Calling all Gamers and Brain Eaters

In conjunction with Gamers for a Proper Rating System in Australia, the DocNetwork is proud to bring to Sydney, a Zombie Walk of Epic proportions.

Now this isn’t just any ordinary Zombie Walk, the overarching reason for this, is to raise attention for the abysmal state that the Australian ratings system is in. This has been in response to the fact that Left4Dead 2 had been banned and subsequently censored to allow for its release. Symbolically this Zombie Walk brings a call to action about the fact that Australia still does not have an R-18+ rating for games. So if your a Gamer, or just like Zombies, please come along, have a laugh.

The path that will be taken will start at Hyde Park.

The route is as follows: Hyde Park war memorial at around 11, and making our way towards Town Hall at 11:30.
After screwing around for as long as we think is necessary, we’ll be heading down George street, and up Ultimo Rd to Darling Harbour, where screwing around will re-commence.
From there, it’s down Pyrmont Bridge, and down Market St back to the Hyde Park fountain.

For more information and to let us know if your attending, please visit the below link and mark that you are attending.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=325982290391

We’ll be there and we’ll be covering this event on the fly. So we hope to see you there

Enough is enough Atkinson!

Like tens of thousands of Australian’s, I have pre-ordered Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and I even went as far as shelled out $200 for the special edition version that came with the night vision goggles, why? Because this franchise is freaking awesome, and it comes out in exactly 9 days, well that’s if our favourite SA Attorney General doesn’t have anything to do with it.

‘Leaked’ game play footage which can be accessible from YouTube displaying what is listed as a skippable mission where the player has to infiltrate a terrorist cell; as a result the player has to run through a airport shooting up unarmed civilians. Once again THIS IS A SKIPPABLE MISSON… well it was a skippable mission in Australia, if the Australian Council on Children gets their way, one of two things will occur, this mission will cease to exist, or the game in its entirety will be banned from sale.

Now its somewhat hilarious that the Australian Council on Children would even think that they would have an opinion on a game that at the moment has an MA-15+ rating, a rating by all definitions means that children aren’t even allowed to purchase or play it. But this once again raises an issue I have raised a number of times before, and I will continue to raise it. If Parents actively paid attention to the content they are buying their children, this wouldn’t even be a problem, granted yes an R-18+ rating would help as well, but the bigger issue is yes Children should not be playing these games… though that has more to do with the fact that they are not targeted at children.

InfinityWard, the Developer of the Call of Duty franchise came out earlier this week stating that the whole reason for the level is to bring home the atrocity of terrorism, and also stated that the mission while not only being an optional one, but also stated that the mission was graphic and depicted scenes that would be traumatic to some people.

As a result of this, and the fact that shooting civilians incurs a penalty in the rest of the game, the Office of Film and Literature Classification approved the game for sale and game it a MA-15+ rating, the highest that can be given, despite the fact that the game itself warrants an R-18+, but since one does not exist, MA-15+ is the highest available.

As a part of gaming reality occurs, games are becoming more and more realistic, becoming more interactive movie than game, unfortunately until game ratings fall in step with the rest of media, this will continue to cause friction between the OFLC and the growing number of technologically gifted individuals who wish to play games that the purest definition of the OFLC Code of Conduct allows them being that Adults should be allowed to do watch what they want.

The OFLC can only make a ruling on a game they have already cleared for sale up until the day of release, before having to resort to other methods to have content removed from sale.

Stop banning Bottled Water

A month ago I was on a late night AM radio debate about the concept of a small Rural town in the New South Wales Southern Highlands, banning bottled water in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint. I was naturally against the notion, being an avid bottled water enthusiast, people who see me out and about will see cell phone in one hand, bottle of water and sometimes Coke in the other.

Sure I’ve griped about the ever rising cost of the bottled convenience, but like many out there, I am stuck with no alternative, I am incapable of stomaching Mains water, either the Fluoride, or the Chlorine, or the fact that its stored and transported in outdated and decrepit infrastructure, every time I have had to drink from a tap, I gastronomically regret it.
The argument made by the ‘Bundy-on-Tap’ initiative Organiser Huw Kingston, is one that the carbon footprint generated by the manufacture and transport of bottled water far outweighed the hydration benefit, as well as the waste caused by their bottles. At this point their argument fell on itself, in that other water based products, Carbonated Beverages and flavoured Sports drinks, which according to Coca-Cola Amatil (the Australian subsidiary of Coca Cola) far outsells Bottled Water, which reported that bottled water only accounted for about 20% of their yearly beverage Sales, However, Coke and Powerade like beverages would still be allowed to be sold in the town.

So despite boycotting Bottled water, the towns Carbon Footprint would not have been reduced, as the same trucks that deliver Bottled Water, would now be used to ship in the myriad of Beverage alternatives that are still available. The town’s Bottled Water replacement; Biodegradable clear plastic bottles that actually cost more than the bottle of water that they replaced, the incentive, locals can then go and refill them at four free refilling stations scattered throughout the town. Kind of like how people do with Mount Franklin bottles once they’ve finished with them.

I have been looking into this on a number of occasions, to see if there has been any additional news on this apparent attempt to introduce a prohibition on Bottled water, namely, what happens if someone brings bottled water into the town, or if they don’t use one of these tacky looking ‘Bundy-On-Tap’ Bottles at their fountains, even if I’m still convinced Bundaberg Rum will be suing them on misuse of their trademark. To date, it seems that they simply have a blanket ban on Bottled water, but nothing in place should anyone try and ‘subvert’ their boycott. 

Now, their ‘Save the Environment’ spiel tends to lose its effectiveness when you dig deeper, and discover that the sole reason why the boycott was introduced, is in response to plans by Coca Cola and Norlex who together produce most of Australia’s bottled water to operate a Pumping Facility out of the towns ground water supply.
If it wasn’t bad enough that people are even thinking of removing a persons choice, the ever inept Premier of New South Wales, Nathan Rees in yet another attempt to divert attention from his ever-increasing list of failures, announced that all NSW Public Servants would be banned from using Bottled Water, however, this move was even less about saving the planet, but more about jumping on a bandwagon.

In any rate, this attempt has no strength behind it, and will be met with the same opposition as prohibition, but if it does spread, you will still see me out and about, cell phone in one hand, Bottled of Mount Franklin in the other.

Can someone Gong this please?

On Monday morning I had an breakfast meeting with an old colleague, while I was getting ready and on the way, I became aware of something happened the night before, what surprised me is that this was the first time where I didn’t hear about something from my sources before it was broadcast, and unfortunately, it has become one of those things that’s become round table debate in places I regularly frequent, and as a result I have been brought into it a number of times since it happened.

During Sunday’s taping of the ‘Hey Hey its Saturday’ reunion show’s, its usual talent segment known as Red Faces, where talentless hacks perform various skits akin to the ‘Gong Show’ where a panel of judges rate the performance with the staple character Red Symonds, usually votes lower than all others. The skit originally appeared on the show 20 years ago, and on that occasion won the competition. This time around, the skit, somewhat updated, managed to offend guest judge Louisiana singer, Harry Connick Jnr.
The skit in question involved 6 Medical professionals in Blackface, and one in Whiteface, impersonating the Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson performing a rendition of  ‘Believe it’ with accompanying ‘dance routine’. While the skit was cut short after about a minute and half, and by all accounts was on par with the standard Red Faces skit, in being ridiculous and unfunny, it has managed to cause quite a stir on both sides of the Pacific, and in the United Kingdom.

Like most things that occur outside the continental United States, it took a day and a half for mainstream US news services to start covering the event, but American bloggers where quicker to jump on the story, most quickly condemning Australia of being Racist and backwards, and that the Australian response to the skit was to ‘laid back’ for a skit that would have been down right illegal if shown in America.
Australian’ talk back radio and Daytime Television callers where equally divided on the skit, were some agreed with the American online response, and others whose response boiled down to the standard Australian Response of ‘Harden up Sunshine’.

There are a number of things both sides of the pond have failed to grasp while shouting their various opinions at each other, and my hope tonight is to alleviate a little of the confusion.

Firstly, even though it is like all other Red Faces skits, poorly written, choreographed and generally badly performed, its intention was not to be offensive, or racist, but was supposed to be a humorous homage to Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. Unlike other countries in the world, Australia never had a ‘Blackface’ period like those in America or South Africa. Australian media that depicted indigenous individuals generally utilized indigenous actors. To that end, the notion of ‘blackface’ never gained the negative connotation that it does in other countries, as it was only ever used in comedy, which it did at its zenith in the 80’s before more recently focusing on jokes targeting redheads.

On the opposite side of the table, in America, blackface, was almost always used in a derogatory context, or in those used in film, used as at the time, it was illegal for African American individuals to be on film. Its Zenith was in the 30’s before it started becoming acceptable for black actors to be on screen. This day and age, thanks in no special part to the Civil Rights movement, it is generally illegal for blackface to be performed. As mentioned in the below video by Harry Connick Jnr, if Hey Hey had been aired in America and the skit went to air, not only would the show had been cancelled, but the performers who did the skit arrested, but the network that aired it, sued.

Understandably, Connick Jnr., was offended by the skit, going as far as saying that if he was aware that it was going to be on, he would not have agreed to be on it, as would have been his upbringing, being the son of a Louisiana lawyer in the middle of the civil rights movement, and having a number of African American band members in his band. So far I have only heard one Australian that seemed to understand it, Channel Seven’s US Bureau Chief Mike Amore stated, “How can I explain to my African American son that that was funny?” 

This is not Political correctness gone mad, this is a case of our world being an international one. 20 years ago, we didn’t have the internet, content like the below skit would never have been seen in America, and we wouldn’t have the dialogue we do now, but to that end, if Harry Connick Jnr. had been replaced by a different regular, like John Farnham, it is doubtful that it would have made as much waves and received as much press as it did.

Also, our last post was our 100th post on the blog

DocNetwork <3’s the Gadget Girl

I regularly browse the blogosphere, looking for inspiration for new articles, and in some cases, just for a laugh, so I was pleased when Trapper, one of the many readers I have met personally, passed on the URL for a blog I have previously hadn’t visited, specifically the blog of the Queensland Courier Mail’s Technology Writer. Under normal circumstances I don’t visit the blogs of staff writers, as nine from ten, they are either as tabloid as the papers they work for, or they are simply not that entertaining…

The Gadget Girl just happens to be the exception to that rule, as not only does Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson cover all things tech, a task I would love to be able to do, but she shares the DocNetwork’s ambition to ‘Fight the Good Fight’ so to speak, and has on several occasions, she has spoken very critically of Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and the Mandatory Internet Filter with a number of rants akin to my own, the difference being, is that she gets paid to do it, and her following is at least four times that of mine.

This witty Brisbanite has been working at the Courier-Mail for a number of years now, moving from Pop culture, to a place that she has become quite adept at, that being technology reviewer and all round Gadget-girl. I encourage all readers of the DocNetwork to pay her blog a visit, as its a great read, and it’ll give you something to do between my updates.

While I regularly visit her blog and enjoy her articles, it is doubtful that she has reciprocated, even if our presence has been made known to her.

The Gadget Girls blog is updated on average twice a week, and can be found at http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermail/hitech/

iFreaking don’t believe this!

In June of this year, Kraft Foods released a new version of Vegemite with an alleged new taste, and a twist to the ingredients. Now I haven’t tried this new spread, or know of anyone who has, but its existence has generated a lot of publicity, and met a lot of scepticism, akin to the ‘New Coke’ product launch of the ‘80’s. Like the original that was first introduced to the world in 1923, the naming of this supposed reinvention of a classic, was put to the masses to name it.

And last weekend, they picked a name, from 48,000 submissions, unfortunately, it seems that Kraft had collectively lost their minds, the announcement was made during the AFL Grand final that they had picked their winning name… and that name was not something harking back to the original name, or something fitting for a new piece of Australiana. It was of course, iSnack 2.0.

I’ll let that sink in a little.. no I didn’t think so either, and apparently neither has the rest of Australia. The reasoning behind it, according to Kraft, “the winning entry was chosen for its personal call to action and clear identification of a new and different Vegemite.”

You want to run that by me one more time, chief? Last I checked Vegemite was something you put on bread and ate as a meal, not some revolutionary product meant to spark the next technological advance. I mean all it is, is Vegemite mixed together with cream cheese; that’s it folks, not particularly exciting is it?
Though, even if you put this name alongside some of the other choices like ‘Ruddymite’ and ‘Snackimite’ that Kraft executives had to choose from the name still looks ridiculous. Now this as some commentators have mentioned, may have something to do with an American company picking a name for what could have been an Australian Institution, but I personally wouldn’t have minded Snackimite… though don’t get me started on Ruddymite.

As soon as news broke that Kraft where indeed genuine about naming the product iSnack, the Blogosphere became full of articles, most of which criticising Kraft for their decision, all of which run the gamut of criticism, some ranging from simple commentary about the complete failure of Kraft to connect with their target market, to one news.com.au journalist, making the statement that this is the worse name for a product in the entire universe.
Kraft Communication Director Simon Talbot agreed the name was polarising — with  Gen Y liking it and the Baby Boomers “not quite getting it”. Unfortunately, Most bloggers are Gen Y, and they seem to be doing a lot of the criticising, so I don’t think it’s the Baby boomers who are ‘not quite getting it’ I think its the Kraft Marketing Department that need to rethink their strategy.

Now I Wouldn’t go that far to say that the iSnack is the worst product name in existence, as it already exists in the marketplace, as a Sandwich maker, and Breville have not commented if they will be suing Kraft for the use of the name they trademarked in 2000. 
I must, however,  agree with a few of my fellow bloggers, either this was the best marketing ploy gaining free publicity through being so bad that people have to talk about it, or its the dumbest decision made in the history of Kraft and that the product will be renamed soon, or it will forever disappear from shelves.

Posting Challenge Entrant: Harley-Quinn

For reasons known only to those who entered the Posting challenge, only one person actually submitted something for the Posting challenge, and that was of course the DocNetwork’s Number 1 Fan, Anne-Marie, aka Harley-Quinn. There is a trend on the Internet at the moment that she felt she needed to address.

‘Yes I’m a Girl, No I wont be your friend’

If there is ever a reason for me to not want to be an online entity, like Harley-Quinn, its the fact that every morning I wake up to find my email inbox filled with at least 25 emails from Facebook, of these at least 10 will be new friend requests from older guys of an age bracket 6-20 years older then me, granted there are a number of girls in the mix, but its mostly guys. Now I don’t want to appear as a bigot, or a stuck up blonde chick, but more often than not, most of these will be from the Middle East, namely from Lebanon.

Now I want to go out on the record and say, that I have no problem with the Middle East, and I do know that as a whole they are great people, the thing I have issue with is that these guys feel that because I am a blonde, somewhat attractive girl, with a small Online following, that I immediately must be their friend, and that I must be attracted to them. On the other hand, it would seem that there are people online that believe that because I too exist partially online, and I have varied interests, that I am expected to be friends with every pervert I encounter. The problem is that the internet is a wild and wonderful place, and while I can look after myself, it is even getting on my nerves.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times I cancel these friends request, I seem to get two more to replace it. For every person I do add as a friend, and the only time I do so is because I actually know the person, I have to ignore at least nine people I don’t. Like most girls I know, I also have to semi-regularly perform ‘purges’ where I check to see that the people that I have added, are actually who they say they are, and are not one of the million fake accounts that exist online. This feat isn’t helped by any when most of these people that I ignore either don’t speak the same language I do, or they can’t get it through their own skulls to take the hint that I’m not interested.

Now, it seems that I am not the only girl with this problem, but I really wish they would stop, I mean the rest of the world, and especially Caucasian girls, are not online just for the seedy perverted side of society to try and chat up, and furthermore, just adding someone you met on an interest group, and commenting that they are sexy, or using only a string of words that don’t even form a sentence is not the right way to get them to add you.

Please stop, if you want to get to know me, then sure, but until then DON’T even try and add me

ODST: OMG… aka Doc rides a Warthog

While I technically don’t get my copy of ODST until tomorrow morning, I did go down to Penrith’s EB for their Midnight release, making the first time I have done so for a game, I have ordered from another store.

The reason why me and Tikara skipped out on St John Training to pay the Plaza a visit, was the presence of the $200,000 WETA Workshop Prop, the LRV Warthog.

I mean this thing is freaking huge, its at least 8 feet tall, and freaking awesome… ah yeah, I did get a little be carried away.

   

Yarr ye salty scallywags

Ahoy mateys, it be a long time since I availed you all of tales from across the seas, but this old seadog has been busy searching the murky depths of the electronic oceans, looking for pieces of eight to share with me crew.

It be International Talk like a Pirate Day, Mateys, originally created in 1995 as a joke, and now has become a yearly tradition, now while I was aware of this holiday, this is actually the first, where I have actually remembered it was on.

As soon as I had woken that day, I was already yarring and ahoying just about anyone I came across, though by about lunchtime, it was actually hard to string words together into near coherent sentences, so by my brothers Birthday party, I was back to talking like a normal person.

Though I am aware that there are a number of people that spent all day speaking like a pirate, in fact I am well aware that a number of people that I know, that are devout Pirates.

Well ya salty Fiends, Have a flagon of Rum on the DocNetwork, and enjoy this pseudo-holiday, for this is one week, that I have more things on, then time to write about them.

So how far is too far?

I just received a message from one of my media sources, an employee of gaming retailer EB Games. It was blunt, but it stated that yet another highly anticipated video game has been banned from sale in Australia. It can be confirmed that, Left4Dead 2, survival horror sequel to the highly praised Left4Dead will not be available for sale in Australia, and there is only one man that can be blamed for this. For once, it is not Stephen Conroy.

While it may not be the deluded Conroy, it is a man as bad, if not worse, in fact, many have gone as far to compare the two men, he is of course, South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson. Anyone who is a serious gamer, would be well aware of this name already and his stance. For everyone else, Mr Atkinson, is the sole reason why Australia does not have an R18+ (or adults only) rating for video games, the reason? because he still believes that only children play video games ergo, Australia doesn’t need an adult classification, this is despite repeated studies over the last four years that shows information that is not the case.

Unfortunately such a decision as allowing an adult rating for games required an unanimous agreement by all the Attorney Generals in Australia, so far, Atkinson, is the only one who is against it, meaning that content that would otherwise receive an R18+ rating, or content that received a similar rating overseas, is predestined to be Refused Classification, and thereby legally unavailable for sale in this country.

In the past a number of highly successful games internationally have been refused sale in Australia for one reason or another, most notably, most of the most recent Grand Theft Auto games, for instance, have all at one point, being RC in Australia, but have been edited and being allowed sale under the MA15+ rating, however, most of the time, a lot of these games are still too violent/gory/horrifying/adult for the rating, but the game was released, an R18+ rating would just prevent these games from falling ideally into the hands of those that would be affected by it.

According to Atkinson, the ‘younger generation’ (I am not sure if he is referring to me, or those in Gen Y who are younger than Tikara) are extremely tech savvy, and that they can get around most measures in place that would prevent them from accessing R-rated content…despite the fact that they already are, illegally. I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, if a kid is determined enough to see stuff he isn’t allowed to, he will find a way and there isn’t a thing anyone can do about it.

While there will never be a system that will work on PC’s Consoles have always had Parental block on them, where parents set which ratings they want their kids to be allowed to play, the problem is that most parent’s don’t understand the technology they are giving their kids, and most especially, most Politicians have no idea that gaming technology has evolved passed the twin directional knob.

In the end, this falls to the Parent’s taking accountability for their actions, parent’s should be looking at the game seriously that little Timmy wants to play, and if the 14 year old wants to play Left4Dead2, then the Parent should inquire if this game is appropriate for their child, then afterwards if they still believe that the game is okay, then its their responsibility.

Now we at the DocNetwork believe in no forms of censorship should be enacted, but there are some things that children should not see, but proper education is the way to solve that problem, not preventing the masses their right to kill Zombies.
Protests and petitions seem to not want to convince Atkinson, or even Conroy, that their stances are wrong, hopefully someone in power has the sense to do something.