Censorship for games in Australia?

I just read an article that makes me very nervous.


http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/state-of-decay-refused-classification-in-australia-20130627-2ozku.html


An open-world zombie survival game, State of Decay launched globally earlier this month, but it missed its local release, as the Australian Classification Board had not reached a verdict on the game.
It was announced on Wednesday that the game had been refused classification.
“Today, State of Decay was given a Refused Classification (RC) rating by the Australian Classification Board, meaning that the game cannot be made available to Australian customers at this time,” reads a statement issued by Microsoft. “[We are] currently evaluating the options with regards to the title’s classification.”

Are you reading that?

Developer Volition is working on an edited version to secure an Australian release.

Are you alarmed? I am very alarmed. I might let my complaint letter to the Australian Classifications Board speak for itself here.


**

Enquiry Details
In what capacity are you making this enquiry?	(Choose one) Concerned citizen Student Parent Interest/morals group representative Media Industry (film) Industry (computer games) Industry (publications) Industry (cinema) Government Film festival Other
Other
Category of enquiry	(Choose one) Rating of film - too high Rating of film - too low RC/banned film Content of film Rating of computer game - too high Rating of computer game - too low RC/banned computer game Content of computer game Rating of DVD - too high Rating of DVD - too low RC/banned DVD Content of DVD Rating of publication - too high Rating of publication - too low Content of publication Applying for a classification Training enquiry Film festival Website enquiry Employment Media Online Content Other

To Whom it May Concern,

I recently read a disturbing article on SMH.com about a game - State of Decay - being refused classification and was being edited FOR release here, I wanted to check with the people that would know, whether this was true.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/state-of-decay-refused-classification-in-australia-20130627-2ozku.html

If this article is false, please advise.

If this is true, I want to know how I can protest this.

I read that Australia wants to release an edited version of this game. I am not happy with this. I am a 27 yr old adult, and feel very alarmed when material that I purchase here has been censored in any way.

I value choice.

If the game is too violent, or there is drug use, or there are people exploding then I - as a 27 yr old adult - have the choice not to spend my money on it.

If the game developers want to access a larger market, they have the choice to remove certain elements from the game.

But removing elements from a game just because Australia refuses to allow the game into the country is not an acceptible choice.

Please write back.

Regards,

***


I'll post the reply here. I hope this isn't true, but if it is - this is no good.

What a fitting name...

A male character from borderlands had a boyfriend. And?

This isn't going to be a big post. It's just something I've wanted to say for a while, but it's such a small thing that I haven't said it.

Sir Hammerlock from Borderlands universe had some man love.

How do I know this? Because he makes an offhand comment about an ex-boyfriend in a mission he sends you one.

Why does it matter to the game? It doesn't.

That's why I wanted to say something.

So if he only makes a single offhand comment about an ex-boyfriend, and it doesn't matter at all to the game, why are you posting about it?

Simply because I found it really, really cool. There's no big reveal, there's no payoff to it or big storyline about his sexual preferences, he's not a romance option within the game. He's just a character in an FPS who happens to be gay or bi.

After sending you off to morph bugs into super bugs, and asking you to kill the ugly spider-octopus that chopped his hand off - this is just another mission. It's just something you do in the hopes Hammerlock will give you a badass sniper rifle.
"An old boyfriend of mine, name of Taggart, was hired to wipe out the Stalker population a while back. He also, adorably, tried to write a book about his adventures in the Highlands. You find the chapters of his book, and I'll plagiarize the living daylights out of them for mine. Win-win-win, as they say! Nobody says that. I say it." - Sir Hammerlock


This is business as usual stuff. It just happens.

And I love that.

It doesn't matter, in the end, Sir Hammerlock is just a cyborg dude giving you a quest. And we really need more of that sort of general, unphased representation. It's such a little thing, but it is important to gaming culture - to our culture at large.

You go, Gearbox.

Just chilling, being a role model for character creation.

Disney putting down the pens and picking up the software.

 

Disney turns away from hand-drawn animation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/mar/07/disney-hand-drawn-animation

 

What a saddening article.

 

Let me start off by saying I don't dislike 3D animated features.  They're good, often quirky, usually funny. But I think they have a personality that is very different to a 2D hand-drawn film.

I was born in the mid-80s so I grew up smack-bang in the middle of the Disney Renaissance - just when Disney was having a resurgence of popular animated movies and enjoying time at the top.

I remember my uncle giving me a copy of The Little Mermaid on VHS – still have that too, despite my lack of VHS player. I remember seeing The Lion King and Aladdin at the movies. I re-watched Pocahontas just today and realised, hey – I knew at least two of those songs word for word and I didn’t even have a copy of Pocahontas as a kid. The same phenomenon occurred when I re-watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Epic soundtrack to that one.

So, what was it about these 2D hand-drawn animated movies that I love so much? Why do I prefer them over the 3D films?

For a while, I thought I may be recapturing a sense of my childhood when I watched Disney, especially the ones I grew up with. But, hell, it’s not just me. The Lion King is the highest grossing hand-drawn animated movie ever.

It can’t be the storylines. The films under the banner of “Disney Renaissance” don’t exactly follow the same formula.

Hercules, for instance, is a comedy. It’s filled with comedic antagonists, an oddly unfitting motown score and chock full of pop culture references.

Nice.

 

Pocahontas is a serious story about race clashes and the telling of the fictional love between historic figures John Smith and Pocahontas. It's also one of the only (the only?) Disney movies where the love interests don't end up together at the end. Though I'm not in love with the art in this one, it's a bit flat unless there's neon leaves whisking about.

Mulan is a study on gender equality from a Chinese poem, with the best love story in a Disney movie to date - I mean, she's a "dude" when their love story blossoms.

He's up for it.

(p.s. love how wiki categorises this one: "Mulan is a 1998 American animated comedy-drama martial arts musical film")

 

It's a combination of story, art and soundtrack that made the Disney Renaissance what it was. But that old Disney magic shines brightest through the physical efforts of it's animators. And as much as I like 3D animated movies, I am yet to see them match the feeling evoked by the Disney Renaissance. I'm yet to be convinced it CAN be replicated. 

Iconic.

Tangled was Disney's fiftieth animated movie and marked a turning point for the company. I think that turning point was that it was using half 2D half 3D animation and beat Princess and the Frog twofold in box office ticket sales.

And I know that the crinkle of hundreds of millions of dollars is hard to argue against, but I am. There is a place for this, there’s an undeniable charm of 2D hand-drawn Disney.

Hopefully, that charm lies in the future as well, not just the past.