Putting aside the incredibly condescending tone of the article and points therein, my criticism of it, and your position umiman, comes down to the oldest and best response - what gives them or you the right to tell me what is or isn't art? Semantically arguing about what counts as "mature" is every bit as juvenile as the people you accuse of hiding behind the term. More importantly, it has absolutely no place in forming a government policy.
You want the exception to your
rule, that gore can never be artistic and art can never be gory? Fine.
Killer7, an opaque, interactive dreamscape on par with anything in an avant guarde museum, whose gameplay consists almost entirely of ''excessive blood spurts, excessive cruelty, the ability to kill innocents without consequence''.
Planescape: Torment, the closest any game has really come to emulating
The Inferno, full of violent death and imagery, yet wordier than most novels. And heck, while I'm on the subject, let me respond to the article as well, and it's blatant self-righteous egotism-
Video gamers also make direct and crude comparisons with the movie ratings scale. However, the last time I saw an R-rated movie I do not remember being allowed to participate in the various heinous acts.
The definitive R-rated movie of all time was
The Road Warrior, 90 minutes of people getting stabbed, run over, shot in the face, and lit on fire, with some nudity, rape, and homophobia thrown in for good measure. Also endorsed by Joseph Campbell as one of the most concise examples of his Hero Arc concept put to film, for what it matters. Oh yeah, and it was made entirely by Australians.
The most telling point in both the article's angry paternalism and your screed about people who play gory games is what you
didn't say. I didn't see the word "children" anywhere in there. Especially in the case of the Australian rating system, the "refused classification" ban appears specifically aimed at games only people over 18 would try to purchase anyway. At this point, they and you have finally abandoned even the pretense of banning or altering content for the flimsy excuse protecting the young and impressionable, and straight up admitted to the heart of it all. Legislating taste.
Well screw them for thinking they know what I enjoy or why I enjoy it, and thinking they would have any right to restrict that. (I'm not extending that ire to you, because I like you and don't want to get muted). The unholy grail of gory games is of course the
Grand Theft Auto series. I haven't played a GTA game since
Vice City nearly a decade ago, and it bored the crap out of me. But being told that I can't buy it, not because somebody dumber than me might get the "wrong ideas" from it or because it might corrupt the precious children, but simply because some dickwad appointed to a panel somewhere thinks it's not "good" or "artistic" enough, I'm going to get damn pissed about that.
I think legislation, especially wholesale prohibition, of
anything decided simply by subjective appraisal is a crime against human intelligence, and among the principally worse uses law can be put to. I should have prefaced this by saying I don't live in Australia and obviously have no experience with it's laws, but I'm calling to action everyone who does live there to do exactly what umiman said. Lobby and vote, you're supposed to be the cool criminal country dammit. Give us something to hope for.