Tom Crago, president of the Game Developers’ Association of Australia, doesn’t touch on much we haven’t heard before in his essay on the lack of an R18+ games rating, but he does set a fine example of industry going after the censors.
When you combine take-no-shit leaders like Crago with the tribal characteristics of gamers willing to rally up and support a cause, you can really start to envision some change on the horizon.
There’s no denying that the game classification debate is very different to the Internet censorship one also happening right now, but Internet industry groups like the IIA could learn a lot from the GDDA and IEAA.
Here’s some of Crago’s article:
As a game developer I respect the view that the injections in Fallout 3 might constitute an ‘adult concept’. What I cannot respect is the implied assertion that I should be not be able to make or play games that incorporate such concepts. This is a massive violation of my creative and artistic rights, and of my basic rights and freedoms as an adult living in a country like Australia.
[…]
As game developers, we are trying to make games that provide entertainment to players of all ages. Video games are not going to turn your children into criminals. They are, in fact, the modern face of the entertainment industry, and something that we in Australia are very good at producing.
The focus of this debate should be upon how the Australian classification system can best give adults the information they need to chose video game content for themselves and their children, without burdening our country with unjustified and draconian censorship to the amusement and pity of the rest of the world.
