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[FranXico]

The petition against censorship received only 2900 votes. The controversial games never sells well either.
I'm sorry people, but you are the vocal minority. This war is already lost and you are tilting at windmills.

I was watching the screenshots that our fellows provided and honestly, I don't think that it is that bad. It is more like a micro-censorship, than a real one.
My advice is to try to accept the "censored" versions of these and stop acting like the "experience" is totally ruined.

Fanatics are taking over SIE.
Do you really think they would just stop there?
What does History teach you?

 

[Senhua]

The petition against censorship received only 2900 votes. The controversial games never sells well either.
I'm sorry people, but you are the vocal minority. This war is already lost and you are tilting at windmills.

I was watching the screenshots that our fellows provided and honestly, I don't think that it is that bad. It is more like a micro-censorship, than a real one.
My advice is to try to accept the "censored" versions of these and stop acting like the "experience" is totally ruined.

Someplace in the earth planet far far away in the future there are poem:

First they came for the anime games, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a weeb.

Then they came for the sexy women design in games, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a pervert .

Then they came for violence in games—and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

Posted on the other thread, but I like how Gematsu's article does a good job recapping everything that has happened so far. I wonder if we should do some censorship archive to keep tabs on everything.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Posted on the other thread, but I like how Gematsu's article does a good job recapping everything that has happened so far. I wonder if we should do some censorship archive to keep tabs on everything.

That's very enlightening. Gematsu found even more examples:

• Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai: Library Party: Complete but banned PS4 version. Switch version out (2018), and before it a PS Vita version (2015)
• Sakura Sakura: Black censor bars in the PS4 and PS Vita versions.

Anticipated potential casualties:

• Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: Steam Dungeon - PS4 (exclusive) – November 15
• Hana Saki Work Spring! - PS4 – November 22
• Hatsujou Sprinkle - PS4 and PS Vita – November 22
• Haruoto Alice Gram: Snow Drop - PS4 and PS Vita – January 24, 2019
• Sengoku Hime 7: Senun Tsuranuku Guren no Ishi - PS4 – January 24, 2019
• Suki to Suki to de Sankaku Ren’ai - PS4 and PS Vita – January 24, 2019
• Catherine Full Body - PS4 and PS Vita (ported from PS3, exclusive) - February 14, 2019
• Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart 2 for PS4 and PS Vita (also coming to Switch) – February 28, 2019
• Song of Unleash for PS4 (not a port, also coming to PC) – Early 2019
• Saku Saku: Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossoms for PS4– 2019
• Shinsou Noise: Jushin Tantei no Jikenbo for PS4 – 2019
• Karigurashi Renai for PS4 and PS Vita – TBA
• Nekopara Vol. 2 for PS4 (also coming to Switch) – TBA

Not to mention surprises like Square commenting on changing world trends even for Japanese releases, that will deliver. This is getting really interesting.

Spoiler: Trigger Warning: Lewd non-covered faces and shoulders

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Just as expected, it's already starting to hit more popular games.

• Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Latest game is out since June 26, 2018 on Switch, but "inexplicably" delayed to ... 2019 on PS4.
• Otomate series by Idea Factory (otomes, dating-sims targeting heterosexual women) are now Switch exclusive all of a sudden for all subsequent releases since around beginning of 2018 (when one of the first known cases, Happy Owner VR, suffered a sudden massive delay to cut content). That's at least 5 new games, and 4 ports of previous games.

Catherine getting hit wouldn't be surprising. Waypoint and Polygon were already drumming outrage over it for a while and now there is someone who will do "something about it".

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: Steam Dungeon - PS4 (exclusive) – November 15

Already one game confirmed affected. This tweet has some pre-release screenshots.
Mist clouds covering the screen for any visible pixel of skin in the bust chest area.

Spoiler

 

[Enygger_Tzu]

Damn, I did not knew some of those changes here.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

The Change.org petition is close to hitting 5000 signatures which is honestly more than I expected. It probably had to do with the attention NicheGamer and Gematsu brought to it. The amount of comments in Gematsu's article, especially, is rather impressive at 776 comments.

 

[petran79]

This is more of a trend that PS4 became a Western based console, just like Xbox. All focus is on the few Western exclusive AAA games and the sports and fps games.Original Playstation brand was never established on those franchises.
It is ironic if you consider it:

With Playstation 1, many NES and SNES players jumped ship in the 90s due to Japanese and Western companies moving to Sony, plus less content restrictions. 20 years later many Playstation players interested in Japanese games are returning to Nintendo

 

[Helios]

Spoiler: Trigger Warning: Lewd non-covered faces and shoulders

Thanks for using the spoiler. My virgin eyes are safe once again.

 

[michaelius]

The Change.org petition is close to hitting 5000 signatures which is honestly more than I expected. It probably had to do with the attention NicheGamer and Gematsu brought to it. The amount of comments in Gematsu's article, especially, is rather impressive at 776 comments.

Still it's way too low to matter. We would need support of big mainstream media sites and those are mostly on the side of supporting censorship since it fits their goals.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

Still it's way too low to matter. We would need support of big mainstream media sites and those are mostly on the side of supporting censorship since it fits their goals.

Yeah, the only sites that have brought attention to this were Gematsu, NicheGamer, and Oneangrygamer. All of those sites have niche audiences and aren't mainstream, so their outreach is limited unfortunately.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

With Playstation 1, many NES and SNES players jumped ship in the 90s due to Japanese and Western companies moving to Sony, plus less content restrictions. 20 years later many Playstation players interested in Japanese games are returning to Nintendo

You gotta hand it to Nintendo, even at the height of their censorship policy on NES and Super NES, they still had a clearly defined list of what and what not to do, and while at first they forced Western developers to go to Japan to become third parties, they got much better about that in the SNES era and offered them a review service in their native language.

Sony on the other hand even before this recent and massive surge in third party censorship, has done it before sparsely without clearly messaging that. It also seems their policies are designed to maximize monetary loss to developers who go through their approval system.
Did you hear about New Goemon on the PS2, a launch title (2000) that had its finished localized release delayed to add the upgraded 3D models SCEA asked for, then further delayed until 2005 and Working Designs going bankrupt as a direct result? Or Chulip, a game from 2003 Natsume intended to release in 2004 in the West and it ended up getting delayed to late 2007 after the PS3 launch over similar approval shenanigans? Or in 2008, the cancelled finished Ikki Tousen localization on PS2 that had been already rated by the ERSB as an M rated game? Or forcing Working Designs to release three games in the Arc the Lad series as one game at a massive loss? Like, what does the last example has to do with game content or quality? It's as if it's designed to harm publishers in the biggest way possible.

Yeah, the only sites that have brought attention to this were Gematsu, NicheGamer, and Oneangrygamer. All of those sites have niche audiences and aren't mainstream, so their outreach is limited unfortunately.

When the alternative is:

• Kotaku, whose journalists implied Vanillaware's Dragon Crown is child porn
• Polygon, who confronted Valve directly about why Super Seducer isn't banned yet from the last place it's sold on to sustain a developer whose survival hinges on that one game, and then ran multiple articles why Valve should go back to a policy of banning all games and "curating" manually
• Eurogamer, who's angry at the existence of the latest Leisure Suit Larry, and the continued existence of the Deponia series while it lasted
• Giant Bomb, who pledged to import all localized fanservice games even if they're made unavailable overseas to give them bad reviews, until the localizations stop
• Rock Paper Shootgun, who tried their best previously to blacklist or inflate the negatives as much as possible for games like Kingdom Come Deliverance

Why would they cover this? It's the new normal for them. It's how the videogame market should work like, according to them. They have defended every single case of game censorship, and even went as far as to attack previous localizations of the same game that were somehow less censored and less liberally translated than the latest "modern" localization (Dragon Quest VII and puff puff jokes, religious themes, etc) and attack the modding scene whenever there's a retranslation that tries to restore the cut content (just take a look at the shit Kotaku wrote about the poor fan translator for Final Fantasy Type-0 right as he was having a life low dealing with Square's lawyers, or their defamation of various Fire Emblem retranslators repeatedly)

 

[sol_bad]

The post above me really makes me sad. Is that really where video game media is at now? Do IGN and Gamespot run stupid articles like that too?

 

[CatCouch]

The post above me really makes me sad. Is that really where video game media is at now? Do IGN and Gamespot run stupid articles like that too?

I think IGN and Gamespot both called Call of Duty Black Ops 4 out for offensive stereotyping of an Asian character. I care little about COD but enough people complained about the reviews that I know about them. I left IGN after they complained games like Battlechasers had offensive female character designs and I left Gamespot after a preview of Far Cry 5 where they acted surprised there were conservatives that weren't the bad guys you shoot.

IGN recently knocked Dragon Quest XI for the sexy outfits and called a joke "non-consensual" or something that cause their video review to be downvoted into oblivion.

They are not bad like Kotaku or Polygon but the need to generate controversy is still there and they often take shots at the type of games being affected by Sony's policies now. I don't expect them to stand up against censorship but I don't think they will go out of their way to applaud it, either.

 

[sol_bad]

Just watched that Dragon Quest 11 review, it seems really weird and odd that bunny outfits and a single joke are even mentioned. Then at the end of the review he called them "icky bits".
Dear lordy.

 

[hecatomb]

IGN reviews make no sense, they give every GTA game a 9 out of 10. Yet theres a ton of sex, in those games. Yet can't stand a bunny suit. Or give god of war games 9 out of 10s, even though theres a sex mini game, and girls walking around topless.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I think the general reason why some T&A is accepted and some isn't is because of the context the game, the intended audience and what the sexual innuendo involves.

Violent games, God of War sex games, GTA no rules barred cop killing and cussing etc.... are all games that are intended for older audiences. And all the visuals involving this kind of stuff involves adults. I don't think too many western games (I don't remember any off the top of my head) that involves sex and teasing with teenage girls and kid like characters.

Let's face it, anime style is a very young look. Most characters have bios that are young too. So put two and two together and there aren't too many western companies who want to get involved with games involving kid like characters sticking their asses out showing panties in hopes the gamer basically molests them.

Now if anime style looked more like older characters in a more realistic look like humans in a D&D game where each guy is a hulk and each sorceress has major cleavage that is more accepted because it's adult characters. Now if that sorceress was flashing T&A and is a 12 year old, different story.

 

[hecatomb]

I think the general reason why some T&A is accepted and some isn't is because of the context the game, the intended audience and what the sexual innuendo involves.

Violent games, God of War sex games, GTA no rules barred cop killing and cussing etc.... are all games that are intended for older audiences. And all the visuals involving this kind of stuff involves adults. I don't think too many western games (I don't remember any off the top of my head) that involves sex and teasing with teenage girls and kid like characters.

Let's face it, anime style is a very young look. Most characters have bios that are young too. So put two and two together and there aren't too many western companies who want to get involved with games involving kid like characters sticking their asses out showing panties in hopes the gamer basically molests them.

Now if anime style looked more like older characters in a more realistic look like humans in a D&D game where each guy is a hulk and each sorceress has major cleavage that is more accepted because it's adult characters. Now if that sorceress was flashing T&A and is a 12 year old, different story.

or it could because ign doesn't know anything about dragon quest, and them always bringing up old turn based combat, which is in every Pokemon game since red and blue

 

[Barakov]

You gotta hand it to Nintendo, even at the height of their censorship policy on NES and Super NES, they still had a clearly defined list of what and what not to do, and while at first they forced Western developers to go to Japan to become third parties, they got much better about that in the SNES era and offered them a review service in their native language.

Sony on the other hand even before this recent and massive surge in third party censorship, has done it before sparsely without clearly messaging that. It also seems their policies are designed to maximize monetary loss to developers who go through their approval system.
Did you hear about New Goemon on the PS2, a launch title (2000) that had its finished localized release delayed to add the upgraded 3D models SCEA asked for, then further delayed until 2005 and Working Designs going bankrupt as a direct result? Or Chulip, a game from 2003 Natsume intended to release in 2004 in the West and it ended up getting delayed to late 2007 after the PS3 launch over similar approval shenanigans? Or in 2008, the cancelled finished Ikki Tousen localization on PS2 that had been already rated by the ERSB as an M rated game? Or forcing Working Designs to release three games in the Arc the Lad series as one game at a massive loss? Like, what does the last example has to do with game content or quality? It's as if it's designed to harm publishers in the biggest way possible.


When the alternative is:

• Kotaku, whose journalists implied Vanillaware's Dragon Crown is child porn
• Polygon, who confronted Valve directly about why Super Seducer isn't banned yet from the last place it's sold on to sustain a developer whose survival hinges on that one game, and then ran multiple articles why Valve should go back to a policy of banning all games and "curating" manually
• Eurogamer, who's angry at the existence of the latest Leisure Suit Larry, and the continued existence of the Deponia series while it lasted
• Giant Bomb, who pledged to import all localized fanservice games even if they're made unavailable overseas to give them bad reviews, until the localizations stop
• Rock Paper Shootgun, who tried their best previously to blacklist or inflate the negatives as much as possible for games like Kingdom Come Deliverance

Why would they cover this? It's the new normal for them. It's how the videogame market should work like, according to them. They have defended every single case of game censorship, and even went as far as to attack previous localizations of the same game that were somehow less censored and less liberally translated than the latest "modern" localization (Dragon Quest VII and puff puff jokes, religious themes, etc) and attack the modding scene whenever there's a retranslation that tries to restore the cut content (just take a look at the shit Kotaku wrote about the poor fan translator for Final Fantasy Type-0 right as he was having a life low dealing with Square's lawyers, or their defamation of various Fire Emblem retranslators repeatedly)

Thanks for reminding of this. Sony(mainly SCEA) has always been kinda crappy about certain games coming out of Japan. Still reminds how hard of a time Konami had with bringing SOTN over here. Still surprised Castlevania Requiem even exists.

Like SCEA, there were some game journalists have always had a certain attitude towards Japanese games. Still remember that Asshat at Kotaku who lived in Japan and would write articles ridiculing games and other things from Japan.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

I think the general reason why some T&A is accepted and some isn't is because of the context the game, the intended audience and what the sexual innuendo involves.

Violent games, God of War sex games, GTA no rules barred cop killing and cussing etc.... are all games that are intended for older audiences. And all the visuals involving this kind of stuff involves adults. I don't think too many western games (I don't remember any off the top of my head) that involves sex and teasing with teenage girls and kid like characters.

Let's face it, anime style is a very young look. Most characters have bios that are young too. So put two and two together and there aren't too many western companies who want to get involved with games involving kid like characters sticking their asses out showing panties in hopes the gamer basically molests them.

Now if anime style looked more like older characters in a more realistic look like humans in a D&D game where each guy is a hulk and each sorceress has major cleavage that is more accepted because it's adult characters. Now if that sorceress was flashing T&A and is a 12 year old, different story.

1- Dragon's Crown has very obviously adult characters and that hasn't stopped Jason Schreier (Kotaku) from calling it child porn, and calling the creator all sorts of names. That game isn't a visual novel, the art style isn't even stereotypical "anime" (plump faces remind me more of European art) and the focus isn't on the fanservice, and that still didn't save it.
2- There's a homoerotic cartoony anime-esque style Western-made visual novel releasing on PS4 very soon that's being promoted by Sony themselves no less. On the other hand, this policy is affecting mostly games targeting heterosexual males, and even heterosexual females since Koei and others were forced to move their otome visual novels to the Switch instead. Sony has previously changed Aloy's design in Horizon Zero Dawn to be less appealing to males, so it definitely fits a general trend of their preferences, it's just that they are starting to give games not following those preferences a hard time and trying to waste as much developer time and money (some even have their existence put into jeopardy because of these sudden rejections) instead of a simple rejection over obvious terms so that they move on to other consoles.

Still surprised Castlevania Requiem even exists.

That one exists because the original somehow got past SCEA's approval in 1998, became a cult classic, and is now a cheap opportunity to make a quick buck off a PSP emulator they wrote for PS4, and at the same time, an exclusive.
Now things like Devil Summoner PSP, Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts, Mega Man Legends, Tales of Eternia and similar more obscure stuff? They get blocked because "the new release doesn't have enough additional content to justify its existence", not even when the new content is an exclusive localization or a PORT of an out of print game.

 

[Mr Nash]

When the alternative is:

• Kotaku, whose journalists implied Vanillaware's Dragon Crown is child porn
• Polygon, who confronted Valve directly about why Super Seducer isn't banned yet from the last place it's sold on to sustain a developer whose survival hinges on that one game, and then ran multiple articles why Valve should go back to a policy of banning all games and "curating" manually
• Eurogamer, who's angry at the existence of the latest Leisure Suit Larry, and the continued existence of the Deponia series while it lasted
• Giant Bomb, who pledged to import all localized fanservice games even if they're made unavailable overseas to give them bad reviews, until the localizations stop
• Rock Paper Shootgun, who tried their best previously to blacklist or inflate the negatives as much as possible for games like Kingdom Come Deliverance

Wait, what do they have against Deponia? =O

 

[KonradLaw]

Mainstream gaming seems to be scared shitless of sex these days. Look up ESRB ratings for this year compared to the rest. THere's noticable drop in number of games with nudity. Look how little nudity and sex there is in RDR2 compared to previous Rockstar Games. Same with God of War/ The DOA6 backing out of fanservice, the Sony censorships etc
It's funny that at the same time Steam has started to sell full on porno games. So hopefully Japanese devs forced to censor console releases will release uncensored versions on PC.

 

[Bradamante3D]

In my opinion the list at the start of the thread is missing an important item: Apple. They are kinda important however since they have very strong policies against certain types of content (that reach back to the days of Steve Jobs and his Disney-inspired views on content) and since they established the role model for an app store with the iPhone they have a major influence on the industry. Role model here specifically refering to their relatively strong curation of apps and their lack of transparency when it comes to content criteria that even changes over time and keeps developers guessing. Furthermore we had multiple examples of existing rules not being applied consistenly with for example political presidential campaign related apps being rejected, yet similiar apps being allowed etc.

 

[petran79]

Wait, what do they have against Deponia? =O

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/03/deponia-doomsday-review/

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

I think the general reason why some T&A is accepted and some isn't is because of the context the game, the intended audience and what the sexual innuendo involves.

Violent games, God of War sex games, GTA no rules barred cop killing and cussing etc.... are all games that are intended for older audiences. And all the visuals involving this kind of stuff involves adults. I don't think too many western games (I don't remember any off the top of my head) that involves sex and teasing with teenage girls and kid like characters.

Let's face it, anime style is a very young look. Most characters have bios that are young too. So put two and two together and there aren't too many western companies who want to get involved with games involving kid like characters sticking their asses out showing panties in hopes the gamer basically molests them.

Now if anime style looked more like older characters in a more realistic look like humans in a D&D game where each guy is a hulk and each sorceress has major cleavage that is more accepted because it's adult characters. Now if that sorceress was flashing T&A and is a 12 year old, different story.

Very good points, but I still think it’s a double standard. People were freaking out over Dragons Crown’s females who are clearly adult looking women and Dragonquest 11 was ridiculed heavily for cute, OPTIONAL bunny costumes which to my knowledge have to be earned. Is it true that an editor or journalist even said if you like the sorceress in Dragon’s Crown, you are a pedophile or something like that? I mean, really? That’s being judgemental and absolutely preposterous if factual.

You can still see sex and nudity in so many Western games, yet they are saying bunny costumes are sick and perverted? I know the nudity is not as apparent or in your face, but it’s still there. Lara Croft, Jill Valentine and Bayonetta for example were heavily criticized because they deemed their body proportions as unrealistic, too sexual, etc.

Like you said, they are marketed entirely different and again, adults vs young looking characters. I honestly think they are also more lenient on Western games because they make a lot more money compared to these smaller indie studios. I’m just concerned that this will cause a negative impact on Sony and Japanese companies in the future and Japanese games are very important to me.

 

[BANGS]

I'm obviously against censorship, but I also really don't have any emotional investment in the stuff they are censoring. I'll give a damn when they censor something that isn't pure trash...

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

In my opinion the list at the start of the thread is missing an important item: Apple. They are kinda important however since they have very strong policies against certain types of content (that reach back to the days of Steve Jobs and his Disney-inspired views on content) and since they established the role model for an app store with the iPhone they have a major influence on the industry.

Excellent point.

There was an artsy game about the Palestinian conflict on the more subtle side than hamfisted explicit preachy activism, that was delisted in 2014 because it had real-life political themes and advocacy at all, which is explicitly against their terms and services. Another affected thing is advocacy for competing platforms and storefronts. That said, they are otherwise lax with content that would be "controversial" overseas and mindful of regional differences and local regulations (the sexual content in Japanese games, or some games by members of the bush administration that a lot of the media tried to get taken down). If you refer to the Crunchyroll incident when they cut interaction options in some visual novel they localized, my hunch for that one is on Crunchyroll is the party upset with the content.

Of course, side-loading still exists and reduces greatly how much power Apple and Google have (though less in the case of Apple since it's a more closed platform) , and surprise surprise, game journalists threw a massive fit about Fortnite and how it is teaching "normies" how to sideload apps, which could be dangerous and leads them to get less "vetted" apps from the internet.

In my opinion, mobile gaming was open ever since its inception as Java mobile apps on old cell phones, and that never really changed. Apple needing jailbreaking to sideload games is no different than Nokia or Ericson locking third party apps.

Smartphone app stores however do have the worrying precedent of not only delisting controversial apps on their store, but going a step further rarely taken by most, to force its deletion from the device of anyone who already bought it before that, whenever that device is connected to the internet. Albeit they only did so so far for seedy apps like Infowars, the option is at their disposition, already implemented on an OS level, and can be a real concern should their policies and approval team change plan like Sony just did.

 

[greenpower22]

Siliconera also made and article about this and mentioned the censorship policies from Sony.
http://www.siliconera.com/2018/10/2...alk-about-frustrations-with-sonys-new-policy/

Yeah, the only sites that have brought attention to this were Gematsu, NicheGamer, and Oneangrygamer. All of those sites have niche audiences and aren't mainstream, so their outreach is limited unfortunately.

 

[autoduelist]

Thanks for using the spoiler. My virgin eyes are safe once again.

My favorite thing about censors is their belief that they are strong willed enough to view potentially offensive material and judge whether I am strong-strong willed enough to view it without being corrupted.

 

[Cactuarman]

When the alternative is:

• Kotaku, whose journalists implied Vanillaware's Dragon Crown is child porn
• Polygon, who confronted Valve directly about why Super Seducer isn't banned yet from the last place it's sold on to sustain a developer whose survival hinges on that one game, and then ran multiple articles why Valve should go back to a policy of banning all games and "curating" manually
• Eurogamer, who's angry at the existence of the latest Leisure Suit Larry, and the continued existence of the Deponia series while it lasted
• Giant Bomb, who pledged to import all localized fanservice games even if they're made unavailable overseas to give them bad reviews, until the localizations stop
• Rock Paper Shootgun, who tried their best previously to blacklist or inflate the negatives as much as possible for games like Kingdom Come Deliverance

A few sources would be nice as I'm not totally caught up on a lot of these specific instances but am curious to read. The only one I can really speak to is Dragon's Crown (I own the Vita, PS3, and PS4 versions, I'll just say up front). I definitely don't agree with Jason Schreier in this article but ultimately he can write what he wants. I know he called the design teenage, was there another instance with the child porn implication?

And ultimately Kotaku reviewed the game well (written by Mike Fahey). The only major mention of this design in the review itself is:

Vanillaware's tribute to classic side-scrolling action role-playing games has garnered a lot of attention over the past few years for its exaggerated, overly-sexualized character designs. An hour into playing the actual game, I stopped noticing.​

​

Those designs don't go away, of course. There isn't a piece of equipment in the game capable of covering up the comically massive thighs of my beloved Amazon warrior. The Dwarf never covers his rippling pecs, and the Sorceress' questionable wardrobe choices are maintained throughout the course of this epic adventure.​

​

It's the context that changes the perspective. Presented in a short trailer or a series of screenshots, these fantastic characters certainly draw the eye and invite criticism. Once I spent some time in designer George Kamitani's highly-stylized fantasy world, these otherwise freakish figures fell into place. They became the subjects in a fabulous interactive tableau, where every screenshot is a work of art (minus the user interface and damage numbers, of course).​

​

And then at the very end:

I see a beautiful game that's definitely worth exploring further. And yes, I see the exaggerated characters, but I don't mind them so much. If you do, best move along. ​

Seems fair to me honestly. I guess I'd be more offended if this seemed to hurt the ultimately review score. Which brings me to:

I think IGN and Gamespot both called Call of Duty Black Ops 4 out for offensive stereotyping of an Asian character. I care little about COD but enough people complained about the reviews that I know about them. I left IGN after they complained games like Battlechasers had offensive female character designs and I left Gamespot after a preview of Far Cry 5 where they acted surprised there were conservatives that weren't the bad guys you shoot.

The Black Ops 4 one was frustrating to me because they still reviewed Zombies really well, so why even bring up one character's "stereotype"? And that had to pass at least a couple of checkpoints before it was posted. Either don't bring it up or save it for some kind of editorial/opinion piece. In my opinion anyway.

I didn't hear any design criticisms in IGN's Battle Chasers review so I assume that was a preview or something? Just curious. I slept on this game when it came out but I think I'm going to pick this up on Switch.

Mainstream gaming seems to be scared shitless of sex these days. Look up ESRB ratings for this year compared to the rest. THere's noticable drop in number of games with nudity. Look how little nudity and sex there is in RDR2 compared to previous Rockstar Games. Same with God of War/ The DOA6 backing out of fanservice, the Sony censorships etc
It's funny that at the same time Steam has started to sell full on porno games. So hopefully Japanese devs forced to censor console releases will release uncensored versions on PC.

Source on this? I can't seem to find this anywhere. ESRB has a search but it doesn't seem to give you overall totals (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/). I believe you, I'm just curious now that you mention it.

I mean ultimately Ivy still has giant breasts, you can still see 2B's underwear, jiggle physics are alive and well in DO6 (and frankly we don't know what kind of fan-service that game will have yet just because the trailers so far don't feature any bikinis). Obviously God of War eschewing their sex minigame in favor of a new mature, father/son story has paid off fairly well. And even if it didn't, a creator wanting to take it in that direction doesn't even remotely mean they're "scared shitless of sex".

I think the general reason why some T&A is accepted and some isn't is because of the context the game

This is a great comment. Context of the game is always something that I think a lot of these comments don't take into account. For instance, I would never tell a creator/designer what they could or couldn't do, but context is the reason why Cia felt out of place to me in Hyrule Warriors. I own and play plenty of games featuring women with large breasts, but large breasts felt out of place in a Zelda game (faeries are different and, again, contextually make sense).

 

[LegendOfKage]

I suppose there's the idea that Japanese developers may be furious over this, and the opportunity for Microsoft or Nintendo to step in provide uncensored games that Sony refuses to. Those will be the only things that prevent this from continuing to be a thing. On their own, I think the games Sony is censoring are far too niche to make much of an impact. I don't play any of these games, but I'm still not a fan of Sony telling grown adults what they should or should not be able to see on their console.

Censored gaming has covered the situation recently. Video with potentially NSFW thumbnail in spoiler below:

Spoiler

 

[Dunki]

It seems that this is getting more steam in Asia JApan and China in which games also get censored by the request of Sony.. Even whole gameplay mechanics getting removed.

Going by what I see of Japanese and Chinese reaction people are getting really really pissed by it.

 

[DryvBy]

I will agree with one thing: visual novels are not games.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Those will be the only things that prevent this from continuing to be a thing. On their own, I think the games Sony is censoring are far too niche to make much of an impact.

That would not be the first time Sony pissed off smaller third parties who would go on to become not so small and insignificant.

Game Freaks, for example. They were a very small company made out of former game fanzine writers, who had a somewhat good relationship with Sony. They were tasked to write Jelly Boy, a launch title meant to showcase the audio abilities of Sony's sound chip embedded into Nintendo's console and help sell software development kits by Sony for it. That audio tech demo game turned out to be very important and helped Sony get just what they wanted, so successfully they were in fact having console ambitions after that.
For their troubles, Game Freaks was thanked by Sony with a cancellation two weeks before release of the sequel game in 1994. The developer would then rarely support Sony systems anymore sans Tembo and an obscure puzzle game in 1999 that looked more like a low effort backup plan project to assert independance from Nintendo than legitimate support.

Game Freaks was working on a RPG project ever since 1990 and looking for publishers. That became Pokemon.

Sony also launched a support program for smaller Japanese developers on the PS1 when they needed to secure their monopoly, and would help them with funding, relaxed certification conditions, software development packs like Net Yaroze and Linux on PS2, and sometimes even publishing. Around the end of the millenium however, they cancelled all of this and left most of them to hang dry in the middle of existing projects. One of those developers was IntieCreates.

Even with bigger third parties like Capcom's Resident Evil team, they pissed off Shinji Mikami so much (tried to sabotage the release of Resident Evil over prerendered 2D graphics at certification) that they had to bankroll most of the series' Sony support until 4, at which point he left Capcom. He even went as far as seek an Xbox release.

I definitely don't agree with Jason Schreier in this article but ultimately he can write what he wants. I know he called the design teenage, was there another instance with the child porn implication?

The initial article is name-calling, which is bottom-of-the-barrel discourse. He called the artist a horny, "sex-obsessed" 14-year-old. That's unhinged.
Besides, there were follow-ups to this article. A comment by the artist in response to the accusation the fanservice is sexist (following normal people definition as "discrimination against one gender", and not one that has conditions that make the definition itself sexist) where muscular male gnomes that were definitely much more "objectified" than the witch, was then met by him accusing the artist of homophobia. The child porn accusation was made by him on neogaf as a VIP poster back then.
That was a character assassination campaign to get the artist fired and the back then still unreleased game potentially not releasing anymore, at least in its current form. It's a Gawker-style yellow journalism dirty job. It's no coincidence he has tried in later years to downplay this as much as possible as he carries on doing much of the same thing while trying to do a better job of keeping appearances.

 

[kunonabi]

I will agree with one thing: visual novels are not games.

Eh, if all those walking simulators count as games than anything goes.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Two more:

• Mary Skelter 2: Removed purification sequence at the request of Sony over tittilation, according to Chinese localization team (third party, not Sony) rather than local rating boards. Yes, Chinese rating boards are more lax than Sony right now.
• Death Mark: A localization of a PS Vita 2017 visual novel. This time the cut content is on the grounds of horror and extends to the NA and Europe version because Aksys says they couldn't make two builds, yet they claim it was suggested by ERSB as a "red flag" for the targeted rating. The scene is now text-only. Very interesting timing indeed.

 

[kunonabi]

Two more:

• Mary Skelter 2: Removed purification sequence at the request of Sony over tittilation, according to Chinese localization team (third party, not Sony) rather than local rating boards. Yes, Chinese rating boards are more lax than Sony right now.
• Death Mark: A localization of a PS Vita 2017 visual novel. This time the cut content is on the grounds of horror and extends to the NA and Europe version because Aksys says they couldn't make two builds, yet they claim it was suggested by ERSB as a "red flag" for the targeted rating. The scene is now text-only. Very interesting timing indeed.

is Death Mark censored on the Switch too?

 

[CatCouch]

Cactuarman It seems IGN's video review just cuts the paragraph about the designs. Here's the written review:

https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/03/battle-chasers-nightwar-review

"From the troubled, metallic golem Calibretto to the eager and upbeat brawler Gully, nearly everyone with a speaking part is overflowing with personality and ably voiced - though some, like Red Monika and the witch Destra have distractingly eye-roll worthy wardrobes that look like they came from a 16-year-old boy’s anime fan art page. "

I was told to check IGN out when I asked for sites that didn't insult games or call them sexist. It bothered me because this was literally the first review I clicked after bookmarking the site. I immediately threw out that bookmark, lol~

They went right for the "immature teenager" and "anime art is immature" arguments. That's two strikes in one sentence for me!

 

[KonradLaw]

Source on this? I can't seem to find this anywhere. ESRB has a search but it doesn't seem to give you overall totals (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/). I believe you, I'm just curious now that you mention it.

I.

Yeah. ESRB search sucks. You have to browse manually. By going through recent releases (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/search.aspx?from=latestratings) and including sexuality and then looking for Strong Sexual Content on your own through browser search
Last time I looked it up only three games this year had Strong Sexual Content - Kingdom Come, Agony and one more I can't remember.

 

[Senhua]

Two more:

• Mary Skelter 2: Removed purification sequence at the request of Sony over tittilation, according to Chinese localization team (third party, not Sony) rather than local rating boards. Yes, Chinese rating boards are more lax than Sony right now.
• Death Mark: A localization of a PS Vita 2017 visual novel. This time the cut content is on the grounds of horror and extends to the NA and Europe version because Aksys says they couldn't make two builds, yet they claim it was suggested by ERSB as a "red flag" for the targeted rating. The scene is now text-only. Very interesting timing indeed.

Okay then, so now unless they stated otherwise like xseed I will assume all multiplatform build had been compromised for ensuring parity. Lol pathetic.

 

[Enygger_Tzu]

Two more:

• Mary Skelter 2: Removed purification sequence at the request of Sony over tittilation, according to Chinese localization team (third party, not Sony) rather than local rating boards. Yes, Chinese rating boards are more lax than Sony right now.
• Death Mark: A localization of a PS Vita 2017 visual novel. This time the cut content is on the grounds of horror and extends to the NA and Europe version because Aksys says they couldn't make two builds, yet they claim it was suggested by ERSB as a "red flag" for the targeted rating. The scene is now text-only. Very interesting timing indeed.

So the excuse that Sony targets only games that (appear to) have underage protagonists falls out of the window.

Sony just wishes full authoritarian control to all versions of their games.

 

[petran79]

This is a great comment. Context of the game is always something that I think a lot of these comments don't take into account. For instance, I would never tell a creator/designer what they could or couldn't do, but context is the reason why Cia felt out of place to me in Hyrule Warriors. I own and play plenty of games featuring women with large breasts, but large breasts felt out of place in a Zelda game (faeries are different and, again, contextually make sense).

Those are definitely large boobs



Also the Healing Lady is too sexy and revealing for just healing

 

[JunkerWoland]

With regards to "Death Mark," I wish there was confirmation on whether the known censorship has been retained in the Switch build. For a M-rated game, and after looking both at the affected scene and some other imagery from the title, I'm having a hard time believing what the one reviewer suggests is Akysys' reasoning for altering the product. Hopefully this really is a false flag and a bad decision all around, rather than an indication Sony's heavy hand goes beyond sexualization to include whatever it randomly decides is improper treatment of women.

 

[Cactuarman]

The initial article is name-calling, which is bottom-of-the-barrel discourse. He called the artist a horny, "sex-obsessed" 14-year-old. That's unhinged.
Besides, there were follow-ups to this article. A comment by the artist in response to the accusation the fanservice is sexist (following normal people definition as "discrimination against one gender", and not one that has conditions that make the definition itself sexist) where muscular male gnomes that were definitely much more "objectified" than the witch, was then met by him accusing the artist of homophobia. The child porn accusation was made by him on neogaf as a VIP poster back then.
That was a character assassination campaign to get the artist fired and the back then still unreleased game potentially not releasing anymore, at least in its current form. It's a Gawker-style yellow journalism dirty job. It's no coincidence he has tried in later years to downplay this as much as possible as he carries on doing much of the same thing while trying to do a better job of keeping appearances.

To be clear I never said I agreed with what he wrote, just that he should be able to write it. And I was looking for clarification on the "child porn" comment. This is the thread right: Dragon's Crown (Vanillaware PS3/PSV) Sorceress Trailer? I didn't go through every page but I went through quite a lot. I could be missing something but ultimately if the below comment is his sentiment then fine. Again, I don't agree him about Dragon's Crown and the art style - in my opinion the Sorceress is an easy target and not out of place within the context of the game's art style (again, as I said in an earlier comment, context is what matters). But not wanting to censor an artist is ultimately what concerns me.

Emphasis mine:

I apologize that I don't have time to address every post in this thread, but I'll try to answer this. I think it's important for Kamitani and any other artists who draw similarly juvenile characters to consider the effect of their designs on men, on women, and on gaming culture as a whole. If even one woman feels ostracized or uncomfortable because of art like this - and, judging by the e-mails and messages I've gotten in the past day, quite a few women do feel that way - it's worth talking and thinking about.

I don't want him to censor himself. I want him to ask himself why he's drawing men and women with ridiculous proportions that seem designed to appeal to teenage boys, and I want him to think about how that can be harmful. That's the point of criticism: to get people thinking, and talking, and learning.

Like I've been saying all along, Dragon's Crown is hardly the only offender, and it's certainly not the most blatant example of sexist content in games. But it is one example, and for various reasons, it's the one we're discussing. Hopefully good things can come out of this.

I also think "unhinged" and "character assassination campaign" is hyperbolic. I understand being upset at an opinion but it's difficult to actually discuss something when I have to pick through language that may or may not be true and/or your own polarized commentary.

They went right for the "immature teenager" and "anime art is immature" arguments. That's two strikes in one sentence for me!

Ah. Thanks for the follow up. Totally fair strikes IMO.

 

[Enygger_Tzu]

Censored Gaming is reporting about the censorship of the Death Mark title and Aksys the company puts the blame on ESBR ratings.

 

[kunonabi]

Looks like I'm buying the japanese version of death mark after all.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Censored Gaming is reporting about the censorship of the Death Mark title and Aksys the company puts the blame on ESBR ratings.

Fucking damn it.

This game was my target game. Im so interesting in the Story and The images give a plus.

I cant Believe, i waiting to play it in english and give me a censored versión.

 

[Pot Meet Kettle]

Rainbow 6 Siege is getting censored "localized" for the global release as well. While it was originally to meet demands by Chinese authorities to be cleared legally for a local release, it somehow is applied to all global versions of the game.

• Gambling references
• Any Skulls
• Small Blood stains in backgrounds
• Cartoony sexual content

Also, Ubisoft pledges for this to be standard practice from now on for their future games.

We want to be future proof

Having the same people working on a singular global version of the game ensures we only need to do the work once. In addition, we can guarantee that any future changes are aligned with the global regulations we are working towards.

It's worth mentioning that Ubisoft does game localizations with very significant regional changes for Saudi Arabia (no religious themes, sexual references even textual heavily toned down), China (political themes, some morality themes, gore, skulls, and blood stains heavily toned down) and South Korea (no gambling themes).

While they have in the past maintained separate builds for these regions, it's certainly interesting they intend to take all of these restrictions combined for a single unified build for all of their games going forwards, from what this announcement implies.

 

[Javthusiast]

Yay, let china dictate big hollywood blockbusters and now games globally as well. Fuck me.