Paper, Scissors, Stone: So What?

I love a good piece of viral internet information, and one in particular that’s amused me over the past week is the speculation that’s built up over this tweet:

New Aussie Classification — “PAPER, SCISSORS, STONE” by… “BIOWARE & LUCAS”? Huh?

What that tweet is referring to is this little entry on the Australian Government’s Classification website (click on image for full-size):

That’s led to a bunch of gaming sites getting excited that it means that SWTOR is going through the approval process with the Classification Board, Review Board and Classification Branch.

So what?

Even if ‘Paper, Scissors, Stone’ is SWTOR in disguise, and it’s an obvious possibility – was anyone thinking SWTOR wouldn’t ever be released in Australia? I’d have actually been more surprised if EA / Bioware hadn’t started the process of approval, even if a local release is 6-12 months off. New Zealanders: sorry you may not get even a glimpse of an approval process given your more laid back laws that only require submission for approval if there’s a likelihood of the game being refused release.

Anyway, to jump on a week-old bandwagon, I’m pleased to announce that based on the above image, SWTOR should be coming out in Australia sometime in the future.

And of course, when we do have a launch date, I’ll be the first to move away from my grumpy old man persona and declare it a great step forward, but I’m not sure a standard game approval process is really that much to get excited about.

Or is it? Post your thoughts.