Australia to lose legal rights to play MMOs

[JoshuaMadoc]

http://au.games.ign.com/articles/950/950795p1.html

Thanks, Michael Atkinson, for making this country more boring all for the sake of your kids. Bet they're really proud of you.

[Wingman]

So...


I expect to see game stores start a "Pay us 40 bucks for some random piece of junk and get a free copy of an MMO with it." campaign. After all, it only forbids them from selling the games, not including them with some overpriced keychains or something.

Is this honestly going to hold up for more than a couple days?

[Xiroteus]

Do they have any idea how messed up that is.

[Fallenwolf]

its communism i tell you pure communism

Gamer underground?

[Spongy]

...Wow.

Wooooooow

That's... Just really messed up. I'm not sure what else to say.

[Aki]

Australia's been being more and more ridiculous about games these days. Last I heard they were whining over the inclusion of morphine in Fallout 3 (which, due to their whining, was renamed "Med-X" so they could sell it in australia).

Gee, Australia must be free of major problems for their lawmakers to be able to waste time and taxpayer money legislating over video games...

[Terastas]

Either Mike's got a major bee up his arse or way too much time on his hands.

Either way, it'll only be a matter of time before he crosses the line and gets hit with either a pink slip or an aluminum baseball bat.
Yet another guy named Mike that I'm embarrassed to share the name with in real life.

[RedEye]

I forsee a lot of people playing MMO's in spite of the law... since there are already games being played inside the country now.
I wonder: Might the game become a downloaded game, like Second Life? Then the law could be upheld: no sales, and players still play.

Still, I think this is the tip of the iceberg. Next might come government-screened access, like China.
Or maybe confiscation of computers with "Prohibited" content on them.

One thing for sure; this isn't the Australia I remember.

[Whisperwind]

wow... but, like red eye, im curious as to whether this will cover free to play mmos. i just started playing one that i really like called runes of magic, and you only have to pay for extra content thats not needed (like special mounts or more rooms in your house, etc - and even that they're trying to figure out how to make it so you dont have to pay real money for it, just farm a ton of gold in the game).. so what if people dont put forth any money?

[*nagowteena*]

That is absolutely ridiculous!

[Midnight]

.

[Set]

This, children, is a sign that it's time to start a rebellion.

[Aki]

Next might come government-screened access, like China.

It's already in the pipeline. In particular see here, here, here, here and here.

Additional news: The pro-censorship lobby are getting desperate. I just read about this on Boing Boing tonight.

I was going to mention that, but you did it better and with lots of links.

Now if only I had that article about how the "Clean feed" filter thing would - in addition to it's general censorship nastiness - drag down the performance of Australian internet connections by a lot. So not only would you get censored interwebs, but slow censored interwebs.

[RedEye]

Hey, guys; we did just that a couple of hundred years ago.

Worked, too.

Seriously though, you might try sending letters (not E-Mails) to your elected... Whatever they are over there. Letters get noticed, since they represent a specific number of voters in the elected officials' "Statistics".
Be polite and use good English, though; and be logical, not emotional.

It really does work.

[Silverclaw]

Thats insane!
Seems Australia is going down the S***er

[MattSullivan]

Australians need to stand up and make a collective hissy-fit. Don't let some old government farts tell you what your rights are.

[Nightmane]

WHHHHAAAAATT!!! not cool... I have friends in austrailia who I play mmo's with

[JoshuaMadoc]

Kotaku to the rescue, and here to save the day once again.

[Midnight]

.

[Dreamer]

Your Austrailan and/or European censorship of video games and violence confuses and frightens me.

And yes, I realise that we do have censorship in the form of the FCC and MPAA in the US. But I hate them for it.

[Kaebora]

The USA has only banned three games, all of which was related to sex scandals or underage nudity (very valid reasons). The purpose of the rating system in the states is as an "FYI" to let you know what kind of content is in store for you, or your children if that be the case, but not to suppress content from the willing buyer. Getting an ESRB rating is fairly easy I'm told, but requires a month or two of waiting. Selling 'M' rated games only to 17+ gamers is not strictly enforced.

If Austrailia were to take our basic honor system and merely rate games to warn buyers, rather than ban them from open availibility, it would improve their own credibility. This forces gamers to resort to importing their games, or piracy.

[RedEye]

Thinking on both Kaebora and Midnight's comments, I wonder...
Since when has any politician been stopped from doing something illegal in any country by any law, covenant, or Constitution?
There are a LOT of political types that think that because they're elected to some office, they're Godlike in their authority, and accountable only to themselves and the Party.

I agree that Australia's adopting the U.S.'s ESRB system would be both more informitave and more accurate than what they have now. Yet they have legal censorship there, unlike here.
It's apples and oranges, comparing the U.S. to Australia & Co.

I'll shut up now...