Gamers 4 Croydon respond to Atkinson

"Excuse me, I've got faxes to send..."

If you’re crazy/bored enough man to just go ahead and write to SA Attourney-General Michael Atkinson on his whole “R18+ has to think of the children” political stance, then it’s most likely you’ll have made yourself familiar with his standard form letter reply that he sends out to absolutely everyone who mentions the whole issue.

Including his new political opponents, apparently.

The letter is almost beautiful in it’s sheer circular rhetoric.  In a series of mostly contradictory statements, it tries to outline Atkinson’s stance as sensible and well thought out, although all it proves to gamers is the man has no idea what he’s talking about.

Well Chris Prior from Gamers 4 Croydon, obviously a little sick of reading the same letter over and over, has published a rebuttal to the Attourney-General’s completely baseless rantings multiple page photocopy.  Here’s a snip:

Claiming that the infringement on adult freedom of choice is acceptable if it keeps the most extreme content off the shelves is problematic on a number of levels, the first of which being that ‘the most extreme content’ would still be kept off shelves with R18+ for games. The slightly less extreme content would be harder for children to access. As for the infringement being ‘acceptable’, that really isn’t his call. His job is to represent the people his decisions affect. A newer version of the Bond University study quoted by Mr Atkinson in his letter stated that roughly 90% of people were in favour of an R18+ classification for games, and to ignore that is anything but representative.

Talking further on the “trifling” impact on consumer choice of the lack of an R rating, he says that only a handful of games are RC, which must mean there is very little impact. What he doesn’t mention is that the overwhelming majority of games rated suitable for 15 year olds in Australia are rated higher elsewhere in the world. Over 90% of games classified MA15+ between June and November ’09 were rated 17+ in the US. All but one was rated either 16+ or 18+ in Europe. The “trifling” impact is that games intended for adults – recognised as such internationally – are available to Australian children. This is a failing of a classification system that says – first and foremost – that “adults should be able to read, hear and see what they want”, while not providing an appropriate classification for that content.

-Chris Prior, about to sprout wings and halo

Can someone please get Atkinson in a face-to-face debate with these guys? He clearly knows nothing about console parental controls or the “depraved sex” filled games he claims to be protecting us all from. I get the feeling if he actually had to talk to anyone with a little knowledge instead of hiding behind a form letter he’d crumble like wet biscuit.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I could use a biscuit and a cup right now to calm the rageahol.

Check out Atkinson’s much repeated response, and Prior’s recent rebuttal.