In other news, seems that our friends down under just got a nice new “M” (R18+) rating for games! Good for the fight against the government constantly trying to outlaw them. At least this will provided some help towards the gamers saying, well, games are fun and the gov has no business sticking it’s nose into anything. Since, well, if the suits don’t like a game, they just try and block it. Personally, I’m not sure how bad or good the issue is down there currently, but every now and then you hear about some political jerk attempting to ban this or that. There’s also the issue of new games taking FOREVER to be released (as Ben from Zero Punctuation) for whatever reason. I’m assuming it’s probably something because of all these shenanigans but I could be wrong.
And a little late on the uptake, but in jolly ol, uh, Europe, they finalized the PEGI rating for sole use… good cause it standardizes things a bit, which is good for everyone. Also, follow the link, maybe it’s just me, but their warning labels look like Steam achievement icons! So… I guess M rated games win then? XD
Source: GamerRevolution
Some of the industires best games are rates M and there a really fun,funny and I can blow off steam if I need to
hmm, my comments aren’t showing up!
No, but I can understand why it is done in some instances from the perspective of the game maker. In CCP’s EVE Online, one of the four playable races is the Gallente Federation. The Gallente Federation is a democracy and so when CCP wanted to make the game available to the Chinese, they have to remake the Gallente Federation into the People’s Republic of Gallente to avoid violating Chinese laws prohibiting positive portrait of democracy. CCP simply wants to make money and did what was necessary to be able to sell their game in China. I’m not going to think any less of them for doing so.
In the case of the country forcing the change, my thoughts are different (them I do think less of). The answer to 99.999999% of all problems is liberty. Ignore the problem and let it deal with itself and it will cease to become a problem on its own in a free society. Some of the time this is because the problem really doesn’t matter in the first place and undue attention on the supposed problem was the real problem, and other times its because someone who cares enough about the problem tries to fix it himself either for profit or for no other reason than him wants it solved for the greater good (such as websites like commonsensemedia.org which is part of a nonprofit organization that goes into great detail about possible objectionable content in various games such that parents have all the info they need to make decisions as to what is appropriate for their children). These privately created systems are never perfect and stuff will of course get passed them just as it gets past government instituted systems. The difference is that your liberty is maintained through private systems fixing these problems instead of government systems. When a private nonprofit organization seeks to provide information to all who wants it about video game content rating details, you as the parent of a child maintain your liberty as what your child is allowed to have remains yours. When a government seeks to command what is to be bought or not bought and what is to be sold or not sold in the case of games, it has violated one of the most sacred liberties that has ever existed, the right of a parent to determine the best way to raise their child. If a government wanted to ban the movie The Passion of the Christ because the regulators didn’t feel that the violence contained within was appropriate for children and the regulators though many Christians would let their young children see it, that is a violation of basic liberty. In the same manner, banning a violent video game because it is thought to be potentially harmful to children is a violation of basic liberty. Bad parents will always fail their children and expose them to what they shouldn’t see or hear or know, but government bans and censorship won’t stop that and the failed attempt to do so comes at a cost of our liberty.
In China’s case in which it is anything that might give people the idea that their state isn’t the worldly equivalent of God, I will say nothing more than the Chinese need to rise up against the government and claim liberty that they have not known in generations.
My one caveat to this rant is something of an obvious one but I want to put it here anyway. If there is a game or movie or whatever that explicitly tells the player to go out and violate the rights and liberties of others, then it of course needs to be forbidden and destroyed as quickly as possible. If there is a video game that teaches the player how to make bombs for terrorist bombings or the best way to rape people while getting away with it or how to be a serial killer while not leaving evidence at murder sites, and the game explicitly tells the player that he should go and do the same in real life, then yes the game does need to be destroyed. Only something explicitly made to promote and to attempt to encourage or instigate people into violating the rights and liberties of others (not just depicting but intentionally encouraging said violations of rights and liberties in real life) should be censored, restricted, and destroyed by governments.
In summary, mindless government intrusion and violation of basic liberty bad, liberty and individual responsibility solving problems good. Rant concluded.
You simply do not get China… Very few people in “west” actualy do… (truth be told very few non Chinese actualy get them)
Five thousand years of history, famines… and people there have never “rebeled” against anything… not during plagues, not during famines. Sometimes one “dynasty” replaces another but noone cares… If Emperor orders something they do it… if Emperor says nothing they are effectively more free to do what they wish than we in west are.
You speak about religion… that is something China lacks… most of them do not believe in any deity… they do not concern themselves what may be after life… they simply live theirs.
Second thing is… you can not effectively rule billion people by democracy… even half that size is problematic since any decision pi..es of too many people…
If you die in China noone will really care… there are millions of people to take your place… human life there never had much worth (unless one made himself sufficiently important to matter to another people)
China now is the same empire it was 200 years ago… capitalistic democracy under Chiang Kai-shek utterly failed them, so did socialistic dictature under Mao.
China´s fall has been prophecized for 5 millenia… somehow I do not expect it to come, neither I expect their populace to start any revolution… they are “east Asians”, they will never rebel on their own.
Countless generations (many more generations than any western state exist…) there were simply educated by Konfucian phylospohy that Emperor is the authority, period.
(As in past some Dynasties did fall… however they were simply absorbed by their neighbour- because people there simply defer to authority… all east Asians do)
In the end “Liberty” is extremly personal thing… a state in which I consider myself “free” may be opression for someone else, and vice versa.
I paraphrase something from Robert Heinlein´s Starship troopers (book!)
Human has right to pursue happines… but that is only description of normal state- noone can actualy stop you from trying to be happy (or whatever else you wish to be), they can, however, stop you from achieving that state…
It is the same with “right to live”… you are alive - so if you have ability you have “right” to maintain that state, but try to explain to a lion that you have “right to live”… the mighty beast has it´s own right to live… and that means it needs to fill it´s belly with your, highly eatible, flesh. You can, using gun, excersize you rigt to live at cost of it´s life. (And you know… there is absolutely nothing that would make human life in any way “superior” or “more worthy” than that of life of lion.)
We live how we choose, and how we are forced to live. I in full agreement that laws are highly usefull… poor society without any rules… but what those rules actualy are is only consensus. They are breakable, and punishment Forces requires someone to use force… if noone does than law´s existence is useless.
Liberty is not the miraculous cure people consider it to be… those you wish to help it with must ACTUALY want it. (If they do not they will eventualy give it away regardless.)
In the end… society (in any form) is about individual people that make it. What works for one group will not work for another.
ah man, both good points!
I will say this, liberty is a tricky thing. Total liberty to do anything will make folks insane and do lots of crazy things. Meaning, somehow, somewhere, you’re going to step on someone’s toes. If you give absolute freedom, then there are no restrictions for toe steppage. It goes both ways. If you add in there some restrictions like laws and regulations, sure, it’ll step on your toes a bit, but it’ll also prevent others from stepping on your’s.
There’s a fine balancing act though… you can’t give absolute freedom and you can’t shut it down. While most would like the slider to be closer to the free side, it can’t ever hit that 100% mark.
Having said that… the unfortunate thing is that these liberties or freedoms tend to be trampled on the most by those in power… so us little guys usually get our toes stepped on the most out of the deal.
China has only been a unified nation for 2233 years, not 5000.
I will never and have never advocated for absolute freedom (anarchy) as absolute freedom is only the beginning of the end of liberty. If all are absolutely free then there will be someone like myself who eventually uses that freedom to acquire enough power to remove freedom from all others so that he can rule. There must be laws and regulations, but only to protect individuals from violating each other’s liberty. Any rule or regulation that goes beyond that and strives to protect individuals from themselves or constrains the liberty of some to benefit others whose liberty was not being violated, is nothing but tyranny.
I never stated China should be a democracy. Different peoples are not always culturally fit for a specific kind of government for various reasons. Just as I would not advocate democracy for the Islamic nations who elect more and more terrorist organizations to lead them, I would also not advocate for democracy for China. Instead, a dictatorship or oligarchy like the one that now exists would be what I advocate for except with one curtail change. The prime goal of the dictatorship or oligarchy cannot be the preservation of the communist state, but instead must be to allow China to grow to become the sole superpower. China has the opportunity to surpass America (regardless of how much I dislike the idea) and become the world’s sole superpower. A benevolent instead of self interested government of China would grant the people of China their liberty which would allow China to grow into a capitalist superpower that could surpass the strength and reach of America even at its height. Currently China is growing but not nearly at the explosive rate that it could as a free capitalistic (not necessarily democratic) society. I dislike the entire notion of China surpassing my country but I want what is best for all men before what is best for myself. Liberty is what is best both for the people of China and the nation itself.
Liberty is not a personal thing. When you are one step away from being owned by the government, you do not have your liberty no matter how much you think you do.
lol, well at least you know you’ll be an evil dictator. I admire that. and that’s why I like the Empire, they know they’re kind of evil and everybody is ok with that, as opposed to a republic/democracy where the politicians claim to be doing things for the good of the people, but are just in it for themselves.
Looks like someone found “Ultra Porn”.
now in 5 dimensions!!!!
Being down under, we have been fighting for the R rating since Manhunt R was banned before release in Australia (about 6 years now). I think its due to MK9 being banned was what pushed us over the edge to finally demand it. The R rated games are beautiful even if violent but that’s why there R rated. I already know 2 games I will be buying when the R is put into place
You know they have actualy banned it beeing sold… not beeing downloaded… If some company is not allowed to sell it´s products to you they can not argue that if you download it you make “damage” to their funds.
They can not have your money anyway even if you wished to pay for it. (So about the only argument against downloading something falls)
(then I could go on with fact that “downloading” is simply only you rewriting a comy of morse coded text on someone´s hardrive and who has originaly written it is completly irrelevant since you are just making copy of property of someone who allowed it… by making it public without restriction, so the only one who may have broken the treaty between distributor and customer is the ONE MAN WHO SHARES dara FIRST… everyone else is under no legal obligation to distributor)
so good news then! hope this helps to stop those gov peeps from blocking anything else (well, at least slow them down).
lol PK, always the rouge eh? but that’s true. if you can’t get it in your country, I think it’s more than reasonable to download it. same thing happened with all the anime stuff way back when. companies were hesitant to release many shows/movies and some talented folks fansubbed the shows that had not yet been claimed by distributors here. of course, when they got licensed, they would (or should) take the links down.
so same applies to software I suppose. there’s a supply, there’s a demand, but then there’s a raving idiot standing between the two. if you can bypass the idiot blocking the way, then you’re good to go.