I have read the 2nd Game Informer mag and the followup article on the R18+ debate. I imagine that the Australia Government would be getting some funny contributions to their discussion paper. The Classifications Board’s comment on the withdrawal of AVP R.C. is pretty funny:

“in the Review Board’s opinion the violence depicted in the game can be accommodated within the MA 15+ category as the violent scenes are not prolonged and are interspersed with longer non-violent sequences. The violence is fantastical in nature and justified by the context of the game, set in a futuristic science-fiction world, inhabited by aliens and predators. This context serves to lessen the impact. The more contentious violence is randomly generated and is not dependent on player selection of specific moves.”

Are they retarded? How did they not see this first time round? And the last part does not seem to make any sense…

Anyway, it’s very encouraging to see a games developer stand up to those ridiculous ratings and refuse to hack away at their product to satisfy some pathetic government department that passes judgement on something they couldn’t possibly be more detached from than they already are. I’ve always despised cencorship in art because an artistic product is the truest expression of human nature. (And I think that games are an artform). It is an expression of emotion and intellect and is slaved over until it has been perfected. I think that IF a work of art is inappropriate for a certain group or certain groups of people, then those groups simply should not have access to it. I absolutely do not believe in distorting or altering anybody’s creative output.

The underlying problem I see is that the people who make the decisions about access to art, and who mutilate the work of other people in the name of cencorship, almost never have any real understanding of the art that they’re passing judgement on. If you are not interested in games and involved in the gaming community then you DO NOT understand gaming or games and should NOT have any say whatsoever in how or if a game should be censored, nor what restrictions should be placed on it. It’s no different for internet censorship, or anything esle like music or drugs or sports or any of the things that the government deems “dangerous” and has no understanding of, and usually restricts in pointless and ineffective ways.

But even though I am a pessimist and a nihilist I do think that things will change for the better soon, I think that they’re going to keep getting worse until a critical point is reached and then the artificial barriers will start to be broken down. And that will be most satisfying