Any legal people on these boards?
Seeing that GTA: SA is now banned, do you think game designers could sue the OFLC for making us anti-competitive.
The whole GTA series is held up by most game publishers as the game they want to beat, and San Andreas particularly so.
If we are denied access to this game because of the fact that we have no R18+ classification for games, isn't that making us anti-competitive, and doesn't that go against the whole Free Trade thing that the Howard Govt has been trying to push thru the senate for the last few years?
Surely there is something we can do? I'm pretty sure a class action on behalf of the game devs in Oz against the OFLC would result in the R18+ category being applied to games quick smart...
Souri: They sell them under the counter [;)].
Maddox has a rant on GTA-SA:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=ticket_to_hell
Germanys game rating laws are so anal, because of the way their system is set up.
To take you back to your school days......
Germany was build by the church because of all the money it received from the population (Germany is VERY religious). So when the time came to form a nation the church had all the power.
Flash forward to today: and all major decisions still need the church's approval to some extent.
Why? Because %99.9 percent of the population are devout church goers and if you try to release a product that?s been condemned by the church then you won't make very many sales.
Over the years though, the older generation have passed away and the more westernized, young generation aren?t looking to the church for all the answers.
Sorry to go off topic but I just wanted to explain that Germany has a reason for its Anal-ness where as Australia is only this way because two members of the OFLC don't understand computers.
On another note you can still buy GTASA at Harvey Norman, go figure? I guess they haven't heard that the game is bad mmmmkay.
Tim Richards would be the legal person to chat to about this. Hopefully he'll be able to chime in with some of his knowledge.
The OFLC doesn't have the power to change the ratings system to include an R rating. You should be pressuring the federal government, and I think the best chance we had in getting changes was probably during the last election where we could've voted Howard and his cabinet out.
I think a game like GTA: San Andreas highlights what's exactly wrong with our games classification system. It's a game which that was classified overseas as a 17+ title, but (until recently) was available here at MA 15+. The whole lack of R rating issue is not only taking away our choices as adult consumers, but is ensuring that some games that are intended for an older audience are pushed to a younger one.
That whole free-trade thing is a huge can of worms, I have no idea how this could be played out with that in mind. I do wonder what choice local retailers have now that San Andreas is banned. Do they write off their copies in stock?