WARNING: Major rant here.
First of all, Australia (government) hates video games apparently. They take longer to get there, it's more expensive, taxed, and sometimes like this game, banned. I guess they think the people aren't smart enough to make a decision on their own? The rating system is broken and being taken advantage of.
Rating Announced for L4D2Under the National Classification Code 2005 [2], games must be refused classification if they;
1. depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified; or
2. describe or depict in a way that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult, a person who is, or appears to be, a child under 18 (whether the person is engaged in sexual activity or not); or
3. promote, incite or instruct in matters of crime or violence; or
4. are unsuitable for a minor to see or play.
Are you serious? Look at number 4, this is ridiculous. This basically gives them free reign to decide what is suitable or not. I'm sure 95% of games out there released in Australia can be classified as "unsuitable" but they let them through with a lower rating. It changes from "Rating by content" and becomes "Whatever we feel like." L4D2 got an "RC" rating, which means they refused to classify it. L4D1 got the only rank below that which is the highest ranking you can get before they refuse to rank it. It's broken. Their movie rating scale is exactly the same but there's a space for 18+ (two kinds), and by removing that, games have to get cut down a lot if they were meant for adults, or risk being banned. They are inconsistent at their convenience, and at the inconvenience of the Australian people. And it's not like it's an "Adults Only" rating, it's just not allowed in. Are they so weak in their morals and are they so easily offended, that they don't want anyone else to have their morals called into question or risk being offended? Also, children can't see -anything- with video games, ever. I'm sure they watch Gears of War, God of War, Fallout 3, Madworld, Left 4 Dead, and are -totally- fine with it, but were cowering in fear when they saw Left 4 Dead 2.
Facts from the Attorney General's Office in AustraliaThese are some statistics from the article.
* The average age of an Australian gamer is 30 years.
* The average adult gamer has been playing for 11 years.
* 70% of parents in game households play computer and video games, 80% of these parents play them with their children.
* 78% of parents say an adult is present when games are purchased for their children.
* 92% of parents say they are aware of the games played in their homes.
* 75% of all computer and video games classified in Australia are G or PG (Classification Board).
* 63% of adults do not know that Australia has no R18+ for computer and video games.
* 91% of adults (including gamers and non-gamers) say Australia should have an R18+ classification for games.
Game companies are left with the options "re-edit your M rated game" which costs time and money (in which case, it costs more money, and then gets taxed, and then takes longer so only the government wins) or, their other option, forget about Australia all together. Sometimes the government saves them the trouble and says it's banned all together, thinking they are protecting their people from doing strenuous activities like having an opinion or being responsible. In fact, all they're doing is making their own people pirate and turn against them.
An M rating (18+) would solve 99% of these problems. I don't know if I want Grand Theft Auto 4 to be in the same catagory as the
South Park Tower Defense Game. All they're doing is turning the people against them and forcing them to resort to piracy. When that happens, the game companies lose and get angry. You might wonder why games sometimes take forever to get released there, is twice as expensive, or sometimes never released at all. The government is the reason. All that, or giving a reasonable rating scale chance, or allowing adults to make a decision for themselves. I don't know if they think they're doing the people a favor, but what they are doing is turning off the Australian citizens and pissing off the game publishers, who are left with "Spend more money, get less profit to release to Australia, and pay the government money" and "have lots of people pirate our games", sure they may release it in Australia, -eventually-, only because the other option is to lose customers and promote piracy.
It
I don't mind it really, keeps the crap out.
Seeing things said like this makes me sad and angry, that you don't even know what the issues are, yet are so opinionated about it. Sure, there are crap games, but I'm sure most of it can be found with waggle mini game compilations people toss out on the Wii that took them two days to make for a quick buck, rather than games like Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead 2. If all you see is the gore, sex, and drug references, and can't see these games for the amazing story or gameplay they contain inside, it doesn't say something about the game, it says something about you. You have the problem, along with the government.
Now excuse me, I'm going to go buy a bottle of alcohol, a pornographic magazine, a gun, and a violent video game and leave it on my front porch with a bowl of candy and take a nap. Also, cocaine.
