Slashdot Mirror
Left 4 Dead 2 Approved In Australia After Edits
Last month we discussed news that Valve's upcoming shooter Left 4 Dead 2 had been denied classification in Australia, which meant the game could not be legally sold there. Now, after a series of edits which removed "considerable amounts of gore from gameplay," Australia's classification board has given the game an MA15+ rating. Their new report (PDF) says, "No wound detail is shown and the implicitly dead bodies and blood splatter disappear as they touch the ground. ... The board notes that the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment." The unmodified version of the game may still be approved, pending a review that concludes on October 22nd.
"L4d2 in Australia now significantly less entertaining."
In soldier of fortune it was just gratuitous, in an over the top zombie game the gore fits perfectly.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
I know it's not your fault, but I will now be pirating a game I would have otherwise payed for. Deepest Regrets, Mr Gamer.
Take what ye can. Give nothing back!
So instead of buying the watered-down game, people in Australia will just go download the pirated version of the full game. Don't get me wrong, I'm not for piracy, but I'm not for policies that encourages it, like DRM and censorship.
Judge: "Please explain to me just what the defendant was thinking when he shot the victim in the head?"
Lawyer: "Well, your Honor, as avid player of computer games he was thoroughly conditioned, that this action would have little to no consequence to the other party. In fact, my client was completely shocked at the amount of blood produced by the unfortunate victim as he had never seen something like that in the very real depictions of violence in his computer games. He also believed, and this may strike us as somewhat strange but was his reality at that moment, that the victim would quickly recover from any damages even if they had been caused by my client. That the unfortunate Mr. Smith didn't 'respawn', as my client had experienced thousands of times before, came as a true surprise to him. We therefore believe, while his the results of his actions are very regrettable he bears no guilt as he merely played according to the rules of his previous conditioning, which suggested no such dramatic outcome! Thank you."
Please stop your nannystate-ification.... where else will I flee to escape the fascism in the US?
Sincerely, A US citizen
Such a dumb policy.
I don't understand why L4D2 can't coexist with Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006, an animation sponsored by Melbourne, Australia.
...first they couldn't handle Cartoon Sex (Remember the Simpsons, and the guy who went to JAIL for it?)
And now, it's blood and gore, what happened to the Prison Country of the world? ;)
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
I just hope us here in NZ don't get stuck with the watered down version.
That watered down crap will be sold to everyone so to keep valve outta any legal trouble .
Anything that gets them aroused is banned.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
Make friends with people around the world to get around this, simply get them to buy you L4D2 as a gift through Steam and because your buddy bought it in a 'unmodded' country, you'll get all the gore! BTW - this does work, a friend buys a German guy all his stuff so he has the gore and then PayPal's him back the cash
Really?
I thought they got aroused by banning things.
Replace dead bodies and zombies with Teletubbies. No need for gore then, and it's still fun to play
Team Fortress 2 (also by Valve) had problems with the German authorities not approving it with blood & gibs in, so it was changed for that market so that you don't see blood splatters and gibs were turned into cogs, rubber ducks, etc.
Obviously the way they did this and the fact the game is moddable meant that anyone who wasn't happy with their watered-down version could get the blood & gibs back easily.
I suspect this will be no different - Valve will comply with the requirements, and the mod community will patch back in whatever is removed within a few days of its release.
This summary reads like an advertisement! I can't wait to play! =)
Unless of course I was in Australia... then it would suck, I guess.
FYI: Left4Dead US Retail Box on Amazon.com
Sincerely,
A gamer against censorship.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment.
Clicking "next" on the character creation screen now proceeds directly to the closing credits.
What happened Australia? You used to be so cool. AC/DC, The Road Warrior. Just because you have a lot of red rock doesn't mean you have to turn into Utah.
That's it! Banning things is hereby banned!
Australia: Where you as an adult are not competent enough to make your own decisions! We'll keep it down to a kids level because we don't want you to enjoy gratuitous entertainment. Now, turn on the boob tube and watch a Jason movie...
Shh.
I for one will not.
Instead I'll download a real copy of the game.
Instead of distributing a censored version, the developers should just put a donate
form on their web site, so that you pay for the uncensored pirated version you just downloaded.
and perhaps if you donate enough dollars, give back a cd key in return.
One thing I don't get is why they bothered to release an edit at all. When the OLPC refuses classification it places restrictions on those items being sold in stores in Australia. It does not outlaw the items or otherwise make it illegal to own or enjoy. There are no restrictions on single imports either AFAIK.
Steam is a service that is located out side of Australia. When I bought Left4Dead I was billed in USD just like everyone else I know. Also I don't know a single person who owns a boxed copy of the game. Even the fans who went out and bought Half-Life 2, Orange Box, and other Steam based games off the shelf it would appear bought Left4Dead online and then downloaded the game or copied the binaries from someone. This makes me think why they even bothered releasing a version with reduced gore.
Also how are they now going to manage the versions? Will only the store purchased copies be reduced gore, or will Australian Steam customers get a different binary than the overseas counterparts? Will they check on a server level which copy they are running (they are not obligated to)? Will someone who bought the game at a store be allowed to copy the non edited binaries from a Steam download and will it still work?
My guess is either there were more boxed copies sold that I am aware of, or someone is really risk averse of this "loophole".
The Passion of The Christ wasn't banned (although it probably should have been). It triggered arousal, guilt, and hatred, all at the same time (the winning trifecta for good Christians everywhere).
Your mom is a classy lady! Or at least that's what this decision reminds me of.
Hypocrites Australia!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
a country founded by nothing but criminals has evolved into a dictatorship run by nothing but saints.
im sorry to say, but censorship of this magnitude will greatly endanger australian citizens in the event of a zombie apocalypse. How will they know whether a baseball bat or a shotgun is the appropriate weapon? where do they place their shot groups? without detail in the game and critical points like splatter and decapitation, players will be poorly versed and risk overkill or worse, underkill of a zombie.
Good people go to bed earlier.
We have similar censorship for adults in the UK - I don't know off hand if this game has been approved by the BBFC yet or not.
But the fun thing is that the Video Recordings Act 1984 (which makes it illegal to distribute games or video without a classification) was recently found to have never been enacted! So it's perfectly legal to sell this game in the UK, without worrying about any classification.
The downside is that the Government have announced they'll be hurrying the law through - presumably therefore with no debate - using "emergency legislation" - which also means that in the meantime, most retailers will be unwilling to risk stocking it. It would be nice to see someone make a point about how the law was one of censorship, and not, as the Government claimed, about protecting children (most cuts required by the BBFC are in films targetted at adults, in the 18 and restricted categories, not those that could be viewed by children).
Various people on the previous article on this topic claimed that video games are simply not allowed to be classified as 18+, thus tying the classification board's hands on this one. Is this true? If so it's not so much censorship and more an obvious example of their rules needing sorting out - L4D was classified for 18 years or over here in the UK and L4D2 is substantially more violent, so it'd look pretty to me if the Australians shoehorned L4D2 into the 15+ category just because it's all they had handy.
A zombie game without gore is like a nude chick without tits. What's the point? What if we *try* putting the parenthood responsibility to the parents instead, and let all the others get what they want?
What happened, guys???
I read TFS, and I see:
game ... contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment.
Am I the only one thinking, "Yeah baby! This one will be #1 on my games to buy list for this year" now?
game ... contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment.
Am I the only one thinking, "Yeah baby! This one will be #1 on my games to buy list for this year" now?
I saw "no longer contains... piles of dead bodies lying about the environment," and thought, "Third shot: disintegrates."
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Fucktard, censorious, blue-nosed wowser hypocrites... They watch all the porn, read all the best seditious literature and play all the latest games - someone else pays for it - and then they say 'This stuff is ok for us, our souls and psyches are bullet-proof, but everyone else out there is too delicate'. Fuckyouall, censorshit bitches - they want to use their seemingly boundless moral fibre creds to censor what I see and hear but where's their moral fortitude? The fucking chickenshits don't have the guts to make themselves known, there's no debate, just this fear based, knee-jerk bullshit masquerading as unquestionable authority.
Our goverment sucks ass.... no R rated games, no X rated games. No Liberty and no freedom. This is not thing less than violation of basic human rights of freedom of speech and expression.
There are a few old dinosaurs in goverment that keep blocking any attempt to change this so we either have to wait for them to die or revolution!
That's...ahem...sweat! alternately They're androids.
"Left 4 Dead 2" .. I have a feeling some of those numerals are meant to represent words but not sure which ones, there seem to be a number of possibilities.. someone explain please
I know nothing about this case, but this rating system sounds like a most egregious kind of censorship. Maybe people would notice it more if governments required this sort of review for books: "Sorry, Mr. King, you'll have to excise the following pages or else you won't be allowed to sell your book in Australia." Voluntary industry system: fine. Boycott by leading stores: fine. Government control: Taliban wannabe.
Are the US (Patriot Act), the UK (cameras everywhere), and Australia (obvious) in some sort of three-way competition for "dumbest repressive laws"? Maybe in a couple of years they will tally up the scores, declare a winner, and we can return to sanity?
Please. Feel free to come and collect them. Really. We love a good laugh.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World