Left 4 Dead 2 cops a knockback from the AU
Written on September 17, 2009 by Matt
Left 4 Dead 2 - Australian Edition
LAMENT! Lament once again every Australian gamer (or at least those of you who didn’t sign the boycott) as your country mercilessly “thinks of the children”.
The Australian Classification Board website recently posted up the results of a classification application for Valve’s zombie-centric Left 4 Dead 2. The long and short of it is: the game, in it’s current form, has been labelled RC (or “Refused Classification”). This means that while we’re all free to play and enjoy Left 4 Dead, and all the zombie shotgunning and exploding heads that entails, apparently the sequel strays so far from the subject matter that it can’t be allowed to reach out sensitive Australian eyes.
My guess is that this would be because of the new melee weapons. Shooting zombies with a bolt-action rifle through the skull is fine, because we all know in our heart of hearts that at least the zombie didn’t suffer (much like they don’t suffer when you proximity bomb a whole crowd of them). But throw a sledgehammer into the mix, and all of a sudden we’re in all sorts of trouble with morality.
I’m proud to be Australian, but there are just days you want double facepalm. Pay no mind however, all you Australians in the audience, because it won’t remain RC for long. A slightly gored-down version will be resubmitted (a-la Fallout 3) and we’ll be “allowed” to play again.
To be fair, it’s almost getting kind of dull hearing about every game that needs to go through the entire process down here.
But I’ve just got one consideration for all of you. If the Australian Government’s even more ridiculous plan for a mandatory internet censorship was in effect right now, it would technically be illegal for me to be talking about this now, considering the game’s current status. Under the proposed law, fines can be issued for promoting and supplying links to refused classification material.
Well I’ll just leave this here then, see if we get any emails from the AMCA.
Even more reason people should be supporting it’s downfall. And while your at it, can someone PLEASE fucking explain to KRudd that R classifications shouldn’t just be for movies?
[Addendum: Apparently I'm right, it's the melee weapons that tip the classification over the edge, as evidenced here on GameSpot, who have posted up the clarification from the Classifications Board]
