KEY POINTS:
It was good to hear Prince William say that if Prince Harry had his way "he'd probably sit and play computer games and drink beer all
day".
Some of us had thought all he wanted to do with his life was kill bad
guys in real life. Now that he's been excluded from going to Iraq as
planned, he'll have to fulfil that dream via games like Socom.
One game he won't be playing is Manhunt 2, sadly now it's been banned
in the UK, as reported yesterday.
The game isn't due here until September but the chances of us seeing it are very slim.
Our censor banned the original in November '03 and raved on about how evil it was on tv.
"The injury that the (censor's) Office found Manhunt likely to cause could not be remedied by anything short of a ban," he wrote.
Surprisingly at the time it was able to be bought in Australia and there was a roaring trade in which ex-pat Australian-domiciled older brothers were posting copies back to their siblings in New Zealand or cunning gamers were slipping the disc back in their luggage from an
Australian holiday.
But when people started trying to sell copies on Trade me, the censor
was on to it.
He roared: "One of the consequences of the ban is that it is now illegal to possess Manhunt in New Zealand.
"Anyone who possesses this game is liable to a fine of $2,000 (s131). Anyone who possesses Manhunt and exhibits or displays it to someone under the age of 18 is liable to imprisonment for one year or a fine of $20,000 (s127).
"Anyone who supplies, distributes, exhibits, displays, supplies, possesses for the purpose of supply or advertises Manhunt, knowing that it is objectionable, could be imprisoned for up to a year or fined $20,000. Incorporated distributors and retailers could face a fine of $50,000 (s124)."
A game classified as "objectionable" cannot be legally imported either.
Objectionable publications, including Manhunt, are "prohibited
imports" under the Customs and Excise Act 1996.
The Customs Service has the power to seize all prohibited imports, regardless of how they arrive at the border.
A person who buys Manhunt on an overseas trip and tries to bring it into New Zealand, and anyone who has ordered it from a website, risks not only having the game seized, but also 6 months in jail or a fine of $10,000 (s209 of the Customs and Excise Act).
"Bans are not lightly entertained. When they are imposed, it is because the Office can see no other way of mitigating the risk of injury to the public good.
In this case, the need to protect the greater public good from injury required the sacrifice of the right of individuals to entertain themselves with Manhunt's gameplay of sadistic and gory killings."
So if you were thinking of getting an import copy of Manhunt 2, you'd
better move fast.
I played the original when I was on holiday in Australia and to be frank, it wasn't a great game unless you like the macabre.
The local censor was freaked by the violence and the implication of
snuff movies being involved.
In his decision he wrote that the game has a violent and dark tone that is unrelenting.
It refers to "snuff" films which the player actually sees and helps to produce at each kill.
As an example of the violence he told how a plastic bag is used first to suffocate an opponent and then, depending on the fatality move selected, the opponent is either punched or kneed in the head repeatedly until his neck breaks.
Sound effects accompanying the cut-scene include the muffled cries of the victim and realistic sound of a neck being broken.
To his credit, the censor compared it unfavourably to Grand Theft Auto 3 which despite the violence was "balanced" and had a "humorous and satirical nature". Manhunt was just nasty.
Banning video games is popular in the eye of populist crusaders like US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who is obsessed about blaming video games for everything violent (except the war in Iraq - unless I haven't heard that speech) and for calling for draconian bans.
But it's something that needs to be treated carefully as officials often miss the subtleties of games and take everything literally.
If Manhunt 1 is anything to go by, we won't miss much if he slaps a ban on version 2.
There are heaps of good games on the way.
