No real surprise: the preliminary results of December's public solicitation over an R18+ classification for video games have started to come in; overwhelmingly, the public is in favour of introducing one. Last year the Minister for Home Affairs released the long-awaited discussion paper and gave Australian citizens and lobbyist groups the chance to voice their opinions on implementing a classification for games higher than the existing age-15 limit we have today. Even in February it was clear that the results would be firmly in the for-camp and although final numbers haven't been tabulated yet, so far only a small percentage of Australian citizens oppose the measure.

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BioWare is again being questioned about the lack of same-sex love interests in the Mass Effect franchise. When 1UP writer Tracey John spoke with project lead Casey Hudson and BioWare head Ray Muzyka, she just wanted to know, in a game built so much around choice, why couldn't her female Shepard have a romance with the female quarian Tali'Zorah vas Neema. This is the paradox that studios like BioWare find themselves in: the more choices you give players, the higher expectations those players have that more and more diversity will be available as a choice.

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Lt. Dan Choi, an individual who has inadvertently become the face of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the US, got arrested last week for an act of civil disobedience wherein he chained himself to the gates of the White House to draw attention to the issue. What started out with Choi apparently gatecrashing a Human Rights Campaign rally with Kathy Griffin ended with Choi marching to the front of the White House and handcuffing himself to the fence. He was arrested, along with the co-chair of GetEqual, Robin McGehee, and Cpt. Jim Pietrangelo (who had also chained himself alongside Choi). What had begun as a photo op for HRC got hijacked by Choi and, tellingly, HRC refused to get themselves involved.

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South Australia Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, for some time the only opposition to introducing a R18+ classification for video games in the country, announced over the weekend that he was resigning from his position as Attorney-General immediately. Holding his position as MP for over 20 years, Atkinson will step down fully at the end of his term in 2014, his role a backseat one in the interim.

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We Fly Spitfires, one of my favourite blogs, posted an entry documenting a recent spat in the WoW-blogosphere regarding that terrible dragon of gold-buying. I'll admit upfront that I've bought gold in World of Warcraft before; back when I first started playing and the thought of how much grinding I'd need to go through in order to purchase my first mount, the time commitment seemed unlikely. A little spam message in my inbox telling me how much game-gold I could get for a pittance of money seemed like a no-brainer: in the trade off between grinding for time, amidst my actual real life day job, or plunking down cash for the same result, ease won out.

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In an article on Tuesday over at The Bulletin (Philadelphia's family newspaper), Susan Brinkmann explores a growing problem facing today's "avid gamers" and their immortal souls. Specifically, a rise in the proliferation of satanic-themed video games targeting God, Catholicism specifically and Judeo-Christianity in general. Most of the article is built up on quotes by a 32 year old named Lance Christian who declares matter-of-factly that "the devil has a new tool to work with in this age of technology, and the majority of adults in a position of responsibility are left in the dark."

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A thread was recently started at the GayGamer.net forums around the following rant about modern gay rights, implicitly blaming the fact that we don't have gay marriage and full equality on things like the overt sexuality demonstrated at pride parades or the effeminacy of some gay men. The latter I have complained about here a few times already, but I added a wall of text to the discussion thread after the majority of comments amounted to "I think this guy is completely right." Sadly the guy isn't completely right and most of his perspective is incredibly nasty and self-hating, but as I've lamented before, it's a perspective shared by most gay people my age and younger. As the GayGamer.net forums require a registered account to read, I was asked if I could post my "essay" someplace else so it could be linked to.

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