Blitz Banned Down Under
Oh, Australia...
Whatever happened to your reputation as a bunch of laid-back beach bums sporting equally sexy accents and tans? When did you decide that giving a government branch the ability to censor video games would be a good idea? More importantly, why don't you have your own (read: non-political) version of the ESRB? Even more importantly, still, why the bloody hell do you care enough about American football to actually be offended by Midway's Blitz: The League enough to ban it from your shores. On top of that, can't you find a better reason to ban Blitz than this:
"While the game player can choose not to use the drugs, in the Board's majority view there is an incentive to use them," said a statement from the OFLC."By using them judiciously, the player can improve the performance of the football team (while managing the negative effects) and have a better chance of winning games, thereby winning bets and climbing the league table," said the Board.
Right, because it's not like there aren't more violent or repugnant games out there for you morons to get yourselves all hot and bothered over. But, hey, it's not every game that gets banned from an entire continent; Blitz can join the ranks of other games that've been banned Down Under, including... uh... Reservoir Dogs and Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. Oh, and Manhunt... I can at least sort of see why they wouldn't want that title in the hands of kids, but still...
Midway's Blitz banned over drug use [GamesIndustry.biz]
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to Video Games on 22 January 2007
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: australia, banned, blitz: the league, controversial games, uptight morons, wallabes
Thanks for the compliments guys, but jsut a point out, manhunt wasnt banned in aus, just wasnt very circulated I got it for PC, add postal to that list though =D
Sadly, I paid more attention to the volleyball player's pic than the actual article...
But, in retrospect, Australia seems to have fairly absurd censorship laws. Strange, I suppose. I thought the US was supposed to be the only prudish country...bah.
*Covers face in pity*
When did it come to this? When did government(s) think it was OKAY to blame everything from drug use(cause you know every kid on the block will want steroids after playing Blitz)to homosexuality (Rule of Rose, Bully)on video games. I really pity these politicians outlook on youth, do they just see us as blank slates ready to soak up ONLY NEGITIVE IMAGERY. That we can't (as a majority) define the line between GOOD and BAD. What is truly sick is that all in all no one asks kids what they think(or if they do they get a biased sample that reflects thier thoughts). No one sees the goodness in the world anymore they just see the rain of nastiness streaming from the sky and need to find a scape goat(cause you know it could NEVER be the parents or even the kids themselves, its always an outside variable that "no one could control") No one takes the time to look at anything else, no other vairables except video games that fight the status quo. Are we going to blame children getting into cock fighting on Pokemon, because it suports the mistreatment of animals? Where do we draw the line? When do we stop blaming things and take the credit where credit is due, on our own actions. Do we say what video games define a person or what they have done?
I think it's just that the Aussies take sports more seriously than we do here, and are a lot more laid back about violence, the country had only 290 gun deaths in 2003. Also, was it the continent or the country that banned it? I can't imagine the continent has a government, and it's a lot more in fashion to call it Oceania, there's a lot more down under than Australia.
"
Sadly, I paid more attention to the volleyball player's pic than the actual article...
But, in retrospect, Australia seems to have fairly absurd censorship laws. Strange, I suppose. I thought the US was supposed to be the only prudish country...bah."
Thats only on sex, video games is a completely different story. I mean, so far I've read about Germany, and now Australia are pretty bad about video games, but I haven't heard about the US banning them (even though Jack Thompson and Hillary Clinton are trying their best.)
oh, silly goverments.