2nd December 2009 - By now most of you in Australia and abroad know about the South Australian politician Michael Atkinson, who is making life for us gamers here in Australia difficult. By no means are we the biggest gaming nation in terms of numbers in the world, but when one man is making it hard for us to gain access to the quality games we know and love, us as gamers need to do something about it.
The action against Mr. Atkinson has been gaining momentum with gamers in South Australia forming a political party known as Gamers4Croyden and sites like https://www.r18games.com.au/ being created to help urge the classification board to implement a R18+ rating for games, so that games like Left 4 Dead 2 don’t continue to either get banned or severely edited. As you are reading this, you might be asking yourself, well what can I do as I don’t own a website or even live in Australia. Well, there are various things you can do no matter where you are. Firstly you can let us know what you think of this issue by making a comment in our comment section below. Other things you can do are post about the issue on forums you visit and letting everyone know on your Facebook or Twitter page.
An exert from the R18+ website which shows the links to a few of the unofficial Facebook groups that you could perhaps join to help the cause is as follows:
“Though there is no official Facebook group for this site, many people have been emailing in links to Facebook groups that have sprung up to support this important issue. If you’re on Facebook, please consider visiting these groups and adding your support.
Australia needs an R18+ Classification on Games!
Grow up Australia – R18+ for Video Games
The official Facebook group for Gamers4Croydon”
If you are in Australia and are in Brisbane, there is a large protest to address this issue to be held on December 5th. Why not get along and help get Australia a R18+ game rating. The event has a Facebook page where you can get all the details. Go HERE to view it.
The personal views of the staff at All Age Gaming are that everyone needs to get behind this and help us Aussies get local access to EVERY game that is made. We don’t want it to get to a point that any game with any hint of violence is banned or heavily edited as that will not only be a huge letdown for us gamers, but it will have a dramatic affect on the Australian game retailers who sell us the games we love. So get behind the Australian sites that are making you aware of this issue and join the fight for an R18+ game rating in Australia. After all, do you want what happened to Left 4 Dead 2 happen to another AAA game? I think not.
You can also visit our friends at OXCGN at this link https://oxcgn.com/2009/12/01/r18-rating-for-games-rally-in-brisbane-on-5-december/ to see their views on the subject.
Article Written By Craig Cirillo