Censorship in games

nnnmmm

I've been getting into alot of arguments lately concerning video games going "too far" when it comes to violence, sex, and so on. Personally I despise censorship when it comes to any form of art including videogames. It's because of the censorship mentality that many games end up getting banned in places like Austrailia and it really frustrates me (and I don't even live there) I want to know what you guys think of censorship in games.

Asymmetric

Im gonna keep this short and sweet. We have ratings for a reason. I say developers should pull out all the stops when it comes to how they express their creativity. Whether that be massive amount of violence or massive amounts of sex, its paramount none of it is hidden from audiences should they desire such entertainment. It is the responsibility of the buyer or the buyer's parents/guardians to decide what is right for the player. Therefore, any specific complaint should not be thrown against developers or gaming in general. We are way too restrictive with game content these days. Why does everyone insist on bashing games for sexual content when there is a rather large and thriving porn industry right here in the US? Yeah, kinda hypocritical.

Asymmetric

Whether they fear it or not, its still a reality. Breaking the rules is a very stupid maneuver on anyone's part, as it is likely to derail your reputation and your business. The fact is video game oppression is present. Its just that its not really a cause worth losing so much for. All we can do is agree to disagree with those who are too ignorant to see the truth.

GhostHeLL

Censorship in games = Epic ....................... FAIL XD
anyways yeah it takes out the whole purpose of the high rates games and also spoils the story ... (that is if they simply take out those scenes) :P but yeah if they rate it then don't censor
If they want to censor then rate it PG-13 or E {this rating includes censorship, for full version it shall be NC-17 or R+) :)
SO yeah if they plan to censor then notch down the ratings so that people who are enthusiastic about the game won't by it :D But if they plan to keep the high rating then they should not Censor them .

For Legal buyers (the people who come to the shop or online to buy {credit Card})
They should make it when buying Alcohol (Age Verification System)
Yeah that could stop some spreading but they can't stop the Online back upped copies muhahaha
So end result the most effective procedure that they can think of is totally censoring the game but that could also effect their sales as many people will stop buying them
Oh well tough luck for them
A one-up for hackers and crackers who would take out anti-censoring patches :onion2:
Take that Censorship :onion01:

welovehina

nnnmmm;135974 wrote
I'm damn glad I don't live in Australia.

awww thats low...
hahaha

welovehina

you think aussies's bad? try china. i was talking to someone from china the other day, and they deny that there were several warlords fighting each other for control of china during world war 2. they even banned facebook and, even though they make the disc's for most of our video games, they wont allow their people to play them. PLUS, even though this is not really censorship, they tell you how many kids you can have XD

and on a more related note, i feel that there should be a censorship setting in games, something like in MW2 where you could choose to play a mission or not because of its "conflicting morals"

akibastyle

[FONT=Century Gothic]I had to spot this as I go along deleting posts:P
As far as my take on it: it is a damn shame as far as freedom of expression is concerned, but gaming companies do give a damn (as far as the financial costs) when it comes to their games' rating from T to M or changing it from M to A(I.E. - the shitfire that came along when people cracked GTA:III San Andreas - Hot Coffee says it all lmao:D) You also have to take in that censorship varies all over the world: the US worries more about sexual content in games more than violence whereas in Japan, they're more sensitive to graphic violence than the sex(I'm not too keen on what's taboo in Europe though...:P).
But it's just something that folks will agree to disagree on, since total freedom of expression will only bring more controversy (and loss of sales) for developers, as conservative folks will find it a reason to toot their own horn(remember all the crap that rained on COD: MW2 when the No Russian scene got leaked on the internet???).
The demographics say that kids are the leading consumers so until their parents get tired of buying Wii games or kids can convince their parents that Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude is really a fun game to play because of the storyline[/FONT][FONT=Century Gothic](Thank goodness they put out a A verson as well since I really loved that game lol:D)[/FONT][FONT=Century Gothic], there's no end in sight to censorship (or at least the scaling down of games - it's just a process I've come to accept from game developers [/FONT][FONT=Century Gothic]:worried:).[/FONT][FONT=Century Gothic]As long as it doesn't affect the gameplay I won't go into cardiac arrest... but I still feel ya on this bro:)
[/FONT]

akibastyle

[FONT=Century Gothic]That's right-wing extremists for ya bro: they don't have anything to report or bitch about so they gotta nitpick and go off on some tangent that's got nothing to do with the cause (what ever happening to being just CRAZY???)[/FONT]

nnnmmm

No offense of course but damn that really sucks

nnnmmm

LMAO:071-Kopya:

Maaan. That's rough. Censor the Internet??? WTF? That's the kind of crazy ass Diabolical plan you see in movies. V for Vendetta anyone? (Come to think of it that guy also looked like Hitler). I'm damn glad I don't live in Australia.

nnnmmm

Quirk;135465 wrote
I saw that you were pissed that some games are banned in Aussie, you should try living here, we are great at banning stuff. Women can't have small breasts because it's child-like and we can't have really violent games like Dark Sector because we don't have an R-rating, like in movies for 18+. So I say find those censor bastards and bash and/or kill them to prove we can be really violent with out really violent games. Onwards to victory or a different country.

Damn that's exactly what pisses me off about censorship. It's like who the hell are they to say a woman can't have small breast. And why censor violence in a country founded by criminals.

nnnmmm

Asymmetric;104201 wrote
Im gonna keep this short and sweet. We have ratings for a reason. I say developers should pull out all the stops when it comes to how they express their creativity. Whether that be massive amount of violence or massive amounts of sex, its paramount none of it is hidden from audiences should they desire such entertainment. It is the responsibility of the buyer or the buyer's parents/guardians to decide what is right for the player. Therefore, any specific complaint should not be thrown against developers or gaming in general. We are way too restrictive with game content these days. Why does everyone insist on bashing games for sexual content when there is a rather large and thriving porn industry right here in the US? Yeah, kinda hypocritical.

My point exactly. The ESRB does a damn good job deciding who a game is geared towards so to censor a game that's rated M is just mind boggling. Of course some games get censored just to avoid the dreaded M rating but that's just a cop out. I think developers should stick to their creative visions to the very end.
Take Xenosaga 3 for example. The sensoring in that game is so bad some scenes are completely incoherent.

nnnmmm

Hopefully in the future People will wake up and let artists fulfill their visions unchecked

nnnmmm

Yeah I try not to judge developers for trying to get sales (Some stores refuse to even carry AO games) My true hatred is focused a entities like FOX news (remember the Mass Effect incident?) and poeple like Jack Thompson who tried to blame the Virginia Tech insident on Videogames (along with every other problem in the world it seems) and that's what I'm really against.

nnnmmm

Wait a second. How the hell do you censor a game that's rated AO. That seriously defeats the purpose of giving it an AO rating if you're going to make the content E rated. Sounds to me like Germany just didn't want that game to sell.

Edit after Epiphany

Aha!! Of course Germany doesn't want that game to sell. I forgot BloodRayne fights Nazis and Germany tries to pretend the whole Nazi thing never happened.
Oooh Conspiracy. I see what they did there.

nnnmmm

Lmao :071-Kopya:
Dude I totally got your point the first time I was just messing around.

All jokes aside I know that countries like Germany and China censor the hell out of games and then still give them a M or AO rating because of the "implied" violence and that really sucks because censoring alters and sometimes just plain ruins the artist's vision. Especially when you consider severing limbs was one of the marketing points for Bloodrayne in the U.S. And as for the Robot thing, WTF????

lightvale

Artist should not fear the censorXD

Hentai_Mark_San

Lmao :071-Kopya:
Dude I totally got your point the first time I was just messing around.

Hehe sooner or later I'll get my revenge bro!
:22:

Though it is correct in Germany Nazi symbols and stuff like that are removed from as example FPS games like Call of Duty World at War. While an English version of CoD WoW has swastikas in it.

Hentai_Mark_San

Censorship in games? okay check this out...
I live in Germany and of course here are ratings too, which show for what audience the game is suited so far so good...
BUT
as example let's take "BloodRayne 2" it's like the name suggest a bloody game about a female half vampire character goin' berserk and cutting everything to pieces... this game is rated for adults only that's okay so what you might say.

Now it comes LOL
The game is still censored eventhough it's aimed for adults only, no blood not more violence like you play ball in Kindergarten this is the way to really ripoff the honest customer. You expected a bloody battle game and you were totally sacked and bagged.

You might think can't be maybe a flaw a one timer so to say... belive me it is not.... the example above is the regular way "things" are handled over here. Even if rated for adults only you still need to doublecheck if the censorship dudes have removed some of the "features" in the game...

Nice huh?

Hentai_Mark_San

nnnmmm;163973 wrote
Edit after Epiphany

Aha!! Of course Germany doesn't want that game to sell. I forgot BloodRayne fights Nazis and Germany tries to pretend the whole Nazi thing never happened.
Oooh Conspiracy. I see what they did there.

No buddy that's not precisely the point. Everything related to the Nazi history like symbols are out of the game by the developers as far as I know in BloodRayne2. The point is, I played the English version and there was plenty of blood and you could cut off limbs and all that but in the German version all this isn't possible... see what I mean?

So I can bring up another game to clear out the rating in Germany is totaly screwed. Command and Conquer for instance no Nazis or symbols they should take out in this game, right ;) but they managed to "replace" the soldiers and pretend they are "robots" so if a vehicle flattends a soldier (I'm talking about the first C+C game played at PSone years ago) no blood but an iron sound... silly.

One more... to display this "rating fooling adult customers" is going on for many years now, "Turok" a game for the now dead N64 console sort of ego shooter you fight against animals as example and you see blood effects... it's incredible what they did there.. they REPLACED every human/animal like opponent with a robot and also there are black oil like effects that are shown instead of the red "blood".

So? What you think of that... guess you are most happy not to live in Germany right? LOL