I mean come on, we live in a society in which obviously under age teenagers can purchase alcohol from reputable bottle shops, buy cigarettes, get their hands on illegal drugs as well as pornographic content at the click of a button ("of course I'm 18"). All this and yet it is a video game that they feel is going to be damaging to children? Bullshit.
What makes it worse is that, it has been found time and time again in countless surveys that the average Australian gamer is between 25 - 30 years of age. Meaning that it is the 'mature' majority of the gaming community that is missing out on this heavily anticipated title because it apparently is worse than drugs and alcohol.
But wait, there's more. Suppose you were interested at maybe importing a copy for yourself from overseas. Forget it, Australian customs have spoken out, stating that they will be on the look out for 'suspicious' looking packages and will check anything that they believe to resemble a game. If someone is found attempting to import the game, they could face a fine of up to $110,000 dollars. What the fuck? I can see it now, customs officials searching frantically through bags, sifting through bags of pills and marijuana and tossing them aside in order to find the infamous Mortal Kombat. Please, what a joke.
Hopefully, Australia can eventually catch up with other countries and bring in a R18+ rating for video games, its about time we all grew up.
- Auzzie
Holy shit, that sucks ass! $100,000 fine? What sane administration would even consent to that?
ReplyDeleteThey are apparently starting the review process of the current classification system something they haven't done in over 20 years. Though while this is progress, I have been hearing that if an R18+ rating is brought in it will not be retroactive, so in short previous 'refused classification' titles won't be re-classified and will stay banned. Whether this stays true when and if it happens is unknown, but it is what I've been hearing.
ReplyDeleteThe Australian government is absolutely rubbish, how can we be a "free" country when we're not allowed a harmless game thats obviously meant for adults? I've been playing Mortal Kombat since I could even say "finish him" and I've never got into trouble with the law, or even had the urge to rip someones heart out with a spear! This government needs to stop being such a bloody dictatorship, let adults choose what games they want to play, face it, if adults really didn't want their child to see something, there are many ways to stop it, and regardless, its just a harmless exaggerated game, hardly realistic yet very dear to so many of us. And seriously, wtf with the importing fine, as if theres nothing worse in this world to concentrate on, then Mortal Kombat, I guess police have solved all other crimes in Australia, and are now concetrating because they got nothing to do, oh wait, i forgot, they only both solving crimes when it involves them, e.g expired regos and speeding tickets. Pathetic government, pathetic system, bunch of old tossers running our system, get these senile old fools out and get someone like Brendan O'Connor in, who knows what it's like to be someone that isn't an conservative religious old fool
ReplyDeleteThis really sucks, does this mean you will not be able to play it? I really hope you can because I would love to hear what you think about it.
ReplyDelete