Post by Dan @ 09:42am 20/12/13 | 22 Comments
Descriptions of the scenes in question suggest that the game's conflict with local guidelines was predominantly due to scenes of sexual violence, and although the board noted that they were clearly satirical in nature, the content was still deemed to 'exceed what could be accomodated under the R18+ classification'.
According to the Classification Boards official report, the scenes in question are an Alien Anal probe, and a DIY abortion:
An "interactive animated sequence" featured in the game is simply titled "Alien Probing", and includes just about everything you'd expect. Male characters are captured by aliens and stripped buttock-nude before "repeatedly having an oversized, phallic probe thrust into their buttocks", mimicking sexual movements and accompanied by "squelching" sound effects.As no strangers to censorship struggles, South Parks creators appear to have made the best of the situation, taking advantage of the fact that using text to describe scenes of a graphic nature rather than showing it is deemed acceptable by Australia's classification guidelines, so the dialogue of the relevant parts of the game will remain, with the visuals obscured by the image of a crying koala.
The adult characters' voices and comments suggest that they are sedated or deeply asleep and, while one character, Mr Slave, seems to find the probing pleasurable and says "can we try the big silver one again," no indication of explicit or implicit consent is viewed in the sequence.
...
There is also another scene which a minority of the Board found both thematically offensive, and very high in impact, particularly due to its interactivity. Set inside an abortion clinic, male characters are dressed as females.
The player controls the doctor's hands and repeatedly thrusts a length of wire between the patient's splayed legs (implicitly to bring about an abortion) before applying a vacuum device to the patient's genital region (below screen).
South Park: The Stick of Truth is due on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 4th 2013.
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Posted 10:03am 20/12/13
Posted 10:11am 20/12/13
Posted 10:49am 20/12/13
Posted 10:52am 20/12/13
Posted 11:32am 20/12/13
Posted 11:35am 20/12/13
Pretty cool fix IMO.
Posted 11:56am 20/12/13
I wonder if they just had a video of the scenes, whether that could have been a go around. what if they linked to them online?
Posted 12:42pm 20/12/13
the funny thing is, an uncensored mohammed appeared in the intro for years.
Posted 02:14pm 20/12/13
inorite.
I always thought that was strange.
Posted 02:45pm 20/12/13
Posted 04:50pm 20/12/13
Unless we get PC gamers and people who are passionate about the industry on the board, until then we are screwed.
Any chance of lobbying some Ausgamers folks to get onto the board?
Posted 06:10pm 20/12/13
yes movie ratings seem to be more liberal, but even that has it's limits, after all "clerks" has an R rating, and pretty sure if it were to go thru ratings tomorrow it would come out an M, or MA+
Games will be the same, as the raters get their minds around it, it will loosen in some regards (and maybe tighten up in others) I guess the question is still access to the games etc, and those doing the ratings I dont think have their heads around that, give them time, and speak to your local MP
(speaking to you local MP about anal probing, and demanding that you be able to do it, well film it, cause it could go south real quick)
Posted 06:43pm 20/12/13
:(
Posted 07:08pm 20/12/13
It was not directly a win but a step in the right direction, more can be gained from the move to R18+ than from not having a R18+
Posted 08:22pm 20/12/13
Ok look at the board...
http://www.classification.gov.au/About/BoardMember
http://www.classification.gov.au/About/BoardMember
Full of bachelor of arts people from schools like NIDA.
Surely we can get some better people in there? Do a game review and classify it at the same time... sounds like a win win.
Posted 09:27pm 20/12/13
7 out of 9 permanent spots are over 40
12 out of 21 spots are woman, and I would dare say more again are older than 40
this would be in all honesty something that they wouldn't have seen before, and it is a little un nerving that so many are older woman, it sort of skews the board's view
also
"The members of the Classification Board are chosen to be broadly representative of the Australian community. This means that they are drawn from diverse areas, age groups and backgrounds"
this is so not happening
Posted 09:41pm 20/12/13
You do know that communication and media studies is a department under the umbrella of Arts Humanities? Ie the policy makers. But yeah IT and science is where the game making/ development is going on so you would hope that people of those disciplines would also get a look in.
I can also suggest that of the many arts humanity students most of them would be gamer slackers
Id be somewhat concerned at the age discrepancy - how many of the board are aged between 20 - 40? But saying "they are old women so im concerned" is a bit over the top.
Posted 09:43pm 20/12/13
Posted 09:54pm 20/12/13
My feeling was that it was an important set on the road. We can now address questions like the composition of the board and the way they make decisions and define concepts such as "high impact". All this is a lot easier to fix than the lack of an R18+ rating in the first place.
Posted 11:25pm 24/12/13
I blame people, everyone loses their s*** over nothing and keep shows like Today Tonight going strong! Wake up you d*******s!
Posted 07:44am 25/12/13
Posted 11:24am 25/12/13