Because Glassing the Planet from Orbit is not always a bad idea

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.