Fallout 3 Officially Banned in Australia

[Maphusio]

Jesus, and I thought censorship was bad in the states... That is ridiculous and outrageous.

 

[Zaij]

This kind of censorship crap only happens with video games because we don't have an R18+ rating here. I guess the pollies think that only little kids play games or something.

 

[fedaykin]

Populist politicians just find it convenient to blame violent video games for parents' failures.

 

[Pope Viper]

Populist politicians just find it convenient to blame violent video games for parents' failures.

EXACTLY!

Where are the parents when their kids are buying this stuff? And even if the game is a gift, why aren't the parents at least reviewing the material to get an idea of what their kids are playing?

Take some responsibility!

 

[Lyc]

Populist politicians just find it convenient to blame violent video games for parents' failures.

Most of the states have been pushing for a R18+ classification for some time. Unfortunately to change the OFLC rules requires unanimous support of all the states attorney-generals (Federal govt doesn’t get a say in the matter). Unfortunately the current AG for South Australia (surprise surprise) – Michael Atkinson - has shot down several attempts at obtaining a R18+ classification in the laws. He’s your typical wowser luddite who hides behind ‘for the children excuse’ and thus we are stuck with M15+. How refusing to have a 'adults only' classification protects children only he knows.

The problem is though that this sort of thing merely enforces developers to produce more watered down, politically correct crap. Why spend money on an innovative or daring venture when the censors will clamp down on it and you have to spend more money to adjust it?

 

[Pope Viper]

Populist politicians just find it convenient to blame violent video games for parents' failures.

EXACTLY!

Where are the parents when their kids are buying this stuff? And even if the game is a gift, why aren't the parents at least reviewing the material to get an idea of what their kids are playing?

Take some responsibility!

Not to mention official content regulation only tries to shelter children... They can't sit down with children and discuss what is actually seen. Thats where reality has to be moored, between the childs ear and the mouth of their parent and/or legal guardian.

Now that I've got a kid, I have every intention of micromanaging every single aspect of her life until she is old enough to make good decisions.

It's sad that the parents require governmental oversight to babysit their own children.

 

[Seymour the spore plant]

Populist politicians

This. It's just a bandwagon that they jump on to score points with the soccer moms and get (re)elected.

The parasitic shit-for-brains that pass as politicians here in Brazil pull this kind of stunt all the time too; they once banned Duke Nukem 3D, and a slew of popular FPSs at the time, because a psycho who was off his meds went on a killing spree on a movie theater. That's right, a game is to blame for a crazy person being off his meds. More recently, Counter Strike was banned for similar reasons, EverQuest for allowing the player to be evil (yep, you read that right), plus every recent GTA game since 3 only saw release like two years ago.

So, my condolences to you aussies, I feel your pain. Censorship is always a bitch.

 

[Briosafreak]

This doesn't bode well for Germany too. The removal of content in the UK was one of the reasons FO2 bombed there, it only sold 39000 copies during the first quarter.

 

[ford_prefect]

bad news for australian gamers
bad news for freedom of speach
bad news for bethesda
bad news for the gaming community

when will the anglo-saxon-whatever governments stop treating their people as if they were adults?
I don't feel happy about this strike on bethesda prospects. if we were speaking about how much it sucks not having kids in the game, not being allowed to adult content, etc, what can we expect in future games? The message from the ruler is clear: less intelligent, independent thinking and more Disney and Lucas

 

[Morbus]

I say it's good news.

Good news for australian gamers as each banned game is one less game left to the last game banned.

Good news for Fallout as its rape has been banned at least in one country.

Good news for Fallout fans as FOE fans are pissed off because of this, and Fallout fans, TRUE Fallout fans hate FOE and its fans.

 

[Mungrul]

but I'm absolutely over-fucking-joyed that this is going to hit Bethesda where it really hurts: Their wallet.
They're going to have to spend money editing the content, then they're going to have to pay to re-submit the game for classification.
The more money these charlatans are forced to waste, the better in my opinion.

Ahh, so you are in favour of Australians having a more bland version of the game and also Bethesda having less resources to patch/improve it? Not only that but you are ok with future games, possibly Fallout 4, looking at this and thinking they had best tone down the adult content so this doesn't happen to them? There is such a thing as being overly fanatical in opposition to a game you know.

Nice that you registered just to put words in my mouth.

 

[Ranne]

Populist politicians

This. It's just a bandwagon that they jump on to score points with the soccer moms and get (re)elected.

The parasitic shit-for-brains that pass as politicians here in Brazil pull this kind of stunt all the time too; they once banned Duke Nukem 3D...Counter Strike...[and] EverQuest for allowing the player to be evil...

It's nice to see a country that is neck deep in gang violence, illegal drug trade, money laundering, smuggling, street crime, government corruption, and a whole range of serious environmental issues to put so much of its attention and efforts in protecting its citizens from such pixelated evildoers as Duke Nukem, Necromancer and Evil Eye, isn't it?

EDIT: Oh, you're from Brazil? I thought you were a fellow American, sorry.

 

[Darek]

depending on a rationale they used i could even approve of that
i mean, perhaps someone in Australia does not think that voilence is fucking hilarious ??

but than again, its more probable that they ban it for some insignificant detail (oh noes a nipple/tit/'drug' word) which will only serve to annoy players (like 'chem' in fallout 2 o_O)

btw, ESRB and such are plain idiots imho ...

I haven't been to Australia for a while, but last I was there, there were naked titties on the beaches and on tv, and no censoring of "bad" words. It's mainly Americans and the Muslims that are scared of that. So it's more probable that the violence is the problem.

 

[TTTimo]

So it's more probable that the violence is the problem.

I don't think it's the violence. There are heaps of violent games and movies available here. As mentioned, it's the problem with drugs. Almost everyday we get news of some Aussie arrested for drug related crimes. Drug smuggling, drug lords, that kind of stuff that the govt' is worried about and tries to suppress as much as possible. Strange that drug related punishments are quite lenient, compared to other countries.

 

[Beelzebud]

The Australian government is stupid. When it comes to censorship, it's even worse than the US, which is saying a lot.

Actually it's not saying much at all because in the US the government doesn't censor anything, as long as it's not going out on live prime-time TV. At a corporate level there is an amount of self-censorship, which is almost more troublesome, but it isn't government mandated.

 

[sarfa]

I say it's good news.

Good news for australian gamers as each banned game is one less game left to the last game banned.

Good news for Fallout as its rape has been banned at least in one country.

Good news for Fallout fans as FOE fans are pissed off because of this, and Fallout fans, TRUE Fallout fans hate FOE and its fans.

This is not good news for Autrailia. It's simply not true or fair to say that banning the game in Austrailia is good because now "Australia is now better off for not having to play a substandard sequel" (Black on page 1 of this thread) simply because no one anywhere has to play Fallout 3.

People in countries where the game isn't being banned don't "have" to play the "substansard sequel", they have a choice. The people in Austrailia are being robbed of the chance to make that choice. This is very bad news and quite frankly the words "Fallout 3" are irrelevant, what matters is the censorship issue and people being robbed of the choice to play a game because of what? Morphine?

Chances are Morphine in the game will be a recovery item, as it's most famous use is as a medical one. The controversy will probably be because the game allows the player to, and punishes them for abusing the drug. Sounds about the right (from a fun, realistic and responsible) way to use Morphine in a game with an abstracted health system.

I'll be interested to see what logic the Austrailian authorities have for this move. In the meantime I'd suggest we find our soapboxes.

 

[frosty_theaussie]

I say it's good news.

Good news for australian gamers as each banned game is one less game left to the last game banned.

Good news for Fallout as its rape has been banned at least in one country.

Good news for Fallout fans as FOE fans are pissed off because of this, and Fallout fans, TRUE Fallout fans hate FOE and its fans.

This is not good news for Autrailia. It's simply not true or fair to say that banning the game in Austrailia is good because now "Australia is now better off for not having to play a substandard sequel" (Black on page 1 of this thread) simply because no one anywhere has to play Fallout 3.

People in countries where the game isn't being banned don't "have" to play the "substansard sequel", they have a choice. The people in Austrailia are being robbed of the chance to make that choice. This is very bad news and quite frankly the words "Fallout 3" are irrelevant, what matters is the censorship issue and people being robbed of the choice to play a game because of what? Morphine?

Chances are Morphine in the game will be a recovery item, as it's most famous use is as a medical one. The controversy will probably be because the game allows the player to, and punishes them for abusing the drug. Sounds about the right (from a fun, realistic and responsible) way to use Morphine in a game with an abstracted health system.

I'll be interested to see what logic the Austrailian authorities have for this move. In the meantime I'd suggest we find our soapboxes.

Yes. The fact that FO3 is being developed to appeal to a mass-market audience by being less controversial doesn't bode well - if we're banning this, I'd hate to think of the precadent that it sets.

 

[Falesh]

but I'm absolutely over-fucking-joyed that this is going to hit Bethesda where it really hurts: Their wallet.
They're going to have to spend money editing the content, then they're going to have to pay to re-submit the game for classification.
The more money these charlatans are forced to waste, the better in my opinion.

Ahh, so you are in favour of Australians having a more bland version of the game and also Bethesda having less resources to patch/improve it? Not only that but you are ok with future games, possibly Fallout 4, looking at this and thinking they had best tone down the adult content so this doesn't happen to them? There is such a thing as being overly fanatical in opposition to a game you know.

Nice that you registered just to put words in my mouth.

Notice the question marks. I was pointing out the consequences of the situation that you seem so happy about. If you do not like game censorship then you should be against this even if it does help your vendetta against Bethesda.

Oh and another thing I didn't mention specifically: They seem to want to create editing tools, if this is truly the case then do you think them having less cash will help them work on and release these tools?

 

[ookami]

Good news for Fallout as its rape has been banned at least in one country.

Oh, but you know BS will just take this and try to make it out in damage control like "look we got banned lolz! see it proves the rabid fans are wrong and we're like you know totally hardkore and junk with the fallouts! we're still completely right in everything we do!"

Jokes about anti-substandard sequel legislation in the wake of Oblivion aside, it's really Australian censorship just being waaaaay too uptight. Come on, FO3 seems to be infant diarrhea as it is. How much more watered-down do they want it to be?

 

[JR Jansen]

Oh and another thing I didn't mention specifically: They seem to want to create editing tools,

That's not what i saw last from Todd (or was it Emil) in one of the newspost here. Of course, he didn't say it with so many words but if i saw it correctly then it's very questionable. But because the engine is the same as Oblivion's it might not be such a big deal anyway.