All we need is MA15+

So the ongoing “discussion” as to whether Australia needs an R18+ rating continues… and I’m starting to realise I’m growing very bored with this entire thing and am starting to realise how pointless it actually is.

Of course, I’m not saying this in a “woe is me, for the government will never acknowledge that gamers are adults” kind of way… I’ve actually come to the realisation of the obvious. We’re not getting an R18+ rating down here because we really don’t NEED it to begin with… though not for the reasons the people who oppose the rating for video games in this country would have you believe.

So here we go…

What are we fighting for?

Everyone in the gaming community is up in arms every time a story breaks about how one of the Attorney Generals of this country says more review is needed before anything can happen or that they have a moral objection to an R18+ rating or whatever. You don’t really need to follow the trail of this debate which has been raging on for over a decade because all you really need to do is read one news story about it and you’ve got the jist of what’s going on… which is absolutely nothing, it’s a stalemate.

On one side you have people who believe that introducing an R18+ rating will bring in a flood of new games that are more violent and graphic than ever. The entire world is waiting with baited breath for Australia to allow them to pervert their children in as many ways possible and corrupt their fragile little minds. Corporate bullying of the state is one thing, but the majority of this group seem to think that video games will turn their children into murderers or just simply disturb them to the point where they go catatonic or start taking drugs… but hey, what they’re saying is probably true. I’m an avid gamer and I turned out pretty warped… and thanks to the fact that in a few years I’ll be becoming a teacher, I’ll be further corrupting their children’s fragile little minds. Awesome.

Then on the other side, you have the supporters of the R18+ rating that come in a different assortment of flavours… Those who either want to just balance things out… after all, we have an R18+ rating for movies, why not video games too? Those who oppose any form of censorship, the people who wants to be recognised as an adult by the state and for them to stop looking down at you like a child just because of your chosen hobby. Or maybe you’re just worried that one of your favourite games is going to be refused classification and we end up getting a lame edited version. Oh, and also the few people who use the “think of the children” argument on this side too… after all, having an R18+ rating for video games will make it harder for kids to get a hold of the more violent video games out there, right? Maybe, who knows…

What’s really happening…

I’ve complained a hell of a lot about this in previous entries, but as I said before, I’ve begun to realise how pointless all this debate really is! I mean, take a look at the list of all of the games that have been refused classification in Australia in recent years and show me a game on there that isn’t above mediocre quality. Now, I’m sure by now every single person has latched onto Left 4 Dead 2, and I agree, this is a top quality game that has been caught up in this mess… Though, (and no offence to the people who bought L4D2 on consoles) who in their right mind would want to get Left 4 Dead 2 on a console when they can just get someone to gift them a copy over Steam which allows them to play the fully uncensored version of the game? Well, that and the PC version is superior in every way to begin with…

The truth of the matter is that every game that MATTERS has gotten through into this country no matter how violent, gory and riddled with sexual references they may be. I mean, a perfect example is Duke Nukem Forever which features all kinds of sexual references (Fuck yeah, double blowjob by schoolgirls!), and then scores of violent video games where we massacre pixel-born characters with various weapons to the point where most of us would be considered to be mass murderers if the law classified the people in these games as REAL people.

What are we really missing out on? Nothing! And if one of the games on that short list is a game you’re interested in, what’s REALLY stopping you from getting it? What, just because it’s not on a store shelf you suddenly can’t buy stuff online and have it imported? All PS3 games are region free and so are many Xbox 360 games. PC is no problem at all with digital copies of games downloaded through networks like Steam. No one can do anything to you if you’ve been gifted a game on Steam… or you could just pirate stuff if you’re into that.

If the state wants to release all the graphically violent video games in this country under the MA15+ banner, then I say, let them! If there are people who want to believe that we’re endangering our children with the introduction of an R18+ rating, let them continue believing that! Everyone can think whatever they want whether they are for or against the R18+ rating… but for me personally, I’m getting all the games I want, though at a higher price than I’d like to be buying them for, but that’s a different issue entirely.

What we SHOULD be afraid of…

That said, there are things we should be worried about and really be up in arms about… for example, the plan to censor the Internet. We really don’t want that, especially when it comes to the fact that a lot of us like to import our video games using online retailers and eBay. After all, if the Internet censor is implemented, what’s to stop the state from blocking those who haven’t figured out a way to get around it from buying certain video games that they may object to?

Another reason why we should be worried is that it’s going to cause the Internet in Australia to be extremely inefficient and slow it down quite a bit… and I’m not talking about less bandwidth, I’m talking about latency… basically it’ll make online gaming a bitch. (Oh yeah, and if anyone wants to know what the difference between bandwidth and latency is… basically, if we were to use the analogy of two people through balls to each other… Bandwidth is how many balls a person can throw to the other person at once time. Low bandwidth means a person can only through one or two balls to their partner while high bandwidth means they can throw five or six. Latency on the other hand is how fast they can throw those balls to the other person assuming that no matter how fast the person threw the balls, the other person would be able to catch them. Got it now?)

Anyway, censorship of the Internet is a bad thing for gamers for many reason and for the general populous of Australia or any other country for that matter. If you want to fight the good fight, I personally think that’s a more important battlefield than the R18+ matter which, in my mind, is more symbolic than anything else.