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Grand Theft Auto Still Banned Down Under

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the flushed-cds-spin-the-other-way dept.

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!

9 of 421 comments (clear)

  1. Gov'mint knows best by Sobrique · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is what we like to see.
    Governments protecting us from playing things that are naughty.
    Thought police strike again. Anyone think that .au has seen the draconian legislation that the US and the EU have started trying to bring about and want to join in the party?

    Well, as long as you can still buy pr0n, I guess that's ok :)

  2. Memories by Mac+Nazgul · · Score: 3, Insightful

    of Carmageddon spring to mind...

    Why does it seem automobile related destruction of life and limb garners so much censorship?
    We kill 50,000+ people a year on the streets as it is!

    For those who have seen the classic Sean Connery James Bond film "Goldfinger" there is a quote I always found amusing...

    JB: Incidently, Delta-9 nerve gas is fatal- you'll kill 45,000 people.
    GF: Ha! American motorists kill that many every 2 years!"

    Now we hit that mark in under a year...

  3. Bad logic by Peter+Dyck · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "First they ban the guns. Then it's open season on everyone and everything."

    Oh you mean like in Europe and practically in every other western democracy?

    Besides that's a "Slippery Slope" logical fallacy.

  4. Re:I'd be more sympathetic... by Howie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Assuming you live where your whois records say, you aren't qualified to comment on other nation's beer output, I'm afraid ;-)

    --
    "don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
  5. Re:It's not really that bad by kilgore_47 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, you can pick up a prostitute. Yes, you can kill (and rob) her or anyone else. Yes, if you push R2-R2-L1-R2-Left-Down-Right-Up-Left-Down-Right-Up you'll get every weapon possible, including a rocket launcher you can use to take down the police helicopter(s) that will eventually arrive. Yes, you can light people on fire with a flamethrower. Yes, when the national guard comes it is possible to steal their tank and drive around the city crushing things.

    By the fact that the game is selling, it's pretty clear that people WANT to play this kind of game. The government is supposedly there to serve the people (according to Jefferson, governments are created to protect our inalienable rights). How does taking something away serve them? The few people who are unable to tell a game from reality, and who go on GTA-style killing sprees in the real world as a result of this game, are probably lunatics anyway who would've eventually snapped anyway. Why shouldn't I (and my reality-and-games distinguishing friends) be allowed to play this game now?

    A side note, however: Lets not just focus on .AU here; this game was pulled from stores in America too and it's only back now because they've been forced to tone it down a bit.

    --
    ___
    The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
  6. LOL by afxgrin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Since they banned guns thei crime rate has steadily risen. Good job!

    Sorry, I can't help but laugh at that statement.

    I'm also VERY interested in seeing those statistics ... I'm sure crimes related to guns have dropped dramatically. And eventhough there are less murders/deaths in a crime, the crime rate can still go up due to increases in theft, fraud, and smaller forms of crime. It all depends on how you measure crime.

    But to me that comment screams of a bullshit stat., at least you did not write a number as well...

  7. Re:What? by Erasmus+Darwin · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "Are you implying by playing GTA people will be encouraged to steal cars?"

    No. Read the article headline. "Grand Theft Auto Still Banned Down Under." The previous poster was making a joke by delibrately choosing to confuse the name of the video game "Grand Theft Auto" with the name of the actual crime "Grand Theft Auto". The joke utilizes the confusion to paint the absurd image of a news headline about the banning of something that's widely accepted as an outright criminal offense -- unlike, say, P2P filesharing, guns, or abortion, you don't have people arguing over whether or not the government should try to stop it.

  8. Re:The best and Worst Game this year! by el_nino · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I would never want my child to come in contact with that shit just for someone else's entertainment.

    Er... Just for whom's entertainment do you play games for? I play them for my own entertainment, and I'd imagine your child would do the same.

  9. Each country has its own "bans" by renoX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In France, you can't buy nazy items, cannot say things pro-racism..
    I'm french so I'm problably LESS aware of the things forbidden in France which are legal elsewhere..

    Is oral and anal sex still "banned" in some states of the USA?
    I've always found funny than the "land of freedom" would ban those things..

    Australia is banning a videogame ??
    What is "big news" here??