Saints Row IV: banned

[JimboUK]

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/07/02/saints-row-4-low-violence-version-pops-up-on-steam-australia/ It looks like Austrailia will be getting a toned down version, I wonder if the mod that puts all the violence back will be popular?

[Vindekarr]

It may surprise you, but before I became an engineer I actually attended med school. My first choice in a career path was going to be as a surgeon and while I had the smarts, it was obvious pretty early on I'd never be much good at it. I happen to have seen the instrument Volition weaponised to cause all this furor, it's an um, intestinal probe, and well, the Nexus is an SFW space so I won't mention how it comes to be in your intestines. Honestly I would never touch something like that, even in Saint's Row.

 

Ordinarily, censoring a game would drive me into a patriotic fury and result in me exercising my democratic right to protest. With gusto. But with SR4, I can't say I'm that bothered. How many of you would actually consider doing... that, even in a video game and even in Saint's Row's context? Silly, I like, crude humor, I like, ultra-gore, I love, but probes? there's a reason I decided to get out of med school. And besides, even if they literally handed me the thing in game I'd probably never use it, the McManus has been my weapon of choice from the very first game-I've always been a sneakey sharpshooter by habit-and an intestinal probe doesn't sound like something I could perform a 750+ metre stealth headshot through a wall with.

 

Call me boring, but my SR arsenal always took after The Joker's. All you need is a rocket launcher, a basic SMG, a good sidearm, and a knife. Or even better, several knives. Leave the fancy stuff for the tacticools, spend the extra $$ on ammo.

[JimboUK]

Censorship is still censorship even if it's censoring things you have no interest in, a bunch of unelected bureaucrats are telling adults what they may or may not see, that can never be acceptable.

[Vindekarr]

Agreed. It's especially hard to swallow because the government that enforced it was not democratically elected, but rather took power by sabotaging their own party members.

[JimboUK]

I wouldn't use something like that either but that would be my choice, it's someone else making those choices for me that makes my blood boil. Thankfully over here they've removed the BBFC from the rating of video games, it's now all done by PEGI who would only refuse classification if the thing actually broke the law.

[Vindekarr]

Agreed. And ours USED to be like that. There was a time when there were only two banned game in Australia, one was a DoA game for showing a naked girl who was under the age of sexual responsibility by our laws(no complaints here, kiddy porn SHOULD be banned) and the other was Postal 2. Because it's Postal 2 and I'd guess there's a special spot in hell reserved for the lunatics who designed that... abomination. Unfortunately things have gone down hill since. Still, this government would be lucky to survive until the next election-they're literally the most unpopular government I've ever seen-less than 30% approval in most polls, and below 20% in some.

 

Not only does the public hate them, but they don't have enough of a majority to pass bills. If that wasn't bad enough, there's no unity within the party, and any bills they do try and assemble get shredded by their own childish infighting. They're the worst western government I'm aware of. YES, America's regime is more corrupt, YES, there's a few others that are more disorganised, but nobody combines disorganisation, corruption, and raw incompetance quite like the Labour Party. But the really scary thing? the other bunch aren't really any better. For all their good history, the current crop of Liberals are as politically gifted as a sack of mouldey potatoes. In a nutshell, we are screwed. Totally. Totally. Screwed.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Vindekarr

[JimboUK]

Your governments antics have even made the press here, it looks like you've got the Keystone Cops running the show. We have the same problem, a vote for Labour, The Tories or the Liberals is a vote for incompetent buffoons.

[Vindekarr]

Yep. That's what happens when the two main parties turn into tribes of baboons-all the good guys go independent, which is to say, become totally useless. We DID have a good party for a while called the Greens. The Greens were great-they were basically a bunch of idealists who relied on ideals and appealing to people's morality and frustration to win votes to cover their shear inexperience. They did have some really good policies, basically trying to set up a more sustainable industry while maximizing civil liberties. Unfortunately their small size, lack of experience, lack of raw numbers, and lack of funding has meant they're down to two members. But hey, they were one of the groups who fought for our now useless R18+ rating, so they did do one thing right.

[JimboUK]

We have one Green here, she's as insane as the rest of her party. She'd have everyone living in caves, our industry destroyed and their unwillingness to explain how their "population control" would work makes then sound very sinister.

[Rennn]

We have one Green here, she's as insane as the rest of her party. She'd have everyone living in caves, our industry destroyed and their unwillingness to explain how their "population control" would work makes then sound very sinister.

 

This is fast turning into a political debate. Maybe it's time to link this to SR4 somehow.