Australia remains one of the few first world countries to lack an 18+ classification for video games. By restricting a large portion of the gaming market, we become victims of media censorship, says Joel Vaughan.
Video games
Why I kept playing: confessions of a video game addict
Sure, it’s funny to laugh at the geeky online gamers spending hours (or days) glued to their screens, but for some, it’s a serious addiction with serious consequences. One such gamer has written an excellent piece detailing the destructive toll his addiction to EverQuest took on his life.
Lifting the game in video-game journalism
Video game journalism is crying out for help, says Patrick Brosnan. The average gamer is now 33 years old, but the journos are still writing for attention-deficient 13-year-olds. It’s time the industry grew up.
Will the music video game survive The Beatles: Rock Band?
The Beatles: Rock Band is make or break time for the music video game. With a budget of close to $US100 million to make, can the investment pay off? asks Harold Goldberg
Monopoly hits the cyber streets
Google and board game powerhouse Hasbro have teamed up for an epic venture: an online version of Monopoly that utilises Google Maps to make the entire world a “playing board” and allows players to purchase any street in the world. We bags the Scotty dog!
The Beatles: Rock Band: flawed but fun
Kotaku reviews the most highly-anticipated (by both hardcore geeks and non-gamers alike) video game releases of the year: The Beatles: Rock Band. Can it possibly live up to all the hype?
Gamers: 35, fat, angry, sad
Forget about pimple-faced teens — the average video gamer is a 35-year-old man who is overweight, aggressive and depressed. Ladies, form an orderly queue.
All you need is a video game
Paul McCartney used to mimic Elvis. Now, with The Beatles: Rock Band video game, McCartney hopes people will mimic The Beatles and experience music above the standard superficial level, learning the different nuances of the famous songs.
Greenpeace turns video game consoles on their makers
Greenpeace has released three very clever and creative videos attacking Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo for using toxic substances in their video game consoles, turning their scraps into spokespeople against the companies.
Gaming classification farce meets Conroy’s net filter
Unless Communications Minister Conroy’s proposed Internet filtering mechanism has some smarts, a whole bunch of innovative activity will be lost with the smattering of virtual sex clubs.
25 years of Tetris
The USSR may have crumbled, but 25 years after its creation, Soviet-designed Tetris remains one of the most enduring video games ever made. Time looks at the world’s most popular puzzle.
Wired wraps E3 2009
Wired’s video reports following announcements from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo at this year’s E3 — the video game industry’s huge yearly trade show.
Can a video game make you cry?
Video games will soon surpass movies as the world’s most lucrative entertainment medium, but will we ever get the same emotional experience from a console as we do the silver screen?
SA Attorney General throws down the gauntlet to gamers
Last week, SA Attorney General Michael Atkinson laid down a challenge to Australian gamers: If you want R18+ video games, run against me at the next election, writes Ruth Brown.
No prejudice at the Courier Mail, just bloody Muslims
Heck, why be offended by a computer game of “modern religious genocide”, asks Irfan Yusuf.
Richard Farmer’s political bite-sized meaty chunks
Meaty snippets from the home of government plus the daily reality check and the pick of other people’s political coverage. Richard Farmer writes.
Let’s be adult about R18+ video games
I am offering a cash payment to a prominent Australian politician. Here’s why, writes Gabriel McGrath
