Melbourne event: ‘Online games, censorship and the crisis of control’
Apologies for the late notice folks, but this one only just crossed my path (or I may have forgot about it – sorry). University of Melbourne is holding a free public lecture of online game classification and censorship on Wednesday the 13th May. Speaking is Dr Jeffrey E. Brand, an Associate Professor and Head of...
Latest Silent Hill game banned for high impact violence
Silent Hill: Homecoming, the latest game in the survival horror franchise from Konami, has been refused classification by the Australian Classification Board. The local distributor of the game, Atari, told GameSpot that the ACB found issue with the high impact of Silent Hill’s violence. Examples used by the board in its report include copious blood...
Australia gets censored Fallout 3
Relaxing on my Brisbane Show Day holiday, I nearly forgot to write about the censored version of Fallout 3 that will be released in Australia. The original game (that everybody else sees fit enough to play) was Refused Classification by the ACB last month because of in-game morphine use. The for-Australian-eyes version no longer has...
Game Developers’ Association attacks censorship
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...
Confirmed: Fallout 3 banned
In what might be the most high profile game ban since GTA III, Fallout 3 has been refused classification for its realistic drug use. Australian Gamer obtained the Classification Board’s report. Here’s a small snippet: Encouraging drug use? In a game, sure, but in real life? Get off it. If the Government believes that kids...
ShellShock 2 refused classification
You won’t be buying the Vietnam War era horror game ShellShock 2: Blood Trails off the shelf in Australia anytime soon. The Classification Board has refused classification and early reports suggest Atari (who publishes the game in Aus) won’t be resubmitting an edited version. That might change though as Atari has now retracted statements and...
R18+ and video games: A history of stupidity
NSW TAFE student Alexander Gabbot has produced a great video about game censorship in Australia that’s not only informative, it’s funny as well. Cheers to Bookbuster for the tip off and Kotaku. Great to see stuff like this, especially with the R18+ rating for games discussion paper on the table in the next month or...
