Jonah returns from PAX Unplugged 2022, while T.J. defends the maligned Castillo Protocol. Aside from the news, the Gaming Flashback is the Klei Entertainment’s stealth 2D platformer Mark of the Ninja.
The rest of the news includes:
Let us know what you think.
A new draft of the R18+ classification has been released by home minister Brendan O’Connor through the Australian Federal Government. The new guidelines closely match those in place for Australia’s film industry. The new R18+ rating removes restrictions on bad language, drug use and nudity; in contrast, the current guidelines forbade the classification of any adult-themed games.
O’Connor’s draft claims that the R18+ rating will allow “virtually no restrictions on the treatment of themes”, and violence in games “except where it offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that it should not be classified.” As far as sex, the draft says, “Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is ‘simulation, yes – the real thing, no'”.
Of course, “standards of morality, decency and propriety” is still troublesomely subjective, while “simulation, yes, the real thing, no” is comicly inept for videogames, where everything is simulation. You may be able to tell when live actors are actually performing sexual acts, but when can you tell a videogame character is actually having sex?
O’Connor stated:
“The Gillard government wants to provide better guidance for parents and remove unsuitable material from children and teenagers. The introduction of an R18+ classification will help achieve that and will also bring Australia into line with comparable nations. This issue has been on the table for many years, without the necessary progress to make a change. We’ve recently seen several states publicly express their support for an adult only rating for games and I’m keen to reach a unanimous decision at the July meeting.”
Rather than banning games, why not punish stores for selling mature games to underage children? Or put the onus of raising children on the parents?
It’s almost that time again folks, the next expansion for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft arrives the first minute on the 13th of November. This is the expansion we’ve all been waiting for, climbing the ranks to level 70 so we can enjoy all the fresh new content, preparing ourselves for Dark Knight status.
If you’re in the New York area, you’ll have a chance to meet CEO Mike Morhaime and executive VP of product development Frank Pearce. They’ll be a New York Best Buy signing copies of the title if you’re lucky to be in the area and plan to go out at midnight to get it. We’re not that lucky, but we’re also not standing in line this year for an event.
We’re trusting in Amazon and their promise to have the game at the door step on release day. If this isn’t the case, we’ll be playing some Burning Crusade content instead. If you want to join in the New York festivities read on for their full press release.
This is the second attempt at Episode 631, as the previous episode had bad audio, and was boring to boot. This week’s episode features a lot of questionable content, as well as a Dark Souls Gaming Flashback.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
