January 4, 2010
A new downloadable game lets players assume the role of Australian politicians and bring the ban hammer down on videogames and websites.
Ban This Game features likenesses of South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson and Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband and Communication, who is the man championing ISP filtering for Australia. Gameplay consists of images of games and websites crossing a red line. Players must click on an image three times to ban it once it passes over said line. Windows and Mac versions are available.
The game is the work of game developer Conor O’Kane. The embedded video shows the game in action. A Facebook Fan Page for the game has been set up as well.
Thanks Ryan and Michael!
Comments
Re: Try Your Hand at Banning Content Down Under
Great game idea.
Maybe I will let the Violent Videogames and Hentai/Porn slide and try to ban anything related to the Australian Govenment like Centrelink and Medicare or any Political site that was made to support an election topic instead. I will even ban websites related to Family groups who want to block Porn on the internet.
That will show them what it feels like to have something important to you being banned because someone else hates something you like.
Re: Try Your Hand at Banning Content Down Under
That's the point really, what ends up getting through and what ends up getting banned is almost as random as playing that game...
eg. Alien vs Predator backdown vs Left 4 Dead II water down. There's no logic to why zombies who look vaguely human being dismembered is more disturbing (and bannable) than aliens or predators doing the same to marines...
Re: Try Your Hand at Banning Content Down Under
There is a distinct logic to almost every decision. The problem lies in faulty, unsubstantiated reasoning behind them combined with an inconsistent application of these standards.
Re: Try Your Hand at Banning Content Down Under
Looks tough. Nice to see the effort, though. Hope that sumbitch Atkinson gets kicked out, one way or another.
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Game on, brothers and sisters.
Re: Try Your Hand at Banning Content Down Under
I dare say that's the point of it. No matter how hard you try, it's impossible to censor everything
Re: Try Your Hand at Banning Content Down Under
Unless I'm mixing up the country, hasn't Austrailia banned websites critical of ISP filtering in the past?
Also, I presume this game is unrated and hence technically banned in Austrailia...
Re: Try Your Hand at Banning Content Down Under
I don't think they actually banned them (yet) but a list of proposed sites for the block list was leaked a few months ago did include several anti-Great Barrier Firewall sites.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Try Your Hand at Banning Content Down Under
To be accurate a player would have to try to ban absolutely everything they see. It's the only way to be sure., apparently.
Re: Try Your Hand at Banning Content Down Under
sounds about right, esp. considering this drawing (not IMG-linked due to language) made by Australian webcomic Bigger Than Cheeses author Desmond Seah several years back.
aptly titled "Outlining the [Australian] government's internet censorship plans"
岩「…Where do masochists go when they die?」