Censorship in games is nothing new; Nintendo in fact has been guilty of it since the NES days, at least for the American versions (Bionic Commando had you originally fighting against the Nazis and Hitler, for one example). It's gotten a lot more attention in recent years though, with companies like Rockstar pushing the boundaries farther than ever before, and with the ability to rapidly share information via the Internet.
Grand Theft Auto IV, for one, is getting a lot of flak, and will see edited versions in both Australia and New Zealand. This in itself seems senseless (for a reason I'll go into in a moment), but the bigger kicker is the price tag, which will be double ($120). You can get a PS2 for less than that!
The Parliament of Australia website states:
"Under the Constitution the Commonwealth Government has the power to make laws with regard to telecommunications (including broadcasting) and imported material, but not locally produced matter."Researching this, it basically means they regulate all media that comes from outside of Australia, including video games. What country wants an elite group of people decided what the entire country sees, plays and hears?
But anyway, this entire thing is confounding. Why ban and/or edit games for content when people can just import them? It's pretty easy, and in the case of GTA IV at least, it's certainly cheaper to do so. I mean, hey, I think GTA is a great series, but I'd never put down $120 for it, that's just crazy. Of course, that's me, and I'm sure some would, and I don't exactly blame them, I'm just saying, it's a bit senselessly damaging to the Australian economy.
And this is amusing too, because I'm so used to governments putting money before everything. Perhaps it's not always the bottom line - in this case I suppose it's wanting to "protect the people." Well, maybe there are good intentions at heart (maybe), but, I agree with comedian David Cross who points to the Nazi era for an answer to this debacle:
"What were those video games that Hitler played, again? What were those video games that Hiter gave to the..entire German Republic?"Australia's has had its problems in terms of crime, but the fact its been pretty much proven video games, if anything, lower crime rates, should be enough to get them to relax a bit, no? In many ways, I think video games are a form of release as opposed to a provacateur for violence. Why else would so many gamers trash talk each other? It's healthy and fun to get that out, and to tap into that violent or dark side of things to an extent. These things already exist in society, always have, video games or not. Acknowledging and experiencing them via a virtual medium isn't much different than reading a book about them, or whatever else. And for the argument that games are different because they're "interactive," so are other mediums, it's just that less is left to the imagination, and more stimulation is offered (generally), but it's not the kind of stimulation that's going to make you go off somebody. So, Australia, New Zealand, from me to you: relax, it'll all be okay.
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