Australia is a censorship shithole.
They’re the reason that the Fallout games use words like Med-X and Psycho for the chems. Originally that was all going to be named after real drugs.
I thought we were beyond this shit ever since the 18+ rating system for games came in like a decade ago?
Apparently the censors are still stuck in 2008?
This is why I argued at the time that the problem was not the lack of an 18+ rating, but the philosophy of the law was wrong. The lack of an 18+ rating meant that some games could not be rated, and if a game does not have a rating from the government then you cannot sell it. This is effectively a situation where all games are by default banned unless explicitly allowed by the government.
Lobbying for an 18+ rating doesn’t solve this problem. And this is exactly what happened; an 18+ rating was created, but with some things that are excluded from that rating. If a game includes those things, then it can’t get an 18+ rating and therefore banned.
The default position should be the other way around: everything is allowed by adults only unless explicitly allowed for minors.
I am not convinced that you can fix unenlightened, paternalistic government behaviour with technocratic bureaucracy reforms.
Only an idiot thinks game or movie violence makes a person violent. (Exception being impressionable kids)
But Australia’s censorship is on a whole nother level. Adults should make their own choices.
I remember buying Phantasmagoria just because it listed a bunch of countries it was banned in on the box. Makes for a good ad.
This has been the case for . . . Well, lets say 60 years.
It explains a lot.
