Left 4 Dead 2 Approved In Australia After Edits 134
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.
Or to put that in other words (Score:5, Insightful)
"L4d2 in Australia now significantly less entertaining."
In soldier of fortune it was just gratuitous, in an over the top zombie game the gore fits perfectly.
Dear Valve (Score:2, Insightful)
court room near you soon (Score:5, Insightful)
Judge: "Please explain to me just what the defendant was thinking when he shot the victim in the head?"
Lawyer: "Well, your Honor, as avid player of computer games he was thoroughly conditioned, that this action would have little to no consequence to the other party. In fact, my client was completely shocked at the amount of blood produced by the unfortunate victim as he had never seen something like that in the very real depictions of violence in his computer games. He also believed, and this may strike us as somewhat strange but was his reality at that moment, that the victim would quickly recover from any damages even if they had been caused by my client. That the unfortunate Mr. Smith didn't 'respawn', as my client had experienced thousands of times before, came as a true surprise to him. We therefore believe, while his the results of his actions are very regrettable he bears no guilt as he merely played according to the rules of his previous conditioning, which suggested no such dramatic outcome! Thank you."
Re:Or to put that in other words (Score:4, Insightful)
"L4d2 in Australia now significantly less entertaining."
In soldier of fortune it was just gratuitous, in an over the top zombie game the gore fits perfectly.
You know as much as I agree that the Australian government is just plain silly, I wouldn't say that the game becomes less entertaining. I don't know if it's just me but I'm from the generation where blood is completely irrelevant. It could be gushing and it could be sipping, I would be indifferent because it wouldn't affect me. I grew up watching so many movies with so much blood in them that blood doesn't entertain me anymore. However I do think that it's the Australian governments need to force their christian morals (this is the way I've understood it, that there are many christian politicians pushing nonsensical things, such as this [slashdot.org], correct me if I'm wrong though) on their citizens is far more disgusting than any amount of gore. I just hope the Australian citizens won't take this kind of bullshit. It's up to generation Y to make shit right.
Re:Dear Valve (Score:5, Insightful)
No no no, you will pay for it obviously. Otherwise you would probably be restricted to non-Steam servers, AKA 1 shitty server. Instead you will download a conversion mod that valve will strangely not mind.
Dear Australia, (Score:3, Insightful)
Please stop your nannystate-ification.... where else will I flee to escape the fascism in the US?
Sincerely, A US citizen
Re:Or to put that in other words (Score:5, Insightful)
This from the country that made Road Warrior! (Score:3, Insightful)
Such a dumb policy.
Re:You know what they say about the ratings board. (Score:4, Insightful)