Censorship in games.

[klc0100]

Im fine with small unnoticeable censorship e.g fallout changing the name of a drug, but when its obvious like manhunt two were every time you kill some one it looks like your on LSD annoys the hell out of me and does ruin the gaming experience.

 

[Dubiousduke]

Haha, i didn't notice! I'm not using my own computer and browser. there must be some sort of filter on this browser... How deliciously ironic.
Case and point!

 

[DethFan666]

Im fine with small unnoticeable censorship e.g fallout changing the name of a drug, but when its obvious like manhunt two were every time you kill some one it looks like your on LSD annoys the hell out of me and does ruin the gaming experience.

Yeah the photo shopping really made me angry. The game didn't need to be censored that badly. The Ps2 version isn't censored that bad.

 

[DethFan666]

Why is it necessary? Do you feel violent afetr you play them? Do you wan't it censored so when you see death animations. You don't feel like hurting yourself or others as much? And if you take video games seriously. You need to be shot in the head.

You're not really doing the anti-censorship lobby any favours with your argument.

You're actually advocating murdering people who take video games seriously, or are you saying I need to killed because I disagree with you?

So the football fan who buys Football Manager 09 and spends a lot of time faithfully recreating the teams and season - shoot him in the head?

All the serious/professional gamers who take part in competitions for money, blow their brains out?

How about we just plant bombs at the next WoW convention to save bullets?

Games are a very interactive, entertaining and immersing form of media, and like it or not, some people will take them seriously. That doesn't mean they should be executed.

It seems to me that somebody has played too many violent games anyway, despite censorship.
I find it ironic that a self proclaimed "Fan of Death", is implying that I'm pro-censorship because I cant control violent urges when I play games, and then advocates murder in the next breath, (and possibly suggests I should be killed for my point of view, I'm not sure your grammar is ambiguous).

(For the record, I've never had a problem with self-control and violent urges, even when physically attacked myself.)

I think games are plenty violent as they are, and I can't really think of any games where I've wished they were more violent and wanted more gore.
Games are about entertainment, gameplay and fun, not snuff movies.

Censorship isn't just about ruining your kicks by limiting digitised violence, there's a much bigger picture.
Censorship also prevents undesirable things like racism & homophobia entering our beloved form of entertainment.

Also without censorship, what would stop people inserting subliminal messaging in games? Someone could make a innocent looking casual game which conditioned it's players to hate gays, Jews and blacks, then you really would see examples of games causing violent crimes.

It may seem extreme, but I think censorship is a necessary evil, as long as we live in societies where the are real sick fucks who would abuse freedom of speech & expression, to further their own agendas and cause actual real harm to others.

Also for the record I'm not actually very much in favour of censorship in games, I can totally accept how the whole Australia thing is unfair and over the top, it's just that I can also see how and why censorship is necessary and I don't think it's the great, oppressing killjoy that some people seem to think it is.

I didn't mean literally shot in the head smartass. And anyways like I said. If you think video games affect your attitude. Your mentally retarted. If it was true that they did affect you in the manner you think. Everyone would be out there excecuting eachother. Oh wait they all ready do. Long before even pong existed. Can you blame WW2 on video games? Is it R* fault that Hitler invaded Europe? I bet you do. Oh and very good by using my name in your quote. It makes me so happy when people do.

 

[klc0100]

Im fine with small unnoticeable censorship e.g fallout changing the name of a drug, but when its obvious like manhunt two were every time you kill some one it looks like your on LSD annoys the hell out of me and does ruin the gaming experience.

Yeah the photo shopping really made me angry. The game didn't need to be censored that badly. The Ps2 version isn't censored that bad.

Luckily enough I have the psp version if you mess around with the ISO you can remove the censorship.

 

[beddo]

I think that it is not really needed. I mean it's just a game. Anyone that says video games make serial killers. Really need's to get there heads examined. If you have violent tendencies before you play an M rated game. Chances are your going to be like that anyway. Violent video games do not show you how. To be a violent killer. It's lame how they get blamed for things like that anymore. People need to be responsible for themselves.

That's not a great argument. You haven't provided any evidence or cases that back up your case you just rely on assumptions.

Moreover, you don't address the issue of censorship. You assume that censorship is restricted to violent content of a specific type. Censorship actually relates to all contentincluding but not limited to; language, violence and sex.

 

[kommando367]

what annoys is not the existence of censorship its that males in TV are not censored enough seriously they should cover that shit up, aleast about 3-5 times as many pixels as they use, and cover those moobies. also i don't see any point in censoring peoples mouths when they curse. and why does certain words that mean the same as other words censored in coclusion the FCC is run by idiot

 

[chronobreak]

Why is it necessary? Do you feel violent afetr you play them? Do you wan't it censored so when you see death animations. You don't feel like hurting yourself or others as much? And if you take video games seriously. You need to be shot in the head.

You're not really doing the anti-censorship lobby any favours with your argument.

You're actually advocating murdering people who take video games seriously, or are you saying I need to killed because I disagree with you?

So the football fan who buys Football Manager 09 and spends a lot of time faithfully recreating the teams and season - shoot him in the head?

All the serious/professional gamers who take part in competitions for money, blow their brains out?

How about we just plant bombs at the next WoW convention to save bullets?

Games are a very interactive, entertaining and immersing form of media, and like it or not, some people will take them seriously. That doesn't mean they should be executed.

It seems to me that somebody has played too many violent games anyway, despite censorship.
I find it ironic that a self proclaimed "Fan of Death", is implying that I'm pro-censorship because I cant control violent urges when I play games, and then advocates murder in the next breath, (and possibly suggests I should be killed for my point of view, I'm not sure your grammar is ambiguous).

(For the record, I've never had a problem with self-control and violent urges, even when physically attacked myself.)

I think games are plenty violent as they are, and I can't really think of any games where I've wished they were more violent and wanted more gore.
Games are about entertainment, gameplay and fun, not snuff movies.

Censorship isn't just about ruining your kicks by limiting digitised violence, there's a much bigger picture.
Censorship also prevents undesirable things like racism & homophobia entering our beloved form of entertainment.

Also without censorship, what would stop people inserting subliminal messaging in games? Someone could make a innocent looking casual game which conditioned it's players to hate gays, Jews and blacks, then you really would see examples of games causing violent crimes.

It may seem extreme, but I think censorship is a necessary evil, as long as we live in societies where the are real sick fucks who would abuse freedom of speech & expression, to further their own agendas and cause actual real harm to others.

Also for the record I'm not actually very much in favour of censorship in games, I can totally accept how the whole Australia thing is unfair and over the top, it's just that I can also see how and why censorship is necessary and I don't think it's the great, oppressing killjoy that some people seem to think it is.

I didn't mean literally shot in the head smartass. And anyways like I said. If you think video games affect your attitude. Your mentally retarted. If it was true that they did affect you in the manner you think. Everyone would be out there excecuting eachother. Oh wait they all ready do. Long before even pong existed. Can you blame WW2 on video games? Is it R* fault that Hitler invaded Europe? I bet you do. Oh and very good by using my name in your quote. It makes me so happy when people do.

You have to understand. Video Games can affect your attitude. Even if you think they shouldn't, for some people, they do. Your argument takes it to the extreme. It doesn't have to be literally executing people. It could be something as simple as a social disorder, or an addiction to the games themselves. World War II also has nothing to do with video games, seeing as how they weren't around. At. The. Time.

 

[neoman10]

I was playing Mercenaries 2, and when I heard the one bleeped out word, I thought "What the fuck? Why would they actually bleep out a line? Just make it crap instead of shit! Censorship is annoying.

yep i remember saying that to

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

German video games can't include any nazi symbols, so examination of that part of Germany's past is pretty much impossible.

But keep in mind, Nazi Symbols or anything Third Reich-ish is banned from any form of media or documentation in Germany. Having Hitler's Mein Kampf (did I spell that right?)in your possession is enough to get you in jail.

Without censorship, what would stop people inserting subliminal messaging in games?

You mean like the raving ensorsement of fascism, militarism and genocide that is Gears of War?

Although I guess that wasn't exactly subliminal...

I thought the subliminal message of GoW was all about how chainsaws make the world go round and make everyone happy. That's what I got from it

 

[DethFan666]

It's simply this. Kids and adults both deserve there own brand of everything. Including video games they are not just for children. And maybe I get sick of happy kid friendly games such as Mario. And I like seeing people being dismembered in my type of games. Such as Mortal Kombat. And when you censor these games. It is taking away the gaming experience from the adult. And it should be the job of the parent's to keep these types of games away from kids. Everyone else should not have to suffer because. Some dick brain parent let there eight year old kid play Manhunt or GTA4. They are not meant for persons under seventeen. It is really freaking simple. That is why they have ratings.

 

[Silver]

Can anyone explain how mature content enhances the gaming experience? Plenty of games don't rely on sex, violence, profanity, and gore (or use them tastefully). I don't see how censoring those things hampers the ability to enjoy a game.

Plenty of games don't rely on sex, violence, profanity nd gore, yeah. True. Plenty of movies do too. That doesn't mean American history X or A clockwork ornage aren't masterful movies, despite relying a lot on violence and sex (in the latter case). Without that those movies would be nothing.

The same should be true for games. While there are, and should be, games suited to all ages, like Mario, or whatever. There should also be games out there that explores more mature themes. If it's just in the same form as a gore-flick with no real meaning behind it, or like in a really political movie like Boys don't cry, games as well as movies are about evoking emotions. Nothing is a better tool for doing so than just sex, or violence, or gore. If you want to express fear (this is only an example, don't go bashing me, you understand the point, ignoring it only makes you look bad), you don't have a nice colourful palette and people carefully avoiding bad words. You don't avoid killing everyone. If you want to evoke fear, you kill off the cute little girl in the most vicious way you can imagine, you show in detail how much pain she's in, and you have the rest of the characters scream every profanity they know in terror.

 

[ZEROindividuality]

in mass effect the sex scene wasn't just a flash of the breasts and a quick pic of the ass it was like 5 minutes and it was killed by the game rating system so they moddified it to be like a split secound.

and 4kids screws every good thing they get there hands on. hell persona 3 they had guns called provokers they shot themselves to bring out their person, now they changed it to where they do something blalablablah it appears. no more fun and bad jokes about them killin' themselves one of these days by accident of picking up a real gun.

 

[Taern]

As for many, the level of censorship is what causes me issuses.
Like in Half-life (I belive it was the version created in germany), The soldiers were replaced with "androids", which just seemed sort of... off...

Possibly it was the blood :/

 

[hellthins]

Can anyone explain how mature content enhances the gaming experience? Plenty of games don't rely on sex, violence, profanity, and gore (or use them tastefully). I don't see how censoring those things hampers the ability to enjoy a game.

Plenty of games don't rely on sex, violence, profanity nd gore, yeah. True. Plenty of movies do too. That doesn't mean American history X or A clockwork ornage aren't masterful movies, despite relying a lot on violence and sex (in the latter case). Without that those movies would be nothing.

The same should be true for games. While there are, and should be, games suited to all ages, like Mario, or whatever. There should also be games out there that explores more mature themes. If it's just in the same form as a gore-flick with no real meaning behind it, or like in a really political movie like Boys don't cry, games as well as movies are about evoking emotions. Nothing is a better tool for doing so than just sex, or violence, or gore. If you want to express fear (this is only an example, don't go bashing me, you understand the point, ignoring it only makes you look bad), you don't have a nice colourful palette and people carefully avoiding bad words. You don't avoid killing everyone. If you want to evoke fear, you kill off the cute little girl in the most vicious way you can imagine, you show in detail how much pain she's in, and you have the rest of the characters scream every profanity they know in terror.

Well, you can invoke fear without cursing and blood. Lovecraft did it very well. But he also did horrific beings from beyond the stars, horrible horrible hallucinations, and there was still murder. It was just never particularly described, and usually hidden as a plot point. And as dark and depressing as his stories are, I doubt they'd get much audience today if they were a game. Look how DCotE went over.

Censorship is bad for all media, short of maybe censuring how to build a nuclear bomb or giving explicit instructions on how to do something vile, such as murder or rape.

 

[Silver]

TGLT, yes, you can invoke fear without cursing or blood. I never said you couldn't. But it is an efficient way of doing it, and the CHOICE to use it should be there. Limiting the use of tools isn't right. We should be able to make games that in detail explore these subjects if we want to, not because we necessarily have to, but because we want to.


And seriously, explicit instructions on how to murder or rape someone? What's explicit instructions in that case? Take bat, hit person in head. If person is moving, repeat 2. Giving people instructions on how to build a nuclear bomb is done is most good schools anyway, the only reason I can't do it is because I don't have access to the materials. It's not hard. It's really simple. Not easy though, I'd probably blow myself up halfway through the process, but it's very simple.

I understand your point, but I don't think it's necessarily a valid one. The only way I can see censorship as valid is if it advocates hate, or crime. If a game encourages you to kill gays, or to hate women or whatever. Then I get it. But no general censorship. You can't remove homophobia, for example, from a medium. It can be used for so much, look at Boys don't cry for example. An amazing movie, utterly depressing, and all, but an amazing piece of art, and it's full of homophobia, it's the whole point of the movie.

The thing is, knowledge alone, about whatever, is never bad, and shouldn't be censored. I know how to build a nuclear bomb, I know how to break into a house without getting detected or leaving any traces, I know how to construct several types of bombs out of household objects, I know a large number of ways to incapacitate or kill a person easily. Nothing of that is ever going to hurt anyone. Censoring the informtion I've obtained wouldn't solve anything (but would incidentally, hurt a lot of chemists and physicists, and medical doctors, since that's how I got much of that information).

The information in itself is not the problem. Depictions of violence is not the problem. Using sex, rape, homophobia, gore, or whatever in movies, in games, in art, is not what causes these problems, and it therefore shouldn't be censored. Advocating these acts however, is another thing, and that's where censorship might come in useful. Sure, many games would have problems with that. You get points for killing people in most games. Some games give you more points the more violent the death is. The consequences of violence is portrayed as good. Never is violence something bad.

That's where censorship should come in. When violence is something good. When killing someone is a viable option in an argument. When misogyny and homophobia are fun activities for the whole family. That's where censorship should come in.

I'm not necessarily against the idea of censorship, but when it's used as it is today, it's something else entirely.

 

[hellthins]

TGLT, yes, you can invoke fear without cursing or blood. I never said you couldn't. But it is an efficient way of doing it, and the CHOICE to use it should be there. Limiting the use of tools isn't right. We should be able to make games that in detail explore these subjects if we want to, not because we necessarily have to, but because we want to.


And seriously, explicit instructions on how to murder or rape someone? What's explicit instructions in that case? Take bat, hit person in head. If person is moving, repeat 2. Giving people instructions on how to build a nuclear bomb is done is most good schools anyway, the only reason I can't do it is because I don't have access to the materials. It's not hard. It's really simple. Not easy though, I'd probably blow myself up halfway through the process, but it's very simple.

I understand your point, but I don't think it's necessarily a valid one. The only way I can see censorship as valid is if it advocates hate, or crime. If a game encourages you to kill gays, or to hate women or whatever. Then I get it. But no general censorship. You can't remove homophobia, for example, from a medium. It can be used for so much, look at Boys don't cry for example. An amazing movie, utterly depressing, and all, but an amazing piece of art, and it's full of homophobia, it's the whole point of the movie.

The thing is, knowledge alone, about whatever, is never bad, and shouldn't be censored. I know how to build a nuclear bomb, I know how to break into a house without getting detected or leaving any traces, I know how to construct several types of bombs out of household objects, I know a large number of ways to incapacitate or kill a person easily. Nothing of that is ever going to hurt anyone. Censoring the informtion I've obtained wouldn't solve anything (but would incidentally, hurt a lot of chemists and physicists, and medical doctors, since that's how I got much of that information).

The information in itself is not the problem. Depictions of violence is not the problem. Using sex, rape, homophobia, gore, or whatever in movies, in games, in art, is not what causes these problems, and it therefore shouldn't be censored. Advocating these acts however, is another thing, and that's where censorship might come in useful. Sure, many games would have problems with that. You get points for killing people in most games. Some games give you more points the more violent the death is. The consequences of violence is portrayed as good. Never is violence something bad.

That's where censorship should come in. When violence is something good. When killing someone is a viable option in an argument. When misogyny and homophobia are fun activities for the whole family. That's where censorship should come in.

I'm not necessarily against the idea of censorship, but when it's used as it is today, it's something else entirely.

You are aware I'm against censorship, right? And by explicit instructions, I'm talking about things like obtaining and properly utilizing GHB in a non-medical function.

I don't think we should censor even opinions such as misogyny and homophobia. That's never going to solve the issue those two present. Those are things that need to be dealt with on a much grander level, and censorship is a bad attempt at masking the problem rather than fixing it.

As for nuclear bombs, unless you're a nuclear physicist you probably don't know how to build a nuke as effectively as you might think you do.

 

[Silver]

Yes. I am aware of that. My response was directed at several people even if I wrote it as a reply to you. I don't see how my or your personal opinions on the subject really matter.

I'm not saying we should censor opinions. That we should never do. I said that the only place I can see censorship as viable is when it's used to censor advocationg of hate crime. I'm okay with someone saying "I hate gays", I don't like it, I think it's horrible that such people exist, but I'm okay with them saying it. Someone saying "We should go out and kill gay people, they are a blight on our society" though, that's where I say stop. And that goes for any medium. If the message of a movie, or a game, or a book, is advocation of crime, or hate, or misogyny, or homophobia, or whatever, then I think censorship is viable.

And on the topic of bombs; I can make it go boom loudly. That's enough for me to consider it a bomb. It might not be as big as it could be, or detonate when I want it to. But it's because of nuclear fission it says boom, and that's enough for me to consider it a nuke.