Left for dead 2, banned in Aus

[Luk3us 63]

http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/pc/games/15888...n-in-Australia/

 

 

Poor Aussie, let another game is too violent for the masses.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Hahahahaha. Wow. That's sad. More people who don't understand it's a video game.

[Sonic 295]

I heard Valve are going to appeal the ban.

 

Its banned from being sold but it does stop someone in Australia from buying a copy overseas (like from New Zealand) and importing it.

[BioBen 3]

The lack of R16 and R18 ratings in aus confuse me.

[Luk3us 63]

Films, video games and all that are rated by the same bunch in Aus. Its just that they REFUSE to give any game an R18 rating. Because, you know video games are evil.

[Sonic 295]

And thanks to Australia's crappy rating system it affects New Zealand sometimes. An example was the release of Grand Theft Auto 4. Its an R18 game in New Zealand but in order to be available for sale in Australia a few things were changed. And since New Zealand is small and insignificant we got that watered down version when it was released because it all comes from the distribution/suppliers.

[Gben 20]

http://au.gamespot.com/news/6232135.html?tag=nl.e544

 

Left 4 Dead 2 classified down under

 

* By Laura Parker, GameSpot AU

* Posted Oct 8, 2009 9:05 am AEST

 

UPDATE: Modified version of L4D 2 takes out decapitation, dismemberments; Valve and EA still hoping to get unedited version of game passed for sale in Australia.

 

After being banned, appealed, and most recently resubmitted, the fate of Valve’s upcoming zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia was anyone’s guess.

 

But gamers around Australia can finally rest easy: Left 4 Dead 2 finally passed Aussie censors this morning, receiving a classification of MA15+ for "strong, bloody violence." The date of the classification is listed as Wednesday, October 7, coinciding with Valve cofounder and managing director Gabe Newell’s visit to Sydney.

 

Newell told GameSpot AU yesterday that the publisher had resubmitted two versions of Left 4 Dead 2 to the Australian Classification Board following the Board’s decision earlier this month to refuse the game classification; the two versions are the original, unaltered version as well as one with some modifications.

 

"Right now we're pursuing two tracks: the first track is to release the product that we've created as is in Australia,” Newell said yesterday. “This is our very strong preference and what we're working with the [Classification Board] to see if we can achieve--so we have an appeal of their decision. The issue there is that that process is fairly slow and that the next step on that isn't going to occur until October 22.

 

“At the same time we've also submitted an Australia-specific version of the game which we think is fully compliant with the [Classification Board's] guidelines for content. We may actually hear about that version today. So the goal is to guarantee that something will be available on November 17 in Australia while at the same time pushing to get approval for that to be the full version of the game.”

 

Judging by Newell’s comments, GameSpot AU believes the version of Left 4 Dead 2 that has now been classified MA15+ is the Australia-specific version.

 

Calls to the Australian Classification Board and to EA (the Australian distributor for Left 4 Dead 2) were not returned at the time of publication.

 

UPDATE: While EA and Valve have been quiet about exactly what content had been changed in the "modified version" of Left 4 Dead 2, Australia's Classification Board hasn't been as silent. The Board has provided GameSpot AU with a copy of today's Left 4 Dead 2 ruling, which states that the modified version of the game recently resubmitted "no longer contains depictions of decapitations, dismemberment, wound detail, or piles of bodies lying about the environment".

 

"It is the Board's view that the element of violence in the game has been sufficiently modified and is now able to be accommodated within the MA15+ classification," the report stated.

Edited October 8, 2009 by gben

[Sonic 295]

I wonder how this will effect NZ. A similar situation to the GTA4 crap I mentioned before I'd say. Although this news says otherwise.

 

http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/pc/games/15888...-be-unaffected/

 

New Zealand gamers should not be affected if Australia does receive an edited version of Left 4 Dead 2. The game is currently being reviewed by the NZ OFLC, and Electronic Arts NZ told Gameplanet that because there is an R18 classification here, EA is "confident that an uncensored version of Left 4 Dead 2 will be available to NZ consumers." EA confirmed it would be able to bring in the global version of the game for NZ, regardless of what stock Australia received.

[Luk3us 63]

http://www.mightyape.co.nz/news/Confirmed-...4-Dead-2/14929/

 

 

So just summing thsi up, NZ gets teh uncut version. Aussie gets the watered down hog wash. Alls well that ends well.

[Malevolence 6]

Meh, censorship is getting so lame these days.

[Mighty BOB! 5]

Aus needs more ratings..

[Nod Strike 0]

Aus needs more ratings..

 

Not only that, their politicians need to get a clue already.

 

I mean they treat the entire population like children. And what use is banning certain games anyway while filesharing still exists?