In 6 Months, Australia Bans More Than 240 Games 136
dotarray writes with this snippet from (apropos) Player Attack: In the 20 years from 1995 to January 2015, there were 77 games Refused Classification in Australia. After January though, more than 240 games have been effectively banned by the Classification Board — an average of 40 per month. Most of these games are mobile- or digital-only releases you're unlikely to have ever heard of, with names like League Of Guessing, 'w21wdf AB test,' Sniper 3D Assault Zombie, Measure Bra Size Prank, and Virtual Marijuana Smoking showing up in just the first few pages. What games are banned in your country?
Re:fewer and fewer... (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree, in US fewer and fewer games are banned (as a percent of all video games). This is because the number of avenues for games publishing is mushrooming, opening the door for many devs to publish games that wouldn't have gotten wide exposure before. At the same time, the costs of game development is dropping, creating a space for indie devs who aren't making the next AAA shooter.
This creates a vibrant scene where we're seeing games about topics that would have been unthinkable before, because they would have been considered unviable and not worth the investment. Games about censorship. Games about cancer. Games about all sorts of topics, including ones that would be banned under traditional media, either by a govt agency or through self-censorship.
It's the golden age of gaming!
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fine, it's the silver age, like marvel/stan lee.
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I agree, in US fewer and fewer games are banned (as a percent of all video games). This is because the number of avenues for games publishing is mushrooming, opening the door for many devs to publish games that wouldn't have gotten wide exposure before. At the same time, the costs of game development is dropping, creating a space for indie devs who aren't making the next AAA shooter.
This creates a vibrant scene where we're seeing games about topics that would have been unthinkable before, because they would have been considered unviable and not worth the investment. Games about censorship. Games about cancer. Games about all sorts of topics, including ones that would be banned under traditional media, either by a govt agency or through self-censorship.
It's the golden age of gaming!
I do not agree with this being the Golden Age of Gaming. With the exception Nintendo, we have console companies that trying to bring PC gaming to the masses, with crappier hardware, questionable controls, a higher price and NO mod ability. Then the PC gets the crappy ports of the console games with the developers shitting on PC users.
I don't even want to get started about the mobile game market. While there are a few gems, it's mostly copy cat crap, and finding the good stuff is like finding a needle
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there are plenty of online curated guides to help you cut through the crap, like toucharcade.com. steam and console platforms allow indies to post games for online download for a couple bucks. yes, before anybody could distribute their own shareware games and people could download them off their website, but that's not like today with massive distribution channels.
I was corrected in another thread, it's the silver age of gaming.
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I pity your blinkered view of gaming.
I'll get on with working through my backlog of high quality PC games with gameplay experiences to match anything released historically and often graphics and sound that are far better.
Console ports are lazy and don't represent the high-end of PC gaming, but that doesn't negate the other options available, whether it's indie games that match the AAA games of just a couple of years ago, the AAA games that fully exploit PC capabilities or the esoteric games that reach a mar
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"in US fewer and fewer games are banned (as a percent of all video games). This is because the number of avenues for games publishing is mushrooming"
Are those same avenues not available EVERYWHERE?
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I suppose, perhaps, depending on regional availability of these app stores and language support for non-English languages. I can only speak to the US experience.
Banned for being too similar (Score:2, Informative)
They can't be banned for content objectionable to parents, but they can be banned for being too similar to an incumbent's product. See, for example, Atari v. Philips (similarites between Pac-Man and K.C. Munchkin for the Odyssey2 console), and Konami v. Roxor (similarities between Dance Dance Revolution and the StepMania-powered In the Groove).
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That's a completely different issue and a question of immaterial rights. Not a question of banning on the reason for being morally questionable.
I wonder how many games that will end up having hidden content (easter eggs) with some questionable material not visible when the game is approved.
Hot Coffee (Score:2)
That's a completely different issue and a question of immaterial rights. Not a question of banning on the reason for being morally questionable.
Bans for sex, bans for violence, bans for copyright (K.C. Munchkin), and bans for patent (In the Groove) are bans for very different reasons but still bans. This is in much the same way that copyright, patent, trademark, and trade secret are very different areas of law but still included in the umbrella term "immaterial rights" or "intellectual property" [gnu.org].
I wonder how many games that will end up having hidden content (easter eggs) with some questionable material not visible when the game is approved.
The ESRB requires all disclosure of all Easter eggs that would materially affect the rating. Rockstar got in big trouble for the hidden "Hot Coffee" stuff
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That's a copyright issue involving companies trying to copy another's idea, not a "ban" issue.
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the OP had it best. they can be effectively banned if they won't sell. the publishers will self censor and focus on games that will sell. if walmart, target, gamestop etc refuse to sell a game then that scares the publishers. Combine this with an industry-wide rating system that evaluates content for appropriateness and you have a pretty effective censorship system, at least under the old industry structure. The new way, with google play and other online stores, publishers have much more freedom to explore
Re: fewer and fewer... (Score:5, Insightful)
the OP had it best. they can be effectively banned if they won't sell. the publishers will self censor and focus on games that will sell. if walmart, target, gamestop etc refuse to sell a game then that scares the publishers.
Note this is different than Australia, where if you are caught trying to import censored video games (or movies), you can be fined and the censored objects will be destroyed.
"People don't want to buy this game" is not the same as censorship.
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"People don't want to buy this game" is not the same as censorship.
It's the same end result. I used to work for a game distributor, and just like every other distributor in every other industry, there are channel managers who decide what products they think are worth trying to distribute. If your product comes across as unmarketable, then your game was effectively "un-buyable". Obviously this is no longer true in the age of the Internet, but the same goes for government censorship attempts.
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It's the same end result. I used to work for a game distributor, and just like every other distributor in every other industry, there are channel managers who decide what products they think are worth trying to distribute. If your product comes across as unmarketable, then your game was effectively "un-buyable". Obviously this is no longer true in the age of the Internet, but the same goes for government censorship attempts.
Even though the results look similar, you can't still say censorship is the same and no one wants. One is to intentionally block (force) and the other is demand & supply (willingness). If you said the result is the same anyway regardless the path to get there, then there is a huge problem with your thought.
What if your family is starving to death. You attempt to get food to feed them by either stealing from others or working hard to earn food for your family. Yes, the result is the same -- your family
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In the other the Channel Manager of the distribution company prevents distribution (product is still accessible on the black market).
Same, same. Someone somewhere has an opinion which affects the availability of a product. In the case of a distributor it is worse because a large distributor can own the rights to distribution from a studio, thereby guaranteeing your product never sees the light of da
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They can pry my Platinum Edition of "Virtual Marijuana Smoking" out of my cold dead hands.
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Australia can't have a game with blood in it and Germany can't have a game with Nazis in it.
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It's not blood - it's red transmission fluid.
Re:fewer and fewer... (Score:5, Informative)
You can have games with Nazis in it in Germany. But it has to be censored and all Nazi symbology has to be replaced or removed.
For example, the new Wolfenstein game from Bethesda is available, but the swastikas in the German version are replaced by the stylized "W" from "Wolfenstein", and "SS" symbols like the deathshead or the "SS" itself have been removed entirely.
Also, one scene where you wake up in a gas chamber surrounded by corpses has been altered and all corpses have been removed.
The original "Wolfenstein 3D" was completely banned in Germany, because there was no censored version available.
Personally, I think that is bullshit. Nazi symbols are generally illegal in Germany, but allowed under special circumstances such as for "artistic purposes". But then for some reason, they don't have to be removed from movies, such as Indiana Jones... I really don't see the justification for allowing it in movies but forbidding it in video games.
But that's not all. Extreme kinds of violence in videgames are almost always also banned in Germany unless softened for the German market. Fallout 3 for example, where you can blow up individual body parts, is also altered to be less violent.
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To me Wolfstein has the same artistic value as Inglourious Basterds. Wikipedia says that the film was not censored in germany, but the posters and such were. Yet the content itself of one was censored and the other was not.
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That might be a factor. But I think the major reason is that historically, film in Germany has enjoyed a good reputation as a cultural or entertainment asset. Videogames on the other hand are still somewhat stigmatized. If you out yourself as a gamer, there is still a sizeable portion of the German populace that will regard you as an immature time waster.
If you have South Korea on the one side, where videogames are practically universally accepted and integrated in society, Germany is close to the opposite
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Banned games? None that I know of where I live (Sweden).
Of course - there are people crying that this or that should be banned for moral reasons, but unless it's classed as breaking some law like distribution of child pornography or being a trojan it's not going to be stopped.
Re:What does "banned" mean? (Score:4, Informative)
nope, it means the game was refused classification and it is illegal to sell it or import. Even after they opened up the classification laws we still have a range of games that will never be legal to be sold here, anything that shows illegal drug use, violence on woman etc etc. The summary makes it sound like the bans have gotten worse, in actual fact the laws have become far more relaxed here in the last few years with the introduction of an R classification, just the proliferation of people trying to cash in on cheap gimmick apps to attract immature buyers has increased 100 fold.
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nope, it means the game was refused classification and it is illegal to sell it or import. Even after they opened up the classification laws we still have a range of games that will never be legal to be sold here, anything that shows illegal drug use, violence on woman etc etc. The summary makes it sound like the bans have gotten worse, in actual fact the laws have become far more relaxed here in the last few years with the introduction of an R classification, just the proliferation of people trying to cash in on cheap gimmick apps to attract immature buyers has increased 100 fold.
This is also something that is never and realistically can never be enforced.
By the sounds of it, most of the games are mobile games (I still have trouble accepting mobile games as proper games, they're the modern equivalent of the old flash games I used to play in a browser in the early 00's) so a lot of the sales will never take place in Australia, the method of distribution doesn't take place in Australia and the method of distribution is pretty much unstoppable. This is just government bureaucracy tr
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it is enforced and very successfully so,
How? They cant even get Apple and google to comply 100% of the time and bypassing this is simple.
Steam barely does anything and Gog completely fails to give a shit. I can buy games that have been banned in Oz for years (Postal series) on Gog.
You're definitely not Australian or you'd realise how much bollocks you've just posted.
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I am Australian and they most definitely "CAN" get Apple and google to comply and they have been. They are called fines, over time if they continually fail to comply the fines increase significantly. you really have no clue on how the world works, just because it is easy to get around the restrictions doesn't mean it isn't being enforced. the vast majority of users have never heard of gog let alone use them to purchase anything. They use the major distributers, shops for physical and apple, google, steam fo
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What about, say, Amazon Appstore?
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I assume you mean amazon.com and their apps: they don't even (legally) sell to Australians, you need to go through the amazon.com.au store and regional rules apply, both for content and robbing us blind on software/ebooks.
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I mean the Amazon app store for Android, that is pre-installed on Kindle Fire, but can also be installed as an app on any Android device.
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Yeah, and will be every bit as regionally racist as the rest of the Kindle range.
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Comment Signature [pastie.org]
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Ehh. In a few months Greece will totally implode and it won't matter anyway. Enjoy your generous social welfare system while you can.
This statement must mean you are in the US which has an imploding corporate welfare system.
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Looking for a plus to censorship (Score:4, Funny)
Just imagine all those games get that free advertising. "Banned in Australia" could become the new measure of how cool a game is.
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Why not, it worked for grand theft auto.
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Patents, sync rights, and master rights (Score:3)
A 30 second unskippable ad before a 45 second video, probably inserted by a "rights holder", raises an important point. Rhythm games are a minefield for patents, sync rights, and master rights. If Didgeridoo Hero were real, I wouldn't be surprised if it were banned in at least one major market for failure to secure the appropriate licenses.
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I would play the shit out of Didgeridoo Hero. Also Sackbut Hero and Cornet Hero. Or maybe those are available as (shudder) DLC.
FFS RTFA It's a TRIAL (Score:4, Informative)
From TFA
While this current trial will only last 12 months initially ...
So the Oz government has signed up with a global, unified ratings system from the IARC [globalratings.com]. And all that is required from the game publishes is to submit answers to a bunch of questions to set a ratings level for their game. For free.
Sure, the OZ government has probably tailored how the answers to the question map into the desired Australian ratings system, but this sounds like a great step forward with consistency and transparency. Also from TFA
It's worth noting that the IARC has also submitted plenty of games which have been accepted by the Classification Board - we're still figuring out the exact number, but there are hundreds of digital/mobile only games classified R18+, MA15+, M, PG and G which have passed through the IARC process.
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It's just another media, and it's not like Americans don't censor either. When's the last time you saw an erect penis on American television (hint: never).
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Yes, whatever happened to the country's old reputation as a freedom-loving "America done right"?
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It started when bicycle helmets became mandatory across all Australian states in the early 90s. They've been hacking chunks out of personal freedom ever since.
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It started when bicycle helmets became mandatory across all Australian states in the early 90s. They've been hacking chunks out of personal freedom ever since.
No - it started long before that. Seatbelts in cars compulsory from 1970. Motorcycle helmets before that. Horns on horseless carriages.
If bicycle helmets are your biggest whinge, you've been lucky so far. Try something like building a house, or running a small business, and see how many pointless regulations there are to make your life difficult. At least helmets are useful, even if the laws are not.
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I was riding to work one day and woke up in the hospital. Without my helmut, it's quite likely I would never have woken up at all.
Re: Where's Michael J. Dundee? (Score:2, Funny)
Germans have been waking up without a helmut since quite some time.
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Australia has had authoritarian, paternalistic governments since, at least, the end of WWII. Consequently, the best and brightest tend to leave the country (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_diaspora). This leaves Australia with two major pastimes: digging coal out of the ground and selling houses to one another.
Re: Where's Michael J. Dundee? (Score:2, Interesting)
You mean selling houses to the Chinese.
Mino and other independent tetromino games (Score:5, Informative)
The game Mino is banned in the U.S. because a district court ruled three years ago that The Tetris Company owns the exclusive right to make falling block video games using the seven one-sided tetrominoes. Tetris v. Xio [slashdot.org]. And I expect an eventual lawsuit against the Free Software Foundation over M-x tetris in GNU Emacs because Tetris co-founder Alexey Pajitnov believes that free software "should never have existed" because it "destroys the market" [slashdot.org].
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To be fair, Xio duplicated the game's color selection for the pieces, the rotation mechanics (there are many variants of how to rotate pieces in a tetromino game), the drop slide mechanic, etc. It was as close to a copy they could make without duplicating assets. The courts did not rule that no one else could make a tetromino game, just that Xio tried to duplicate Tetris.
I've made several block dropping games, and there were fudsters incensed by sensational media claims all over the place at the time of th
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Anonymous Coward wrote:
To be fair, Xio duplicated the game's color selection for the pieces
That's as if someone had a copyright on green means go and red means stop, or if the NBA sued the NCAA and high school leagues for using an orange ball.
the rotation mechanics (there are many variants of how to rotate pieces in a tetromino game)
Are you referring to the SRS wall kicks? In 2009, a Tetris licensee used the DMCA to take down YouTube videos of fan games using the simpler center-right-left kick mechanic used in games like Dr. Mario and Puyo Puyo.
the drop slide mechanic
Are you referring to the "infinite spin" mechanic? In 2009, a Tetris licensee used the DMCA to take down YouTube videos o
What games are banned in your country? (Score:4, Funny)
Who bans Pokemon? (Score:2)
If cock fighting video games were banned, Nintendo and its fans would be up in arms, and the mainstream news media would have run a story about a country where kids are forbidden to spend their POcKEt MONey on a video game that has been rated "Everyone (Comic Mischief, Mild Cartoon Violence)" by the U.S.-based ESRB.
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Now that I think about it, there's a reason they shortened the name a bit so that it's acceptable to play with your pocket monster in public.
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Miss the days of players deliberately making helmet-to-helmet tackles without penalty? If you want to have the brain of an 80 year old Alzheimer's patient before you can run for the Senate, go volunteer yourself, Sparky.
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I don't expect them to get the big bucks without risk.
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Miss the days of players deliberately making helmet-to-helmet tackles without penalty? If you want to have the brain of an 80 year old Alzheimer's patient before you can run for the Senate, go volunteer yourself, Sparky.
I miss the days where a player would be taught to break down, plant their facemask in their opponents chest,wrap up, and drive through. No shattered knees, no concussions. Now their idea of tackling is dropping their heads and launching themselves at people's knees.
My 0.02 (Score:2)
Re:My 0.02 (Score:4, Informative)
I read about this and I'm really glad I don't live in Australia right now. America still has SOME freedom left although it is rapidly dwindling.
Read TFA .. the ESRB has signed up to the same service as Australia and both Goole Play and Firefox Marketplace support the IARC.
LOL (Score:1)
What games are banned in your company
They play "Pump Kin" in Arkansas, pretty sure it's illegal though...
Mortal Monday (Score:3, Informative)
Mortal Kombat was banned simultaneously in Australia, Germany, U.K. and several other countries on what became known as Mortal Monday, 1993.
Fatality!
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Indeed, still remember buying my copy.
The banning of video-games has never really taken off in the UK, though not for want of trying. The BBFC had a good go at it with Carmageddon, but the subsequent backlash and (successful) appeal scared that organisation away from heavy involvement with games for quite a long time afterwards.
Manhunt 2 was originally banned in its uncut form, I think, though it was granted certification after a few seconds of footage were cut. And I think there was some other PS2-era shoo
Re:Mortal Monday (Score:4, Funny)
Be glad they didn't ban Manic Miner.
He's called Bipolar Geological Engineer now.
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Mortal Kombat was never banned in the UK. "Mortal Monday" was the name of the simultaneous multi-platform launch day.
Thanks (Score:1)
Capitalism (Score:2, Insightful)
It has been banned for all but the very rich, thanks to a wave of new regulations. 90 percent, yes 90 percent of my industry is gone and we are paring back.
Capitalism used to be a fun game to play in America.
A category springs to mind... (Score:2)
Anything Apple won't publish is essentially banned.
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Similarly, there are things Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony won't approve for use on retail consoles. The Binding of Isaac is among them.
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/me shakes head.
You're doing that thing again where you assume that because something was true at one time or for one particular group, that it is still true. Your hyperfocus and obsession with how you percieve indies being disregarded by Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo, seems to stop you from updating your knowledge. In other words, Where have YOU been?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://store.playstation.com/... [playstation.com]
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Some games are rejected by Nintendo and approved by Sony. Your first link states that Nintendo rejected The Binding of Isaac for 3DS. But other games are rejected by Sony and Microsoft, such as Manhunt 2.
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But other games are rejected by Sony and Microsoft, such as Manhunt 2.
Tepples, why the heck do you keep stating such outdated and incorrect info? I know you have your axe against the console makers because they don't just hand out devkits and whatnot to every "garage developer" with a dream, but that's no excuse for getting facts wrong or exaggerating the facts to grind your axe against the console makers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii
https://store.playstation.com/... [playstation.com]
The rejection was more "nuanced
Old anecdotes (Score:2)
Tepples, why the heck do you keep stating such outdated and incorrect info?
Because I have not been made aware that a particular piece of information has since become outdated and incorrect. Would it be more proper to phrase all such anecdotes in the past tense, citing a particular article that was published in a particular month and year?
"garage developer"
Which I did not mention at all.
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Because I have not been made aware that a particular piece of information has since become outdated and incorrect.
Don't you think it's your responsibility to make sure your facts are correct BEFORE you post things like that? And considering that Manhunt 2 was released 8 YEARS AGO, you'd think that you'd have paid attention to what had actually happened considering you remembered the initial refusal.
Would it be more proper to phrase all such anecdotes in the past tense, citing a particular article that was published in a particular month and year?
It would be more "proper" and a "best practice" to check your anecdotes for accuracy yourself. You've got google, use it.
Which I did not mention at all.
You didn't need to. I figure most frequent commenters know of your grudge.
Nothing new (Score:2)
Australia has been ban happy with games for years.
Completely unrelated and off topic news from AU (Score:2)
Poker (Score:2)
In Poland playing poker tournament without valid license is illegal. Online poker is also illegal. I am not joking. People here are so brainwashed by Civic Platform that they still consider this party "liberal".
River Raid (Score:2)
I shit you not.
In fact, it was the first game that was banned for minors. Not anymore, though.
Welcome to the world of tomorrow! (Score:2)
In 6 Months, Australia Bans More Than 240 Games
I knew something weird happens when you cross the international dateline, but I didn't realise it could send news back in time by half a year.
Most recently Banned Game (Score:2)
For those who miss the good old days on /. (Score:2)
What the heck...
In Soviet Russia, video games ban government!
Ok, that really doesn't make any sense.
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