Welcome to EveryonePlays
Phew... It's good to see this site finally up!
Since this is the first post, I thought I'd give a brief history of what brought this site about.
Our work on this project stems back to 2008 eGames Expo in Melbourne last November. PALGN had a bit of booth space reserved and were racking our brains as to what we could do with it this year. Someone had the bright idea to host an R18+ petition. What was initially just a stop-gap idea turned into a huge success. We collected over 1000 signatures at the expo and received the support of numerous other publications and industry bodies. We knew something needed to be done.
The initial project leader was Evan Stubbs. He did a lot of the ground work in setting the plan for what we wanted to achieve and getting a few other media outlets on-board. Vooks.net, Aussie-Nintendo & Australian Gamer all pledged their support. Unfortunately Evan was weighed down with other commitments and after a brief stint in Daniel Golding's hands it fell to me to complete the site.
I've had a fair bit of help along the way. A special thanks goes out to Joshua Smythe for creating both our awesome logo and the initial draft of the site's design. One of the key elements that I've tried to perpetuate from Joshua draft was the concept of black and white. I think it fits in nicely with our issue - no matter which side of the political fence you stand on, the R18+ demands your support. It's such a clear cut issue it's incredible we've managed to get this far. Also a big thanks to Roland Kulen for putting together a lot of the site's initial copy.
Where to now? Well the aim of this site is three-fold. Firstly it's to inform. We want to make a strong case for introducing the R18+ rating. There's many many many arguments for it. We hope to collate them here to make them more accessible.
Secondly this site is intended to evolve. We want to fill it with more content, refine our arguments and continue to make a stronger case. If you have any suggestions for doing so, or content you want to add, please add a comment to this post, or send me an email.
Thirdly (and most importantly) we want to use this site to coordinate our efforts to lobby for the introducing of the R18+ rating. There's a lot of support from the gaming community. We've got some awesome ideas for harnessing that power and using it to speak to the politicians on their own terms. Check out the Take Action page for more.
Australia needs to be brought into the 21st century for its video game classifications. The current system is broken, but I know we can fix it.
James Peter
Bout Time
It is about time that the Australian gaming community came together and made a site like this. R18+ is a big issue, and it IS a problem with the Australian classification board.
I am currently studying a Bach. Games and Interactive Entertainment @ Queensland University of Technology, and am going into the gaming industry for a job at the end of this year. I want to be able to develop games for adults, and not be accused of influencing young children towards violent tendencies.
For a part time job, I am currently working for Big W on the checkouts, and all-too-often I have witnessed mothers who don't pay attention to the ratings on video games, and buy their children whatever they ask for. Admittedly, I was playing games with a higher rating than my age allowed, but back when I was playing (Duke Nukem 3D...) the representation of violence was at a very different level.
In my experience, about 1 in 4 parents are actually interested in the rating on video games, and of those, every one has decided against buying the game once I have explained why the game had the given rating. Awareness is the big issue here, and we DO need to start talking to people about not only the R18+ rating, but how the whole rating system works, and what they mean. It makes me angry to see an 8yr old boy with a MA15+ rated game including sex scenes, high level violence and drug use. Parents are also to blame here.
In conclusion, I support your cause wholeheartedly and await the postal address of anyone where i can send a signed letter. Even by snail mail. I'll post your site on my Blog and keep raising awareness!
Andrew
Very good post, thanks a lot.
Very good post, thanks a lot.