"includes a mission into a small town with gun shops everywhere."

Small town == the country == farmers == shooting vermin.
You won't find those people whining about guns.
That's in the city, where gun ownership is very uncommon.


"to make the Assies look as stupid as they do banning fallout 3 for reference to drugs"

Confusion. It was not banned because it has references to drugs - its because those references take it beyond the MA15+ rating, and there is no R or AO rating. If such a rating for games was introduced (we have it already for movies) then the game would not have been banned.

As several have already pointed out, the introduction of an R rating for games is being Vetoed by one state attorney general (out of 8 states and territories).

its got nothing to do with balls, it has to do with losing sales... as in, they dont want to

Hmm, You know what Rockstar would do?

They'd offer free downloadable content called "Asstralia" that includes a mission into a small town with gun shops everywhere. Your objective would be to sit in on a meeting in a room of whining people who are arguing over whether or not they should allow kids to play with toy guns because it might make them grow up to use real guns. (Everyone in the room should be packing SERIOUS firepower and they should fire a gun in the air every time they say anything)

Hopefully they could come up with some clever dialogue to make the Assies look as stupid as they do banning fallout 3 for reference to drugs in the first place.

Get some Balls Bethesda.

This comment was edited on Sep 10, 14:58.

If all that changed is the drug name who cares? However their game did have the ability to take drugs and get addicted. If that gameplay mechanic is removed because of this (they have not said that), That is cause for the anger I have seen. Otherwise the anger here is irrational.

Can you promise those changes everyone?

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DRM needs to die... now

Next: the game won't be released until june 2009.
Reason: German censors want all the violence removed from the game.
Changes: Every weapon will be replaced with water guns and pistols. If you shoot somebody, this (wet) person and you will sit down and discuss your violent behavior.

YOU'LL SEE!

This comment was edited on Sep 10, 00:22.

But somehow I suspect they're hiding what they really had to do to censor it. Such as taking out the chance of addiction, or the harmful side effects. At least to me it seems that game characters taking dangerous and addictive fictional drugs is little different then them taking real world drugs with the same effects.

It does make you wonder if that's all they really had to change, just a few names. If that's it, then it's not bad.. but it's still fun to overreact.

Yes theyarecomingforyou. It's clear from all your anti-Australian posts that you have a fundamental and irrational hatred of all things Australian. You've been parading your hatred ever since I've first noticed your posts.

Oh please, Australia isn't important enough to warrant my hatred - it's a shitty little country on the other side of the world. It's of little-to-no concern to me, except in cases like this where it directly affects me. I save my hating for more worthy causes, like Israel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Founder of the "I Hate Smiley Fitz" society

Remember: Riley has autism. He has trouble communicating, and in an overstimulating
environment, he can get frightened and run away, leaving his parents frantic. - Auburn

I really don't give a shit if they're calling crack, skippity-doo. What I do give a shit about is them bowing to the asshole censors of one country and applying that globally. Big Brother is watching.


"I couldn't stay away. Curse your rockin' tits!"
- Gerald Broflovski

They would probably end up getting sued for it. Not that I think they should be allowed to get sued for that, but they would.

They're faking the names in place of illegal drugs like meth, crack, and marijuana... not brand-named drugs like Tylenol, Advil, and Ambien CR. I believe they would need to get a bunch of licensing agreements... or at the very least try and sell "ad space" to the drug industry. That would be weird, by the way. LOL


-----
http://www.gamemusicjukebox.com/
Game p/reviewer for http://www.gameindustry.com/
DRM needs to die... now
This comment was edited on Sep 9, 23:07.

Its my objection in principal to government regulating art. You should be as appalled as I am.

So you don't object to the retail chains regulating art then? If it gets an AO rating in the US and Walmart won't stock the game, the game gets changed.

I fail to see the difference except one is an appointee of the people and the other is not.

I had assumed that the drugs in Fallout 3 were already the same as the drugs in the earlier fallout games.

They were called Jet and Mentats in the earlier Fallout games.

"Fuck Australia."

Or perhaps fuck Australia's ratings and classifications board?

Anyway, the original games did not feature real world drugs, they had fictional drug names like Mentats.
I'm not really sure why they decided to go with crack or whatever, but this censored version is closer to original fallout canon.

The answer is "Fuck one Attorney General who stands in the way of allowing a R18 rating for games". Michael Atkinson, AG of South Australia.

As an Australian who was going to import the full game, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise to the rest of the world for the actions of one FUCKED IN THE HEAD RELIGIOUS ZEALOT.

I cannot believe that the actions of one man have in fact tainted this product for every person who will ever play it, even if the changes (drug names) are minor.

Honestly, using real world drug names was a stupid idea anyway. They would probably end up getting sued for it. Not that I think they should be allowed to get sued for that, but they would.

That is, if they are using brand names and not chemical names.
If it was the chemical name, well, the beauty of chemical name is I can describe the same chemical with a different name. They should do that.


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I'm appalled that Bethesda was so stupid as to use real world drug names... not thinking that this would actually happen? It's the same reason they made up names for their other games. My guess is they were hoping for this very thing to happen to generate huge amounts of free press and to help get the attention of the world's game playing youth.

Or it may just show that they don't know enough or care enough about the previous games to stick with the existing Fallout canon.

I'm betting this was a staged fiasco....
This comment was edited on Sep 9, 23:05.

As it happens, all that is happening is changing Morphine to a fake drugs name. Why is that so much of an issue?

It has nothing to do with the degree of the content change, its the fact that any took place at all. I had assumed that the drugs in Fallout 3 were already the same as the drugs in the earlier fallout games.

Its my objection in principal to government regulating art. You should be as appalled as I am.

Seriously wtf are these ratings people thinking smoking?

Fixed that.


-----
http://www.gamemusicjukebox.com/
Game p/reviewer for http://www.gameindustry.com/
DRM needs to die... now
This comment was edited on Sep 9, 22:51.

Zomg! Its a real drug name!

Seriously wtf are these ratings people thinking?

Fuck Australia!

Im so fucking sick and tired of these corporate stiffs taking it upon themselves to make decisions for us all on what they think is appropriate for me as an adult to watch/play/experience.

The gdamned game is rated M! What more do you want?

And you forgot Scooma

Skooma and Moon Sugar to be precise.

I had quite the pipe collection.

And you forgot Scooma

Bethesda losing potentially millions of dollars (I don't know how well things sell in Australia), or being forced to spend extra money sending out two SKUs (I don't really know the costs here, so I cant give a figure.), isn't pressure?

There are PLENTY of games that go through minor patches to suit different country's own legal conditions. GTA IV was modified slightly in Australia and that modified version was sold here. In Germany, games cannot have representations of Swastikas ... how do you thing that affects all the WWII games sold ever there. If Bethesda followed the lead of other game companies, they would not need to "censor" the "rest of the world".

As it happens, all that is happening is changing Morphine to a fake drugs name. Why is that so much of an issue?

that make the US Govt look like a gang of hookers and porn stars

I thought they were.

As I stated before, the thing that's holding up an R18+ rating is one man. Once we get that rating, everything will be all hunky-dory.

The difference is that unlike the US, Australian retailers will still sell a game if we do get a rating of R18+. In the US if a game is rated AO, all hell breaks loose and NOBODY sells it. Explain that one to me? If you want to talk about prudes, you need to closely look at the CEO's of major retail chains in the US.

This comment was edited on Sep 9, 22:23.