DEMO MEMO: Left 4 Dead 2 (sanitised version)
So I live in Australia. It’s a nice place. It’s warm most of the year. The people are nice (mostly). We are a fairly laid back lot. We also have a very strong public ‘nanny’ streak running through society where people not only suggest how you should live but legislate that you do so. We also have a strong anti-authoritarian streak. Example: By law, we have cigarette packets that the health warnings covering most of the package and usually with charming photos of organs diseased by heavy smoking. So entrepreneurs sell ‘jacket-packets’ so that you don’t have to be reminded about what you’re doing to yourself. Gambling at poker machines (slot machines/ Fruit machines) is a national epidemic since state governments, craving the revenue, legalised their use in clubs (veteran’s clubs, sports clubs, etc). People leaving their children in a locked cars in the parking lot while they blow their welfare checks in the club made for big headlines so all advertisments for gambling establishments have “Gamble responsibly” written as a tag. We also have a left-wing government who want to impose a filter over all internet traffic to keep out the undesirable stuff. All of it.
Australia is one of the few places in the world where we have a unified ratings system. Everything, from movies, to DVD’s, to television programs, to videogames, is classified by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (which is funny because books don’t have ratings on them). G rating is for everyone. PG is Parental Guidance. M is for mature (think PG13 or T rating), MA15+ is for adults over 15 years of age (so most R rated movies form the US), R rating for harder material (really horrific movies, soft core porn, and funnily enough, old movies like the Godfather that were classified years before MA15+ was introduced more recently). And X which is hardcore porn and only available in-store or via mail order from stores in the Territories (there are six states and two territories which have some vague differences in how they are run).
Every country has a ratings stem and all of them have their ‘push-button’ issues which cause them to wield the banhammer. In the UK, there’s something in the laws between an 18 and an R based on the angle of the erection. Scandinavian countries banned the Empire Strikes Back back in 1980 because of the violence. The US network TV has restrictions that gimp it compared to cable shows, etc. In Australia, linking sex and violence will get you banned faster than a fanboy troll on NPD day. And anything real-world seems to get their goat up
For some reason, the R rating doesn’t extend to games. Fallout 3 was initially refused classification because your character could get positive benefits from taking Morphine. Change the name and voila- everyone’s cool again. GTAIII was released and the banned when the media hyped the fact you could have sex with a prostitute and then beat her up to get your money back and the game was promptly banned and pulled from the shelves. The same thing happened with GTA San Andreas after the Hot Coffee. Marc Ecko’s Getting Up is still banned because of the graffiti aspect (though Jet Grind Radio got through fine). And Dead Rising- a game where you could do some rather vile things to the Zombies, got through no problem. Silent Hill Homecoming and FEAR 2 were originally Refused Classification, but were resubmitted and passed. GTA IV was never Refused Classification, but Take 2, who have many run-ins with the OFLC over the years on GTA and Manhunt games, decided to go straight to gimping for their big 2008 title. But then the PC version was passed no problem so somewhere along the way the game was quietly patched to bring the game into line with the rest of the world. L4D2 was submitted three times. The original version was sumbitted, RC‘ed, appealed and RC‘ed again and then the gimped version passed.
So last night I played the gimped demo on 360. There are other places on the net where you can see the differences but basically, the minute you kill a zombie, they fade away. They don’t even hit the ground most of the time. If get a machete and slice at a zombie, they will have disappeared from view before you have even finished your swipe animation. The net result is the game isn’t just censored, it’s actually unplayable. I am not a gore hound, in fact gore actually turns me off faster than bald Britney cosplay. But the way Valve have toned down the game to get it through isn’t particularly inventive or worthy.
So that point of Australians working around the barrier comes into play. You can fairly easily hack the demo (on PC) so that the game is the same as most of the rest of the world. It’s fairly forgone conclusion that the full version will also be able to circumvent the gimping by some kind of space-magic fuelled de-gimpification process. At least on PC.
All I can say is, I hope the Aussie media can keep their hands off MW2. Oops, spoke too soon.
