In a surprise twist, a recent interview IGN gave of the executive producer of Dead Space, Glen Schofield revealed that Australia (of all places!) would be getting a full un-cut version of Dead Space! Rejoice!
IGN: Dead Space has been banned in a handful of nations now. Did you have any issues getting the game through the stringent Australian Classification Board?
Glen Schofield: Australia is getting the full, complete version. No cuts. We’re not softening it for anybody. You know, I think a part of it was – he’s not a killer. He’s killing aliens and that’s why we thought for a while we’d get it through in Germany. And they were like ‘well, the fact that he can get dismembered pretty grotesquely is bad, so…’ We thought it was cool.
IGN: And Japan banned it?
Glen Schofield: Japan too. Korea thought they would get it, but we haven’t heard back yet.
Strangely, however, places such as Japan have banned it – which is unusual seeing as it is the birthplace of survival body horror (Germany too). Korea is yet to respond but there are rumors of an incoming ban – the same sentiments as Japan.
Is this a sign of the OFLC finally responding to public pressure to ease up on the ratings? What next!? An R18+ rating?! If not then it just shows how inconsistant the OFLC is in it’s classification process.
Those primitive, decrepit cow’s we have elected as our political representatives, and who have, unfortunately, been thrust into a position to dictate the direction of media content in Australia; have absolutely no idea of the effect their blind, rather desperate and outdated model of legislation is having on the games market in Australia. And, just to reiterate what I think of our politician’s in charge of rating games and regulating the OFLC click this.
The “Oh my god! Save the children” solution of games contraband no longer works in an era where the most savvy media users are the children; if they wish to obtain a game, they will get it some way or another, the publicity of a banned game only entices children more.
This overbearing culture of overprotectiveness is blatantly obvious in all area’s of Australia. It is unfortunate that the controlling class of people in Australia are just as primitive and decrepit as our representative click this. And this was yet again shown in a rather lopsided “game-bashing” Q&A last Thursday (24/07).
The panel’s ignorance is quite amazing. Not only do they talk about it as if there wasn’t an overbearing ratings system for games already apparent, but they compared it to “snuff films”… Are you serious?! That’s like comparing an orange fruit to a small Peruvian dog cutter – there isn’t a comparison.
Another important thing to note – the audience member that asked the question, editor of GameArena, “Jaoby”, was also a douche… It took another audience members interjections for there to be any weight added to support the creation of an R rating for games. Unfortunately, with the comparison to pokies, games were completely brushed aside and gambling became the next topic. Typical reaction to games in Australia – they are just games – then how come we regulate them so stringently.
However, “Jaoby” did have this to say after,
“As you can see, what happened was far from a serious discussion on the merits of an R Rating for video games and government censorship. Instead, at large, the panelists were led into a discussion of violent video games and, due to archaic views of the average gamer, the discussion primarily devolved into the same “protect the children” commentary the public has heard for years.
Fortunately, what occurred on the show only served to highlight the exact issue at hand… Due to the format of the show it was nigh on impossible for me to refute even the more ludicrous and fantastic claims (Avatar: the rape game by Barnaby Joyce was particularly hard to keep quiet about) meaning the show simply continued to propagate the same antiquated idea already present in the general media about video games.”
A lot of this has already been discussed in GamePolitics though, here.
Back onto the rather amusing show of so called panel experts, I would challenge any of you (or… nobody reading) to find consistent scientific research to support the fact that, interactive, experiential and voilent games causes mentally healthy people to behave more voilently.
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