State Labor MP Paul Gibson, chairman of the Staysafe Committee, is taking action against the racing title "Project Gotham Racing 2" (due for release in 2 weeks), particularly since it contains a racing level which has Sydney as a track...
quote:"This game sends the wrong message to young people. It is actually glorifying speed and power," Mr Gibson said. "It is clearly an inappropriate depiction of speed behaviour. If I had my way I would ban it...
It's better to be safe than sorry.
Games like this and things like car-surfing in film clips and in movies are undoing a lot of the effort authorities are putting into road safety."
Paul Gibson intends to take the matter up with the Office of Film and Literature Classification.
This has got to be the most absurd knee-jerk reaction I've seen in a long time!! PGR2 is as harmless as they come for a racing game, but this MP wants it banned because it "glorifies speed and power" ?! With that warped view, ALL forms of racing games are evil... even Mario Kart :) It'd be a sad precedent if this MP actually manages to affect the rating of this title or even get it banned..
But hey, "It's better to be safe than sorry." !! [;)]
The sad thing is, these politicians have absolutely no statistcs to base their beliefs on, they don't have a clue about the target market for games or know the motivation behind the people who buy them... they simply want to make a name for themselves.
I wonder why he hasn't gone for Need for Speed Underground, (which is due around the same time as PGR2) and deals with illegal street racing, shit he might as well just say 'let's ban all games that permit the player to drive faster than our road laws allow'
The thing that baffles me is why he hasn't targeted the movie industry as well and tried to have movies like 'The fast and the furious' and it's sequel banned...
"This game sends the wrong message to young people"
Yeah, to people who aren't old enough to drive. @:-)
"The thing that baffles me is why he hasn't targeted the movie industry as well and tried to have movies like 'The fast and the furious' and it's sequel banned..."
Cuz they weren't on Sydney streets. Maybe he should boycott Mission Impossible 2. It was based in Australia. Mad Max aswell.
We should send him a copy of Postal 2. Just for kicks.
Yay, yet another MP who doesn't understand the distinction between reality and fantasy :-(
But even assuming for a moment that reality and fantasy are the same, games are hardly the biggest contributer to the glorification of speed and power in australian culture. For example, the glorification of speed and power in advertising cars.
I think he's honestly trying to address some real problems in our society (rather than making a name for himself), but he's just having issues convincing his stem cells to turn themselves into neurons [;)]
"Games like this and things like car-surfing in film clips and in movies are undoing a lot of the effort authorities are putting into road safety"
The only movie I recall that had any kind of car surfing in it was Teen Wolf, which is from almost two decades ago! And that's not something I'd really want to admit to seeing in a public forum either [;)] But seriously, racing games (along with platform games) are really one of those really harmless genres where you don't see any blood or casualties, so it seems such a stretch that they would pull their 'bad influence' tag it. It's just absurd! As absurd as Mario encouraging young kids to headbutt brick walls and eat mushrooms (like what Malus jokingly said earlier somewhere). I guess they're tired of going after the Grand Theft Auto's and other FPS's.. if they had it their way, all we'd have left to play is Tetris and Pong!
quote:Originally posted by Souri
if they had it their way, all we'd have left to play is Tetris and Pong!
And encourage a generation of youths to pursue brick-laying and international tabble tennis careers? Well I'm afraid that clashes with our international image of being intelligent, tech savvy, go-getter, underdog, Aussie battlers - so they'd also have to go. Sorry.
Maybe we should make a game that has you play as a politician, you could get caught doing insider trading, spend a few weeks in the minimum security "hilton" prison then write your biography and retire to say..Monaco or Paris. [:P]
Why is it that they think games are evil because 1 out of every 600 million people think quake is real life and strap a rocket launcher to there neighbours cat?
Maybe if we make gaming an organised religion we'd get cut some slack, I mean certain religions have been responsible for millions of deaths over their history and they tend to have an unhealthy fondness for children but hey they mean well so they get a second chance..err is that 3rd chance..um I've lost count, how many kids make it a crime again?!.
Oh and vilonce on TV/film is fine btw, because its not interactive..meh, kill Bill is some much better for kids than Mario. >:|
I own PGR1, and unless I have missed the point entirely, I thought that they rewarded you for safe driving. That means that if you crash, you can fail all out. Maybe if the moron actually played it instead of seeing it he may know.
I would be more inclined to ban Fast And The Furious just so that it doesn't turn the viewers of it into brain dead rice rocket driving idiots :P
Meh. He'll get shot down in a flaming ball of wankerage. Like he deserves :D
Perhaps they should ban races, car expo's (for lack of a better word, summerNats etc.), magazines that tell you how to increase your cars engine power etc., tv shows about racing and cars, ban the sale of turbo chargers, blowers and bonnet scoops and ban the sale of any car that can achieve speeds above the speed limit.
THEN think about banning games that depict car racing.
It's really very similar to people who complain about games causing people to go out and shoot other people. If the guns weren't available in the first place it just couldn't happen. If fast cars are not available then people couldn't race either!!!
Of course it's easioer to find a scape goat in games than to take away my shiny new BMW.
CYer, Blitz
quote:Originally posted by Malus
Why is it that they think games are evil because 1 out of every 600 million people think quake is real life and strap a rocket launcher to there neighbours cat?
So thats what happened to my cat...
quote:Originally posted by Aven
I would be more inclined to ban Fast And The Furious just so that it doesn't turn the viewers of it into brain dead rice rocket driving idiots :P
Screw you Aven[:p]. I'm not brain dead.
I have a feeling I won't be getting a response to my email to that guy.
Being a motorsport fan, and a sometimes rally competitor, it pisses me off to no end when a politician claims that everyone is at least as stupid as they are and promotes the most fucking retarded solution to the problem that even an 80 y.o. alzheimers sufferer on meth could better.
Yet another moron politician unwittingly giving free publicity to a game.
It'll sell twice as many copies now.