games more tame? |
The problem is, the australian version of the ESRB doesn’t have a “mature” rating (if I remember correctly, I could be wrong) so if a publisher wants to get their game into the hands of the people their, they have to censor it down to the point of a hello kitty game.
The sad part is, there IS a mature rating (or equivalent) for movies. Apparently watching someone get their head cut off on the big screen doesn’t need censoring.
Being a “mature” gamer and living in AUS, it does suck trust me.
I may not be able to write a full essay about it but the basic ruling of this new filtering is the government isn’t just blocking illegal sites (IE: the ones there running this whole campaign about Porn sites illegal downloads ETC) but also anything they find offensive this includes any slander sites at the government or any site that voices a opnion against what the government is saying, this is the main reason alot of us are pushing against this change.