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.


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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
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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,

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

What a fitting name...

Borderlands stays out of the kitchen!

'Sup.

So, in relation to my last post... Borderlands 2 is one of the games that realises apparently half the gaming population is female. And what follows is a rambling review of gender-specific part of the game.

Unlike the first game, which I remember being pretty heavy on the sausage (and light on the story) this game has surparssed expectations and made a shooter that includes women. And I don't mean a token chick - an effort to reach a demographic - women are integrated into the fabulous world of Pandora. The roles for women aren't - for the most part - female specific, a lot of the roles seem genderless, and only include women because, well, half of us ARE female.

The producers of the game haven't targeted girl-gamers, it doesnt come off that way at least, they've just made a fully realized world. The whole production of the game seems pretty female-friendly... okay, apart from that casual misstep where one of the producers nicknamed one of the "hey you suck? well pick this" skill the girlfriend tree and got raked over the coals...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-13-borderlands-2-gearbox-reveals-the-mechromancers-girlfriend-mode

 

Just to clarify, I suck at critical hits. But that's because I didnt grow up with first person shooters - I grew up with Bloodrayne.

...the whole Borderlands 2 experience is welcoming for a woman. I'm not going to go into the "TITS OR GTFO" experiences some people have on the servers, I haven't played online so I don't know what the community is like - but the game itself is done the way it should be.

Ellie - likes: cuddling, murder

It's little things - walking up to a NPC in town and hearing a female voice (alot of the random characters in the towns are androgynous looking), getting many questlines of female characters. You spend time with the vault hunters from the first game - and the character that's around the longest is Lilith. Surprising.

I have to note that the humanoid grunt-enemies you fight in the game are all male - you wont find any real female presence there apart from the occasional Queen Sandworm .

I can't assume it was to save costs when there are so many enemy types. I'm not sure what drove that choice when female presence and image was so easily achieved elsewhere in the game. Perhaps market studies show that people are just happier shooting virtual men? *shrug* for a different blog perhaps...

Before launch, there were four main characters, and it was the usual spread of three male/one female - but then they added Gaige, who I believe is a thirteen yr old robot-constructor. I was pleasantly surprised! Three to two isn't bad - especially when we're talking about a shooter, a usually male dominated genre.

But on TOP of the even character genders, they also show a full spectrum of female archtypes. From Tiny Tina - a tween explosives expert, to Moxxie - the oversexualised one,

Moxxie's favourite weapon - Miss Moxxie's Good Touch is a gun that vibrates your controller when you equip it.... Hmmm....

to Angel - the helpless madonna, to Gaige - the cute one, to Ellie - the one defying body image, to Captain Scarlett - the one that will definitely stab you in the back.

I friggen love the jovial, upper crust, hook-handed Scarlett.

These women aren't the usual bikini clad, big chested dolls that usually populate video games (despite what an internet search on the females in the game could lead you to believe, I swear there are a lot of great artists out there that want to do nothing but draw Maya performing favours on the rest of the main characters) - not every female character is a sexpot like Moxxie. And that's important to have - it's good that females aren't just represented by "sexy". There are more character options out there - and Gearbox understood that.

Wearing a blood-stained mask of a Psycho on her head...

I couldn't be happier seeing so many females populating Pandora. And the ability to play two different female characters - with female voices - it's just great. I'm invested in this game, and it is an amazing game besides all this, because I feel welcome to it.

 

Hopefully the big damn success of Borderlands 2 will encourage other production houses to look closely at what Gearbox Software does. Not only has it made an engaging game here, it’s made an involving game for all those gamers out there - not just half.

Girl gamers? Not such a minority anymore...

So I got the EB World email, along with 1 million other gamers. And I was surprised to see 42% of those gamers ... were female!

Say what?

I know. For a moment, I thought someone may have made a typo as well. But I'm going to go with it. In fact, the surprise was a happy one. All I ever hear about in regards to girl gamers is the gender disparity in the community - mostly represented by the question: "Wait - you play games? You?"

Yes I do. And apparently so do a lot of other women.

This what it must've been for all the gamers in 1986, victoriously finishing Metroid after hours only to find... *GASP* Samus Aran is a girl!

You crafty bitch! I couldn't see your swimsuit under all that power armor!

That might not seem like a big surprise but in 1986 - it was! Whahhh? A girl?
The creator actually put this reveal in to surprise the player - which to be surprising has to be unexpected. And it was, despite coming out early in the line up, Samus was surrounded by Contra, Super Mario Bros, a ton of male sprites in assorted sport games, Castlevania etc etc And Samus caused a stir. She even has a trope named after her...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SamusIsAGirl

Despite being created for shock value, Samus also created a female presence in games. While many people perceived her as hardly making any strides forward for female kind because under the power armor she could be anything - male, female, alien - that's not really the point. She just is a woman. The story isn't any different, she kicks butt like any other character would. She definitely isn't helpless. And she's a chick.

Why did I even mention Samus? Because she represents! I'm a woman and I don't mind playing male characters but that doesn't mean I *only* want to play male characters.
Portal's Chell is a modern version of Samus. She's a woman for the reason that... she is. There is no reason. It's not a big thing. She just has girl-parts instead of boy-parts. There should be more of this.

And I agree, we are getting much more! RPG games would have a female character choice as a standard now.
FPS usually have at least a 1 in 4 chance of a woman. Borderlands is the one I've been playing recently. Left 4 Dead is another.

But I want more. I want a female protag in a Bioshock type game. I want a Wonder Woman game as awesome as Batman: Arkham City!

Games are still mostly representing males, it's true. A quick view at Playstation's Coming Soon List confirmed my suspicions (along with a very high number of sequels?) I think all the titles in the next few months have male looking characters on the covers.

But hey, if 42% of gamers are apparently females... then we have a weighty presence. We BUY almost half your products. Want to sell more games to 42% of your market? I have a few ideas how...