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Grand Theft Auto Still Banned Down Under
SicariusMan sent us a CNN story that talks about australia upholding the ban on GTA3. It's been
mentioned here before, but
its interesting that its gonna stick. GTA3 really is perhaps the best PS2 game out in recent memory.
I'm having a PS2 resurgance of late, beating Klonoa2, MGS2, Baldur's Gate: Dark
Alliance, and getting hooked on Jak and Daxter and Frequency. And
GTA3 is easily among the best of PS2 games. Sorry .au! At least
they probably won't ban FFX!
After having played GTA3 for many hours straight, I'm surprised to hear of this (I missed the original article.) Sure, there's some swearing and violence, but it's not really any worse than a lot of other games that are already readily available. Does Australia have a long list of games that are banned, or is this one being set up to make an example, so to speak?
If anyone has any friends in Australia, I recommend that you ask them if they want a copy of GTA3. If so, you should offer to buy it and mail it to them. With the surge of Christmas packages, I doubt Customs would search every package, especially if it were sent in an innocent-looking envelope.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
USA and UK ban stuff too, not just australia. Its just that its gov pressure on publishers that does it rather than pre-emptive laws.
The Playstation had an awesome game I played a lot using a MOD chip called Thrill Kill.
Unfortunately for the developers and fans, before that game was released Electronic Arts acquired the rights to the game by purchasing Virgin Interactive's titles, and due to the publisher's "moral obligations," the game never saw the light of day. At least, legitimately. Ebay sales of Illegal CDRs were heavy for a while. and it traded swiftly , especially after EA placed full size ads for it in trade mags, and stickers.
And dont forget that the Movie Clockwork Orange was not played in Britain for almost 20 years in a theater! Kubrick was threatened with jail time if he allowed it by threatening to assosiate teen crime with him as the inciting party.
The USA almost banned "Custers Last Stand" for the Atari 2600, which featured a cowboy raping a Squaw tied to a stake.
Germany successfully banned Castle Wolfenstein 3D by ID when Compuserve tried to have it online. It got deleted off CIS.
Australia is screwed in other ways regarding porn though.
At least in the US I can say "Jesus is a Lie" in a video game, or depict cops having their heads blown off to score extra points.
"We should all (I mean, the Western World) boycott Australia for all the censorship and banning."
Now, should I make a comment about how the (stereo)typical American that knows nothing about the rest of the world, or point out that Australia is generally considered as part of the west, at least in a political sense?
"I mean, how many millions of dollars do we leave there through tourism? If we stopped going, then they would feel a drop in their income."
Do you really think that international tourism hasn't dropped already? This little thing happened, something to do with planes. About 3 months ago. You may have heard about it on the TV.
Besides, tourism may be a large industry, but it's hardly the be all and end all. And since September 11, domestic tourism has grown quite a bit...
"And of course, we should also stop going to the theatres or renting movies like Cocodrile Dundee."
We? The USA collective again?
Believe me, as an Australia, I would love nothing more then for people like you to stop watching bullshit like Crocodile Dundee. That movie shows less about the 'average' Australian as a old west movie does about the 'average' American.
While i'm at it: I have never seen a koala. I have never seen a crocodile. I have could probably count the amount of times I've seen a kangaroo with one hand.
Yes, videogame censorship sucks. But this won't stick anyway. It hasn't before, and it won't now. The censoring of TV, movies, and games is getting overhauled now. GTA will probably get a harsh rating under the new system. Whatever. I'd prefer to have to download a copy of some game off the internet to having a government body like the FBI installing spyware and destroying my privacy.
All well, you've read all this now. Go back to thinking that everyone in Australia is like that pathetic Crocodile Hunter show. I guess your fantasies are more fun then the real world.
Offer to buy the UK version for them and mail that. The game has not been banned in the UK, the UK version is PAL and thus compatable with most Aussie TVs and the regional encoding system (for PS2 games) is set so that the UK and Australia are the same region, so people in Australia can play the UK version without problem.
Of course, if you live in the UK then its less hassle. Or New Zealand -- I understand that many Aussies are importing from NZ.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Australia didn't fight the British.
One the the things stressed in the recent centenary of federation celebrations was the fact that Australia was formed with a vote, and not a war.
Uhhh, hate to spoil your rant, but guns haven't been banned in Australia. Just certain semiautomatic types. Please explain ([1]) to me how being able to have a semiautomatic weapon as opposed to a regular gun is going to make any difference in the crime rate?
[1] A little private joke that only Australians are going to get