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Possible Half Life 2 Troubles in Australia
Voodoo Extreme put up a quick piece on possible legal troubles HL2 may face in Australia. "In Australia, no games have been accepted if they fit into the R(18+) category, so this means HL2 needs to fit into at most the highest category of MA(15+), or it will be refused classification."
Wow... /. links to site that links to site that links to original. No wonder nobody reads the article these days...
If releasing a censored version of Half Life 2 turns out to be the only option in Australia, wouldn't it be catastrophic? It might mean that instead of buying the censored version, kids will rather download the real thing from the Internet. Aren't such restrictions quite pointless in general? Because less sales mean not only less profits for Australian retailers, but also less taxes for the Australia itself.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
does this mean you can heal your character by visiting a prostitute, and then mugging her to get your money back?
I think this is purly agism between the older law makers and the 18-36 type demographics. Do these law makers really believe that adults don't/shouldn't play video games? Are the laws really that out of date? Really, Adults playing video games have been well established for at least 20 years, and adult themed games have been out of just as long. As long as there's a niche, there's a way.
Anyways, why can't they just treat the games like movies and have bold warnings on the package and allow the reatailers to self-enforce the restrictions on child use of video games?
When I begged my mom to buy me a leisure suit larry when I was like 15 she sould read the box and say no, this is smut. I don't know why we can't live with that in today's protectionist world...
Bye!
Is it common that games get banned in Australia? Because it's rather common that they get 18 ratings from PEGI or the USK (unlike the ESRB ratings which require sexual content for an AO rating). Doom 3 would be a recent example*. If it's really that common to have games banned in Australia, that might be a concern but an 18 rating by PEGI isn't that rare a thing.
*: If you want to search for it on pegi.info spell it "Doom III".
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I bet this is a marketing fuss, you see the censors rated good ol' Harry Potter as M (15+) but the uproar from the people the system is designed to protect saw it dropped to PG in short order.
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
But I would much rather see someone block sales of a product that required online activation vs violence content.
Paint me clueless but what is an on-line game good for without on-line activation? I mean, are you going to play it alone in a secret or what?
For a country started by convicts they sure are conservative.
Compare it to games like Doom 3 or GTA. At least the game's not about killing cops to enable a drug heist (not that this is necessarily bad gameplay, but from a censor's POV). Doom or even UT2k4 had more violent death sequences (complete with bad anatomy lessons). How did these games fare for the Auzzie censors?
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Thanks for making America look "enlightened" by comparison. It's kind of rare these days.
You kind of overdid it with Howard though. You didn't have to re-elect him just for us.
Wow, and I always heard the thought-control psychos were at a minimum in Australia. Guess they're spawning everywhere these days. Maybe we should be doing more to rid society of them.
I am NOT a number! I am a - oh wait, I'm number 761710. Look! 761710!
Half-Life 2 apparently requires authentication/activation through Steam even for the single player portion of the retail version of the game. I assume that's what JVert was talking about.
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
Its nothing another 6 month global release delay couldn't fix, right?
You can play Grand Theft Auto in Australia, so why would HL2 be banned? It surely wouldn't be as graphic GTA or Doom or any of those first person shooters.
What a stupid concept.
OMG a one-time online activation. How does this hurt you? Can't connect properly? Get a trial AOL account. Then play in offline mode.
What is the big deal? Unless you have something to hide it makes no sense why an honest individual can't wade through the trouble of a one-time online activation.
The issue is that you can't play HL2 single player until you create a steam account on the computer you intend to play it on. This requires a small amount of online activity. Apparently some people, a majority of whom have regular old internet connections, are going to steal the game instead of being 'forced' to activate online.
Man, ratings (of anything) are annoying, having kept me out of countless educational films before I reached 18, but banning something based on a rating is just downright wrong.
I think I'll personally buy and ship a copy of HL2 to anyone in Australia braindead enough not to be able to order it abroad.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
I woudnt be suprised if valve used this as another excuse to delay HL2.
Well, being an aussie my self I cannot see this happening.
The rating rules in australia are not as harsh as the american rules. Yes it is true that we dont have r18+ and XXX. But many of the games that get a 17/18+ rating in america get a 15+ rating here.
The did have to censor GTA3 to remove the ability to have sex with prostitues then beat them to death. But I really dont think that is going to happen in HL2.
HL2 will pass just fine and this article is just a person trying to make news by starting a rumour about someting totally unlikely.
Didn't 3DRealms have a similar problem with Shadow Warrior some years ago? Something about having to convert the throwing stars to darts...
As I recall they had a patch on their web site that unlocked the game. Seemed a clever way to circumvent the censorship.
YHBT.
YHL.
HAND.
Australia has banned the release of Microsoft's Project Gotham Racing 2 - not because it encourages reckless driving, but because one of the courses is set in Sydney. Gotta love a government that decides for you what is moral.
If Australia wants to do things like knock out violence in their country by banning video games and blaming others for their own problems then they don't deserve to have it. I think many Americans had this point after columbine, yet nothing happened. As I stated before, video games are not violent, the people that play them are. Also, any video game can teach a person to have better aim, catch blocks, still teaches aiming techniques, so is it just as violent?
redvsblue.com
::BANG!::
Sarge: Did you just shoot yourself in the foot?
Simmons: Yeah I do that sometimes now..
In GTA3, if you need health, you can hop in a car and pull up next to a hooker on the street. She'll get in, your health will go up, your money will go down, then she'll leave. Next, kill her -- any way you know how. You get your money back.
I'm surprised you didn't know about this.
This is a wonderful example of spreading FUD and treating idle speculation as journalism.
For starters you cannot compare the Australian Office of Film & Literature Classification (OFLC), to the Pan European Games Information (PEGI). They both have different systems of ratings. A European R, does not correspond to a Australian R.
Prime example, Doom 3 was rated 18+ in the UK and in Au it was MA15+.
It's not really the game makers fault, and Australia isn't at fault for having it like that. It's just different countries have stricter control on different things, it's just a way of life. These things happen all the time, but it takes a video game of this magnitude for it to get any kind of attention.
I'm curious what content in the game is so offensive--the previews I've seen are no gorier than your average FPS.
Anyone have an idea what the specific "inappropriate" content might be?
I am wondering, if HL2 is banned from Australian stores what is to stop Australians from just buying it off of steam? I mean it is not like Australia has a nationwide firewall like China..
Does it?
--- "End Of Line" - MCP
Do games in Australia have to have a rating to be sold legally?
Would any retailer in their right mind refuse to sell Half Life 2 because it doesn't have a tiny little box on it that tells people it's rating?
Would it be illegal (in Australia, which probably has no legal authority over Valve) for Valve to sell uncensored versions of the game over Steam?
Won't this just drive all the gamers to buy the game over steam instead, thus pissing off Vivendi or wheoevr is publishing it in Australia, and then getting them to lobby against this rating system which is costing them sales?
I wonder if Valve has any contractual obligation to produce a game which can be legally sold within Australia... if not, more power to Steam...
Austrailia has decided to change its name to Southern Mississippi.
(NOTE: Shurikens are throwing stars, iirc the translation is "palm knife")
It happened in Tenchu and Tenchu 2 as well... US version had shurikens, EU version had throwing knives (can't remember the name for them). Does anyone know why this is done? They serve exactly the same purpose...
-ReK
md5sum -c reality.md5
reality: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
This article is based on a box shot of Half-Life 2 that shows an 18+ rating in the UK.
.au rating). Soldier of Fortune 2 is a good example.
As others have posted, there is no comparable rating in Australia. However, this DOES NOT IMMEDIATELY IMPLY that Half-Life 2 will face any problems.
Searching the Euro classification database shows that a bunch of games got Euro 18+ ratings, but were released (unaltered) with an MA15+ (the highest
Most of the Australian concerns are because the OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification, the body responsible in Australia for ratings) have refused classification in the past for some titles - most notably, Grand Theft Auto titles and recently the new Leisure Suit Larry game. These titles had problems ONLY because of the sexual aspect (in particular with GTA the combination of sex and violence - specifically, the fact that you can nail a hooker, and then.. uh.. nail her).
It is _hugely_ unlikely that Half-Life 2 will suffer any classification problems unless it contains heaps of sexually explicit content (or messages of racial hatred, etc, etc) - which one can almost certainly safely assume is not going to happen.
The people proclaiming that Australia will ban HL2 are just spreading disinformation and needlessly annoying fans everywhere.
For starters the only games that I have ever heard of being banned were banned because they had sexual violence or sexual based rewards which constitute an instant ban.
Secondly, we have no R rating for games here. As mentioned previously this rules out any direct comparison with the European system. Our MA rating generally extends to cover mcuh the same area as other countries R ratings.
The game has also been given advertising approval. While this was also done for LSL (subsequently banned), my far the majority of the time it indicates that the title will be released.
Also, similar to the above, I know of a number of people who have preordered the game from different outlets. Again, not a sure check, but it indicates the likely release.
I can't believe how many people are just taking this report from a single paranoid gaming site at face value.