Gamers4Croydon Moves On

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Gamers4Croydon has just announced on their website that the political party is closing its doors.

In their farewell note, David Doe highlights what his party achieved during the South Australian election this year.

““We put political pressure on and helped unseat an Attorney-General (who was oddly absent throughout the ALP’s 2010 campaign). We (along with others) helped raise public awareness of the classification debate by getting on mainstream radio and television and outlaying the facts as they are, rather than as they are perceived or often portrayed. And personally, I’d like to think that we brought something genuine to the political process and managed to engage a previously disengaged and largely overlooked segment of voters.”

Their de-registration as an official party is to follow later.

Although they didn’t win any seats, their actions partly contributed to the resignation of Michael Atkinson and made their voice heard in relation to the government’s R18+ discussion paper. They will be sadly missed, and we wish them good luck in the future

Atkinson has a go at Gamers4Croydon

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

In what seems to be a foolish move, South Australian attorney-general Michael Atkinson has launched an attack on Gamers4Croydon who has recently became a registered party in South Australia. Atkinson told GameSpot:

“It’s 60 days until the election and they [Gamers4Croydon] don’t even have a candidate yet. Their Web site is full of memorabilia but not much else. This electorate has some 24,000 people to talk to and convince. Personally, I see no evidence of local support for their party.

“I assume the Gamers4Croydon campaign will involve criminal activities and dirty tricks, which is what I’ve come to expect from gamers,” he said. “Regardless, I think they will struggle to get even 1 percent of the votes, and their campaign will actually discredit the public campaign in support for R18+ rather than enhance its chances. They [Gamers4Croydon] might do better leading up to the election, but at this stage they’re not doing anything. What’s more, David Doe has to stop taking pleasure in people abusing me.”

Atkinson may have the right to stop Australia from introducing an R18+ rating for games, not allowing adults to play the games targeted for them. But to actually accuse a political party of engaging in “criminal activities and dirty tricks” just because they suddenly become a threat is the equivalent of labelling someone a child abuser. As for G4C getting one percent of the vote, we are confident that G4C will get more than that.

Gamers4Croydon Needs South Australians

Monday, November 16th, 2009

As you may be aware, fledgling Australian political party Gamers4Croydon is taking Michael Atkinson up on his challenge and running a candidate in his electorate of Croydon at the 2010 South Australian general elections. Gamers4Croydon founder David Doe was recently in Croydon to collect signatures, but he still needs at least 50 more South Australians signatures in order to register Gamers4Croydon as a legitimate political party!

If you are enrolled to vote in South Australia, please head over to the site and fill out the membership form.

It doesn’t cost anything to join and will go a long way towards bringing about the change this country needs in its ratings system.

As well as running in Croydon, Gamers4Croydon is aiming to run in other electorates, and even to run at least one candidate for the Legislative Council so that all South Australian gamers can put their votes behind the party at election time.

Even if you’re not registered to vote in South Australia, donations to a registered Australian political party are tax-deductible up to $1500 and every dollar given will go to help Gamers4Croydon succeed in 2010. Please visit the site and do what you can to help out.

Facebooking for R18+

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Though there is no official Facebook group for this site, many people have been emailing in links to Facebook groups that have sprung up to support this important issue. If you’re on Facebook, please consider visiting these groups and adding your support.

• Australia needs an R18+ Classification on Games!
• Grow up Australia – R18+ for Video Games
• The official Facebook group for Gamers4Croydon

If you are organising support for this issue on Facebook or anywhere else, please email in and let us know.

Gamers4Croydon launches, AG inboxes flooded

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Last week, the fledgling political party* Gamers4Croydon launched, with the sole intention of contesting the seat of Croydon (Michael Atkinson’s electorate) at the next state election in South Australia.

As part of their launch, the group set up the “one-click (almost) email your Attorney General”, which provided a pre-written letter to the relevant Attorney General. All that was required of the user was to fill in the relevant personal details.

The site has posted a handful of stock responses from various Attorneys General (not Atkinson, to date).

Mr Barry Collier (Member for Miranda, NSW Legislative Assembly, Australian Labor Party) writes:

It is my understanding that the paper will contain detailed descriptions of the content of various computer games which have been Refused Classification. In order to ensure informed submissions on the issue it is important that people are aware of the kinds of material which may become lawfully available for sale in Australia if an R18+ category were to be introduced for computer games.

Along with the constant hand-balling between state and federal levels, it would appear at this stage that if and when the discussion paper is released, Mr Atkinson will get his wish of a discussion paper full of misinformation, straw-men and very little relevant to the actual issue.

* Gamers4Croydon is not currently recognised as a political party by the State Electoral Commission of South Australia, although official registration and clarification are currently being sought.