Warren Seen

Sounds like the fuddy-duddies on the Australian Censorship board are at it again. In a move that comes as no surprise, they’ve effectively banned Getting Up by refusing classification, meaning it can’t be legally imported, sold or shown/played in Australia.
According to smh.com.au:

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.

but wait for it…

Set in a city of the future, the game features a world where freedom of expression is suppressed by a tyrannical city government.
Game players battle the authorities to overthrow corrupt officials using only street fighting skills and graffiti.

I can’t believe it’s not irony…

To his credit, Marc Ecko takes the high road.

“… to blame gaming for everything that is inherently wrong in our homes, in our schools and on our streets is much easier to do than to actually figure out ways to fix the systemic problems that exist within our culture.”

Of course it’s in his interests to take this line, but in this case, beyond being convenient, it’s also the truth.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 16th, 2006 at 2:03 pm and is filed under games, gaming, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.