IMPORTANT UPDATE TO MORTAL KOMBAT BANNING

[Quickstrike]

Dammit, now online stores are starting to say that they won't sell the game to Australians.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

We just have to wait really. Console (geddit?) ourselves with Duke Nukem.

Karate kid came before mortal Kombat though didn't it? Meh anyway, there is plety of violence for fighting kids to get there hands on anywhere. Just sad that adults wanting to bang on some MK suffer.

I played the demo today and I began to see why its a bit much for the MA rating. Some of those fatalities were.... Jeebus!

Although ridiculously funny to my mind

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

We seem to be getting to the point where virtual reality is looking more like reality... which begs the question - how is watching realistic violence on a game and enjoying it, any different to watching real violence and enjoying it? If you have a game that gets you excited about sniper killing an image that now looks like a real human, how is that different to a serial killer getting excited about actually killing a real human?

This is kind of the central crux for me: the game is different in that nobody actually gets hurt. It's fantasy. If that serial killer goes out and kills a thousand video game characters (I'm sure I've killed more over my 'gaming life'), and/or terrorises them, there's still no-one getting hurt. If they kill a single person in real life, there is. And that's the crucial difference.
If someone can't tell reality from fanstay to the point that they start acting out videogame violence, they/we have a bigger problem than violence in games - we have severely mentally disturbed people wandering around who can't tell reality from fantasy.
Couple that with the hundreds of thousands if not millions of adults who do play games but don't commit RL violence in Oz, and banning games like Mortal Kombat just isn't justifiable IMO - let's put the resources it'd take to police these bans into our mental health system instead, it'll actually do some good and isn't easily circumvented by the internet.
For the record, I'm not really interested in the latest MK, but this outcry over violent games seems to be putting the cart before the horse to me. At least we don't have to call 'Beast Wars' 'Beasties' like Canada...

For example, playing out the latest Call of Duty, I was put off on a couple of things, most particularly the torture chapter of the game. Why have this as something the player has to do for fun, instead of just being played out as a scene between chapters (or not having it at all)? It wasn't necessary for the plot of the game. Who gets pleasure (the point of a game) from sticking glass into a person's mouth and then punching them in the jaw to make their mouth bleed? What sort of person would choose without hesitation to do that, or why force a player to do that to proceed to the next chapter?
Games are meant to stimulate the pleasure centre of the brain, so why is torturing someone in such a cruel fashion considered 'fun'? I don't mind shooting-type games for improving reflexes, and maybe even roleplaying certain eras of history (like in CoD), but do people really enjoy torturing or mutilating others for them to want it in increasingly life-like games that are supposed to be 'fun'?

I know I have high standards when it comes to things kids (with developing brains) can be exposed to, but why are people enjoying games that allows them to choose to do these increasingly realistic violent things for 'fun'?

Maybe if we didn't have such a violent nature to our species, we wouldn't have a high demand for increasingly violent games, and therefore wouldn't have games so violent that they are refused classification.
(I blame Dinobot and Cheetor for educating our ancestors on how to be violent... )

I reckon the answer lies in the bold bits: people just suck, hey. We're big apes who think our big brains somehow remove us from animal instinct. Though I do agree that the CoD torture sequence shouldn't be compulsory.
Ignoring for the moment that games are also about telling a story and characterisation and all the other bits and pieces of any audiovisual narrative medium, I'd rather people were blowing off steam against sprites, no matter how realistic, than against real people. If I was half as sociopathic in life as I am in, say, Thief 2 or Vice City, I'd be executed (and rightly so), but as things stand I'm just an average guy who's actually quite helpful and pleasant, if overly cynical. And plays often violent videogames.
As far as key demographics go, that's really more of an argument to classify it properly, so the average-aged gamer of 30 (IIRC) can play it of they want and parents are properly informed, and kids can't just buy it as an MA title.

I don't think people can say 'It's ok because it's a movie/video so therefore I'm less likely to be affected' because if you object to violence and don't hit the stop button or just walk away from it - Then you've actively chosen to become a participant and hence are interacting with it, therefore you're going to be affected.

I won't go too far into it 'cos it's very long and boring and philosophical, but from what I remember of my Psych 101 (well, Intro to Psychology) and philosophy of mind/communications studies, the idea of 'passive observation of media' has been pretty well debunked ever since Heidegger came up with Dasein (loosely equivalent to Being-in-the-world) - the level of interaction with games is greater, sure, but we still engage with 'passive' media. It's just the nature of existence in a sensory world.

In the meantime, I second Griff's observation that we shouldn't be discussing/promoting ways of circumventing the law here, even if it is a bad law. Besides this being Griff's figurative house it's just not sensible to discuss breaking the law in a public forum.

[Burn]

I love how our taxpayer funded customs system is now on the look out for a video game, while much more harmful stuff probably slips through the cracks.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I love how our taxpayer funded customs system is now on the look out for a video game, while much more harmful stuff probably slips through the cracks.

Reminds me of a certain oversized gun that was nabbed all over the place a couple of years ago too.

[SkyWarp91]

There will be ways to get the game. Off the books of course.

What amuses me though is that for a fantasy/fighting/comedic video game to cause so much public vs government uproar it has probably cost so much money, time and effort that could be better spent doing useful things. I love Mortal Kombat, but in the end - it's just a videogame. Censors should just let it go - if people want it then give it to them.

How about instead of these people working at the censorship office trying to act like they're doing a deed and 'protect' the youth and innocence of Australians, they do something useful. Where were they when Casey Heynes was being punched multiple times in the face by Richard Gale?

Too much bureaucratic talk and not enough doing. People in positions of power are getting lazier and lazier...

[Doubledealer]

If a person can't discern right from wrong, reality from virtual - Then they shouldn't be participating in either games or movies/video and should seek clinical help.

Agreed. This is obviously incredibly frustrating news for MK fans, of which I know there are quite a few on this forum.

We're so lucky to have big brother looking after our best interests, especially when it comes to a past-time that's enjoyed by people with an average age of 25+...I'm not saying any modern games should be banned, but you'd think if any games were going to be RC in Australia they'd be all these war FPS shooters which are, you know, based on reality (or at least, alternate realities).

What's more likely to produce a psychopath, a game that's designed to be enjoyed shooting other humans in a realistic environment (from your own virtual perspectrive - first person), or a game which has you control super-human characters in the 3rd person in incredibly fantastical environments?

[5FDP]

Dammit, now online stores are starting to say that they won't sell the game to Australians.

From what I have heard, this nothing to do with the RC status but rather a directive / request made by the publisher to online stores. There are a few retailers that have indicated they will be shipping the game despite this.

[SkyWarp91]

Makes me wonder if WB will compromise by releasing a much less violent version of MK9 like what happened with L4D2, instead of limbs getting shot off the zombies just disappeared after dying...

[Hursticon]

Makes me wonder if WB will compromise by releasing a much less violent version of MK9 like what happened with L4D2, instead of limbs getting shot off the zombies just disappeared after dying...

From what I've read, WB has flatly refused offering a 'neutered' version as they believe it is not right by the consumer or the developers to offer a compromised version of a product - And good on them for doing so!