Graffiti Game Banned in Australia

afaik_ianal writes "The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that 'Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure' has been banned in Australia. The game involves battling the authorities to overthrow corrupt officials using only street fighting skills and graffiti. From the article, "The decision was endorsed last night by the Federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, who had asked the board to review of the game's MA15+ classification after local councils and state governments voiced concerns that the game would promote graffiti.""

More Stupid Censorship and Irony

[ami-in-hamburg (917802)]

Again, another government stepping in where parents and society in general should be the authority.

Isn't it ironic though that the point of the game is to fight government corruption and promote freedom of expression.

Re:More Stupid Censorship and Irony

[lxs (131946)]

Isn't it ironic though that the point of the game is to fight government corruption and promote freedom of expression.

No, it's standard practice in political censorship to attack some side issue and not the political message. For instance, Ulysses was written by an Irishman and criticised British rule over Ireland.

Ulysses was banned for obscenity rather than for it's political content even though the so called obscene content was tame even for the time in which it was written. The same case can be made for the film of A Clockwork Orange, which I believe is still banned in the UK.

Re:More Stupid Censorship and Irony

[LordSnooty (853791)]

In the UK, A Clockwork Orange wasn't banned by any Government agency but by Kubrick himself, "on police advice after threats were made against Kubrick and his family" (link) [wikipedia.org]. It didn't get a video release until after Kubrick's death. But it was never "banned" in the traditional sense. The director refused to permit its release. Now it's been on TV & all sorts, and yes it's tame.

Re:More Stupid Censorship and Irony

[by Anonymous Coward]

America's such a good example.

Actually, America is a perfect example.

The more they regulate and litigate the worse things get here.

There is a correlation, wether the totalitarians want to admit it or not.

Politicians have absolutely NO RIGHT nor should they have the power to tell the population what is right or moral for what sould be completely obvious reasons to anyone smarter than the average barnyard monkey.

Re:More Stupid Censorship and Irony

[Crizp (216129)]

[...] when we "try" to emulate the real world so that the breaking of the law is very close, as society, we need to step in a stop this. It sends the wrong message.

Mr. Thompson? Jack? Is that you?

You can have your cute games with their colored walls. I think what the "realistic" games do is allow an outlet for things that should not be let out in public. Like killing people, or walking around randomly pissing on folks. It's safer to do it in-game, and you also avoid running into petty quarrels with those law enforcement people.

I support the idea that the parents are ultimately responsible for what input their kids recieve in the fragile little minds of theirs. There will always be people doing bad things because - well, they do bad things. The reasons are many and complicated, but games (as TV before them) are not the one and only cause of this. A catalyst, perhaps, not the reason.

Re:More Stupid Censorship and Irony

[Lisandro (799651)]

Oh, so we should allow anything inappropriate like drugs and guns to be freely allowed - like that works! Perhaps we should allow porn of all types to be available in public libraries, because clearly most parents do the "right thing" and educate their kids... what a joke, what world do you live in?

    Guns and porn are freely allowed, just not to a kid. You need a licence for a gun - you can even carry them arround in the street if you have a permit. Porn is allowed to everyone who's legally old enough.
    I also had this discussion with a friend a while ago about if drugs should be legalized, like alcohol is - i think that marijuana should be legalized, but he made a pretty good case about how every single drug should be legalized, which is a longer story in itself. Even then, alcohol, tobbaco and some medicaments ARE drugs and you can get them, again, if you're old enough.

    Eventually it's up to the parents to decide what's sutiable for their children to see. See, kids are NOT the only one playing games. And we have a rating system already to determine which games can and which ones can't be sold to a kid. Banning it was completely unnecesary. The game doesn't encourage vandalism more than GTA encourages stealing cars, Hollywood action movies encourage shooting people and religious TV shows encourage catholicism.

Re:More Stupid Censorship and Irony

[Haeleth (414428)]

I'm sorry but I can't be supportive of any game that encourages breaking the law.

So, do you think this [chathamhillgames.com] game should be banned? It encourages kids to take the roles of 19th century slaves illegally running away and depriving their masters of their lawfully-owned property!

And what about this [wikipedia.org] game, where players are encouraged to steal a continent from its indigenous people, and then to commit high treason against their monarch? Clearly it should be banned! Won't somebody think of the children?!

Sorry, but breaking the law is not always wrong. I would far rather our children were being taught to think for themselves and to actually consider the moral implications of various acts, than that they were being brainwashed into a black-and-white "Obey the laws because the State Knows Best" worldview.

If there is hope, it lies with the proles. Let's educate them.

that sucks

[[cx] (181186)]

I guess kids will have to stick to the real thing.

They have now guaranteed it will be a hit!

[dustpuppy (5260)]

I think we have long gone past the point were censorship of this nature will have any effect. What with bittorrent and other P2P networks, people will still be able to obtain copies. And by making such a big deal of it, all the authorities have done is made it into the latest 'must have' computer game.

And I would love to read their position paper (which will apparently get relaeased) soon that explains the majority and minority positions. I cannot understand how they feel that they should ban this game and yet allow violent movies to not be banned.

Who else feels...

[Vo0k (760020)]

...that they were concerned the game would promote THE OTHER aspect of the gameplay?

Grafitti vs beating people up...

[supertsaar (540181)]

So Spraying a tag on a wall is worse than the old knee-to-the-solar-plexus move? Chigago-Curb-Job? Columbian Necktie?
That makes me very sad. We teach our kids that violence is cool, acceptable, exciting, fun.
Then we complain about all the violence in the streets.
If you want to ban a game, please ban it for excessive violence, not for some paint sprayed on walls.

Strange laws

[grimdawg (954902)]

I'm in a bind about this. What most people don't know is that Australia lacks an Adults only game rating, so any game unsuitable for people between 16 and 17 must be banned, as 15+ is the hardest rating. This was the reason for the banning of games such as GTA3 (before changes) and BMX XXX. I'm torn on this issue, because I don't believe these games are suitable for kids under 18, and so by Aussie law, they're banned. Sure, it's up to the parents, but a game can't be rated 18+, so any 16yo would be able to get his hands on any game without parental consent. In summary, the ban is correct under Australian law (we should by no means lower the rating of titles to get them oin shelves), but the OFLC needs an 18+ rating, pronto.

Philip Ruddock

[MichaelSmith (789609)]

the game features a world where freedom of expression is suppressed by a tyrannical city government.

I've got an idea for a character in the next version of the game.

But seriously, most of the games out there promote violence, road rage, all kinds of stuff, and they can still be sold. What makes graffiti so important?

You Fuckstick!

[Chuck Chunder (21021)]

Sorry, the form heading said "Reply to: Philip Ruddock" and I got carried away by the moment....

It used to be Music

[CB-in-Tokyo (692617)]

It used to be music that everyone said was a bad influence, now it is Video games.

I love the following Frank Zappa quotation.

"There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do
something we'd all love one another."
-- Frank Zappa

Not exactly the same, but close enough if we replace love songs with first person shooters and....

Nevermind

A bit of context, please.

[iainl (136759)]

The real issue, once again, is that Australia don't have the equivalent of the UK's "18" or US "M" for games, so the highest possible rating is the aforementioned MA15+. So games like the GTA series are already banned there.

Since the game involves just as much violence against policemen as GTA does, and the only non-violent aspect to the game is the vandalism, my only surprise is that they considered it possible for an MA15+ in the first place.

Jet Set Radio

[nkh (750837)]

Was Jet Set Radio [wikipedia.org] banned in Australia?

Wow

[squoozer (730327)]

So it's ok to "promote" shooting people, running people down and using / abusing prostitutes (GTA and plenty of others) but it's not ok to "promote" tagging a wall. Hmmmm we have a very weird society.

Re:Wow

[tpgp (48001)]

So it's ok to "promote" shooting people, running people down and using / abusing prostitutes (GTA and plenty of others)but it's not ok to "promote" tagging a wall.

GTA was banned in Australia too [zdnet.com.au]

Hmmmm we have a very weird society.

I'm not sure whether you're talking about the USA or Australia - you seem a little confused. (but yes, they're both quite weird)

Game banning in Australia

[BlackMesaLabs (893043)]

From someone who lives here, here's the deal with what gets banned (as in games), and the GTA oddities: GTA 3 was released here, uncut. Then they found out about the prostitutes, and revoked classification- forcing a recall
After this, the game was edited to remove the prostitute functionality and re-released, conforming to Aus standards. The reason the prostitutes were removed was NOT because of the sexual content, rather, it was because of the very strict rules we have here about sex and violence. It was the fact you could kill hookers after sex that had the game censored.
Vice city was pre-edited by the developers and had NO sex (the Candy Suxx FMV's were fucked up) Pardon the pun.
GTA:SA came out WITH hookers, unedited. I have no idea how/why this happened.
Generally games are censored here when sex and violence is mixed, IN ANY WAY. Duke Nukem 3D was censored because you could shoot the strippers.
I dont understand the logic of this banning though

Stupid logic

[Neo-Rio-101 (700494)]

In Japan, no game really gets publically banned for being violent or degrading (other than the pubes-mosiac thing), but then there is little violence in society and next to no graffiti. There is no fear of violence ever influencing anybody.

The logic goes that maybe if there was less graffiti and less violence in Australia, then we could have violent games and nobody would care about any influence.

Seems to me that the outside world influences video games more than the other way around.

Re:GREAT!

[strider44 (650833)]

No you don't, at least not in Sydney. Anyway I don't see how something like this *really* actually fuels graffiti. I'm one of those people who thinks that GTA doesn't fuel people going around shooting everybody, and like the designer said, it's not that hard to draw on a wall, and if a kid wants to do it he doesn't need a game to show him how.

Quoth the Simpsons:


Meyers: I did a little research and I discovered a startling thing...
There was violence in the past, long before cartoons were invented.
Kent: I see. Fascinating.
Meyers: Yeah, and know something, Kent? The Crusades, for instance.
Tremendous violence, many people killed, the darned thing went
on for thirty years.
Kent: And this was before cartoons were invented?
Meyers: That's right, Kent.

Re:GREAT!

[Dachannien (617929)]

The difference is that most kids know that killing is wrong, and won't kill someone because of that (as opposed to not killing someone solely because they might get caught). But a lot of kids put graffiti in the same category as underage smoking/drinking, smoking marijuana, shoplifting, and other nonviolent offenses. Nobody gets injured by graffiti and vandalism, so it seems more like a victimless crime, and so a kid's sense of morality is more likely to be swayed by peer pressure and media influence.

I'm not saying the game should be banned. Freedom of speech and all that. But I am saying that games like Getting Up and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 should be rated closer to the adult end of the scale by the ESRB and that retailers should take this rating into account when selling games directly to minors. I'm also saying that developers should think about the impact that their work has on society and make an informed decision about whether they're handling things responsibly, rather than just thinking, "Man, this is sweet!" and charging forward.

Re:...and so they should !!

[actor_au (562694)]

Jet Set Radio Future.
And it was done better than this dreck will be.

Re:Not surprising - the games are coming up!

[Gleng (537516)]

I lived in Melbourne for nearly five years, and I used to really enjoy looking at the graffiti whilst on boring train journeys. I'd MUCH rather look at the graffiti - some of which is absolutely amazing - than a plain, blank grey wall for an hour, but that's just me I suppose.

It would be a much better use of time if they could stop the trains on the Frankston line smelling like stale piss.