Left4dead Two Banned in Australia. Boycott No Longer Necessary

I’ve sat through the ridiculous banning, modification and subsequent un-banning of games like Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3, and I’ve been grumpy. I’ve written form letters of complaint, along with thousands of others, but I’ve never really got up, never really shouted at the top of my lungs against the hideous injustice of it all.

This time it’s different. This time it’s personal.

Left4Dead is my favourite game of all time. And yes, I’ve played a lot of them. Previous favourites include such titles as The Secret of Monkey Island, Doom, Half-Life and World of Goo. I’m no newb. But the sheer pleasure I have got from slaying hordes on zombies in the company of my closest friends has never been matched.

Yes, it’s a game where you shoot stuff, like so many others. But no, it’s not just a game where you shoot stuff. It is a work of extraordinary craftsmanship, and dare I say– art. The mechanics that don’t just ask, but require all four players to think as one, to act as one. The way the Director changes things up, always managing to surprise you, despite its limited toolset. It doesn’t matter that there are only four sets of maps. The maps are beside the point. I have spent dozens, maybe a hundred hours sweating and swearing beside my three companions. This is a simulation of survival in desperate circumstances.

And yes, I understand the reasoning behind the boycott of the sequel, and I can see where they’re coming from. But I just don’t care, because I’ve got my money’s worth many times over. I want Left4Dead 2– it’s the only game I’m really, truly looking forward to. More tools for the director and more toys for the players are all to the good, as far as I can see.

And now this news. Okay, it’s quite possible that this mess will be sorted out, that the classification board will be talked around to giving the game the MA rating that it probably deserves. But that doesn’t stop the whole system being broken, and I’ve had enough.

What’s broken? Well, basically it’s that we Australians, alone in the Western world, do not have an R 18+ rating for games. We have it for films, we have it for TV, we even have it for magazines and books. But not for games. Why? Because the antiquated views of one Michael Atkinson, attorney general of just one of Australia’s states, are holding back an entire industry, an entire artform. 

Because we don’t have an R rating in Australia, anything that is too strong for an MA 15+ rating is automatically banned. All this despite the the average Australian gamer being approximately 30 years old. 

On top of this, the classification guidelines seem to be applied with a ludicrous level of interpretation. So, for example, the first Left4Dead was given an MA 15+ rating, as was “House of the Dead: Overkill”, a Wii game which has a story involving incest and a final scene where the main bad guy crawls back into the womb of his giant, mutated mother. When even a right-wing commentator like Miranda Devine questions the system, there’s clearly something amiss.

Left4Dead 2 gets a ban for including ‘high impact violence’ against ’living humans infected with a rabies-like virus‘. Wha..? They’re zombies. And they’re essentially identical to the zombies from the first game (isn’t that what the boycotters are complaining about?). But even if they weren’t, what about all the other games that include violence against “living humans”? All the war games like the “Call of Duty” series, for example? Surely the simulation of a real-life war-zone has more potential to be disturbing than a complete fantasy?

This will not stand. I will sign polls and write letters, but I am willing to march on parliament buildings if it comes to that. They won’t take my favourite thing away from me. Who’s with me?

What you can do:

Sign this petition to get the full version of Left4Dead 2 release in Australia.

Join the appropriate Steam group.

Contact the Australian Attorney-General’s Department.

Contact Michael Atkinson, the South Australian Attorney-General, who refuses to acknowledge the rights of adult gamers.

Keep your eyes on this site for updates.