The land down under may be doomed to another decade of gaming cencorship as one holdout Attorney General is keeping Austraila from incorporating a mature rating into its games classification system. Currently interactive media must contain content safe enough for a 15 year old or risk being refused classification and effectively banned from the country. While Michael Atkinson, the one naysayer, thinks games can have artistic merit it's not worth the risk of allowing children or disturbed individuals engage interactively with violent, sexual, or drug-related themes. Two things smell funny to me. First, not all games with this objectionable content include them in an interactive way. The current law would prohibit games with objectionable cut scenes (no matter how "artistic") would be refused classification. Secondly, this particular AG doesn't seem to understand the lessons one can learned in an interactive medium. If the worry is that acting out one's violent and/or sexual fantasies in a game might spur one to act them out in real life think about how many lessons can be learned by giving players an opportunity to act them out and suffer the in-game consequences of such behavior. Allowing someone to experiment with - and yes, see the positive side of - certain objectionable behaviors, along with the often inevitable consequences of those behavior is a much better "teachable moment" than simply shuttering all such behavior behind lock and key.
Now that the PSP Go has launched there is a wealth of information to follow up last week's news about the effect of digital downloads on the market. Responding to concerns that a first-party digital distribution system creates an effective pricing monopoly it's nice to see that third-party companies can choose to make price cuts - temporary or permanent - at any time. This is actually a beneficial change for the consumer as they no longer have to wait for retaliers willing to take a cut in profits by lowering prices on games they've already paid wholesale rates for.
There's also a handy price comparison chart for UMD games and their digital counterparts. Interesting reading, particularly with such a wide variety of price differences, some in favor of the UMD and others just the opposite. Important to note is that many hard to find or out-of-print games fetch exhorbidant collector's prices in physical media - a non-issue when it comes to digital versions.
If you're still not sold about the move towards digital distribution the Entertainment Consumers Association is putting together a petition and grassroots advocacy campaign for gamers rights with regards to their digital purchases. There's a lot of great information there and a wonderful place to get involved if you're worried about the future of games when borrowing, selling, and trading in are nothing more than boring facts we tell our grand kids.
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