No R18+ advocacy website opened; Michael Atkinson gets more threats

Two bits of news concerning the R18+ debacle going on in Australia today has an advocacy against the rating getting its own website, and the second bit has South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson getting more death threats.

Starting off with the threat bit, Michael Atkinson has said gamers are once again threatening he and his family, more so than the nastiest group of Hell Angels bikers could ever aspire to.

Speaking to ABC (via GamePolitics), Atkinson said that another pasted letter was slipped under his door at 2AM “from a gamer” and said that his email is constantly being spammed.

"I feel that my family and I are more at risk from gamers than we are from the outlaw motorcycle gangs who also hate me and are running a candidate against me.

"The outlaw motorcycle gangs haven’t been hanging around outside my door at 2AM, a gamer has.

"I have no evidence to say that it [the threatening material] is being circulated by members of Gamers4Croydon. I don’t know who sends me this awful material.”

In response, Gamers4Croydon president Chris Prior denied Atkinson's claim and countered by saying: "It’s really quite absurd, and it trivializes the lives that have been ruined by cruel motorcycle gangs. We are a party formed to challenge Mr. Atkinson publicly, civilly, and within the rules of South Australia's democracy".

In other news on the R18+ subject, and new advocacy group has formed a website called NoR18games.com, and it voices the opinion that "the last thing Australian needs is extremely violent and explicit games feeding into youth and adults minds.”

Here's a blurb, once again, courtesy of GamePolitics:

Although R18+ DVDs are already available, computer games involve the player in an interactive role where they become the character doing the killing, raping, beating or sexual activity. An example of a currently banned game that would be allowed into Australia is a Japanese creation where the player is encouraged to gang rape and beat young women. Other games involve “first person” playing where the player takes the role of torturing or mutilating people.

GP dug around a bit, and found that the NoR18Games website may be affiliated with the Australian Christian Lobby, which has also come out against R18+, thanks to the "Find Out More” section of the site.

It will get uglier before it gets better, folks.