Mad Max EA response to banned Left 4 Dead 2

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 24 September 2009 07:57

Your IT - Entertainment

Electronic Arts has pulled together a few words, stating the obvious in response to the recent banning of Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia.  Whilst working with the Australian Classification Board in getting Left 4 Dead 2 across the line, EA have pointed out the beliefs of many when it comes to the hypocrisy of  video-game classification in a country that has produced some wonderful, yet violence-based, entertainment media in the past.

It was something I was thinking about after reading the recent reason for Left 4 Dead 2’s classification refusal .

The Classification Board of Australia labelled the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 as "[a game that] contains realistic, frenetic, and unrelenting violence, which is inflicted upon 'the Infected' who are living humans infected with a rabies like virus that causes them to act violently."

The Board also points out the fun players can have with various melee weapons in the game, much of this fun results in ..."copious amounts of blood spray and splatter, decapitations, and limb dismemberment."  

Well EA spokesperson Tiffany Steckler somehow extracted my thoughts and put into official EA words when talking to GameSpot.AU : "It’s funny that a place like Australia, which has come up with some pretty violent material in the past with something like Mad Max, can effectively ban video games for the same reason," she said.

"EA believes that adults should have the right to make their own choices when it comes to the content they consume."

Then there is the excellent Wolf Creek, Two Hands, plus the TV drama Underbelly and many more.

Sure, not as many of these projects get the support of government funding as in the past.  The funding bodies wanting to promote the Kenny’s or Murial’s Wedding;s of the world. 

Still, much of the Australian acclaimed media heritage is built on violent content past, so we continue to be bewildered by the lack of an R18+ classification for video-games with similar content.