Australian Attorney Questions ModWar 2's Rating
By Tyler Barber | Nov 25, 2009(from an article on uk.xbox360.gamespy.com)

Gamers in Australia are facing the possibility of having Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 banned in their country (via AU GameStop). Australia's equivalent of Jack Thompson, Attorney General Michael Atkinson, has said in a radio interview that he plans to appeal the Australian Classification Board's decision to give the game an MA15+ rating. Left 4 Dead 2 recently had to be redesigned to even make it onto Australian store shelves, and if Modern Warfare 2's rating is pulled, it may face a similar fate.

Atkinson distrusts the Australian Classification Board, accusing the Board of trying to, "get games in under the radar," and feels the rating for Modern Warfare 2 is simply, "wrong." In his own words, "I worry about any game that encourages gamers to perpetuate extreme violence and cruelty on screen, but this game allows players to be virtual terrorists and gain points by massacring civilians." This also leads him to mistrust game developers: "...expecting game designers to be responsible by not glorifying terrorism will always lead to disappointment."

Though Atkinson believes the rating for Modern Warfare 2 is too low, he's also been the biggest obstacle in allowing an additional higher rating to be created (for example, an 18+ rating).

The Australian Classification Board had no comment concerning Atkinson's accusations.

Tyler says: As the original story pointed out, Modern Warfare 2 does not reward players with "points" for killing civilians in the "No Russian" level. And though that doesn't nullify Atkinson's charge, it is a symptom of the greater disease that is gaming ignorance. Or maybe a better way to put it would be gaming intolerance.

So many critics of videogames are so wrapped up in their crusade that they're not even giving the game the benefit of the doubt. Maybe its too much to ask that these gaming naysayers give games a fair shake, but you'd assume one of these jerks would want to be responsible and refrain from spouting factual errors about games on national TV or radio.

When I read about stuff like this, and try and come at it from a logical point of view, I always come to the conclusion that someday these old farts will die, and eventually every politician will be familiar enough with games to not let drivel like this slide. I am hopelessly optimistic (is that an oxymoron?) so that could be just my utopian outlook. What do you readers think, will the future bring fewer facepalm moments in the mass media's gaming coverage?

Check out the article and comments over at: http://uk.xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/call-of-duty-6/1049959p1.html