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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 Are the laws really that out of date?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!
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.
For a country started by convicts they sure are conservative.
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.
Its nothing another 6 month global release delay couldn't fix, right?
My problem is its pointless.
There is just no way to actually enoforce people activating. I can't think of a single game that you can't get a crack for playing without using the CD for singleplayer mode.
There is just no point, if someone knows enough to burn a copy of a CD for a friend then he knows enough to go to gamecopyworld and add the patch to the disk.
So instead of calling a truce they just want to dig their heels in deeper. Frankly i'm offended they are wasting their efforts on activation that will not make my game any cheaper because it does nothing for piracy.
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.
I'm sure you're fishing, but what the hell. I live in Australia, and own PGR2. I bought it at a store, without doing any shady backroom deals, so I'm not sure where you get your info. Technically, we're supposed to have banned Manhunt, but you can still buy it, or could until about a month ago. It's true my country did ban the recent leisure suit larry (though from what I've seen in reviews, that may have been a good thing anyway), but when games such as Doom 3, Manhunt, etc do make it through, I don't see HL2 getting stopped.
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.
I dont know if its related but I do know that several things with the word "ninja" in it (most notably the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ninja Gaiden) had the word "ninja" removed in some places for some wierd reason.
It would definatly be illegal to sell this game in australia if it was refused classification.
In fact, I think there was some trouble back when GTA III came out because they released it before it had an OFLC rating, the OFLC gave it an RC rating so they had to recall stuff from shelves and remove the offensive content.
Personally, I dont think that ANY video game should be banned unless it specifically encourages people to do illegal acts (e.g. how the whole aim of Manhunt is to kill innocent civillians for no reason)
Actually in Manhunt you kill psycotic gang members that are out to kill you. I don't think there are any innocent civilians or people you can kill at all in the game unlike the GTA series.