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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!
Am I to understand that stealing cars is illegal in Australia? How... weird.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
This is what we like to see. .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?
:)
Governments protecting us from playing things that are naughty.
Thought police strike again. Anyone think that
Well, as long as you can still buy pr0n, I guess that's ok
I believe that I can clear this up. Any single video game can integrate itself into a countrys culture. Perhaps the Aussie authoritys are worried that this will cause people to drive on the "wrong" side of the road
I remember from the earlier article that Australia was concerned about being able to hire prostitutes. Do your thing and then beat them up for the money.
It's probably a good thing they didn't realise you can wander around, beat someone up for their money, kill the paramedic when he arrives, steal the ambulance and then mow down prostitutes by the dozen. All in the privacy of your own home!
Consider this from the CNN article (And I've seen it before):
The OFLC was firm on the point that the game would not allowed in Australia, saying "if you have already purchased a game you will need to contact your retailer about return procedures."
Are people who purchased the game before the ban now expected to return it? Exactly how many Aussies are going to return what is essentially a collector's item in their country?
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
pronoblem
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?
I mean isn't Australia just a big island full of convicts? Funny how now they seem to be so strict. I wonder if someone gets arrested for having that game, are they going to ship them to the UK?
~ now you know
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
Ture the gamplay and replay value are pretty damn good, even a descent storyline. But, copkilling games and those with other criminal content will always attract publicity and bans. Remember "Postal". It was the same thing, at the time it had great graphics and a high replay value (especially the marching band level). Anyway, don't think for a second that this will be a negitive for the game publisher, its just an added plus to help sell the game in the US and UK. Hey, I played through GTA, Max Payne, and Spycraft. I can't say that I'm a better person for playing them. I would never want my child to come in contact with that shit just for someone else's entertainment.
"Get them before they get....
Talk about a great game. I still haven't heard all of the talk show segments in the game. It is great to go on a rampage and then part the car overlooking the bay and listen to the Chatterbox FM. All we can hope for is for GTA4 to have broadband multiplay and the game would be perfect.
As for the Aussies, they are down the path of giving up personal liberties for the "greater good". Since they banned guns thei crime rate has steadily risen. Good job!
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...
However, I do see where their government is going with this. It has been a disturbing trend for several decades in this country that criminals feed on the public's attention, and when the public gives much attention to criminals, it encourages people with self esteem issues to become criminals.
That, then, is the problem with GTA: it encourages car theft. Not in the sense that a GTA player is likely to go out and steal a car, but rather that it allows a culture to slip steadily closer to a hellish society in which crime is tolerated in order to entertain the public. This is not unlike the Colosseum in ancient Rome, in which murders took place between god-fearing christians for the sake of the public's amusement. Compare this to the instant notoriety of serial killers like John Wayne Gacy, who make a killing selling paintings from prison, and you can see why the government wants to stop glorifying crime now.
Something must be done about this morbid situation. But it doesn't involve banning games. Perhaps it is a media problem; if the government owned a few media outlets, it would be able to put writers and producers with old fashioned values back on the TV, replacing the ratings whores we have today. That is a bit closer to socialism than we should be, but it might be better for society in the long run.
Bill
On a serious note, I lived in Australia (Newtown, NSW) in 1992 for about 7 months. When watching TV, I started to notice you really didn't see violence but man 'o man did you see breasts! While I was there, the movie "Ten" w/ Bo Derek was shown on their equivilent of NBC. In America, they cut out all the nudity scenes. In Australia, they actually had more than the original movie had! Special Director's Cut for Australia. What a great country! Great beer, beautiful women and those cool, lickable toads.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Duke3D was banned in Australia until 3DRealms patched it so the Adult lock couldn't be deactivated; it took a few hours at least before it was cracked, if memory serves.
We'll ban anything you like over here, it seems...
"If you create user accounts, by default, they will have an account type of Administrator with no password." KB Q293834
Ofcause they need to ban a game where you can do the following:
Urinate:
Walk up to a wall and press Up, Down, Up, Down, L2, R1, R2(2), Up, Down, Up, Down, Up.
Your character will urinate on the wall. The cops will chase since it counts as vandalizing.
Funny!
I found that GTA and GTA2, while not as graphically pleasing as GTA3 looks to be, were a wonderful addition to my skill set. Not only do I now know how to go on a "Kiiiiillll FRENZY!", but I also know how to hotwire most major makes of car, from the unimposing Ford Fiesta, to the ever-popular Tank!
These sorts of skills are very important to an aspiring criminal mastermind, such as me. And why work so hard for a Cisco or MSCE certification? They cost so much more! For only $49.95 (before tax), you too can learn the same skill sets I now have.
I'm just wondering if GTA3, with all it's new-fangled '3D' graphics is really worth the investment in my future. I mean, I already know how to highjack cars and kill random people. Do I really need to know how to interact with the mob? Please help me decide slashdot!
Oh you mean like in Europe and practically in every other western democracy?
Besides that's a "Slippery Slope" logical fallacy.
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.
Okay, what you have is a society whose government has decided that it doesn't want video games that make carjacking and other violent mayhem seem like a fun idea.
From a moral standpoint, that's actually kind of healthy.
Where it starts to get iffy is when this sort of ban is actually symptomatic of a bigger problem, in which the government is trying to make their entire population goosestep and a commercial ban on violent games is only one such restriction imposed, in parallel with other restrictions like clampdowns on information or restricted free political speech.
For instance, if the US were to ban counterstrike servers that didn't automatically put bots on the terrorist team, I'd be pretty freaked out. And you can bet this is something that will come further down the line if Ashcroft et al. don't get their powers checked.
But I've never heard of Australia being a society with a reputation of doing this sort of thing to its population. Now, I'm not saying that this isn't happening there per se, I may just be ignorant of it, and an Aussie contribution on this issue would definitely be valuable.
But what I'm thinking is that we shouldn't necessarily be taking this in the same vein as if a North American government were imposing such a restriction. You might disagree, but I think that the censorship is only a problem when it comes close to stifling dissent against the powers that be, as opposed to just trying to promote a little bit of morality and decency. Yes, I know that the line is easily blurred, but is it blurred here?
Just my two cents.
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
And all because he played GTA. It not only makes you steal cars, it makes you drive to fast too.
The article says that the maker of the game is trying to make a new version of the game for distribution in Australia in Jan 2002.
How are they gonna pull that off??? Remove the guns, prostituts, organized crime, etc.... what are you left with??? Crazy Taxi????
"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.
but just too desensitizing for most people to handle.
Oh, for most people it's desensitizing, but not you? Seriously, fuck you for telling people what they can't handle. Who the hell do you think you are?
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
That's true, but consider this, people generally look to games and movies as an expression of fantasy or an outlet. Most humans have core interests to do illegal things. I'd prefer that people vent these interests into video games then letting them bottle up until they "snap". I've played many violent and gruesome video games and I thoroughly enjoyed the Die Hard movies, and things of the like. But I'm just a normal working guy, I don't blow things up, don't steal cars, and I pay my taxes. So I think the problem is that the people that go out of line either have chemical imbalances (natural or recreationally induced) or are in need of support from responsible people at stages in their development. Your thoughts?
If the ban is justified, then an abnormally high percentage of people who bought the game and don't return it will steal real cars, right?
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It's OK to be social, just don't tell anyone about it.
I believe you are describing the typical American. The kind that thinks we're better than the rest of the world just because we have more nukes, or something. (I'm American).
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.
This is practically a psychosis. There are a lot of people who think you'd have to be crazy to get on a plane. Now, how many planes were there that weren't hijacked? Besides, Australia doesn't have *that* many terrorists....
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.
Yes, spyware sucks. But how did this censorship get in place in the first place if it's sure to go away eventually?
BTW, It's far more fun to pretend that you're the Crocodile Hunter than to actually watch the show. This view is popular even in America!
Erm, if you're going to boycott countries for having Draconian laws, you're going to be boycotting every single country ever.
First, I must confess to playing, as well as enjoying, such violent games as GTA3.
But, I must commend, yes commend, the Australian government for this latest action. I can definitely see their point in not wanting to promote such violence or desensitize anyone of the horific nature of such violence. The government will take a lot of heat for this and I admire their strength to face this heat.
Let's face it. Society and certainly the entertainment industry has increasingly glorified this type of violence. I don't believe that people, except for a very sick few, commit such violence because of movies of video games but, I do think that they are desensitized by the constant onslaught of such violent entertainment.
The Australian government is, contrary to the usual posts here, not significantly restricting freedom of speech or movement. They are simply restricting a single excessively violent video game that portrays socially abhorent behavior.
The social and moral values of the free world have degraded dramatically over the years and I don't think that it is a good thing. Would your parents or grandparents have discuused killing someone as we freely and easily do on a daily basis? When last did you say, "I'm gonna kill you!"? Think about what that statement means and then tell me that you have not been desensitized? So, why then do we take amusement from beating up or killing old people?
The people of Australia and the freeworld, for that matter, can definitely make and play higly enjoyable video games without such antisocial violence.
Your Grandmother just got killed in a car jacking. How funny and entertaining is that?
501 Not Implemented
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!!!
Holy fuck. That's a lovely precedent.
And hey, we were watching that Australian cut of "Last Tango in Paris", and actually, we not think that we didn't cut enough depravity. Hand it over, you sickos.
And that "Clockwork Orange" book, holy shit, have you seen it? I can't believe we let that through. Burn it, burn it now.
Anyone got the National Geographic that shows the Yanomamo using drugs in a religious ceremony? Turn them in. We're thinking of the children.
Anyone got more details on this retroactive censorship crap?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
If you want to commit vehicular mayhem Down Unda, you'll just 'ave to wait until after the Pocksaclypse.
~Philly
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.
Crike!
(Oh, and I agree. How pathetic -- a show that teaches kids to respect nature and urges them to explore the world around them rather than sitting and playing video games. Silly!)
Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
"Dude, that is a shame. Maybe you should try to get away from the monitor a little more and experience the great outdoors and all the Austrialia has to offer."
I was expecting something like that. I was almost going to write something addressing that in my first post...
But basically, I'm saying that these animals aren't exactly commonplace.
Yes, I'm sure I could "go bush" all over the country to see all the wildlife, but to be blunt, it doesn't interest me all that much. And what difference does that make? I get outside, I go for walks all the time. That doesn't mean I should start driving over the countryside looking for native animals.
Since they banned guns thei crime rate has steadily risen. Good job!
... 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.
Sorry, I can't help but laugh at that statement.
I'm also VERY interested in seeing those statistics
But to me that comment screams of a bullshit stat., at least you did not write a number as well...
>As for the Aussies, they are down the path of
>giving up personal liberties for the "greater
>good". Since they banned guns theircrime rate
>has steadily risen. Good job!
I understand that censorship is bad and that deciding what constitutes reasonable entertainment is not the governments job. But i entirely disagree with your use of term "personal liberties" especially when referring to guns and when putting down Australia.
The idea of civil liberties is basically that all those actions which do not cause direct harm to others should be permitted and the government does not have the right to intrude into the personal life of it's citizens. In this field the U.S. is perhaps the worse offender among democratic nations. I would draw your attention particularily to the Anti-Terrorist Bill which has been pushed through in the past few months which basically signs away the rights and liberties of every American in the name of national security.
The right to own a video game is an issue of civil liberties. It involves deciding what you want to do in the privacy of your own home to entertain yourself.
The right to own a handgun is not an issue of civil liberties. A handgun, unlike a videogame, is a machine made to kill human beings, it serves no other purpose. This is not a machine that anyone should be permitted to carry around with them, and you can shout about personal freedom all you want. The "right to bear arms" is a freak of American Legislation born from the fact that America is a nation founded upon a violent revolution. It is NOT a basic human right.
And as for your figures about Australia's crime rate: The crime rate has only increased because of the number of people who have been arrested for illegally owning handguns. The number of handgun related murders has steadily decreased since the ban was instated.
lysergically yours
"Oh, for most people it's desensitizing, but not you? Seriously, fuck you for telling people what they can't handle. Who the hell do you think you are? "
And who the fuck are you to bitch at someone for giving his opinion? He didn't give a commandment that "all shall not play this game", he suggested something.
I guess they don't allow opinions in your town?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Exactly. The only person to ban Clockwork Orange was Stanley Kubrick himself. This is why it only got an official release here after his death.
Kubrick had taken cinemas to court for showing it, and was instrumental in closing down the Scala in London.
The film was NEVER banned by HM Government, and anyone who says that it was is a know-nothing bozo.
"Information wants to be paid"
"This game has been modified from its original version. It has been edited for content and formatted to fit your legal system."
Cheers, Toliaro
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.
Yeah whatever. That's why the Aussie government has already banned damn near the whole Internet by trying to make it safe for kiddies, putting the damn thing through a country-wide proxy, and countless other horror stories.
Tell me how it's getting "overhauled" again.
Zodiac Survey
We keep our best beer for ourselves.
I get my Coopers in the UK from Oddbins, and it's sometimes cheaper than the stubby price I used to pay in Australia !!
Oh, and you can get VB too (if you're desperate) but the cans are re-printed "Victoria Beer" as they can't call it "Bitter" in the UK (it's a lager). Fosters in the UK is nothing like Aussie Fosters (well, almost nothing like - it's still piss, but different piss), but is brewed in London by Courage.
I'm off for a hoegaarden which I can get on tap and tastes surprisingly like Coopers - now if only it was 35 degrees outside rather than 3 degrees...
T
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. - George Best
and we are a bunch of convicts. I love it. It's fun. That's why I'm sad to see Australia take this stance.
~ now you know
I don't think you can kill the paramedics, you can knock them down but not out. I've run over them 5 times and they just keep getting up after a few seconds. I guess I need to try shooting them. You can get health back by stealing the ambulence too, if you're not at full from the prostitutes, who can raise you up to 125% (pun intended).
That doesn't mean I should start driving over the countryside looking for native animals.
.. maybe your should!
.. no problem. I saw this in a game and thought that it was the best idea ever. First go steal a car and then for money ....
Well
What? No money
-- Knowing too much can get you killed, but knowing who knows too much can make you rich.
On a related note, GTA3 was finally released in Afghanistan, after Rockstar Games agreed to make a few minor modifications. The only vehicle you can choose is a beat up Toyota pickup truck with fourteen armed men in the back...
I actually started laughing so hard people came to my cube to ask what was so funny. You deserve most of the funny mod points given to responses in this article.
(+10, Callbacks are the best humor)
Virg
Hardly. I actually rented this one and played it at night when the wifey had gone to bed (she gives me dirty looks whenever I so much as suggest we get the game). I found myself trying (unsuccessfully) not to burst out in laughter repeatedly. Every 20 minutes or so, I would think to myself "I've seen car chases like this on TV!" Or "Wow, that one would have made 'Cops' or 'America's Most Deadly Police Chases Part IX'.
Case in point: I made the mistake of jacking a cargo van in the plain view of a police cruiser. As I fled in my (not-so-quick) new wheels, the cruiser gave chase. Attempting to pull me over, the cruiser rammed me up onto the sidewalk, where I promptly ran over a patrolman on foot. Instant second star rating. More cruisers joined the chase and, as I whipped around a corner (the doors in the rear ajar from the repeated rammings), a cruiser screeched to a halt in front of me, causing my van to ramp up over its hood and complete a barrel roll. Hood now aflame, I ditched the van and fled on foot. The four cruisers behind me disgorged their officers, who began to fire at me. However, they failed to flee the scene of my flaming wreck, which exploded, killing around 10 officers. *BAM* Three star rating.
After that, well, it's a bit hard to flee the cops' helicopter on foot...
It is to laugh.
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
And who the fuck are you to bitch at someone for giving his opinion? He didn't give a commandment that "all shall not play this game", he suggested something.
You must not understand what either of us said. He said (paraphrase) "this game is too desensitizing for most people" and I took issue with him taking upon himself what is and isn't okay for others. I didn't say he shouldn't have an opinion as you are stupidly implying, displaying a complete lack of reading comprehension.
There's a difference between criticizing someone's opinion (which I did) and trying to judge what is appropriate for other people (which he did).
There's a big difference between criticizing someone else's opinion (which I certainly did) and trying to say they shouldn't be allowed to express their opinion (which I certainly did not do). People such as yourself don't understand the distinction. You've got the right to express your opinion, and I've got the right to think you opinion is idiotic.
As the famous quote goes, paraphrased loosely... "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
That's supposed to be Australian slang? *shrug* To me, it's just a wacky guy being wacky. I think the Subaru outback commercials have done more lasting damage to Australia by keeping Dundee around than anything the Croc hunter has done.
And yes, he jumps on top of animals. Often to save their lives.
Sure, it's over the top and silly melodrama. But I'd wager a bunch of kids watch nature shows now who weren't before, and you can't say that's bad.
Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
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
Well, I don't take the same stance as you did on his post and your response. I read it differently. Your explanation is much clearer than your first response, and I also agree with it.
And yes, I will defend your right to call me idiotic any day.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Just to show how wild we can go with this thread, just this year somebody started trying to make Death Race for the 2600. No kidding.
0 10 8/msg00510.html
/ sc reen1_color2.gif
/ DE ATHRACESCREEN.GIF
Post to Stellalist:
http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/20
From that post...
Screengrab of 2600 mock-up:
http://www.gamedevelopers.net/deathderby/images
Screenshot of original (again, from above post):
http://www.gamedevelopers.net/deathderby/images
Ah, the boons of the internet.
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
Custer's Last Stand deserves to be banned. That game was AWFUL. I mean, I know atari games were all pretty repetitive with silly graphics and even sillier plotlines, but this thing made no sense.
You played a naked Custer, and there was a naked woman on the other side of the screen. Also, there were things which I can only assume were arrows falling diagonally towards you. If they hit you, you had to go back to your side of the screen.
Eventually you would dance your way across to the lady, and have sex with her (it wasn't clear to me that it was rape, I always thought she approving the whole transaction... I mean seriously, why was she naked to begin with?).
Anyway, that was it. The longer you could have sex with the woman before getting show with the arrow, the higher your score.
As I recall.
Man, that was a stupid game. I hope nobody actually paid for that.
--
RumorsDaily
Stop agreeing! We're trying to have an argument here! :)
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
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??
Moral community? The guy is allowed to express his view. Furthermore, he wasn't even saying he believes that Jesus is a lie. He just said it was in a videogame, and made absolutely no statement about his faith or lack thereof. The Slashdot community has a lot of people of a lot of faiths in it. Our common thread is that we mostly view faith as private and personal, and that we are very tolerant of the other people on /. who have a variety of wacky views. If you can't tolerate that and insist that everybody accept Jesus, then bugger off to adequacy.org.
Has anyone told the storeds that GTA3 is banned, has the signal traveled from the head to the feet?
You use a bunch of big words and a tone that conveys absolute knowledge, but you're completely wrong. Amazing.
I'm not absolutely sure of which war you speak, but I'm assuming you're referring to the war for Southern Independance (commonly referred to, and incorrectly so, as the "Civil War".) In that case, you are all wrong. As you may or may not know, owning a slave back in the 17 and 18 hundreds was the equivalent to owning a mansion or a luxury boat today. Therefore, and this is an educated estimation, about 1 to 3 percent of Southerners actually owned slaves. The war was fought by poor tenant farmers for their freedom from economic oppresion of the Union. Additionally, given the plain numbers of soldiers in each army, it was the Union who's asses were kicked, as the only way they won the war was by presenting the confederate army with more bodies than they had ammunition (which interestingly was caused by lack of support from an ungrateful nation of France in penetrating the Union's blockade.)
As a final thought, I take back what I said about the Union not kicking the CSA's ass because in reality they did, only it wasn't on the battlfield. See, in the "war to free the slaves" the Union army burnt the major Southern cities to the ground in a terrorist act that rivals anything we've ever seen out of the Middle East, more commonly referred to as "Sherman's March." The Confederate army was very civilized and proper in thier way of waging war, in fact they neglected to use their secret submarine weapon until the war was almost over because they thought it was an unfair instrument. Therefore, I recant, the Union did kick the CSA's ass, only rather than soldier deaths, these were the deaths of hundreds of thousands of completely innocent women, children, slaves, men... normal civilians. United we stand, divided we fall... the "we" referred only to the North. My great grandparents used to tell me the story of how their parents were killed in Atlanta by the fires. Call me ignorant, call me a redneck, call me close-minded, but I think I'll stay right here South of that line, thank you very much.
~ now you know