Gamers 4 Croydon Vow To “Haunt” Atkinson

Chris Prior, co-founder of Gamers 4 Croydon, has set his party’s sights on defeating Attorney-General Michael Atkinson at the South Australian state election in March.

“We’re in this race to win the seat of Croydon,” Prior told Kotaku earlier today. “That’s always been the aim, and that’s what we’re all working towards.”

Prior is one of two Gamers 4 Croydon candidates contesting the state election. He will be standing for the Legislative Council while Kat Nicholson, pictured, will be running directly against Atkinson in Croydon.

“He has said he expects we’ll not get more than 1% of the vote,” Prior says. “We will, and that will haunt him.”

While Atkinson has also claimed he’s anticipating a “real contest“, election analysts have dismissed the election chances of Gamers 4 Croydon, at least in the lower house.

“In my view, the issue of R18+ for video games won’t have much impact at all,” ABC analyst Antony Green told Gamespot. “When push comes to shove, a significant portion of the electorate will reject lifting censorship on this sort of thing because most people tend to be rather pro-censorship as a gut instinct.”

Nicholson believes the contest will make other politicians around the country take note of the issue of videogame classification.

“When I dent his margin,” she says, “it will undeniably prove that the lack of an R18+ rating is indeed a political issue – and one that can cost an MP votes.”

Prior is more confident of his own chances of being elected to the upper house.

“Even if Kat is not elected, we’re also running a candidate for the upper house,” he says. “While Croydon is winnable, the party thinks it’s likely that I’ll be elected to the Legislative Council, given our broad policy base and focus on accountability in government – a hot topic this election. A “gamers’ rights” candidate in parliament will at the very least force governments across the country to think very carefully about their positions.”

You can read the full interview with Chris Prior and Kat Nicholson posted earlier today here.