This article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald
By Stephen Hutcheon, Louisa Hearn and David Braithwaite
February 17, 2006
www.smh.com.au"Gold Coast Mayor and former Olympian Cr Ron Clarke is claiming the credit for stopping the Australian release of a computer game that its critics say incites the crime of graffiti vandalism.
The game, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, was refused classification by the Federal Government's Classification Review Board earlier this week.
This means the game cannot be imported, sold, demonstrated or hired in this country, making Australia the only country in the world where the game has been banned.
The game was due to be released worldwide this week.
Cr Clarke said Getting Up promoted graffiti on public property, train-surfing, fighting and other anti-social behaviour.
"I am delighted the Review Board has voted in favour of preventing the potential escalation of these social and financial costs to our community," Cr Clarke said in a statement.
The decision was endorsed by the Federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, who had asked the board to review of the game's MA15+ classification in response to concerns raised by Cr Clarke and others.
Ironically, the game - which is set in a city of the future - features a world where freedom of expression is suppressed by a tyrannical city government.
Players battle the authorities to overthrow corrupt officials using only street fighting skills and graffiti.
"It's unfortunate that during this day and age a government will implement censorship policies which are tantamount to book burning practices from the past," the game's distributor, Attari, said in a statement.
"Banning any form of artistic expression suppresses creativity and begs the question 'Where does it end?'"
Atari Australia, said it would be examining all legal avenues to overturn the ban."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apparently the game can still purchased and downloaded via the internet as it has not been banned in the U.S. In my opinion, this makes banning the game in Australia rather pointless. I think it's quite possibly that the ban will only serve to make the game more popular.
Mr A
P.S. Get frequent news updates via rss @ Alexander's news:
http://www.liamalexander.com/computing/news.html
Author