Ever wondered what it would be like to be responsible for censorship in Australia? An amusing new indie game lets you wear the shoes of Stephen Conroy and Michael Atkinson and take aim at the many “harmful” websites and video games trying to infiltrate our nation.
Ban This Game! is coded by Conor O’Kane, a Melbourne games developer who is no stranger to using games as a vehicle for political satire.
You can download the full version and start banning at the link below.
Ban This Game! [site, thanks Stephen!]
Joshua Iacobozzi
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 1:07 PMGood thing this doesn’t involving killing; it would kill our efforts to establish a debate over the R+18 rating. Still, it’s funny, and I hope it isn’t used as ammunition for the debate.
Andrew Low
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 1:13 PMExcellent!
I seem to remember another game in this vein, although I can’t quite remember the name at the moment. The player was required to rid a middle-eastern village of terrorists by dropping bombs, except that each bomb dropped killed civilians, creating mourners, creating more terrorists – consequently you could never win.
All these examples succinctly deliver a crystal clear message. The medium of games never cease to amaze me.
Alinos
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 2:04 PMyou werent using big enough bombs is your problem :P
Alex Portlock
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 2:19 PMBetter late than never.
The game is called September 12 and, if I remember rightly, it was used by Atkinson at one point as an example of a violent game (despite the obvious political criticism and satire).
Matthew Herne
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 1:23 PMAnd this is precisely why games should be taken seriously. Games are as much an adult form of communication as any other, and are capable of conveying many different types of messages – including political ones.
I hope this gets a bit of coverage – it deserves it.
Tom
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 2:07 PMI had Conor as a 3D character design tutor last year in my course at RMIT. Gave me some great insights and tips, and it was by far my most enjoyable subject. Great guy! Good to see his venture into creating more of his own stuff is getting some publicity :D
Steven Bogos
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 2:38 PMFantastic, if not for the fact that it gets boring after a little while, but i guess that’s not really the point
+10 internets
Ayrton Coll
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 6:40 PMIt’s quite difficult to ban everything in this game heaps of stuff gets through so you end up just focusing on specific things. So it’s it mirrors the current situation perfectly.
diode
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 1:08 PMThis gives me an idea for another game; you play as Conroy and you have to shoot down critic sites before they reach a certain number of hits/visits.
We could call it “DMCA:Takedown!”