Aussie Attorney General Says Gamers Are Scarier Than Biker Gangs 409
Sasayaki writes "South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson claims, in an interview with Good Game, that gamers were more of a threat to his family than biker gangs. This is the man who has been the biggest opponent to Australia receiving an R18+ rating for video games and who has the power to veto any such law introducing it."
Anecdotal Evidence Disagrees. (Score:4, Interesting)
Gamers sometimes learn bad fictional behavior. (Consider the evil character paths in various D&D games.) Gamers frequently learn good fictional behavior. (Consider the hero character paths in many D&D games.)
In contrast, a chapter of Hell's Angels in Hamburg ran multiple houses for the rape of teenage girls and women held as slaves. (Sources: Victor Malarek's The Natashas, Terry Lee Wright's River of Innocents [riverofinnocents.com].) They were responsible for enabling thousands of rapes in the real world.
Yes, it's atypical for a biker gang. But all things considered, it's more rare for the gamer.
Re:Veto? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:5, Interesting)
To be fair to the guy, if he's worried about threats to his family, none of that matters.
Of course, the fact that he uses ridiculous rhetoric (apparently he claimed bikers cooked a cat on a grill in his district; even though it wasn't a cat, wasn't in his district, and no bikers were involved) doesn't help matters. However, threatening the guy is the exact wrong way to go about fixing the Aussie rating system. Gamers making threats will just reinforce the stereotype that gamers are dangerous, giving him more reason to oppose adult classifications for games.
So, to everyone in Australia, the guy who made that threat is fucking it up for the rest of you. Maybe you should beat him up, or something...
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:2, Interesting)
To be fair, he did introduce "guilt by association" legislation to make bikie gangs illegal in South Australia. That is why he is making this particular comparison.
Re:Oh, great; there's MORE of these wackos? (Score:2, Interesting)