Michael Atkinson: Gamers are criminals

Atkinson is well known for his vehement opposition to the introduction of an R18+ rating for computer games in Australia, with him holding the power of veto over any changes to the Classification Act currently as the South Australian Attorney-General.  But with his latest tirade, he seems to be taking things a little far, with his accusations being rather inflammatory and certainly not something that is going to promote reasonable and measured discussion on the topic.

As we previously posted last year, submissions are currently open for public comment on the issue of the introduction of an R18+ rating for games.  So hit up our previous news post and have your say if you haven’t already.

Via:  Gamespot

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Atkinson to appeal Modern Warfare 2 rating

Interviewed a few days ago on the ABC’s Radio National, Atkinson has reportedly stated he will be appealing the MA15+ rating given to Modern Warfare 2.  The interview itself states the game is about the Russian airport massacre level involving the killing of civilians, which is the main part of his argument against the game and its one that has been overly sensationalised in the mainstream media as well.

At the moment there aren’t any further details about whether he is going to follow through on his threat, or whether its just more of his rhetoric which is quite rife throughout the interview if you listen to the whole thing.

But given the game has already been released, its probably a bit too late now anyway, in that it’d be like closing the proverbial gate after the horse has already bolted given the number of copies of the game that have no doubt been sold in Australia already.

Via:  Kotaku

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Michael Atkinson defends lack of R18+ gaming classification

Kotaku have an article up with excerpts from a letter from South Australia’s Attorney-General Michael Atkinson.  The letter is in response to a gamer concerned with our lack of an R18+ classification for computer games and provides Atkinson’s view in quite a lot of detail.  The full letter (scanned PDF) is available here.  Watch out for Evony ads.

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