Okay, so I'm not accustomed to starting a blog post with 'WTF?' but, seriously, WTF?

I don't watch a lot of TV, only in the morning to get news and weather, but during my 20-minutes or so of Channel 7, I not only saw two different advertisements for Mother's Day game bundles that included either a Wii console with Wii Fit or a DSi with Brain Training, but also a few of Nintendo's own ads, which, as many of you know, feature polished-looking happy families having fun in their living room (I mean really, no one's family is THAT happy).

And then, to top it off, Sunrise is running a Mother's Day comp sponsored by Nintendo (among others) where one of the prizes is...*drum roll*...a Wii and Wii Fit.

Either Ninty is saying Australian middle-aged women are fat, or they're seriously pinning a lot of hope of this year's Mother's Day sales. It will be interesting to see if the campaign works or not.

I recently had the pleasure of chatting to Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express) during the Sydney leg of his promotional tour for the upcoming animated film, Monsters vs Aliens. Besides lending his voice to one of the main characters in the film, Rogen also voiced characters in the video game and, as it turns out, he's an avid gamer himself.

Rogen says he plays games all the time as a way to shut off his brain from the outside world and also, not surprisingly, 'because they're just damn fun'.

Among his favourites: Street Fighter IV, Call of Duty: World at War, and Spielberg's Boom Blox (which he often gets beaten at by his girlfriend).

Rogen also talked about penning screenplays with the Judd Apatow crew, his recent Vanity Fair shoot, improvising in front of the camera and writing and starring in an upcoming episode of The Simpsons.

Yeah!

So, I wrote this story about piracy.

And I was totally surprised by some of the comments on this story. I mean, fair enough, nobody is a saint. But I was accused of writing a biased article, a one-sided view of the issue. But what other side is there? Do people really expect me to write a story that defends video game piracy?

Apparently, some do. They accused me of not seeing things from the 'pirates' point of view'. Maybe, once upon a time, I would have agreed that there is another side to this whole issue. But not after talking to half a dozen developers who confessed how pirates more or less single-handedly brought down their businesses. Or how they're too afraid to speak out about how damaging game piracy is, lest they anger gamers who, predictably, will react by pirating even more games.

And all this talk of the games industry making more money than the film and music industry. Sure, but what percentage of that money goes to these developers? The ones who make the games? The ones who suffer when their games are pirated? The ones who, at the end of the day, will lose their jobs?

Nobody pays any attention to that. Nobody even thinks about that. To them, the games industry is just one giant entity; an entity with too much money. Anyone who pirates is therefore a hero. An underdog. A guerilla fighting for the rights and freedoms of those who deserve it.

But let's get one thing straight. The games industry is not the film industry. And it's not the music industry. Games are not made by million-dollar studios serviced by hundreds of people. They're not made via a pre-conceived formula, thrown together any which way in order to make the Christmas rush. Games are made by people, albeit small groups of people, labouring day and night to put their talents to good use. If you pirate games instead of paying for them, these are people who will feel the effects. And where's the heroism in that?

Art scandals are fun. Sometimes whole decades can pass without a really good, juicy, art scandal. The art world is usually a reserved, shy, sort of place, where debates are carried out in polite, hushed whispers. Barely does the general public get a glimpse into this paradise of civility. But, when they do, the paradise can quite quickly turn into Hades.

Australia's latest art scandal saw one of our most famous and talented photographers, Bill Henson, shrouded in a media frenzy that sought to judge whether or not the artist passed as a child pornographer. I think the jury may still be out on that one, even though public censors and police have all stated Henson's work is decidedly not guilty of being anything but art. But since this is an opinion piece, I'll begin by stating my view on Henson, and his work.

I first came across Henson's work while studying visual arts in high school. Having a keen interest in photography, I was instantly grabbed by the subtle, emotive and rather lonely nature of his photographs. I loved them. Never, as the then-15-year-old girl that I was, did I find contention with the fact his photos often depicted naked children.

Henson has long been considered one of this country's greatest exports, and one of the best photographers all around. Never has anyone, to my knowledge, had any problem with any of his work (and he's been photographing children for a long time). Why now? I guess that's the nature of art scandals; they spring up without real reason.

In any case, the debate has been an interesting one to follow. It's in its dying days now, but someone has already written a book about it--author and journalist David Marr (who has written about previous art scandals in Australia) wrote The Henson Case.

I saw David Marr last night, speaking about the 'Henson hullaballoo', as he called it. What struck me though (and here's what I'm sure you've been waiting for) is that throughout his entire speech, he might as well have been speaking about video games.

The link here is the protection of children, and the fact that Australian society seems to have gone a bit cuckoo over this. Australia remains the only civilised country that still effectively 'bans' video games because of this obsession with the protection of children. No matter that children are not the target audience for either video games or visual arts, their protection seems to overrule the basic freedoms that should be afforded to citizens.

What is happening now in the art world has been happening for a long time in the video games world. The fact that the government refuses to introduce an R18+ classification is all tied to this notion of protecting children.

At the Federal Government's request, the Australia Council now plans to introduce 'arts protocols' in response to the Henson case. The protocols relate to the depiction of children in government-funded artworks, exhibitions and publications, and will apply from January 2009. They will be a condition of Australia Council funding, and have apparently been designed to ensure the rights of children are protected in the artistic process. However, this includes ensuring that everyone viewing the artwork has an appropriate understanding of the nature and artistic content of the material.

What this means is that government-funded art galleries will not be able to exhibit any works that are deemed 'too difficult to understand' by the public. What does this mean? I don't know. Do you? How can anyone have 'an appropriate understanding of the nature and artistic content' of an artwork?

If this were a universal rule, it would effectively mean that no gallery anywhere would be able to display any artwork ever again. This goes against the very nature of what art is. The artistic vision of the artist is shared through the artwork, but everyone is free to interpret it as they wish.

And all this because they do not want children to be corrupted by, and through, images such as Henson's. These protocols are not just aimed at protecting children from being exploited as part of the art creation process, but also protecting them all around, including not being exposed to inappropriate content.

No government can censor art just because one or two people find it offensive. But as soon as there is talk of 'protecting the children', that gives a government carte blanche to do as they will, because who is going to oppose the protection of children?

This is David Marr, speaking on ABC's Lateline program:

"I try to distinguish between real children who have the real need to be protected and the kind of forum in which the fragility of children is being used by people who have always been trying to have a more modest society, a better behaved society, a more sexually conservative society. Those people aren't listened to any more at all by anybody unless they're talking about children, unless they're talking about the safety of children."

"What we have to decide as a society is whether that means we are going to start banning a whole area of material which is not considered remotely pornographic by people like the Classification Board, by the directors of public prosecution around Australia or even by police. But there is in the community at the moment a very strong wish that this somehow be stopped and banned. This is the most ambitious call for censorship that Australia has experienced for a very long time."

I would disagree with Marr only on his last point: Australia is already experiencing a very similar, if not more ambitious, wave of censorship, with the constant banning of video games in this country.

I've spent a good number of years poo-pooing fans of the Harry Potter books for no good reason. I've always enjoyed the movies, and never been afraid to say so, but seven books? Come on. Who has got time to read seven books, let alone when they're supposed to be for children?

How wrong I was.

I am halfway through the sixth book, and am finding it very hard to deal with the fact that it will one day end. I have never been so captivated by a story. Lame? Perhaps. But when a story can have that kind of power over you, it really does feel like magic.

My apologies to everyone who I may have taunted during my non-Harry-Potter-loving days.

Randy, Koz, Dan and I partied on at the World Cyber Games last weekend, mingling with everyone from pro gamers to upcoming fashionistas. The competition was fierce and it was good to see people of all ages walking about.

Here are some more pics:

Haha.

My first feature on the competitive gaming scene in Australia is ready!

Have a read here and let us know what you think!

--Laura

...for updates, videos, pics, news, and more!

Become a Facebook fan of GameSpot AU here.

Yep, it's finally here.

I want more comments on it though!

In light of the recent Fallout 3 decision by the OFLC, here's an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington, D.C) analysing the poorly-developed reasoning behind video game censorship.

The author, Bill Blake, is an academic from Carnegie Mellon University, who discusses the issue by putting his own spin on things: a simple test to judge how influential video game content is on a person's real life actions.

I know the issue has already been widely discussed in the media (not enough in this country) but I think this is a refreshing look at an old but still pressing matter.

http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=gg9fp99q42q3t8djnsxxcllxqx616h9n

Hi guys. My name is Laura and I'm the new addition to the GameSpot team (which was in dire need of a female counterpart). My main task will be to write news features on anything and everything to do with games and the industry, from the business side of things to the fun stuff. As always, suggestions are most definitely welcome.

A bit of background on myself: I graduated from a long and pointless journalism degree in 2006 and decided to earn my living as a freelance journalist, writing mainly arts, film and technology stories for places like the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, FILMINK and 3D World. I got my first big break with The Guardian in the UK, where my first opinion piece about video games was published. The piece, inspired by a rather heated exchange between myself and an insipid video game store assistant, told the story of the frustrations that girls who play video games often have to endure.

Example 1:

I walk up to the counter with a copy of the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack.

Me to insipid store assistant: Hi. How are you? Just this please.

Him: Umm…you do realise this isn't the game right?

Example 2:

I walk up to the counter with a 360 game and a PS2 game (I own the 360, my housemate owns the PS2).

Me to insipid store assistant: Hi. How are you? Just these please.

Him: Umm…you do realise you need two different consoles to play both these games, don't you?

My gaming life stretches back to my primary school days, when I used to play Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis on dad's PC back in the middle of the night. I took a break for a while during high school and got back into it six or so years ago, after one of my friends forgot his Xbox at my house after a party and I stayed up all night with Halo 2. These days I try and play a little of everything, but some of my favourites are: all the Halo games, Half Life 2, Fable, Katamari, Viva Pinata, the Harry Potter games (shut up), God of War, Portal on The Orange Box, Gears of War, Phoenix Wright, Dead or Alive, Mario Kart and Mario Party and the Broken Sword games.

Besides that, I spend my free time watching re-runs of Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Black Books and occasionally read a book. I'm also into girly things like photography and cooking.

My first week at GameSpot has been pretty awesome, and I'm looking forward to spending my working days talking crap and playing games (and occasionally writing something).

Oh, and I really, really, like cake.

-- Laura