PALGN and Everybody Plays, in partnership with GAME retailers, have set up a petition for everyone who believes that Australian video game classifications should include an adult R18 rating, in order to protect children from mature games. In the first 48 hours alone, we've managed to secure over 3000 signatures alone. However, some may still be sceptical. Just how much do petitions help? After all, we’ve all heard about the lack of success of petitions, particularly online ones. Still, here are some examples of successful and interesting online petitions. Success isn’t necessarily needed for the petition to ‘work’, but it will always be seen favourably if it can reach its target number. So while you’re reading through these, remember that we have our own petition going and that it’s up to you to make sure that you make this is a successful one so that it may protect children from mature games.
Head to the new Everyoneplays website here.
Find your nearest GAME store by clicking here.
Petition: Whales Revenge
Date: 25 February 2008
Result: One of the biggest petitions ever held. On 25 February 2008, Melbourne resident Patrick Bonello reached his target of collecting one million signatures from all over the world, having set up the Whales Revenge website two years earlier. His aim was to display a united show of force to pressure the Australian government into more action against Japanese whaling. Including a basic Space Invaders style game (where you’d protect whales from advancing whaling ships), visitors to the site would play the game, sign the petition and pass it onto friends. Reaching 26,000 signatures one day and getting 1,000 on any good day, Mr Bonello hopes to keep the site going with a new goal to reach 10 million signatures.
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Partick Bonello, the man with the plan.
Petition: Work Choices
Date: November 2005
Result: During the time that the highly infamous Work Choices Industrial Reforms were set for introduction in Australia, several online campaigns were setup opposing the changes. One of the most heavily supported campaigns was "Take a Stand Barnaby!", petitioning National Party of Australia Senator Barnaby Joyce to act on his concerns about the IR laws and vote against them in the Senate in November 2005. Even though the overall action wasn’t enough to stop the IR law changes from being made, the petition received 85,189 signatures, thought by the ACTU to be a record for an Australian online petition at that time.
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Good to see you're working hard Barnaby.
Petition: Venezuelan recall referendum
Date: 15 August 2004
Result: The Venezuelan recall referendum was called on 15 August 2004, to see whether incumbent President Hugo Chavez ought to be recalled from office. While the result of the referendum was to have Chavez stay in office, the important part came leading up to the referendum. In 1999, a recall mechanism was introduced into Venezuelan law. Under its provisions, an elected official can be subjected to a recall referendum if a petition gathers signatures from 20% of the corresponding electorate. So to order the presidential recall vote in 2004 – for which the constituency was the entire nation – the opposition party required around 2.4 million signatures to push for the recall, which it successfully managed to attain.
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He may not like video games, but Chavez knows how to use cover.
Petition: Zappafrank
Date: 22 July 1994
Result: 3834 Zappafrank is a small main belt asteroid named after the legendary eccentric rocker, Frank Zappa. John Scialli, a forensic psychiatrist in Phoenix, Arizona headed a successful Internet campaign to name the asteroid, which apparently was one of the first worldwide online petitions. It involved Zappa fans in 22 countries and produced the most people supporting an asteroid's name, according to the International Astronomical Union. For the record, Scialli’s has a bizzare affinity with naming astrological and scientific discoveries after the legendary rocker.
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This man has an asteroid named after him. Among other things.
Petition: Save La Femme Nikita
Date: January 2001
Result: When the television series La Femme Nikita was cancelled in 2000, the dedicated fan based worked to revive the series. The campaign was noted in particular for its size and innovation, which included an ‘online renewal petition’ that eventually led to a full-page advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter. Over 25,000 letters were sent to the USA Network and Warner Bros which included several memorabilia pieces that showed people still remember the show. As a result of these efforts, a fifth season of eight episodes was announced to air in January 2001.
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La Femme Nikita must've been pretty popular.
Petition: Free Fiona
Date: 4 October 2005
Result: Free Fiona was an international campaign directed at Sony Music Entertainment. The aim was for them to release the third album from American singer-songwriter, Fiona Apple, named Extraordinary Machine. Dave Muscato established the website 'FreeFiona' for music fans all over the world to sign an online petition. Having attracted more than 36,000 signatures, the campaign received publicity from outlets such as The New York Times, People magazine, Rolling Stone, Spin magazine, MSNBC, ABC, MTV News, VH1, the Associated Press, Corriere della Sera, USA Today, Howard Stern, NPR, and many others. Extraordinary Machine was released on 4 October 2005, ending a successful campaign.
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Fiona Apple's album got release following a successful petition.
Petition: Anaheim Ducks mascot
Date: 26 January 2006
Result: The owners of what is probably the most famous ice hockey team in the world, announced at the start of the 2006–07 season, that the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim would change their name to the Anaheim Ducks. This included logo and team color changes. A change of mascot was also suggested, but many Ducks fans successfully petitioned the owners of the time to keep ‘Wildwing’ as the current mascot, because of the team's recent success and as link to the past.
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That movie was awesome!
Petition: La Toya Jackson
Date: 22 May 2006
Result: A successful petition was gathered by the fans of La Toya Jackson (sister of Michael Jackson) at ChurchofLaToya.com to persuade her label, Cherry Pop, to release her debut self titled album on CD for the first time in the UK. Originally released in the USA and mainland Europe in 1980, the belated UK release came on 22 May 2006.
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A lesser known Jackson has a substantial fanbase as well.
Petition: Stand-In
Date: NYE 2007
Result: Stand-In was the Hungarian version of the popular improvisation show, Whose Line Is It Anyway? It had four actors playing improvisational games. When its original channel was set to finish off the show, an online petition was started to save it. After that, it was successfully aired on the Hungarian national public service television but one year later it was passed to a paid channel, due to financial reasons.
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Where's Drew Carey?
Petition: Earth Crisis in Mesa
Date: 21 February 2008
Result: Earth Crisis, among a variety of things, are best described as a ‘vegan straight edge metalcore’ band. And they supported animal rights. In 2008, the band was set to tour Mesa in Arizona. However, when residents of the town found out that one of the band members had a ‘White Supremacy’ tattoo, residents successfully setup an online petition to reject their tour stop. The tour stop was then relocated to Tuscan. “There is no room for racism in this day and age and not in this community!” wrote one visitor who signed his name only as ‘Matt’.
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Earth Crisis aren't wanted in Mesa.
Petition: Billy Liddell
Date: November 2008
Result: William “Billy” Liddell was a famous Scottish footballer, who played out his entire career with Liverpool, and passed away in 2001. In 2007, the Billy Liddell Memorial Group was set up with the aim of having him honoured in his own country and home village. The group aimed at having Billy inducted into the SFA Hall of Fame, renaming the Townhill Sports Complex to the Billy Liddell Sport Complex and the erection of a lasting memorial to Liddell. An online petition to the Scottish Parliament to have Liddell inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame was successful in November 2008, when he was one of eight inductees for the year.
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A Liverpool legend.
Petition: Saving the NASA chief
Date: 1 January 2009
Result: While this may not be an example of a successful petition, it is certainly an odd one. Rachel Griffin, the wife of the chief NASA administrator of the time, Michael Griffin, setup an online petition to help save her husband’s job. The petition was going to be sent directly to President Barack Obama. Unfortunately, due to internal disputes and failure to reach certain goals, Mr Griffin resigned and was farewelled on the day of Obama’s inauguration.
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Not even a petition to the President was enough to save Micahel Griffin, but kudos to the thought.
Here are just a few of the more successful and innovative petitions that have come through the passage of time. We certainly hope that you will all be joining us with making the petition we have established for the inclusion of an R18 rating for video games a successful one, and help protect children from mature games. PALGN, Everybodyplays and GAME are in it for the long haul and we hope that you are too.
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