Australia is ready

Brendan O'Connor the minister for home affairs announced that following last weeks SCAG (Standing Committee of Attorneys-General) meeting in Canberra an R18+ rating (Restricted to persons over 18) for video games will be introduced in the coming months. After years of debate amongst both state and federal politicians it will finally happen. The hearing has come with great reception to Australian gamers all over the country.

The announcement has not come without controversy. Following the terrorist attacks in Norway a few days ago where so far 96 people have lost their lives, many of which are children, debate has flared to if violent video games should be banned outright. Brendan O'Connor has said that this terrible event will not change the decision.

What this means is that games once refused classification, such as Mortal Kombat 9, will now have a good chance at being given an R18+ classification. Games once modified to meet the previous highest rating of MA15+ (restricted to persons over 15 with adult supervision) may be able to be reclassified with the adults only rating in its unmodified form. The most prominent being the Grand Theft Auto series which is known for its strong violence and sexual content.

The legislation should go through by the end of the year. I’m looking forward to seeing kids try and get their hands on the latest Grand Theft Auto or Modern Warfare 3 and getting asked for ID just to see how they talk their way out of it.

Till next week,

Peace.

CGBC is back

The Computer Games Boot Camp is on again. I'm really looking forward to attending this epic event. Those who don't know about it CGBC is a week long event running July 9-15 for high-school students over 15. It's held at Monash universities Clayton campus in Melbourne. The space is huge and has had to expand every year because of how popular it is. Not quite as big as E3 but almost. Close to 2000 people are booked to be there this year. I personally have attended this event since the first one back in 2009 and it has grown and really become the biggest gaming event in Australia.

The week consists of speeches from some of Australia's big biggest names in gaming, tournaments for a wide variety of games, workshops, competitions and more prizes get given away then there are people to accept them. Thermaltake, IAH Games, Autodesk, Sony and Adobe just to name a few will be there to give talks and give away some prizes.

Exclusive to CGBC will be the Australian leg of the Call of Duty tournament. The winning team will qualify to go on to LA to play in the finals for a chance at one million dollars USD. The tournament is open to any team of four with all its members over the age of 18. Details are still being announced regarding the tournament so stay tuned for more information as it comes to hand.

Registrations are still open so feel free to register your interest now Here but the event starts this Friday so do it fast. Keep up with all of the latest news from the event you can join the conversation on facebook. If you can't attend but you still want to see whats going on Level 3 are doing an all day live stream of the event from start to finish. So you wont miss a thing. Read more about the live stream here.

I hope to see you there and if you see me (which wont be hard my face is the logo for this site) feel free to come up and say hello.

Till next week, peace.

Today is Australia day

On this day in 1788 the first fleet of convict ships from England arrived in Australia to settle the land. 223 years later people are still coming from all over the world (though this time it is of their own free will) to holiday and live in this wonderful country.

So to celebrate there are a few things you can do no matter where you are in the world reading this today.

1. Have a BBQ with your mates.
2. Go down to your local pub and enjoy an Aussie beer.
3. Watch Crocodile Dundee.
4. Watch Crocodile Dundee 2.
5. Say G'day to your mates and wish them a happy Australia day.

And finally actually come down  to Australia and have a holiday.

So till next Wednesday, Happy Australia day.