This man doesn’t listen when gamers across the country say we should have an R18+ rating. So what are we going to do about it? Well, retailer Gametraders reckons we should all dress up! Oh, and march on the South Australian parliament.
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This man doesn’t listen when gamers across the country say we should have an R18+ rating. So what are we going to do about it? Well, retailer Gametraders reckons we should all dress up! Oh, and march on the South Australian parliament.
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In the words of Guy Bloomberg (Australiangamer.com, quoted poorly)
‘I don’t think dressing up in costumes is the greatest way to show how grown up we are and that we deserve R18+ ratings’
Ha! This is awesome. Although it does nothing to dispel Atkinson’s perception that gamers are total weirdos incapable of making responsible decisions, and that we need to be protected from ourselves and violent videogames.
Great work ralling people like this. Something needs to happen and this is certainly a step forward.
Is cosplaying really a good idea? I mean sure the media are gonna have a field day but in the end, I don’t think our arguments will be heard over the media circus created around a bunch of adults playing dress-ups.
I’m all for a protest on parliament, but please don’t give Atkinson more fodder for his ridiculous arguments about gamers.
This is a bad idea! we are trying to portray adult gamers as a mature level headed group of consumers. Dressing up as “imaginary characters” as an attempt to call attention to a cause is just going to put us all back to square 1.
Hey guys,
I live in Adelaide and couple probably whip something up for you about this. Just lemme know.
This is such a bad idea. The people in charge aren’t listening to us, so lets protest by dressing up in Cosplay?
All that this will do is rob us of our credibility and give the main stream media a nice little video bite – “look at the wacky nerds campaigning for pornography! Aren’t they silly”.
This may well be a genuine part of our culture, but it is a part not well understood by the rest of the population. Look at the media coverage surrounding the release of the Star Wars prequels – shot after shot of Darth Vaders with pocket protectors.
Yeah! Lets storm parliament and show ’em we’re all a bunch of… how’d he put it? ‘Older children’.
Yeah. Now they’ll take us seriously.
You’re kidding. You’re fucking kidding me.
Let me get this straight….you want them to take gamers seriously and actually start listening to us, so you’re going to achieve this by dressing up as your favorite videogame characters and standing out the front of Parliment House???
It’s great to see people trying, but when some dork ends up in the paper arguing for adult ratings in games while he’s painted up like Sonic the Hedgehog, it’s not exactly going to help our cause.
Cosplay? For fuck’s sake, how will that HELP us look like adults?
You don’t see Eros campaigners showing up at Parliament dressed as dildos and anal beads to get an X rating, do you?
By all means, if you’re in Adelaide and can help educate others in the sheer ineptitude of Michael Atkinson’s actions, by all means go for it, please, but looking like fucking Master Chief isn’t going to help anyone that’s NOT aware of our plight to take it seriously.
Just wear a bloody suit or something. Look like voters, not Furries.
The only type of cosplay that might help this fight is an Army of Phoenix Wright.
Seriously, this is going to do nothing but hurt the cause. Media will portray the gaming community as a bunch of crazies. The people best equipped to argue this battle are not the kind of people that will dress up.
Oh, please no! The media would go crazy, but at least some outlets would certainly try to paint the attendees as immature and, even if they didn’t, most viewers would think that anyway. I’m not opposed to cosplay in general, but this is not the way to have our community taken seriously – in fact, it could do the complete opposite.
This plan is poorly conceived, Gametraders. Poorly conceived. I’m going to be sending my opinion to that “register your interest” email address and I encourage anyone else who fears the flustercuck that this could become to do the same.
@Murcho: I’m with you on that one, I can just imagine a crowd of a thousand people with crazy hair in suits walking into parliament and screaming ‘OBJECTION!’ ^.^
But seriously what are they thinking… I live in Adelaide and I can just imagine the shit that this will cause in the media… it’s a 1 step forward, 2 steps back scenario and I cannot see it helping our cause in the slightest.
Jeeze, what do you guys expect, what other way is there to grab attention and showcase to the media and Atkinson that there is a large support for an R18+ classification. Other than cosplay, what do gamers do? You can’t exactly expect everyone to bring a couch, a playstation, some weed, beer and some mates and sit around parliament house protesting. Atleast this is active and shows we can have a laugh, yet stand up for something we believe in. Sure, not all gamers do cosplay, and most are just normal people, but a bunch or normal people standing around won’t be listened to.
I dont know why Gametraders cares, they make a lot of money selling banned games under the counter anyway…
well there goes all hopes of adult gamers gaining any respect.
The biggest joke will be, “well at least they are outside”
The biggest argument for to review the ratings model is to show how currently little kiddies are buying adult level games now. Adult games are being rerated for kiddies in australia, when they should stay adult rated!
Easy way to show that is to show how easy it is for a kid to go buy gta4, fear2, fallout 3 etc.
Are they joking, It isnt aprils fools day yet.
Leave comments at the link below, maybe someone will notice.
http://www.r18games.com.au/2009/02/r18-rally-in-adelaide/
Hey at the march, we should also shoot and stab a heap of people to prove violent games dont affect us either.
seriously who thinks these ideas up.
@clint “Easy way to show that is to show how easy it is for a kid to go buy gta4, fear2, fallout 3 etc. “
I agree, someone should just get a video of a child buying a game such as that then show images from ingame, Bloody Mess perk on Fallout 3 should do it.. >.
Isn’t one of the arguments that computer games arn’t just for children. Kind of like how dressing up isn’t just for children. Just a thought.
If you have a problem with dressing up, go casual! The more people that go casual, the more we will be taken seriously! The less people that go casual, the harder it will be to be taken seriously!
Hi everyone,
My name’s Tim, and I’m the guy who runs r18games.com.au. I did in fact notice an incredibly large number of comments awaiting moderation this morning, so naturally I did a bit of digging and found where they were all coming from (thanks for the linkage, David)! I’m glad to see that this issue has got people interested, but I feel there are a few things I need to clear up.
1) I am not organising the rally. I am not in any way responsible for the rally. Gametraders contacted me and asked me to promote it and I agreed. Leaving hate-filled comments with me accusing me of being both a retard and an idiot is not a good way to get in touch with the people actually responsible. There is an email address on the page: cosplay@gametraders.com.au. If you really want to say something, try going there and telling them what you think.
2) I have contacted Gametraders and asked for an official statement from them regarding what The Internet has to say about their rally. When I get a response, I will post it on the site.
3) I will not be approving a lot of the comments. There are quite a few reasoned and compelling ones, but a lot of them are negative and inflammatory and will not be made public.
4) Contrary to what is clearly the overwhelming opinion in this thread, I genuinely believe this rally is a good thing. Let me tell you why.
There is currently zero mainstream media coverage of this issue. Zero. None of the mainstream media care about this issue one bit. Sure, it’s all over the internet, it’s all over the forums, we’re up to our ears in it, but Mum and Dad McGameBuyer (of the clan McGameBuyer) have absolutely no idea that there’s even a problem. They might occasionally see their kid playing GTA IV and go “What is society coming to! Aiee!” but they have no way of knowing that this is a genuine legal and moral issue that is affecting the whole of Australia. And the only way Mum and Dad McGameBuyer are going to get aware of the issue is if the mainstream media covers it. Make no mistake about this: it is the only way they will understand.
So how are we going to get mainstream media coverage? A couple of nerds on the steps of parliament house? Unlikely! What’s new and exciting about that? Why would the media even cover it? The only thing that’s going to get mainstream media down there in force is either huge numbers, or a gimmick.
Obviously we’re not going to get huge numbers. It’s much easier to sit at home and use the internet to call cosplayers a bunch of overweight idiots than it is to take the time to go and show up and protest alongside them. So they’re going to have to go with a gimmick. Any mainstream media coverage is good coverage. Anything that gets the issue in the public eye is a good thing.
If people really care about getting this rating change through, they’ll go down and protest, even if they don’t have a costume. If they want to show that not all gamers are cosplayers, the best way to do that is to get down there and protest alongside them.
I hope everybody here from Adelaide takes the time to go along to Parliament House on Wednesday the 4th of March. It would be an incredible shame if the Australian gaming community splintered along some sort of bullshit factional line at the first opportunity to make the public’s eye.
@Aaron:
I guess dressing up isn’t just for children, as you say, but the point to having an R18 rating is to show that there are mature video games that are meant to be played by mature gamers.
There’s nothing mature about cosplay. Except that Ivy Valentine chick. Wow.
It looks like Gametraders don’t want there to be an R18 rating for games, and are calling on the community to aid their task…
While I’m inclined to think that protesting in costume isn’t necessarily a good idea (for the many reasons outlined already), I can see Tim’s point and it just might be correct, so I’m willing to say “Hey, why not give it a go”.
One thing I would ask of anyone considering going; don’t, whatever you do, go as a game character with a potential for violence. Showing up as a gun-toting Master Chief is going to do more harm than good.
No one seems to have mentioned the free publicity Gametraders is getting or will get from this if it goes ahead. And really, would they care about the outcome? They will still make money regardless. It seems to me that a store that want’s to ‘Fight for the right of Australian gamers’ would not resort to something that is only going discredit what progress has already been made in the acceptance of and R18+ rating for games.
@Travis; “It seems to me that a store that want’s to ‘Fight for the right of Australian gamers’ would not resort to something that is only going discredit what progress has already been made in the acceptance of and R18+ rating for games.”
Errr, what progress? It was established a long time ago that Atkinson is the sole reason why Australia doesn’t have an R rating for video games. Every other attorny general in Australia is all for it, all we need to do is somehow get this idiot out so the next guy (or girl) can approve it.
Plus like it was pointed out the point of this rally is to get attention on the issue. At the moment there is next-to-none outside game-specific websites. A normal rally isn’t going to get that big a mention. A rally of cosplayers? People will pay attention to that and discover what’s going on with the issue.
@Shaoken; Errr, Trying to prove a point to a man who believes that these games influence people won’t make him think any differently, or the general public for that matter if this goes ahead. I can see the media spin now. “These people are so influnced by the games they play they even dress like the characters.” Giving Atkinson more fuel for his argument is just a plain stupid idea. Surely a properly organised rally of normally dressed everyday people from all walks of life would have a better outcome then a niche group of gamers. Cosplay is great, I have nothing against it but there are times and places for it. This isn’t one of them.
the maturity of cosplay has absolutly no relevance what so ever to this rally. its sole purpose is to attract media attention and for people to have a little fun while demonstrating what we all believe in.
without this media attention the parents of australia who are oblivious to the flaws in the current classification system will continue to buy MA15+ games that are rated R18+ in other countries. these parents of australia are the people we want on our side.
slagging Gametraders who only have good intentions and are actually trying to help the casue unlike any other major retailer is stupid.
anything is better than nothing and at least they are trying to do something.
if you want to have some fun dress up if not dont simple.
this issue has been blown way out of proportion and shame to those who have taken this to the point of IMMATURE! slagging. i could just imagine what some of the comments that arent being displayed would have said. grow up and express your opinions in a manner that doesnt intend to offend.
@MissAmy. It’s also amusing reading those comments, they don’t realise their own hipocricy. Calling cosplay immature and siding with an argument which suggests games aren’t responsible for voilent or aggressive behaviour, and they go and act the way they do on forums, slagging people, flaming and generally doing everything in their power to dissagree with the flow or discussion.
So to all you negative little trolls out there – sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
You’re opinions are unwelcome.
@kav… im not sure if i read this right but i never intended to suggest cosplay was immature just in case.
if you all could only see cosplay is just a suggestion and i believe that a bit of both would be great so instead of arguing about how cosplay will effect the outcome plan to attend in whatever out fit suits you best or what you feel comfortable in and just remember something is better than nothing!
@Tim – it’s not a bullshit factional line mate. As you said, this is the chance to get in the public’s eye and the first thing any marketing person will tell you is first impressions count. Having a whole lot of people turn up on the steps of SA Parliament in character costumes will kill the argument in the public’s eye before it even gets started. I don’t understand how 90% of the Australian internet population could see this, yet the guy who runs a website dedicated to the cause couldn’t. I’m a thirty something gamer with a good paying job and a young family who plays games to be entertained, to exercise problem solving and strategy skills and all in my own time and in the comfort of my own home. I want an R18+ classification so I can do this at a level matching
my maturity (I can handle some bad language and violence without becoming a serial killer and I don’t giggle at nudity) but more importantly so that in the future I can manage the games my kids play and what they are exposed to.
People dressed in strange costumes to enact out in real life their video game or manga experiences will not give this issue the public recognition it deserves.
Continued without spell check
Manistream media will not attend without a creative edge.
Politicians will not change their minds without overwhelming public response.
The both tie in together hand in hand.
I am unsure of the significance of COSplay but I do know that managed properly a serious message can be got out.
food for thought.
We’re also not going to be taken seriously if no one attends. Could you imagine if there were only a couple of people rallying and they were dressed up… what chances of an R18 rating would we have then?.. none. So if you have a problem with dressing up then come along, bring some friends and dress casual so the rally doesn’t look bad..
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