Atkinson Aware of Gamer Opponent

South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson has acknowledged his possible videogame developer opponent in the 2010 state elections.

As reported previously, David Doe and his Gamers4Croydon party hope to topple Atkinson. The main purpose of Doe’s party is to introduce an R18+ classification for games, which Atkinson strenuously objects to. According to a update, Doe is well on his way to gathering enough signatures to register his party, with over 75 signees. He needs 150 to make the party official.

Atkinson said he “welcomed” Doe’s challenge, adding:


As a sidebar, a poll embedded in with the story on the paper’s website asks “Should there be an R18+ classification for video games?”  83% of the over 2200 respondents chose “yes” an answer at the time this was written.

The story also notes that Atkinson, who has held his seat for 20 years, received 67.1 percent of the first-preference votes in the 2006 state election.

Thanks Ryan



  1. 0
    TBoneTony says:

    Lets see, every argument that Atkinson ever says is a total lie or is not a real issue with the Classification Board.

    Rapelay – Not relevent because it was a game only intended for the Japanese audience and those outside of Japan can get it via online. Nothing the OFLC could do about that.

    Turture game – Yeah…torturing a stick figure or something that looks like a puppet is really going to encourage people to torture real people… Plus it is a FLASH game on the internet, I also know that newgrounds and other flash sites have their own content ratings, if it says adult and asks you to be over 18 before you play it, is exactly how every other ratings board in the world does it,

    Game the encourages drug use – Well if you think about Yoshi Story and the way how it has ‘The Super Happy Tree’ then I guess you could turn that into a game that encourages kids to take drugs, or maybe eat more fruit. Either way how can you determine if a game can encourage drug use if the game can’t speak to defend themselves?

    Blowing yourself up – Yeah…playing Lemmings has taught me how to blow myself up when I am not going to win anyway… for the love of… Lets say if all the news stations who featured people blowing themselves up and the movies in hollywood that feature people blowing themselves up and yet we have a game that tries to do the same thing yet it get criticised all because it is just a videogame… is that really fair???

    I would hope that Games4Croydon does just one thing good. It may not win a seat to get into power, but it will sure let people know how stupid Michael Atkinson is. Go for it and challenge him not only on the debate of videogames, but also on the debate for Bikers and also Gay Marridge and other things that Michael Atkinson will talk stupid about.

    In any case, if Atkinson loses power and the Liberal Canditate wins in his seat, at least Games4Croydon has been something good.



  2. 0
    Ryno says:




  3. 0
    Mattsworkname says:

    I hope atkinson takes a Nose dive on this.

    He’s an idiot and the fact that he was ever elected does not speak well of the people who elected him.


    Yukimura is still here. "When he’s at his best, he’s little less then a man, and when he’s at his worst, he’s little more then a beast." W.S

  4. 0
    count23 says:

    Don’t you just love it though? Atkinson is giving the other guy a way to beat him in an election! It’s simple, and Atkinson is even supporting the arguements.

    "Do you really want kids playing games about raping people, blowing themselves up and drug abuse easily accessible to children? Keeping an R18 rating from appearing does exactly that"

    "Michael Atkinson personally endorses raping people, blowing themselves up and drug abuse by encouraging the classification board to rate games MA instead of a more appropriate R18!"

  5. 0
    Father Time says:

    So it is just atkinson and this man running? There must be someone else besides atkinson, who has a major political party backing them or something.



  6. 0
    Father Time says:

    "which gamers score points by raping a mother and daughter,"

    Rapeplay, a game not available in English

    "blowing themselves up"

    there are lots of games where you can do that (take any game with an rpg or bazooka, even an army man game and point it downwards) but games where it’s encouraged… The only two I can think of are a web game which isn’t relevant and splosion man, which I haven’t played. Allthough from the looks of it splosion man is a very cartoony game so if that’s what he’s talking about it’s very misleading. If you were so inclined you can make the violence in Looney Tunes seem graphic.

     "torturing human figures"

    I’m drawing a blank.

    ". . . killing people"

    Yes this could also be cartoony as well.

    "and taking drugs to improve their sporting prowess."

    that old blitz game? *Shrug*

    I hope it’s pointed out over and over that if an R18 rating is made then it would be illegal for game stores to sell those to kids.



  7. 0
    Erik says:

    Yeah, I’ve never done any of those things that Atkinson described.  Oh yes in the fictional setting of games I have.  But the only way any of that would be a problem would be if Atkinson has difficulty seperating reality from fantasy.  Unfortunately that seems to be a large hurdle for his ilk.


  8. 0
    Shoehorn Oplenty says:

    His comments really set the bar quite high for levels of ignorance. Referring to a game that was only available online and was not classified, flash games and believing that anything done in a game is to get "points".

    I can’t wait for a new generation in government all over the world. I don’t want someone whose only concern is videogames, but I would appreciate someone who knows what a videogame is…

  9. 0
    lomdr says:

    I meant for stuff that you earn points for the sake of earning points, not like stuff where you level up items or your character, like the metroidvania Castlevania games, God of War, or even the Night Sections of Sonic Unleashed.

  10. 0
    nighstalker160 says:

    Ahhh, haven’t seen that game. Still though I think a steroid mode would be pretty awesome. You can pump your characters up to like 3x normal body size and just steamroll everyone.

  11. 0
    hellfire7885 says:

    And Atkinson of course ignores that Rapelay wouldn’t be made available there regardless, but Atkinson can’t let that get i nthe way while he preaches "if he wins your kids will be able to play rape games and will, WILL become rapists, and they will becoem fat homosexuals"

  12. 0
    lomdr says:

    There’s also Splosion Man on the XBLA, which has you blowing yourself up to propel you to higher platforms, but it won’t kill you.

    I really want to head desk so hard, but my desk is made of glass.  The only games that have points nowadays are rhythm games and the very few arcade games that do manage to get released in the states, but also including the arcade style games found on the Wii and such.  However, I don’t know the state of Australian arcades, so excuse my ignorance there.

  13. 0
    aIM hERE says:

    "What game rewards you for blowing yourself up?"

    There are a few, surely.. Blowing yourself and an enemy up is an achievement in multiplayer cod4, and there are lots of kamikazes in strategy games – the splatters in Laser Squad Nemesis, the fanatics in Command and Conquer 3, the terrorists and truck bombs in C&C:Generals for example.

    He’s probably thinking of ‘Kaboom’, some grotty online flash game relating to Palestinian Suicide bombers circa 2004 or 2005 or so that created the usual tedious outrage, though.

  14. 0
    Austin_Lewis says:

    You can get points for raping mothers and daughters?  What console game is he playing, and did he pick it up in Japan?  What console game allows you to torture human figures?  What game rewards you for blowing yourself up?
    Atkinson is a moron. 

  15. 0
    DarkSaber says:

    I agree, this prat has made the whole election about gaming now, how many of the voters in the croydon area honestly give two-shits about some adults not being to play games the rest of the world can?



  16. 0
    Neeneko says:

    That is what I suspect will happen.

    A single platform unknown canidate vs a 20+ year incumbant?  It is highly unlikly that there will be any changing of the gaurd going on here.   Most people vote for whoever holds the office already unless you really rile a large percentage of the population up.

  17. 0
    Anonononomous says:

    Great. Now when the actual politician wins a political race he can claim that the voters have spoken and that they don’t want an R18+ classification.

  18. 0
    Beacon80 says:

    I don’t know about the XBox games, but in the 16 bit Shinobi games, you gained points by getting through a stage without using any ninja magic.  So while you could blow yourself up, you did not gain points for it.

  19. 0
    Nocturne says:

    I’m more interested in what game he’s talking about when he says "take drugs to improve your sporting prowess?" 

    Blitz: The League. It was refused classification in Australia as when a player was injured you could choose to "juice" them with painkillers effectively ignoring the injury.

  20. 0
    nighstalker160 says:

    I assume he’s talking about RapeLay. Unfortuantely we’re gonna be seeing that game pop up for YEARS to come. I’m more interested in what game he’s talking about when he says "take drugs to improve your sporting prowess?" Does Madden ’10 have a "steroid mode?"

  21. 0
    Cheater87 says:

    Here we go with spreading lies again. People still think that all games have points in them. This is NOT the 80s people. Seesh. I hope the other guy beats Atkinson and the R18 rating gets allowed. Show the lies Atkinson uses to censor everyone from games.

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