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Dec. 15th, 2009
After many controversial game bannings, Australia's Government will finally hear what the public want from their country's media ratings body.
Citizens are being asked to fill out a questionnaire that will help the nation's leaders decide whether Australia should allow an R18+ rating for games, like there is for films.
The document presents arguments for and against a mature game rating. There are the usual "games affect us more than films" and "children will buy them" standpoints, but these are countered with declarations that an R18+ stamp sends a clear and unavoidable message to parents that this is not content for kids.
Deadline for submission is 28th February 2010, at which point results will be correlated and the Nation's State and Federal Attorney Generals will try to come to an agreement on the matter.
Aliens vs. Predator was the most recent game to be deemed to mature with an MA15+ rating and was therefore barred from sale in the region.
- via Eurogamer
PLEASE go and fill this out as clearly and eloquently as you can.
- Submission Template (.doc)
- Submission Template (.pdf)
I've been rethinking my stance on fatherhood.
For the last few weeks I've been sleeping like an infant... better than an infant; I'm not waking every four hours to throw up and scream for boob.
I've been sleeping well, for the first time in ten years I'm totally game to get back to doing standup (and really don't have the time), and I've been thinking about whether or not I want to become a dad.
My stance was always this: I can't afford a cat. To become a father to please myself, and bring a child into the world at a point when I can't make a serious attempt at both caring for it and making the most of the first seven formative years... it's just irresponsible and selfish. It's not right. Couple that with things like the world being overpopulated, the figures on the resources it takes for a person to live a normal life plus it costs more than a million dollars to raise a child to 18... it was never something I could seriously consider. And there's also the fear that my life as I know it would cease to be. ie. my career would wither and die. But I do think I'd make a good father if I was capable of being financially stable.
The thing is, so many kids are being born into loveless families just so Kevin Rudd will buy mum and dad a flatscreen, that there's a need for families that raise their kids with love and humour and understanding. In that sense it's ecologically and socially moral, I think. Kids raised to have faith and confidence in themselves are more likely to be good for this world than bad, even if only as role models or bringing something positive into the lives of others, who then go on to be less damaging... in whatever way you care to consider. So there's that.
The other thing is, I first came to Melbourne on the wave of something laughably bad that went down in Brisbane in 1996. I thought I'd dealt with it pretty well, but it's the nature of these things to not die so much as fade into the background, and then throw clogs in the works while you're out to lunch. I was pretty good at lying to myself about a whole range of things, basically. The biggest being about my ability to write my own life. If I want my career to work, it will. It's taken twelve years to find that particular lever. If I can make it work, I can have money. If I can have money, I can be a father. I know it doesn't take cash to be a good dad, the main requirement is being there and being more mature than the human being you just created.
The third criteria, which I haven't mentioned, is being in love with someone who could be a good mother and is a great friend. I have the advantage of time and being male, but if this is going to happen it'd be best if I didn't wait so long that when I attend this kid's graduation I'm more focused on the pudding.
So it's a thing. I don't know if it'll ever happen, but oddly it was like a weight lifting when I realised this was how I felt about it now, and that had changed because I've changed. It feels like that scene in the last episode of Due South where the ghost of the main character's dad is in his cabin, gets his hat, walks to the door, and all four walls fall away revealing a beautiful, frozen landscape and he just walks out into it. Possibilities, endings and beginnings. I dunno. Stuff. Feels important, I guess.
For the last few weeks I've been sleeping like an infant... better than an infant; I'm not waking every four hours to throw up and scream for boob.
I've been sleeping well, for the first time in ten years I'm totally game to get back to doing standup (and really don't have the time), and I've been thinking about whether or not I want to become a dad.
My stance was always this: I can't afford a cat. To become a father to please myself, and bring a child into the world at a point when I can't make a serious attempt at both caring for it and making the most of the first seven formative years... it's just irresponsible and selfish. It's not right. Couple that with things like the world being overpopulated, the figures on the resources it takes for a person to live a normal life plus it costs more than a million dollars to raise a child to 18... it was never something I could seriously consider. And there's also the fear that my life as I know it would cease to be. ie. my career would wither and die. But I do think I'd make a good father if I was capable of being financially stable.
The thing is, so many kids are being born into loveless families just so Kevin Rudd will buy mum and dad a flatscreen, that there's a need for families that raise their kids with love and humour and understanding. In that sense it's ecologically and socially moral, I think. Kids raised to have faith and confidence in themselves are more likely to be good for this world than bad, even if only as role models or bringing something positive into the lives of others, who then go on to be less damaging... in whatever way you care to consider. So there's that.
The other thing is, I first came to Melbourne on the wave of something laughably bad that went down in Brisbane in 1996. I thought I'd dealt with it pretty well, but it's the nature of these things to not die so much as fade into the background, and then throw clogs in the works while you're out to lunch. I was pretty good at lying to myself about a whole range of things, basically. The biggest being about my ability to write my own life. If I want my career to work, it will. It's taken twelve years to find that particular lever. If I can make it work, I can have money. If I can have money, I can be a father. I know it doesn't take cash to be a good dad, the main requirement is being there and being more mature than the human being you just created.
The third criteria, which I haven't mentioned, is being in love with someone who could be a good mother and is a great friend. I have the advantage of time and being male, but if this is going to happen it'd be best if I didn't wait so long that when I attend this kid's graduation I'm more focused on the pudding.
So it's a thing. I don't know if it'll ever happen, but oddly it was like a weight lifting when I realised this was how I felt about it now, and that had changed because I've changed. It feels like that scene in the last episode of Due South where the ghost of the main character's dad is in his cabin, gets his hat, walks to the door, and all four walls fall away revealing a beautiful, frozen landscape and he just walks out into it. Possibilities, endings and beginnings. I dunno. Stuff. Feels important, I guess.
The Australian Government has announced it intends to introduce legislation that will make ISP-level filtering mandatory for all refused classification material hosted overseas.
The Government intends to amend the Broadcasting Services Act in August 2010 to enforce the filter, and expects the filter to be operational within a further twelve months.
ISP-level filtering will be mandatory on all RC (refused classification) content hosted overseas, with grants also being made available to those Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that wish to offer further filtering of X18+ sites.
...
Senator Conroy justified the filter, saying that "most Australians acknowledge that there is some internet content which is not acceptable in any civilised society.
"It is important that all Australians, particularly young children, are protected from this material," he said.
Full press release here
It's like apologising for a demented grandfather.
I'll just order my RC content from a store in Hong Kong. Conroy may feel this is important, but Customs are too busy looking for guns, drugs and explosives to give a crap about that one CD in a spindle maybe containing a copy of Left 4 Dead 2. All this is going to do is more tightly direct the flow of Australian dollars overseas.
Secondly, wouldn't it be great if these hundreds of millions of dollars were being spent to locate and prevent child molesters from doing their thing, rather than just depriving them of masturbation material? Wouldn't it be great if some of those hundreds of millions went to those grievously wounded families who have been affected by the monstrous side of humanity because various senators are going for the cheap vote? Wouldn't it be great if this money went toward helping save the lives of those kids so fucking traumatised they're only going to grow up to become the very nightmare that got them in the first place?
But hey, at least they're keeping Aliens vs Predator out of the hands of 37-year-olds.
The Government intends to amend the Broadcasting Services Act in August 2010 to enforce the filter, and expects the filter to be operational within a further twelve months.
ISP-level filtering will be mandatory on all RC (refused classification) content hosted overseas, with grants also being made available to those Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that wish to offer further filtering of X18+ sites.
...
Senator Conroy justified the filter, saying that "most Australians acknowledge that there is some internet content which is not acceptable in any civilised society.
"It is important that all Australians, particularly young children, are protected from this material," he said.
Full press release here
It's like apologising for a demented grandfather.
I'll just order my RC content from a store in Hong Kong. Conroy may feel this is important, but Customs are too busy looking for guns, drugs and explosives to give a crap about that one CD in a spindle maybe containing a copy of Left 4 Dead 2. All this is going to do is more tightly direct the flow of Australian dollars overseas.
Secondly, wouldn't it be great if these hundreds of millions of dollars were being spent to locate and prevent child molesters from doing their thing, rather than just depriving them of masturbation material? Wouldn't it be great if some of those hundreds of millions went to those grievously wounded families who have been affected by the monstrous side of humanity because various senators are going for the cheap vote? Wouldn't it be great if this money went toward helping save the lives of those kids so fucking traumatised they're only going to grow up to become the very nightmare that got them in the first place?
But hey, at least they're keeping Aliens vs Predator out of the hands of 37-year-olds.