L4D2 "banned" in Australia

[Flobee]

Lol.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/l ... d%E2%80%9D

Some of you, we’re sure, are probably exercising your God-given right to boycott Left 4 Dead 2 for whatever reason. Australia, though, totally has us Yanks beat. Over there, no one’s buying the game! Oh, what’s that you say? The game’s been “banned” in good ol’ Oz? That’s why they’re not buying it? Well then, that’s no good at all.

As it turns out, Left 4 Dead 2 was refused classification by Australia’s ratings board, the OFLC. Why? Because it’s too violent, apparently.

“The game 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,” reads the OFLC de.scription of the game. “Attacks cause copious amounts of blood spray and splatter, decapitations and limb dismemberment as well as locational damage where contact is made to the enemy which may reveal skeletal bits and gore.”

As expected, Valve is a bit broken up about the whole mess.

“We were surprised to hear of this news yesterday,” Valve’s Doug Lombardi said. “Obviously, everyone at Valve is pretty bummed. It would be a shame if folks in Australia, or anywhere else, are unable to purchase Left 4 Dead 2 because of a ratings issue.”

Bummer indeed, Doug. Guess it’s time to start stuffing those zombies with marzipan and kittens instead of blood and bone. And maybe replace gunfire with the sound of children’s laughter. Yeah, that ought to do it.

Wasn't particularly excited about the game anyway, but as far as I know, this simply prohibits the game from being sold commercially within Australian stores. Not sure what would happen if I were to just purchase a copy through Steam.

We won't find out for a long time, though, because I'm not getting this game until it comes way, way down in price.

[Plinko]

Steam will not allow you to buy a game if your IP is within borders where the game is not allowed to be sold. I ran into that problem with buying certain games in China. I know MMX has that problem periodically with games that can't be sold in Germany due to Nazi imagery contained therein.

I think MMX has found ways of getting the games he wants to play, should you decide you want L4D2 you can probably talk to him about that.

[Clay Pigeon]

[Rigges]

LOL WEll if any of you Aussies what it I could try and buy it for you here and mail it to you LOL


But I wonder is your customs would Eat it???

[Stevo]

MMX was able to bypass the restriction by having someone gift the games to him.

[MMX]

[quote="Stevo";p="195691"]MMX was able to bypass the restriction by having someone gift the games to him.[/quote]

^^ That's how it works, it matters where the game is bought not to which account it is related to.

[!B a T m A n!]

tricky tricky mmx

[DrunkenTrom]

[quote="MMX";p="195714"][quote="Stevo";p="195691"]MMX was able to bypass the restriction by having someone gift the games to him.[/quote]

^^ That's how it works, it matters where the game is bought not to which account it is related to.[/quote]

Also, correct me if I'm wrong MMX or Flobee, but it's my understanding that the game isn't banned outright in either Germany or Australia but rather that if your respective classification boards refuse to classify games with objectionable material(besides the Nazi imagery in Germany which is another topic altogether). And when a game is refused classification it is then prohibited from being advertised publicly(print ads/television and the like) as well as being displayed on store shelves. So basically this is retail suicide for a game on the consoles like the inevitable 360 version of L4D2 but shouldn't really effect the Steam version as it is a download and isn't advertised for the most part besides within Steam which is a closed proprietary format that side-steps retail completely. Again, correct me if I'm wrong you guys... Also I agree with Flobee that I wont be buying L4D2 until it at least hits half off on a weekend deal(I bought L4D at full price($49.99) about a week before it went on sale for $24.99 and I wont make that same mistake again especially since this really should have been DLC... /my 2 cents...

[Rigges]

OK well I will Just Gift the Games to thought that want itin Astralia and Germany and they can get me some thing in return LOL

[Plinko]

Valve has a history of respecting what they are able to sell in various countries - so it's probable no one in Australia will be able to buy the game.

The other things you could do are log in while outside of Australia (or find someone to do it for you) then buy the game on your account. I've never had problems downloading or running games over Steam while in nations where I could nothave bought them.

I would bet you could spoof your IP address somehow using a proxy service as well though I've never used one before.

That said, Flobee seems uninterested in the game itself so I doubt these suggestions are helpful!

[mr_s]

lol.

well it didnt stop me from obtaining manhunt, it wont stop me from getting this game.


although i never wanted it in the first place

[arfy4]

The German TF2 was censored for blood, but you can download a gore mod that makes it like the U.S. version. You can also leave the country, connect to a public internet service, and buy the games.

[dredfox]

[quote="Plinko";p="195774"]

I would bet you could spoof your IP address somehow using a proxy service as well though I've never used one before.

[/quote]

I should be able to arrange this for fellow Villuns. Though it might take a little trial and error due to my limited networking skill.

[quote="arfy4";p="195826"]You can also leave the country, connect to a public internet service, and buy the games.[/quote]

Flobee might have a bit of trouble with this, unless he has a boat.

[YevGenie]

If any of the villuns want this game, I'm sure we can get them the game. I'll be happy to buy/gift the game for them, and have them pay me back via paypal or something of the sort.

Also....does the above mentioned mean that you cannot play Wolfenstien in Germany?

[Archon]

yev, the swastika is banned in germany and a number of other countries, so ww2 games (and any others that use nazi imagery) have to be altered be be allowed for sale in those countries. dod devs removed it from german flag models/textures in later versions of dod beta for same reason.