Everyone’s favorite Australian politician, Michael Atkinson, said in an interview that gamers are more dangerous than outlaw biker gangs, who also hate him.
Michael Atkinson is the Attorney General of South Australia and he opposes Australia allowing a Mature rating for games. Such a measure would need to be unanimous amongst the atttorneys general of the country according to law and his vote is effectively banning any game that is deemed to be intended for an audience over 18 years of age. The result is a very contentious argument between Atkinson and Australian gamers. In an interview with an Australian ABC affiliate program called Good Game, he sounds off again, comparing gamers to biker gangs. Believe it or not, amongst those two disparate groups, Atkinson thinks that gamers are the more badass.
Atkinson started off with the age-old comparison between movies and games. “With interactive games, people are actually doing things,” Atkinson said. “One can go to the cinema and see someone beheaded, and one sees it as a passive viewer. I think it can do harm, but we permit it within certain restrictions.
“In interactive games, the person playing is doing the action, therefore I think it has a higher impact and impact is always been a consideration in censorship or classification, call it what you will,” he said.
Then Atkinson recounted a harrowing story of spam at 2am:
You’ve seen the kind of material that R18+ gamers are circulating. I don’t know who sends me this filthy material, but I get my electoral office email spammed. About two o’ clock in the morning, I got a threatening note from a gamer shoved under my door. I feel that my family and I are more at risk from gamers than we are from the outlaw motorcycle gangs who also hate me.
The outlaw motorcycle gangs haven’t been hanging around my doorstep at 2AM. A gamer has.
While I in no way advocate violence against the man, I do feel that he is overreacting. Clearly people are passionate about this subject, and they feel that their rights are being taken away by the conservative opinions of one man. There is a word for a person who exerts his will upon the unwilling masses: a tyrant.
Other tyrants have been deposed, and Atkinson is complaining about a note under his door? I personally think he should be thankful.
Gamers 4 Croyden is currently running Kat Nicholson as a candidate against Michael Atkinson’s seat. Now’s the time for Australian citizens to have their voices heard at the ballot box.
Source: GoodGame via Destructoid
