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Halloween: The Game is banned in Australia because incentivized drug use is bad but incentivized ultra-violence isn't
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sanitation lemmy.today sanitation@lemmy.today
Joined: 2026-05-05
Banned
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pulsewidth lemmy.world pulsewidth@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-01-29
#2 · Quote Reply

I thought we were beyond this shit ever since the 18+ rating system for games came in like a decade ago?

Apparently the censors are still stuck in 2008?

https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/australia-bans-video-game-fallout-3-over-drug-use-idUSSP329206/

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Optional lemmy.world homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-09
#3 · Quote Reply

This has been the case for . . . Well, lets say 60 years.

It explains a lot.

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DanceMomsSavedMe lemmy.zip DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-05-14
#4 · Quote Reply

Australia is a censorship shithole.

They're the reason that the Fallout games use words like Med-X and Psycho for the chems. Originally that was all going to be named after real drugs.

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switcheroo lemmy.world switcheroo@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-08-01
#5 · Quote Reply

Only an idiot thinks game or movie violence makes a person violent. (Exception being impressionable kids)

But Australia's censorship is on a whole nother level. Adults should make their own choices.

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Why is Lemmy so Racist? lemmy.world Abyssian@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-02-13
#6 · Quote Reply

I remember buying Phantasmagoria just because it listed a bunch of countries it was banned in on the box. Makes for a good ad.

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Hupf feddit.org Hupf@feddit.org
Joined: 2024-07-24
#7 · Quote Reply

https://xkcd.com/391/

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VanRado lemmy.world VanRado@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-07-02
#8 · Quote Reply

I thought we were beyond this shit ever since the 18+ rating system for games came in like a decade ago? Apparently the censors are still stuck in 2008? https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/australia-bans-video-game-fallout-3-over-drug-use-idUSSP329206/

This is why I argued at the time that the problem was not the lack of an 18+ rating, but the philosophy of the law was wrong. The lack of an 18+ rating meant that some games could not be rated, and if a game does not have a rating from the government then you cannot sell it. This is effectively a situation where all games are by default banned unless explicitly allowed by the government.

Lobbying for an 18+ rating doesn't solve this problem. And this is exactly what happened; an 18+ rating was created, but with some things that are excluded from that rating. If a game includes those things, then it can't get an 18+ rating and therefore banned.

The default position should be the other way around: everything is allowed by adults only unless explicitly allowed for minors.

I am not convinced that you can fix unenlightened, paternalistic government behaviour with technocratic bureaucracy reforms.

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madmantis24 lemmy.wtf madmantis24@lemmy.wtf
Joined: 2026-01-14
#9 · Quote Reply

Only an idiot thinks game or movie violence makes a person violent. (Exception being impressionable kids) But Australia's censorship is on a whole nother level. Adults should make their own choices.

Did they really ban porn with flat-chested adult women? Feels like the first story that really made the world aware of how backwards and puritanical the government is down under

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