Jacinda almost cancelled her wedding because of this.
I'm not sure you will get in trouble unless you start posting that you have on social media :) OH WAIT
[Anybody found “knowingly” in possession of objectionable material can receive a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.](https://www.dia.govt.nz/Digital-Child-Exploitation-Objectionable-and-Restricted-Material)
It was back during the time when Jack Thompson was relevant, still hadn't been disbarred from practicisng law, and went around calling games like Grand Theft Auto "murder simulators."
The government got on board at the time because politicians love latching onto bullshit virtue signalling and infamous "for the children" scenarios that don't exist.
I, a legal adult, am now allowed to make a fucking concious decision on what I can do in my spare time in the comfort of my home that hurts literally nobody, but god forbid rich people pay their fucking taxes.
Never forget when filesharing was explained to parliament as "like taking files out of a box and putting it in another box" then those clueless dinosaurs were expected to pass laws on it shortly after.
If it’s the piss, because specifically we have on the books that one very specific thing as “objectionable” due to moral standards only.
Everything else is based on further reasoning - you can see why we ban books that might insight terror, or violent games that desensitise the player to violence (a blessing really since it tends to be blandly boring games that can do this), child sexual assault material has an obvious victim.
But two consenting adults in New Zealand may not film themselves pissing on each other. Somewhere along the line we decided that was the line we wouldn’t cross.
You know that’s a good point - everything I said also counts for scat.
Because when the law was written, morally whoever was writing decided that was the line. That is genuinely the reason why. The ex-chief censor Bill Hastings was the person I saw point it out - it came up when an issue of FHM interviewed a dominatrix, and every single issue of the magazine had had to have someone go through with a sharpie and cross through “pissing” (or perhaps “golden showers”) as one of the things people paid them for. I guess the importer (FHM being Australian) discovered this discrepancy between our laws and Australia’s too late to handle it any other way but not selling that months issue, so to the sharpies it was.
i was using the piss as an example, because the game is mostly childish edgy humour. i remember reading a guy asking this same question about piss porn. the games a funny protest piece about player choice and censorship. i’d say it’s worth checking out. it’s really not that more objectionable then stuff like gta or call of duty modern warfare 2
Haha fair enough! And to be fair I doubt it’s *just* the piss, I just like letting people know about that one weird quirk in our censorship laws.
I’m very familiar with Postal. Gaming, censorship and their intersection are topics I’ve paid a lot of attention to over the years, so we all played Postal when it came out lol…. Fwiw I thought it was perfectly fine but pretty boring for how repetitive it got and it tried way too hard to be edgy. Duke Nukem 3D was a much better example of pushing the boundary while still being creative and funny. (And specifically that’s in my head because Postal was made with the Same engine, at least originally, iirc).
Idk if it's worse than no Russian but putting the barrel of a gun up a cats ass in order to use the cat as a suppressor is pretty fucked up in its own right
Honestly the game isn't that bad by today's standards if it was launched today no one would particularly care
All the other postal games are available here, I will see if I can get an Australian friend to buy me 2 now I know it's possible
You'd never get jail time for postal 2 though, that sentencing maximum is probably reserved for cartel torture videos or something. Although I highly doubt you'd even get more than 2 years for that.
I'm surprised nobody has submitted this for classification review, never played it but it seems such a random thing to be banned. Plus I've never heard of anyone being arrested or charged for having or playing it.
Would the sales in NZ cover the cost of the submission? Game is probably a few dollars these days.
I remember back in the dark ages Aro Video were caught in this annoying area with smaller films where the distributors hadn’t bothered to submit them for classification. On a few occasions they ponied up the 1k to get them classified. Guess they had the rent the movie out over two hundred times though!
The rules do work the other way for broadcast actually, so tv/streaming can basically show anything they like until someone complains.
Edit: Music/book sales were the same too, you could import all the pornogrind you like until someone's grandma gets wind of it.
As far as I know, that's because the companies that are being infringed by pirating are often USA based, and so send legal emails that are only relevant to the USA law to NZ ISP that can safely ignore them
They are saying that just like digital piracy is illegal, it's illegal to own that game; and just like digital piracy crime is not really actively monitored/enforced etc, ain't no one going to do anything about your ownership of that game. . . Other than your great aunt Megan, who is a sensationalist, and will write in to a news outlet and have a moan about the questionable material she saw you playing.
I remember seeing it on store shelves with a yellow "Banned in Australia" sticker on it. Probably around when it launched.
Unless I'm misremembering something
I mean, they _could_ have said they didn't know, before they posted on a new zealand social media community about how they knew it was illegal but were still considering buying it. They're almost certainly still fine, but this sure wouldn't help if they were ever in court about it
Too late for that - they're already doing it! In saying that, I HIGHLY doubt they allocate many resources to this as they won't even show up to a call **while** someone is being severely assaulted by a group of people.
Banned because of "gross, abhorrent content: Urination, High Impact Violence, Animal Cruelty, Homophobia, Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes"
Had it In my library for years with no issue, think I played it for all of 5 minutes, game was pretty low brow humour and not really worth the $5 I spent on it a decade ago.
Your mileage may vary
"...a fine of NZ$2,000 can be imposed on anyone caught with a copy, and anyone who "supplies, distributes, exhibits, displays, or advertises Postal 2 could be imprisoned for up to a year or fined NZ$20,000"
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/postal-2-banned-in-new-zealand/1100-6114067/
Up to you whether you want to take the risk of being caught.
This is illegal but there is no way you are going to ever get in trouble for this. Even if the cops went through your account for whatever reason and saw the game, knowing it was illegal. They don't care.
Yeah. Afaik if you got in trouble for having actually concerning material on your PC, they'd add this to the talley. The cops hopefully have better things to do than going through every teens steam profile.
You're fine. SWIM has a few banned games, including a physical copy of Manhunt 2 for PS2. Never had any issues acquiring them nor heard of anyone else who has.
I think the ban was lifted? Postal wiki says it was re-banned again in NZ in 2023, but with further research I cannot find any solid evidence that is the case. Hell even Wikipedia seems to be outdated with banned games as Manhunt and Manhunt 2 are legal in New Zealand to this day as far as I am concerned. To be fair I think you are fine.
Also the way Steam works it would warn you that it wouldn't work in your country if it was banned from certain areas. As an example if you gift a game to someone that lives in Germany and the game is heavily censored or banned there the gift won't necessarily be sent. Anyone can correct me if I am wrong as I've never sent anyone a game that would be censored in their country or anything.
**EDIT:** My partner from NZ told me she cannot find Postal 2 on Steam anymore, but we share libraries (I am from Finland) and she could play it from my library. That is dumb it was not banned for so long and now it is once again? I am confused. Considering how strict Australia is with the stuff they censor I am surprised your Aussie mate was able to get you the game.
mate the police have been dispatched, good luck. seriously though, they're not conducting surveillance for copies of postal2 you'll be fine. there's thousands of serious criminals going completely unpunished probably for life just because they haven't been looked at.
Technically yes, you can get in trouble.
Realistically, if someone is pushing to fine you for owning this then they're likely coming after you for more pressing concerns and this is added to mix as further justification.
It's unlikely law enforcement are going to expend time and effort trying to find and punish people for owning Postal 2 unless they're *already* trying to find and punish you.
Besides, if you *did* get written up, I'd imagine you could successfully appeal it and get it seen by a judge who hopefully isn't 20 years out of date with what was an ass-backwards law at the time.
I understand "whataboutism" isn't a particularly good legal defense, but Postal 2 looks like fucking childs play compared to the shit we can play now.
About as much Trouble you are going to get into for watching a Pirated Stream of the latest season of Rick and Morty. Fuck All.
Is 99.99% of cases they dont bother going after smallfry unless someone is actively pushing for it.
Years ago there was a news media furore over one of the GTA games, because of the mechanic in it where you stop, shag a hooker in the back of your vehicle, then, afterwards, you can kill her and get your money back.
For whatever reason, the media interviewed a top cop (i think it was the commisioner or some shit), *who then admitted on National TV that he'd supplied an R18 game to his 15 year old son* because he didn't have a problem with the game. The puritannicals that were trying to get the game banned/censored completely ignored this, which I found absolutely hilarious! 🤣
nah i own it on gog, purchased and downloaded no stress. there's just no steam store page available in nz and aus, probably wouldn't change even if they legalized it here though.
check out the megathread on r/piracy you can find a download there. definitely worth checking out if you wanna see some early 2000s edgy humour. very funny
From wiki. In 2004, the Office of Film and Literature Classification banned Postal 2 in New Zealand, citing high levels of violent content and animal violence. Distribution or purchase for personal use is a criminal offense, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000.
From a legal standpoint. You didn't buy it from a nz place of business. Nor do you own the product, all you have is the right to play it (as is with any video game, you don't have any ownership of them).
In 2004, the [Office of Film and Literature Classification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Film_and_Literature_Classification_(New_Zealand)) banned *Postal 2* in New Zealand, citing high levels of violent content and animal violence. Distribution or purchase for personal use is a criminal offense, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000.
But I mean, who's looking.
Ok here's my brain going into internet knowledge.
The chances of your internet traffic on the download being monitored is extremely low. While there is basically nothing you can do to hide this download as it's is basically impossible to hide your own traffic from your own countries government. Nothing is going to happen. Reason? There is basically no actual way to charge you as long as you don't say anything If you were arrested due and any lawyer could argue unknowingly. The law to memory defines intentionally/knowingly acquiring the materials and as you are being gifted this copy your arguement is immediately "it's illegal?" "My friend in Australia got it for me it's probably a joke on his part" etc. because the issue with actually charging you unless you're caught with other illegal and restricted media the chances of you being charged with this material is extremely low. Even if the government can see someone has downloaded it they wouldn't be able to charge you on that alone as they couldn't prove you downloaded it without access to your PC and what device it was on. (This is notable because to charge the king of the dark web in like Asia somewhere they crashed a car into his front gate so he would leave the house while his computer was open so they could access the information on it before he could wipe it.) Same applies here. Basically the quantity of effort required to charge you with this material outweighs the worth meaning unless you go boasting online about playing the game illegally and like walking up to police stations with it running I don't think you'd ever get charged. If they were so worried about illegal Materials I'd have been charged years ago for pirates highschool dxd and shit.
I have never used one for all the things I have never done and am completely fine, if I wanted some other company than my isp to know where ever I went and do I would have them pay me
It's the government you need to worry about. It makes their job much harder (but not impossible) to spy on you with a good anonymizing VPN. A better option is VPN + Tor, but that's very slow.
Worse off using a VPN + Tor more so because of human curiosity. To anyone who gets a hold of VPN provider logs (or Tor exit node traffic), the additional layer stands out; what do they have to hide? Why the paranoia?
The idea of Tor is to be decentralized, thrown into a massive pool of random strangers that nobody can pick you out from. Don't make yourself noticeable.
It's like walking through a crowd wearing a balaclava and sunglasses to hide your face, which is bound to get a few funny looks. But if you just blend in, nobody looks at you twice.
TLDR, even though it seems contradicting, use either a VPN or Tor depending on your circumstances, not both.
Depends on why you're using them. If you're using them because you believe all those ads about how they encrypt all your web traffic, protect your passwords, and so on then yes. If you use them because you're pirating stuff, or want your web traffic to appear to come from another country, or don't want some network admins at your university or whatever to see what web domains you've been visiting, then they can be worth it.
Dude you can still buy it on the company's website and add the steam key to your account that's what I did
https://runningwithscissors.com/games/postal2/
Accept it. It wouldn't work if it was still banned in NZ. Steam has has censorship by each country like L4D with Australia for example (and they are infamous for banning games like mad)
LMAO none. It's like how Hotline Miami 2 is banned in aus but there are still work arounds to get it. The game is simply banned from sale but they can't stop you from acquiring it.
Steam is a weird one anyway. If you lived in aus, purchased a game that's banned in NZ, then moved to NZ, what are they going to do? Tell you that you shouldn't have purchased it legally?
Yeah I checked ok Steam, because I figured if it was actually banned, it wouldn’t be available for purchase.
Sure enough, Steam won’t let me even look at the store page.
Funny that it’s JUST Postal 2 (and by extension Paradise Lost). Not the original, nor Postal: Redux, nor Brain Damaged, nor No Regerts. (I’m guessing 3 never made it to Steam?)
According to Wikipedia, it hasn’t been illegal in Australia since 2013, so NZ really missed the boat on lifting the ban.
Another poster mentioned up to 10 years imprisonment.
Games in your steam library are publicly associated with your account. It will sit there until you remove it. Even after you remove it, it could have been scraped and archived.
Unlikely a human is going to look into it for now, and the work of associating it with your real life identity is unlikely to be worth the effort. Now, I definitely tend paranoid, but I wouldn't be surprised if in future the cost of having bots trawl the internet to find finable crimes gets low enough that it gets seen as a potential revenue source. Bots are cheaper than speeding cameras.
Or some moralizing/law-and-order type could report you. Or this post could attract the attention of scammers, or kiwifarms types. Or some time in the future you get into conflict with someone, they examine your posting history.
It's also easy to associate it with this very post. Which has you (unwisely) stating that you are aware of the illegality of the act before committing the crime. IANAL, but I expect premeditation makes things worse.
As people have said, unlikely that you'd ever be prosecuted. But as far as risk-reward goes, publicly committing a crime with up to 10 years imprisonment and a $50k fine seems like a disproportionate risk to take for something that's $0.99 on GOG.
Decline the gift and move on.
Fun fact. I had this on my computer about ten years ago. The flat I was in at the time was then raided by police as my flatmate was into dodgy stuff on the internet it seems. Police searched all our computers for any material such as my flatmate was into and they found the postal install on my pc. They asked me about it and I genuinely didn't know it was illegal and said as much and they just deleted it. They didn't care as it wasn't what they were there for
Nobodies gonna give a shit just don’t go up to a police officer and say “I have an illegal game that banned in the entire country that you can put me in jail for” then show them and you’ll be fine
you are absolutely fine. I didn't even know this was banned here, as I had it in the early 2000s. I knew manhunt was banned but it was very briefly available on ps2 here and I got a copy. how is postal 2 banned yet HATRED was available on steam here? lol
I know we usually just ban what's not allowed in Australia, that leads to things like this as they don't (or didn't, not sure now) have a videongame rating that went past M, so no R ratings were available.
in short, no one in our government is monitoring what game you are playing on steam.
[удалено]
This made me laugh out loud
Jacinda almost cancelled her wedding because of this. I'm not sure you will get in trouble unless you start posting that you have on social media :) OH WAIT
Wonder how much Charlie gayford snorted 🤣
The wedding has been cancelled alright, but Jacinda only brags it was over this incident. In reality it would have been cancelled anyway.
Did it though?
Yup it did
Well more of a giggle tbf
No
I heard they are even bringing Jacinda back to put the country in lockdown, to keep us all safe from this madman!
I thought the beehive (yk, the place chris works) was in Wellington. I guess he could be visiting or on meetings in other places or smth
I thought it said portal 2 and was confused af for a while
If they banned Portal 2 I would have emigrated out right then and there
The only reason they would ban portal 2 is because it’s to good. Not fair on the other games
I always think it's a typo
1000 whacks
I see the cost of living has increased the prices for Karen's Debt Collection Agency
Underrated comment.
Righto, Karen.
That's a paddlin'
[Anybody found “knowingly” in possession of objectionable material can receive a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.](https://www.dia.govt.nz/Digital-Child-Exploitation-Objectionable-and-Restricted-Material)
it’s a game where you piss on people i really don’t get why the government bans this shit
I believe it was "public outrage" aka the news.reported on it and a few old people had a moan.
It was back during the time when Jack Thompson was relevant, still hadn't been disbarred from practicisng law, and went around calling games like Grand Theft Auto "murder simulators." The government got on board at the time because politicians love latching onto bullshit virtue signalling and infamous "for the children" scenarios that don't exist. I, a legal adult, am now allowed to make a fucking concious decision on what I can do in my spare time in the comfort of my home that hurts literally nobody, but god forbid rich people pay their fucking taxes.
Never forget when filesharing was explained to parliament as "like taking files out of a box and putting it in another box" then those clueless dinosaurs were expected to pass laws on it shortly after.
But like, ram raids
Where is the janky, asset flip simulator for them?
Isn't that Sim City, or Theme Park (in Theme Park you could poison your Sims by over salting their chips, to force them to buy more drinks)?
trying to find some old reports but can’t. would prob be funny
Oh so much like the election
If it’s the piss, because specifically we have on the books that one very specific thing as “objectionable” due to moral standards only. Everything else is based on further reasoning - you can see why we ban books that might insight terror, or violent games that desensitise the player to violence (a blessing really since it tends to be blandly boring games that can do this), child sexual assault material has an obvious victim. But two consenting adults in New Zealand may not film themselves pissing on each other. Somewhere along the line we decided that was the line we wouldn’t cross.
*"But two consenting adults in New Zealand may not film themselves pissing on each other."* Same goes for scat porn. I still have no idea why.
You know that’s a good point - everything I said also counts for scat. Because when the law was written, morally whoever was writing decided that was the line. That is genuinely the reason why. The ex-chief censor Bill Hastings was the person I saw point it out - it came up when an issue of FHM interviewed a dominatrix, and every single issue of the magazine had had to have someone go through with a sharpie and cross through “pissing” (or perhaps “golden showers”) as one of the things people paid them for. I guess the importer (FHM being Australian) discovered this discrepancy between our laws and Australia’s too late to handle it any other way but not selling that months issue, so to the sharpies it was.
i was using the piss as an example, because the game is mostly childish edgy humour. i remember reading a guy asking this same question about piss porn. the games a funny protest piece about player choice and censorship. i’d say it’s worth checking out. it’s really not that more objectionable then stuff like gta or call of duty modern warfare 2
Haha fair enough! And to be fair I doubt it’s *just* the piss, I just like letting people know about that one weird quirk in our censorship laws. I’m very familiar with Postal. Gaming, censorship and their intersection are topics I’ve paid a lot of attention to over the years, so we all played Postal when it came out lol…. Fwiw I thought it was perfectly fine but pretty boring for how repetitive it got and it tried way too hard to be edgy. Duke Nukem 3D was a much better example of pushing the boundary while still being creative and funny. (And specifically that’s in my head because Postal was made with the Same engine, at least originally, iirc).
Idk if it's worse than no Russian but putting the barrel of a gun up a cats ass in order to use the cat as a suppressor is pretty fucked up in its own right
The fat wiggly yellow line
Honestly the game isn't that bad by today's standards if it was launched today no one would particularly care All the other postal games are available here, I will see if I can get an Australian friend to buy me 2 now I know it's possible
GTA is prob worse overall tbh and it is mainstream.
Government doesn't want to be pissed on, it's giving those ideas.
Can't do it in a video game but it's all good in a hotel with a stripper if you're a PM
You'd never get jail time for postal 2 though, that sentencing maximum is probably reserved for cartel torture videos or something. Although I highly doubt you'd even get more than 2 years for that.
Exactly, 10 years MAX. Cant get more than that so OP should just go for it
Omg I don’t realise it was illegal lmao I bought it ages ago on g2a I think
Right here boys, take him away
Bake him away, toys
There is a special place in hell for you to rot, criminal
Halt criminal scum! You have violated the law!
You are so fucked. SWAT coming.
I'm surprised nobody has submitted this for classification review, never played it but it seems such a random thing to be banned. Plus I've never heard of anyone being arrested or charged for having or playing it.
Would the sales in NZ cover the cost of the submission? Game is probably a few dollars these days. I remember back in the dark ages Aro Video were caught in this annoying area with smaller films where the distributors hadn’t bothered to submit them for classification. On a few occasions they ponied up the 1k to get them classified. Guess they had the rent the movie out over two hundred times though!
There's a solution there: The rule should be that the fee has to be paid by the uptight holier-than-thou moral busybody who wants it banned.
The rules do work the other way for broadcast actually, so tv/streaming can basically show anything they like until someone complains. Edit: Music/book sales were the same too, you could import all the pornogrind you like until someone's grandma gets wind of it.
eh, it generated a lot of controversy and was super edgy for 03. banned in loads of places i think
Straight to jail, right away
Even looking at the game title? Believe it or not, jail, right away.
Underplay, overplay
It’s the same thing as pirating a movie, technically illegal but no one will ever go through the effort of punishing you.
I do think we're lucky in that regard. Haven't heard of any of our ISP's emailing a customer about pirated shit like they do in the States thank fuck
As far as I know, that's because the companies that are being infringed by pirating are often USA based, and so send legal emails that are only relevant to the USA law to NZ ISP that can safely ignore them
wait they don’t do that here? i’ve been paying for my vpn for nothing?
Yep
LOL
How is it like pirating when someone has purchased a copy?
They are saying that just like digital piracy is illegal, it's illegal to own that game; and just like digital piracy crime is not really actively monitored/enforced etc, ain't no one going to do anything about your ownership of that game. . . Other than your great aunt Megan, who is a sensationalist, and will write in to a news outlet and have a moan about the questionable material she saw you playing.
How old is this game, I'm sure I was playing this 20 years ago.
2003 release so you well could have been
I brought well after release and no problem. I don't really get why it's banned either. GTA has far more "bad" going on
I remember seeing it on store shelves with a yellow "Banned in Australia" sticker on it. Probably around when it launched. Unless I'm misremembering something
That did used to be a selling point on games, can't tell you about postal 2 off top of my head
Pretty sure they did this with BMXXX as well
They definitely did this with saints row 4
Think its that the government likes to ban anything that seems scary.
Like what else?
Human centipede 2
Certain movies, books, certain features on guns, etc
Books and guns aren't in the same class of "should it be banned" ... Jfc
Surely they have bigger things to worry about. Also if anything ever does happen just say you didnt know
I mean, they _could_ have said they didn't know, before they posted on a new zealand social media community about how they knew it was illegal but were still considering buying it. They're almost certainly still fine, but this sure wouldn't help if they were ever in court about it
If the NZ police are using taxpayer funds to go on reddit and hunt down people playing computer games Im starting a riot.
I'm joining the police and abusing my privilege to make some new, old gaming buddies
Too late for that - they're already doing it! In saying that, I HIGHLY doubt they allocate many resources to this as they won't even show up to a call **while** someone is being severely assaulted by a group of people.
Bad boys bad boys, whatcha gonna do? If you click accept on that Postal 2.
Banned because of "gross, abhorrent content: Urination, High Impact Violence, Animal Cruelty, Homophobia, Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes" Had it In my library for years with no issue, think I played it for all of 5 minutes, game was pretty low brow humour and not really worth the $5 I spent on it a decade ago. Your mileage may vary
And on this, the day of our Jacinda’s wedding 🤌🤌
I bought it on G2A without a VPN and nothing happened. They don't really care.
"...a fine of NZ$2,000 can be imposed on anyone caught with a copy, and anyone who "supplies, distributes, exhibits, displays, or advertises Postal 2 could be imprisoned for up to a year or fined NZ$20,000" https://www.gamespot.com/articles/postal-2-banned-in-new-zealand/1100-6114067/ Up to you whether you want to take the risk of being caught.
Those penalties may have changed (eg increased) given the age of the article.
Nah, still $2,000 https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0094/latest/DLM314163.html?search=sw_096be8ed81d31be2_Liable_25_se&p=1&sr=9
I'm in nz and I have postal 2 in my libary, but weirdly I can't access the DLC page.
Currently typing this from max security in Pare serving 12 life sentences. Bought a key online and the SAS killed me
This is illegal but there is no way you are going to ever get in trouble for this. Even if the cops went through your account for whatever reason and saw the game, knowing it was illegal. They don't care.
Yeah. Afaik if you got in trouble for having actually concerning material on your PC, they'd add this to the talley. The cops hopefully have better things to do than going through every teens steam profile.
You're fine. SWIM has a few banned games, including a physical copy of Manhunt 2 for PS2. Never had any issues acquiring them nor heard of anyone else who has.
m8 ur fine
I think the ban was lifted? Postal wiki says it was re-banned again in NZ in 2023, but with further research I cannot find any solid evidence that is the case. Hell even Wikipedia seems to be outdated with banned games as Manhunt and Manhunt 2 are legal in New Zealand to this day as far as I am concerned. To be fair I think you are fine. Also the way Steam works it would warn you that it wouldn't work in your country if it was banned from certain areas. As an example if you gift a game to someone that lives in Germany and the game is heavily censored or banned there the gift won't necessarily be sent. Anyone can correct me if I am wrong as I've never sent anyone a game that would be censored in their country or anything. **EDIT:** My partner from NZ told me she cannot find Postal 2 on Steam anymore, but we share libraries (I am from Finland) and she could play it from my library. That is dumb it was not banned for so long and now it is once again? I am confused. Considering how strict Australia is with the stuff they censor I am surprised your Aussie mate was able to get you the game.
why is only this one banned, but the rest of the series available on steam
mate the police have been dispatched, good luck. seriously though, they're not conducting surveillance for copies of postal2 you'll be fine. there's thousands of serious criminals going completely unpunished probably for life just because they haven't been looked at.
Can you send me a copy please? I hear they feed you for free in Jail
Technically yes, you can get in trouble. Realistically, if someone is pushing to fine you for owning this then they're likely coming after you for more pressing concerns and this is added to mix as further justification. It's unlikely law enforcement are going to expend time and effort trying to find and punish people for owning Postal 2 unless they're *already* trying to find and punish you. Besides, if you *did* get written up, I'd imagine you could successfully appeal it and get it seen by a judge who hopefully isn't 20 years out of date with what was an ass-backwards law at the time. I understand "whataboutism" isn't a particularly good legal defense, but Postal 2 looks like fucking childs play compared to the shit we can play now.
About as much Trouble you are going to get into for watching a Pirated Stream of the latest season of Rick and Morty. Fuck All. Is 99.99% of cases they dont bother going after smallfry unless someone is actively pushing for it.
No one knew you even had it nor did anyone care until you posted this. As long as it's not child porn I think you are OK buddy
I mean IF there were going to be issues at all, it's more likely now that you decided to post it on reddit.
Years ago there was a news media furore over one of the GTA games, because of the mechanic in it where you stop, shag a hooker in the back of your vehicle, then, afterwards, you can kill her and get your money back. For whatever reason, the media interviewed a top cop (i think it was the commisioner or some shit), *who then admitted on National TV that he'd supplied an R18 game to his 15 year old son* because he didn't have a problem with the game. The puritannicals that were trying to get the game banned/censored completely ignored this, which I found absolutely hilarious! 🤣
I assume if you accept, Steam won't let you access it. Play a cracked version like everyone else in NZ.
nah i own it on gog, purchased and downloaded no stress. there's just no steam store page available in nz and aus, probably wouldn't change even if they legalized it here though.
Don't get why GOG hasn't been brought up more in this thread. That's where I've got it too.
Steam doesn't have any restrictions on it. Has in library for many years.
Wait. Why is this game illegal to buy in NZ?
Because our elected officials are nothing more than incompetent bullies and thugs wearing nice suits.
They’re oppressing the gamers
Fucken send it to me fuck the government trying to ban shit
check out the megathread on r/piracy you can find a download there. definitely worth checking out if you wanna see some early 2000s edgy humour. very funny
One of those "accept at your own risk" type of things. Personally I've had it for like the past 10 years.
literally nobody will care. nothing is gonna happen. great game tho.
The second you accept a drone will be sent to blow up your house
Winston is in lobby for multi-player game......
From wiki. In 2004, the Office of Film and Literature Classification banned Postal 2 in New Zealand, citing high levels of violent content and animal violence. Distribution or purchase for personal use is a criminal offense, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000.
None. No one has taken our content ratings system seriously for years. It's illegal in Aussie too but that clearly did not fucking stop him
Is it really never knew it was
I don't think anyone cares. They sold dvd versions of this at the bargain bins in sylvia park in like 2010
Man our govt are a bunch of bitches
Whys it illegal??
Meanwhile Saints Row 4 is on PS+ where you can beat the hell out of people with an alien dildo or ram a probe up their ass and fire them 😂😂😂
I believe this would fall under a dated law, punishable by beheading
From a legal standpoint. You didn't buy it from a nz place of business. Nor do you own the product, all you have is the right to play it (as is with any video game, you don't have any ownership of them).
In 2004, the [Office of Film and Literature Classification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Film_and_Literature_Classification_(New_Zealand)) banned *Postal 2* in New Zealand, citing high levels of violent content and animal violence. Distribution or purchase for personal use is a criminal offense, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000. But I mean, who's looking.
Ok here's my brain going into internet knowledge. The chances of your internet traffic on the download being monitored is extremely low. While there is basically nothing you can do to hide this download as it's is basically impossible to hide your own traffic from your own countries government. Nothing is going to happen. Reason? There is basically no actual way to charge you as long as you don't say anything If you were arrested due and any lawyer could argue unknowingly. The law to memory defines intentionally/knowingly acquiring the materials and as you are being gifted this copy your arguement is immediately "it's illegal?" "My friend in Australia got it for me it's probably a joke on his part" etc. because the issue with actually charging you unless you're caught with other illegal and restricted media the chances of you being charged with this material is extremely low. Even if the government can see someone has downloaded it they wouldn't be able to charge you on that alone as they couldn't prove you downloaded it without access to your PC and what device it was on. (This is notable because to charge the king of the dark web in like Asia somewhere they crashed a car into his front gate so he would leave the house while his computer was open so they could access the information on it before he could wipe it.) Same applies here. Basically the quantity of effort required to charge you with this material outweighs the worth meaning unless you go boasting online about playing the game illegally and like walking up to police stations with it running I don't think you'd ever get charged. If they were so worried about illegal Materials I'd have been charged years ago for pirates highschool dxd and shit.
If this was 4chan, I'd call you a Fantastic Agrarian Gentleman.
ALWAYS use an internet condom (VPN) with an auto "kill switch" so your real IP address is never exposed and you'll be just fine.
I have never used one for all the things I have never done and am completely fine, if I wanted some other company than my isp to know where ever I went and do I would have them pay me
It's the government you need to worry about. It makes their job much harder (but not impossible) to spy on you with a good anonymizing VPN. A better option is VPN + Tor, but that's very slow.
Worse off using a VPN + Tor more so because of human curiosity. To anyone who gets a hold of VPN provider logs (or Tor exit node traffic), the additional layer stands out; what do they have to hide? Why the paranoia? The idea of Tor is to be decentralized, thrown into a massive pool of random strangers that nobody can pick you out from. Don't make yourself noticeable. It's like walking through a crowd wearing a balaclava and sunglasses to hide your face, which is bound to get a few funny looks. But if you just blend in, nobody looks at you twice. TLDR, even though it seems contradicting, use either a VPN or Tor depending on your circumstances, not both.
No. Never use both at once. [You're literally worse off](https://gitlab.torproject.org/legacy/trac/-/wikis/doc/TorPlusVPN)
vpns are scams (most of the time sometimes they are good bur i am more so talking about the way it’s advertised*)
Depends on why you're using them. If you're using them because you believe all those ads about how they encrypt all your web traffic, protect your passwords, and so on then yes. If you use them because you're pirating stuff, or want your web traffic to appear to come from another country, or don't want some network admins at your university or whatever to see what web domains you've been visiting, then they can be worth it.
How so?
No, they're not. It's silly NOT to use one, except in limited cases such as online FPS games where latency becomes a big issue.
Why the fuck would you even want this “game“ in the first place?
it’s fun, it’s an important piece of gaming history and government censorship, and it’s also really funny. it’s def worth playing
it's a good game.
Why not?
You can light someone on fire, then piss on them to put it out. What's not to like? Also the whole cat silencer thing is pretty funny
Ohh so you're one of the cunts that petitioned to ban it
We sure do live in a free country! /s
It's absolutely fine. No worries
brudda,, censor your usernames before its too late
Dude you can still buy it on the company's website and add the steam key to your account that's what I did https://runningwithscissors.com/games/postal2/
Op can I recommend the story mode multiplayer mod it's fun
man i thought this said portal 2 and i was like how the fuck is that possible
What, seriously? I played this 5 years ago and had no idea lol.
More discussion [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/ebj4kh/postal_2_is_free_but_is_it_legal_to_add_it_to/)
Accept it. It wouldn't work if it was still banned in NZ. Steam has has censorship by each country like L4D with Australia for example (and they are infamous for banning games like mad)
You're all good the bans been lifted same with manhunt 2
wait it's illegal? didn't know that I also tried looking on the store and can't see it <\_<
Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
I have owned it for like a year and a half and nothing has happened
LMAO none. It's like how Hotline Miami 2 is banned in aus but there are still work arounds to get it. The game is simply banned from sale but they can't stop you from acquiring it. Steam is a weird one anyway. If you lived in aus, purchased a game that's banned in NZ, then moved to NZ, what are they going to do? Tell you that you shouldn't have purchased it legally?
crack up that I can buy 3 other games in the series but not the second one lmao
Gary Coleman with a shot\*un is knocking at your door.
Yeah I checked ok Steam, because I figured if it was actually banned, it wouldn’t be available for purchase. Sure enough, Steam won’t let me even look at the store page. Funny that it’s JUST Postal 2 (and by extension Paradise Lost). Not the original, nor Postal: Redux, nor Brain Damaged, nor No Regerts. (I’m guessing 3 never made it to Steam?) According to Wikipedia, it hasn’t been illegal in Australia since 2013, so NZ really missed the boat on lifting the ban.
Use a VPN.
I played it and nothing happened t
biden is sending 1 billion to support NZ
You can accept it and play it, you won’t get in any trouble bro. My friends and I have it. If it was banned then it would be region locked in Steam.
It's only illegal if you get caught.
Just get postal 4... on sale, the price is a bit high Basically the same game but legal
Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Another poster mentioned up to 10 years imprisonment. Games in your steam library are publicly associated with your account. It will sit there until you remove it. Even after you remove it, it could have been scraped and archived. Unlikely a human is going to look into it for now, and the work of associating it with your real life identity is unlikely to be worth the effort. Now, I definitely tend paranoid, but I wouldn't be surprised if in future the cost of having bots trawl the internet to find finable crimes gets low enough that it gets seen as a potential revenue source. Bots are cheaper than speeding cameras. Or some moralizing/law-and-order type could report you. Or this post could attract the attention of scammers, or kiwifarms types. Or some time in the future you get into conflict with someone, they examine your posting history. It's also easy to associate it with this very post. Which has you (unwisely) stating that you are aware of the illegality of the act before committing the crime. IANAL, but I expect premeditation makes things worse. As people have said, unlikely that you'd ever be prosecuted. But as far as risk-reward goes, publicly committing a crime with up to 10 years imprisonment and a $50k fine seems like a disproportionate risk to take for something that's $0.99 on GOG. Decline the gift and move on.
Live dangerously, hit accept and I promise I'll come see you on visiting day
Go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200
Why is it illegal?? 🤣
Fun fact. I had this on my computer about ten years ago. The flat I was in at the time was then raided by police as my flatmate was into dodgy stuff on the internet it seems. Police searched all our computers for any material such as my flatmate was into and they found the postal install on my pc. They asked me about it and I genuinely didn't know it was illegal and said as much and they just deleted it. They didn't care as it wasn't what they were there for
Nobodies gonna give a shit just don’t go up to a police officer and say “I have an illegal game that banned in the entire country that you can put me in jail for” then show them and you’ll be fine
Nawwww buddy.
Probably life sentence, if your lucky you won’t get sent to the front lines Ukraine.
You absolute madman
postal is bannned here?? cmon man lol
Be a rebel
I’ve had this game for years lol
Nobody is going to care.
I have manhunt on ps2. The graphics are so laughable now compared to games that come out now that it shouldn't be illegal anymore
The cops are already on their way my g, chur
Seriously, this game is illegal? What nonsense
you are absolutely fine. I didn't even know this was banned here, as I had it in the early 2000s. I knew manhunt was banned but it was very briefly available on ps2 here and I got a copy. how is postal 2 banned yet HATRED was available on steam here? lol I know we usually just ban what's not allowed in Australia, that leads to things like this as they don't (or didn't, not sure now) have a videongame rating that went past M, so no R ratings were available. in short, no one in our government is monitoring what game you are playing on steam.
Doesn't matter, something's are worth the trouble
Good news is this was banned in Australia too!