Australian Govt Bans Left 4 Dead 2

[dean]

Stupid government.  How can you be so backward in such a simple area?

In any case, to sum up: We don't have an R18+ rating in Australia, and it's ruining the games industry in Australia: they had to release modified versions of GTA4 and GTA San Andreas because of the violence, more specifically the sexual violence.

Anyways, I'm all for restricting inappropriate content for minors, but I'm very much an anti-censorship type of person: If we're old enough and mature enough to handle the content, content which is usually nowhere near as bad as some films, then what's the problem?  Ah well.  One less Zombie game to enjoy I suppose...

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=865288 

[Jim H]

Uh...  Can the government really control what you buy through Steam?  I don't understand how they can feasibly control that, unless Valve themselves is checking IP addresses.

From the sound of things, this doesn't make possession illegal anyway. 

I'm assuming you want the PC version, of course.

[dean]

If Steam is anything like Itunes, you have to log in to a different region, so I'm sure they could try and ban it that way somehow.

I don't think possession was made illegal, just selling it in Australia.  I wonder if that extends to importation, though I doubt it will.  It's easy enough, and our dollar is good enough now to make importing feasible but it's just so darn inconvenient.

Though you do bring up a good point with the idea that you can download much easier now, so it'll make these things harder to enforce.  I still don't trust downloading: My computer so often goes belly-up that I much prefer having a hard copy on hand in case.

[Cthulhu]

If Steam is anything like Itunes, you have to log in to a different region, so I'm sure they could try and ban it that way somehow.

I don't think possession was made illegal, just selling it in Australia.  I wonder if that extends to importation, though I doubt it will.  It's easy enough, and our dollar is good enough now to make importing feasible but it's just so darn inconvenient.

Though you do bring up a good point with the idea that you can download much easier now, so it'll make these things harder to enforce.  I still don't trust downloading: My computer so often goes belly-up that I much prefer having a hard copy on hand in case.

Ridiculous. People should be allowed to decide what they can buy. Have you considered importing it?

[Jim H]

If Steam is anything like Itunes, you have to log in to a different region, so I'm sure they could try and ban it that way somehow.

I don't think possession was made illegal, just selling it in Australia.  I wonder if that extends to importation, though I doubt it will.  It's easy enough, and our dollar is good enough now to make importing feasible but it's just so darn inconvenient.

Though you do bring up a good point with the idea that you can download much easier now, so it'll make these things harder to enforce.  I still don't trust downloading: My computer so often goes belly-up that I much prefer having a hard copy on hand in case.

I'm totally with you on preferring a hard copy.  But, Steam is an ongoing service.  You just start an account, and as long you remember your account name/password, it's very easy to redownload/reinstall (same thing) Steam games on any computer.

Left 4 Dead, BTW, is the ONLY game I've ever bought through Steam (it was $20 cheaper on Steam at the time)...  I have Half Life 1 and 2, and the Orange Box, but I bought hard copies of those.  These days though, if I ever need to reinstall, I do it through steam rather than the disc(s).  It's actually easier than trying to find my hard copy, installing it, and then installing a bunch of patches (Steam auto patches games).  I just start the Steam loader thing, and it usually only takes a couple of hours at most.

[ghouck]

What's even better, is if you get the .ncf an .gcf files from a friend's 'steamapps' folder, you won't have to download much. This will NOT get you free games, just the resources that steam builds your games out of. I do this since 'net is traffic-limited in my town. You can also back up your steam folder, and copy it over your new install of steam, and it will sort itself out without doing a ton of downloading.

[Trevor]

This is crazy, Dean.

It seems to me that most censor boards are applying the oppressive rules now that the old SA censor board used between 1933 and 1994.

Those were dumb rules then and they are still dumb now.