ACT to go it alone on R18+ video games?

dvaey said :

thatsnotme said :

I haven’t bought a game from a store for a long time – digital delivery through services like Steam is the way games are going (and if that means awful brick and mortar stores like EB Games go out of business then I couldn’t be happier)

Ask the owners of adult world, adam and eve, etc if theyre going out of business since porn has been on the internet. A lot of people dont trust the idea that you pay $x to download a game, but you dont actually own the game or own any manuals or anything, youre simply paying to be allowed access to a restricted version of the software, much less than youd get if you went to the store.

lol what are you talking about?

A lot of people dont trust the idea that you pay $x to download a game, but you dont actually own the game or own any manuals or anything, youre simply paying to be allowed access to a restricted version of the software, much less than youd get if you went to the store.

Huh? When I download a game, I own it just as fully as I do when I buy it from a shop and get discs. It comes with a digital version of the manual. It also comes with the advantage that I never need to worry about losing my game discs – if I rebuild my PC, or get a new one, everything I’ve ever purchased is listed against my account, and I can just download my game again.

How is what I buy restricted, and less than what I’d get if I went to the store? About the only things I miss out on is having to find a park, having to hope they have a copy of what I want (don’t even get me started on the whole pre-order thing), and having to dispose of the packaging.

Physical media for games (movies and music too) is rapidly going the way of the dodo. Some consoles already support that approach, and I’m betting that any that don’t right now, will in their next generations. It may not be Steam, but it’ll be something very similar – and I can’t see any of them differentiating between ‘Canberra, Australia’, and just ‘Australia’.

I just don’t think that if the ACT were to do this, it’d suddenly mean we could get everything we wanted straight away. X rated movies is an industry in the ACT – but there’s no indication that the other states are suddenly going to allow them, so that industry continues. Until digital delivery makes it irrelivent – and it will happen eventually. R rated games though…the change to ratings will happen, probably sooner rather than later. Even if it didn’t get up this time around, it’s not an issue that’s going to just go away. Turning Canberra into some type of R rated game distribution hub, a-la X rated movies, is just not going to happen.

As I said before – I agree with the sentiment, but I don’t think it’ll serve to actually change anything.

dvaey said :

Also, buying games on steam is fine if the only thing you use is a PC. As soon as you get into the world of game consoles, the market for R18+ games to be bought locally increases dramatically. Not everyone has a modchipped console and the ability/knowledge to backup/create game discs.

Steam is localised. While the prices for Australians appear in USD, a quick check of steamprices.com shows the publisher set pricing disparity between countries. Furthermore, games that are RC in Australia are not available to purchase in Steam anyway (A few titles like GTA 2), or are heavily modified (ala L4D2). They even run credit card location checks to ensure you haven’t just logged onto the US instance of the store or use a proxy service.

Point being cloud services don’t typically bypass classification mechanisms. Oh and I read something about Steam being available on PS3 these days?

Commonwealth Heads?
COAG, even.

</brainfade>

thatsnotme said :

I haven’t bought a game from a store for a long time – digital delivery through services like Steam is the way games are going (and if that means awful brick and mortar stores like EB Games go out of business then I couldn’t be happier)

Ask the owners of adult world, adam and eve, etc if theyre going out of business since porn has been on the internet. A lot of people dont trust the idea that you pay $x to download a game, but you dont actually own the game or own any manuals or anything, youre simply paying to be allowed access to a restricted version of the software, much less than youd get if you went to the store.

Also, buying games on steam is fine if the only thing you use is a PC. As soon as you get into the world of game consoles, the market for R18+ games to be bought locally increases dramatically. Not everyone has a modchipped console and the ability/knowledge to backup/create game discs.

Doubt the Feds would block it, they want it; they’re more likely to assist in getting them into the country

Actually the Commonwealth stated a few months ago that if states can’t agree to bring in a R18 classification by July it will look at other options to bring it in, so unlikely it would overturn ACT law if they did this

Multiple Attorneys-General talking R18+ prior top Commonwealth Heads, but only one from a State which has been traditionally opposed?

Simon isn’t leading anyone anywhere, he’s just decided to take credit.
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/sa-supports-r18-games-but-only-if-ma15-is-scrapped-20110429-1dzcj.htm

The ACT can’t go it alone, at least not without the Federal Government’s support. One of the powers that the Federal Government deliberately didn’t grant the ACT for self government is the power of classification. Actually, the constitution has been interpreted to say that the Commonwealth itself doesn’t have this power either. The National Classification Scheme works as a national scheme because it, as written, only applies to the ACT, and every other State and Territory have laws that say that the National scheme is also their scheme. South Australis still has its own Classification Board, for instance, while most other states defer completely to the National scheme. Even if the ACT government wanted to eliminate the X rating, it can’t, it’s a Federal law. Same is true for an R18+ rating for games. Simon Corbell should know this.

It would be interesting to see the Federal government change the National Classification Scheme legislation without state support. In principle, this would make an R18+ rating for games national, as all states defer to the national legislation. There is also precedence for this, as the 2007 anti-terrorism laws changed this legislation without state agreement. It could, however, really piss off the states and if any feel strongly enough about it, fracture the national scheme.

Correct me if I am wrong….but does not the Fed Government still have the option to “torpedoes” any ACT legislation that it does not like?

About bloody time. It’ll be overturned by the federal government though.

Bravo to Corbell for making a courageous decision. It was the discredited Attorney-General of SA who was dragging the chain and holding back the normalisation of ratings for video games, and it was puzzling to say the least that the lethargy continued more than a year after his demise. In any case, censorship is ultimately useless and redundant in these days of the global village created by the Net.

It is old fashioned and obsolete for parochial governments to adopt a Fortress Australia mentality, and that the attitudes and commerce of other countries is somehow impure and needs to be filtered by some big brother bureaucrats before we can get it. If we ever get it.

This is the 21st century and silly old Victorian era puritanism should be consigned to the WPB forthwith.

If its legal in the ACT then it will be legal to actually have in australia and therefore should be legal to order from within australia. Thats how i read the X-rated videos to work.

SA are going backwards on this, forced to accept the R rating they’re planning on dropping the MA15+ rating.

Maybe we should just drop the ratings and put age limits on the box?

Woot! I am most excited.

Bring on banned games baybee! Good on ya Corbell.

While I agree with the principle of going it alone, in reality, it does need to be something that’s a national approach if it’s to make a real difference.

I haven’t bought a game from a store for a long time – digital delivery through services like Steam is the way games are going (and if that means awful brick and mortar stores like EB Games go out of business then I couldn’t be happier) but these services aren’t granular enough to recognise that I live in the ACT. As far as they’re concerned, I’m in Australia – so if the game is rated R, and that rating isn’t allowed here, that’s just too bad.

When it comes to big name titles, we end up with edited versions of games that are rated R, and I can’t see the bricks and mortar chains suddenly importing and distributing two versions of the same game – one for the ACT, and one for everywhere else.

I applaud the sentiment, and I hope as a gesture it ends up helping to build the momentum towards what must be inevidible – but can’t see it producing any real change in the ACT.

What a strange feeling it is to actually agree with our current government’s stance on something… having said that Corbell is a nice bloke in person. Much better than Stanhopeless.

Wow, this guy (Corbell) stuck to his guns on the FiT and now he’s preaching this……the dudes stocks are rapidly rising in my books!