Left 4 Dead 2 Banned Down Under Options

[NergiZed]

article

Well, well, well. That's actually not that surprising, the Aussies have been rather tough on games in recent years. Still though, I feel quite sad that now I'll have an incredibly low chance of meeting anyone with an Australian accent in L4D2.

I wonder if Germany will ban this game?

[MARS]

I'm not quite informed about the infamous Australian rating system but isn't it because they don't have an 18+ rating for games and the next rating wouldn't be enough so they simply go ahead and ban the game right away? That's worse than Germany, man, at least we DO HAVE an 18+ rating. Sure, there's a big chance the game'll come out censored anyway but they still release it. This is just...amazingly backward and unworldly, it saddens me. Where they expecting video games to remain as tame and abstract as they were around the time this system was created?

[beefJeRKy]

This isn't going to happen. Both Fallout 3 and Prototype were approved. This game will likely be tamer (only slightly). Once the actual game is released and a proper rating is assigned, it'll hit the store shelves.

[wb21]

They're just protecting their morals (that concern the Columbine incidents in the US a decade earlier), banning GTA: San Andreas simply because of the "Hot Coffee" scandal in 2005 that Rockstar did solved at that time by recalling and replacing the copies with the sexual content, but I agree, it maybe worse than Deutsch game censorship (and even much worse than C&C: Generäle)...

[Alias]

It is nothing to do with protecting our morals, the stupid government just hasn't got the balls or the effort to add an adult rating to games. Our actual rating system is quite lenient in the case of movies (since it has an 18+ rating that rarely gets used) with most of the movies that America rates restricted to 17+ rated as 'not recommended' for people under 15. The main issue with it is the fact that the film system has two extra ratings on the top, so for the rare cases where a higher rating is required they can actually give it the higher rating.

There is only two main problems with our rating system: the lack of consistency between the different sections (film, video games, literature) as the rating system is all over the place, and the lack of a main backbone to how they rate things in general (which is generally quite lenient).

Also, fun fact: 'refused classification' items such as Left 4 Dead 2 are not banned. They are legal to possess, it is only illegal to sell/lend/advertise them. The only case where it is illegal to possess a refused classification item is if the reason for refusal is for illegal content (child porn/bestiality/rape etc). In these cases it would be illegal to possess it outside of the rating system regardless of the rating.

[wb21]

Banning the game for its content may be okay, but doing so just because the poor OFLC system doesn't have a higher rating for such games is a different story, I agree with Alias and Rayburn...

EA's response:

"It's funny that a place like Australia, which has come up with some pretty violent material in the past with something like Mad Max, can effectively ban videogames for the same reason," snarks European communications director Tiffany Steckler. "EA believes that adults should have the right to make their own choices when it comes to the content they consume."

[Overdose]

Wow this is so strange that even EA has the voice of reason.

[beefJeRKy]

Wow this is so strange that even EA has the voice of reason.

EA seems susceptible to mood swings. Sometimes they produce awesome games through sub developers like BioWare while at other (more common) times they fail epically like with the recent C&C troubles or the DRM shitstorm of Crysis, Spore and RA3 among others.

[RaiDK]

Crysis had DRM?

[Stinger]

Crysis Warhead requires that you have an internet connection to "activate the product".

[beefJeRKy]

paul.dll

[Alias]

Last month we discussed news that Valve's upcoming shooter Left 4 Dead 2 had been denied classification in Australia, which meant the game could not be legally sold there. Now, after a series of edits which removed "considerable amounts of gore from gameplay," Australia's classification board has given the game an MA15+ rating. Their new report (PDF) says, "No wound detail is shown and the implicitly dead bodies and blood splatter disappear as they touch the ground. ... The board notes that the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment." The unmodified version of the game may still be approved, pending a review that concludes on October 22nd.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/10/09/0...-Edits?from=rss

There'll be a patch/mod to add it all back in again.

[wb21]

Perhaps there would be 2 versions, the censored version for Aussie consumers, and the original, unedited version for other countries.

[Overdose]

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/le...2/achievements/ <-- What the link says



Epic comic.

[NergiZed]

Indeed.

It is also filled with truth, as the Spitter in L4D2 is the only truely scary thing in the both L4D games.

[C.o.m.m.a.n.d.e....]

Indeed.

It is also filled with truth, as the Spitter in L4D2 is the only truely scary thing in the both L4D games.

theres no spitter in l4d1

[Sharpnessism]

http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/10/09/0...-Edits?from=rss

There'll be a patch/mod to add it all back in again.

a bit ridiculous how so many countries are bearing down hard on gaming but many other sources of violence run freely :/

[NergiZed]

theres no spitter in l4d1

What I meant was 'in the L4D franchise'.

[RaiDK]

a bit ridiculous how so many countries are bearing down hard on gaming but many other sources of violence run freely :/

Simple problem: TV Show / Movie ratings go to R, Video games only go to MA.

And yeah, someone will mod it back in easy.

[Mr.Kim]

Here are some new game play videos from GT. Including Human and infetcted.

Also, there is something new mode call Poolside(I'm not queit sure is). The main object is collecting gas tank to generator-fueling.

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/left-4-dead-2/11391

[Overdose]

That's called Scavenging. Its basically a single stage that works like a finale except you can't bunker up in a location and have to stay on the move to get the most or enough gas tanks to start the engine. This can be played in Versus mode as well.

[Mr.Kim]

Ah, I see.

Well, that's so bad about that anyway(I mean game policy). I think also same reason in Germay. If ban this game.

This post has been edited by MR.Kim: 15 Oct 2009, 4:49

[Shiro]

Ah, I see.

Well, that's so bad about that anyway(I mean game policy). I think also same reason in Germay. If ban this game.

Germany does not outright ban such games, however they are cripplingly censored.

[RaiDK]

I'd say it's more they ban a game until the company can be bothered making a hugely crippled/censored version which complies with their views.

[MARS]

Pretty much, but they usually sort these things out way before the actual release, so it's not like we have to wait another few months until we 'finally' get to buy our severely pussified version of the game. I don't really blame our ratings board, though. They're just following the rules that have been decided for them and it's not like EVERY game gets censored beyond repair. The problem is that many developers like to play it a bit too safe. When the first version of their game fails the test, they often remove more content than they actually have to, i.e. absolutely NO blood, NO physics, etc. This often applies to games which do contain a LOT of blood and gore. Instead of reducing the violence level to that of other violent games which got away uncensored (e.g. Farcry 2, Crysis, CoD4), they just remove everything to be sure.