In a move that surprised everyone, legislation was passed and will be enforced starting from tomorrow that prohibits the cases of R rated movies to use their original cover art. The part that didn’t surprise anyone though was that it was announced by Michael Atkinson. The amendment bill was introcued by the Hon Dennis Hood MLC, a member of the Family First party.
This new legislation is almost as ludicrous as the Joh years in Queensland.
The updates have been thin lately. As some of you may know, I was made redundant from my job as a programmer in the games industry in November. Events have transpired that I’ve taken up a short term contract with that employer again, which has resulted in overtime and almost no time to think about anything outside of work. Apologies for the lack of updates.
This is fantastic news for those of you that want to play the game legally. However, I’m waiting for the inevitable response from Atkinson.
The OFLC’s media release can be found here.
It finaly happened. The paper is out there.
I will be submitting to the discussion. Limiting what I have to say to 250 words may be a challenge considering I’ve already run a protest over the matter. Regardless, you’ll hear my comments here first before they land in a Government inbox.
Download the submission template and send in your own views on the matter.
Talking online about the R18+ debacle is one thing. Email is roughly on the same level.
Snail mail, though, is still taken seriously. It implies more thought and care has gone in to what you have to say than just quickly typing up a post on the internet and pressing send. That’s how society works at the moment.
As such, you should write snail mail to the Hon Brendan O’Connor MP, Minister for Home Affairs, and request that the discussion paper for an R18+ rating be released.
Again, the usual modus operandi when a website asks you to send a letter is to provide one that you can print out and send. I won’t be doing that. Rather, I encourage you to write out your own request and mail that. I can only see multiple separate responses going over better than a canned response sent 100 times.
For those that are not aware, have a read through this brief history of Konami and their activity within the gambling industry. You may have even played some of the poker machines mentioned in the article at your local pub.
Pokies. The paradox of Australia. Video poker machines are the scourge of the pub, the oppressor of live music. RSL clubs and pubs down here will expand simply so that they can open up a new room full of poker machines.
Gambling in Australia is illegal for those under 18. This, by definition, makes video poker machines restricted to adults.
By all definitions, video poker machines are video games. They run on computers and are interactive and define a set of rules by which you can win or lose a game. You’d think that the lack of an R18+ rating for video games would mean that these games would be refused classification and thus not be allowed in Australia. As it stands, they operate under a completely different set of laws.
What message exactly is the Government trying to send here? Are they saying it’s alright for Australians to play games aimed at adults if there’s a healthy revenue stream coming in? In my mind, any argument from an Australian politician concerning their fears of what video games are capable of is null and void while they still get income from these machines via taxes.
If our politicians are going to be against adult games, they could at least try not being hypocritical about it.
