We managed to get a sweet interview with the Director of the Office of Film and Literature lassification, Mr Des Clark, trying to find out the definate facts about the whole GTA:SA classification brew ha ha (god I've always wanted to use that word) here in Australia.

You can read it here: http://www.australiangamer.com/feature.php?id=48

That's awesome that you got an interview out of them, good work man. :thumbsup:

You guys seem to be doing a better job at making an Aussie gaming site than others. ;)

Lol, cheers brother ...

I think its just cause we're persistant bastards that the OFLC actually got back to us ... we kept calling and leaving messages :)

Awesome stuff. Hyper site is down. Good job.

I still find it total bullshit that they won't consider an R18+ for games. I'm sure the OFLC knows that it's not just kids playing games anymore...

That was a good read. Top work man. :)

Check this out for probably the best opinion I've read on this whole "hot coffee" controversy:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c....=ticket_to_hell

If an R rating was introduced we wouldn't see many games classified R, I mean how many films are classified R?

The MA15 + category is pretty broad, and allows for a lot of content, it would of course be nice to have an R category to avoid any possible bans.

While his point of only a year’s difference between the ratings is a good one... I still do not feel sorry for Rockstar or any other company that is making games like these.

They knew at the moment, the gaming industry is under attack for games like these and to put code like this into the finish product was just foolish, irresponsible and brings down the reputation of the gaming industry. And soon because of it the gaming industry will be so regulated that it will have all the fun sucked out of it.

The system in the US is stupid, M17+ and then AO18+, at least in Australia our system makes more sense, MA15+ and then R18+. Disregarding the fact that there is no R for games..

It also looks like Killer 7 could be in the firing line now? what do you think of that? I have yet to play it, so I don't know if it is warranted or not.

Hey, if Australia doesn't want an R18 rating, screw that. Aussie gamers will simply import those banned/censored (and don't forget earler releases) games. I say install that modchip and go order Killer 7 online.

Having played and finished the game I can safely say that the complaits are bull crap, the so called 'sex scene' is so tame it falls well within the MA15+ guidelines, hell the sex scenes in a James Bond movie that is rated PG or M is probably worse!

I dont think the OFLC would make a change, its not like the Hot Coffee, where the OFLC wasnt even aware of the code, with Killer 7 it's apart of the game they would have seen it, and it falls within the critera.

Having said that, it probably wouldnt hurt to buy the game as quick as you could (if you wanted it), just in case ;) But I'd say it's unlikely for anything to happen, didnt Mr. Thompson make some comments about The Sims 2? :rolleyes:

EA probably paid him a good sum or something of the likes.

It's so wierd you know, I can play Counter-strike and get headshots, stab people, grenade people and use automatic rifles yet when sex is involved in a game everyone goes apeshit. It doesn't make sense.

Thought some of you might be interested in this. Interview

Its Jack Thompson views about hot coffee and Killer 7 and violence and sex in videogames. its an 80 min mp3 so no reading involed.

I wish that guy would just die. Like, a Frank Grimes death or something.

hes got some very good points tho. I'm only half way thru it.

He has good points!?!?! What has become of you cd2!! :o

Also, Hamburger makes a good point, granted violence in games is frowned upon, but sexual content is even worse, since the bans and such have mainly been towards sex content.

Maybe they think that unwanted pregnancy and STI's are more dangerous to kids than guns, blood and violent behaviour.

Anyone visited this place yet? : www.nomorehotcoffee.com :P

Yeah well, this day has been coming for a long time. and after hiliary clinton and the rest of americas goverment has finished with the industry, I don't think it will be as main stream as it is now. This is if they go in full force.

I just have felt that some dev house were going to far and the rains needed to be pulled in a little, take Rockstar "bully" game, schools and what not have been trying for years to rid schools of bullies so children can feel safe at school and get an education they deserve and this game could set their movement back.

Some things are just better left alone.

cd2, there's ESRB rating that's supposed to protect them. It's just that parents and retailers are too stupid to abide. If your kid's 14 and the game is rated M15+, DON'T BUY IT FOR HIM!

what about when they go to a firends place? what about when they download it from the net? what about when shops still sell the game to them? If its there and they want to play it, it doesn't matter what your parents says or do you can play it somewhere, some how.

Same applies to CDs, DVDs, and pornos cd2, don't think that this is purely a videogame thing.

Videogames are just the current scapegoat, if you're going to target censorship, try broadening the media selection.

Exactly. You cannot stop it! They'll fight it but will never win. The gaming industry is too big and too important to give a shit.

Johnstons points tho is that videogames are an interactive medium.

While DVDs, CD's and what not can have simular content, in video games you actually living the experience, why do you think the US army use video games to train solders! Cause its an interactive experience which puts you in the state of mine needed.

It's why I also believe that were in for a bumpy ride while Hilary and her peers pick apart the industry cause they wont stop especially since Hilary is gunning for the US presidency next time around and if she runs with this and combines it with paranoid parents that are afraid of another round of high school shooting. what do you think will happen.

has anyone listen to the MP3?

Nope, but I'd say I've read enough of his shit to get the point.

I understand that they are interactive, and therefore potenially more harmfull, and I'm all for restrictions on violent games, but sex is another matter all together.

A hardcore porno is easier to get, and FUCKLOAD more harmfull than some low-poly characters having a dry-root(ala GTA: SA). Then there's Killer-7 which is a NON-interactive cutscene, that is less harmfull than a James Bond sex scene.

I'm also sick of developers getting in trouble for nude patches that 3rd parties have made. Fucking rediculous...it's like blaming Toyota for the Bali bombings cause the bombers put explosives in a HiAce. :rolleyes:


On the US army using America's Army and Full Spectrum Warrior to train and recruit soliders, lets look at that for a second...

America's Army is used to suck-in the Counter-Strike nut who likes shooting things in video-games, it's not used to train soliders how to get a headshot.
I seriously doubt that many of those players can shoot an actual gun properly, let-alone do it accurately. That said I'm against using that game as hook to join the army.
It's one thing to click a button and shoot an imaginary enemy, but it's another to shoot a gun and actually kill a man.

FSWon the other hand is used for training soliders in how to command a squad, it's not a First Person Shooter, so you won't be shooting anyone; just telling the computer to.
It's just an easier way to train soliders for real combat situations...little Jimmy isn't going to join the reserves and rise-up to Leftenant as soon as he turns 18 just cause he played some video-game.
If he's mentally unstable, then he may go willy-nilly with a 12-gauge at the local min-mall. But you'd have to be pretty fucked in the head to begin with to do something like that.


I find it funny how he completely ingores all the studies on video-games, cause every-one that I've seen has not linked violent behavoir to video-games.

Have a read of this and you'll see just how stupid Jacko is:
http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php


EDIT: LOL!! This is topic "1337"! :lol:

www.stopkill.com

cd2 I can understand where you are coming from, the fact is though that the studies conducted attempting to link violent behaviour with videogames isn't statistically strong enough to warrant a fair concern, for studies that have a link there are others that dont.

And furthermore, one must ask whether is it the videogames exclusively that trigger young people to behave violently or is it due to a combination of other factors, upbringing, family life, mental disabilities for example. One could argue that it is not the videogame that causes the behaviour but rather it may be the videogame that triggers the behaviour that was already there due to other factors, watching a movie, or getting in a fight with someone or numerous other factors could have triggered the behaviour.

In regards to games being an interactive medium and thus 'training' people to use weapons, that isn't very realistic, no matter how real a game may be, shooting a gun using a game controller is a hell of a lot different than shooting a real gun.

The videogame industry is very 'young' in the mainstream market and as such it is the next scapegoat, to find a cause of violent behaviour.

What I find most interesting is that you have US politicians blaming videogames for violent behaviour yet at the same time they are leading a war against terror, one could argue if there wasn't violence in the real world then there wouldn’t be games or movies that contain violent content. The entertainment media is a reflection of our real society, many of these games that contain violent content are based on war, crime, terrorism, revenge, and the like, all of these things occurred before videogames existed.

You guys got me all wrong I'm for violent games and what not, heck I'm after a cheap copy of the newest Splinter Cell for the cube.

But rockstar/Take 2 have pissed of some people in really high places and lied to them as well. and I just feel whether its justified or not that the industry is going to get nail badly, then they will move on to the next industry.

Why won't people let the artistes express themselves freely??!

Anyway, Devin Moore from back in the Vice City days got the death penalty. Goto: Gamespot.

"Life's like a video game. You've got to die sometime."

cd2, I dont think the industry as a whole is going to get hit badly, if anything it'd would be Rockstar games, but if that is unlikely, the industry is big and growing it aint going nowhere.