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Oz Government Seizes Games For "Full Classification"

Posted by timothy on from the ignore-the-censor-behind-the-curtain dept.

sprayNwipe writes: "QGL is reporting that the Office of Film and Literature Classification has raided game stores in Australia and removed games from shelves, after deeming that said games are offensive earlier in the day. Some of these games are big christmas sellers, too (Grand Theft Auto 3, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon). Why must our government be filled with luddites?" Can any Australians comments on what "full classification" means? Does it only mean labels, or are some games outright banned?

4 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. stealing cars = bad by Blob+Pet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Apparently, the Australian government doesn't take kindly to games that promote the stealing of cars and running down of people; they won't even give GTA3 a rating so it can be sold.

    Do they censor books and other forms of entertainment/media like this in Australia?

    --
    "...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
  2. Grand Theft Video? by jorbettis · · Score: 4, Funny

    I find it amusing that they took these games on the pretense that, if the public had access to them, they would learn by example to do things that are not good for society (ie, stealing cars).

    So the Aussie government's solution is to go out and legally steal all of the video game copies from the stores.

    Yeah, really great example there guys.

    I guess their message is that stealing is ok if it's being done For the Children(tm).

    It reminds me of the tee-shirt, with a picture of a swat team breaking into a house, the caption reads "We're from the government, we're here to help!"

    --

    Jordan Bettis

    ``Wherever you go, there's another stupid sigfile quote.''
    1. Re:Grand Theft Video? by Phalkin · · Score: 3, Funny
      I guess their message is that stealing is ok if it's being done For the Children(tm).

      Stealing IS okay when it's done "for the children." Whenever I play GTA2, you'll frequently hear me yelling "Raaah! Take that, pig-f***er! This one's for the children! Raaah!" ... It makes me feel kind of justified.

      --
      I stole this sig.
  3. Not the issue, but the reason... by Kris_J · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "more sophisticated and realistic games"
    Games have always been violent. Heck, the Atari 2600 had specific hardware/instructions to draw players and missiles. But it becomes an issue for most people when it looks realistic. The problem first arose in a big way when Full Motion Video (FMV) games came out -- back in the days of the Sega Mega CD. Night Trap's horror footage prompted something like a US Senate enquiry into violent video games. So did Mortal Kombat with it's photographic sprites. FMV mostly died for other reasons and while MK has stayed around it's had a lower profile.

    Doom skirted the edges. It was violent, but it wasn't realistic. You were obviously killing monsters, not people.

    Now that 3D technology has gotten to the point where the graphics leave nothing to the imagination the issue has arisen again. At the core, these are the same games that have been played since the beginning of computer games. But on the surface the games look real. What this means is that with a single glance a non-gamer can be exposed to violence -- while previously you had to get into the gameplay and use your imagination to feel/see the same thing. Violent computer games used to hide behind graphical limitations. Whenever the technology catches up with the designer's imagination we have problems like this.