LittleBigPlanet Delayed Over Religious Controversy

[Imitation Saccharin]

Actually, considering there was a wave of people attempting to bomb abortion clinics, in the US during the 80's, I'd say there's some pretty scary outrage on the parts of Christians too.

That makes little sense.
They bombed abortion clinics not because they were offended religiously, but because they believed they were murdering babies.

 

[Jumplion]

Update!!!

I wasn't so sure about LBP's release date, but I just got a call from Gamestop (yeah yeah, deal with it, it was for the Kratos Sackboy!) saying that they got a message from Sony that LBP is delayed until October 27th now.

So, now I'm 100% sure that I'm pissed.

F
U
C
K

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Jump, people thought it would be Nov. 9th - don't beat yourself up.

 

[oAmadeuso]

Wait, how did a song with the lyrics:

'Every soul shall have the taste of death'

and

'All that is on earth will perish'.

get into a game like _Little Big Planet_ in the first place? What's next--something from the Book of Revelations in _Animal Crossing_?

Who is the moron at Sony who heard some song in another language and decided 'hey that's awesome--I'm going to use that without knowing what the words mean!'

I think because it's it arabic. Assuming the produces are not arabic speakers they thought it sounded nice ( and it does btw. Buy the album)
They thought, this sounds nice. Guys won awards etc. It's not like someone is going to reveal on a forum one week before street date that the words by this muslim singer are actually an insult to islam....

Yeah, but how do you put music in a game with lyrics that you don't understand? I mean, what if this guy was the Muslim James Hetfield, and the lyrics turned out to be "And I've fucked a sheep, I've fucked a goat, I rammed my cock right down its throat So what"?

I mean, LBP is supposed to be this adorable platformer--what are the lyrics 'Every soul shall have the taste of death' and 'All that is on earth will perish' doing in there in the first place?

Forget the insult to Islam issue--how did lyrics that sound more like lines from _God of War_ get in this game, did they take that Kratos Sackboy thing a little too far, or something?

Well you have a point with that I suppose. I guess they just looked at the guys rep and didnt think to check.

 

[shadow skill]

While I don't consider the lyrics a problem it is for some and Sony has decided to address it. At the end of the day Sony doesn't want bad press or lawsuits and who can blame them after the Manhester Cathedral mess.

 

[Jumplion]

Jump, people thought it would be Nov. 9th - don't beat yourself up.

As i've said before, i don't care if LBP was delayed for a single day, it would still piss me off.

I've said it in my first post here, I'm not saying it again!

However, it does show how broad appeal LBP has now. Sortof a blessing in disguise, only it's a sucky blessing.

 

[Abako]

This isn't about religion, it's about censorship and politics. What the hell man? My mom's a pacifist and is often deeply, deeply offended when I cut a dude's head off in a video game or shoot a guy in the head. Offensive materials should not hold a game from being released. Change the rating maybe, but not delay a release.

Sorry, but whatever your faith is, the fact that you are offended should be a real shame... and completely irrelevant

I have to disagree. Offensive materials should not affect a game's release or rating in any way. The most that should happen is that they are stated to have X Y and Z as offensive. If someone doesn't like something in a game they can simply NOT BUY IT. Not try and get the game changed because they think themselves that important. While I am religious, people are so arrogant to think they their religious beliefs should change something for EVERYONE else.

 

[shadow skill]

Come on people, admit it those lyrics do sound fucked up for a game like LBP when you actually know what they mean.

 

[Jumplion]

Come on people, admit it those lyrics do sound fucked up for a game like LBP when you actually know what they mean.

Ah, but all the more proff LBP isn't just a "Cute, cuddly, gay platformer!". It's like how when you look at Kirby you wouldn't think he shoots out fireballs and swallows people up, but he does (sorry ElArab, had to quote that out of context).

Have you ever seen some of the spooky levels in LBP? They're quite eeiree and, erm, spooky actually.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Well this is a stupid thing for those people to do

(both parties)

 

[Archemetis]

So when say a music recording artist writes a song with let's say for the sake of an example, a passage from the Bible, which is not uncommon, are Catholics then within right to ask the artist in question to not release their album?

Of course the answer may well be yes, if material is found "offensive" by a religous group then that is taken very seriously.

The problem lies in a different area of the subject though.

That is: "Why take it so seriously?"

Yes, it's your religion, yes in some cases it's what you swear your life by and how you live day-by-day.

But really, Is the song wronging the original meaning of the passage in question?
Have they portrayed the meaning as something else?
Are they openly trying to say "HAHA WE STOLE SOMETHING FROM THE QURAN THAT MAKES US CLEVER!"
Did they turn the entire contents of the Quran into a song?

As far as i'm aware, no.

So, where is the issue?

[EDIT] also while thinking about it, how this could turn into a huge lawsuit is confusing me seeing as the people who were offended don't OWN the Quran it's not like it's copyrighted material or anything.
[Beware, i'm almost certain that statement contains religious ignorance]
[like to point out that i am not religious and i'm not disputing anyone beliefs or trying to insult anyone with my opinions]

in order to properly compensate everyone who could possibly be offended by this song you'd have to pay a settlement to every Muslim who can potentially by a copy of the game.

I'm not overly sure how ridiculous the law can get now days but i'm almost sure no court would touch that one...

 

[WTEricson]

I am pissed I have to wait an extra week... looks like Farcry 2 just made a sale though.

Look at the big picture though. It's a smart move IMO since this will be the Sony flagship game, and unlike other games that only sell for the 1st month this will sell for the next 5 years easily. Ofcourse it sucks to wait an extra week.... but it must be done.

Oh well... I wait 3 years for games I care about just to watch developement teams ruin the franchise (SOCOM4).... didn't even know about this game before the Beta.... I'll live one more week (crosses fingures).

 

[PersianLlama]

Again, more religious assholes step in and ruin my day. I don't care what religion they represent, they just pissed me off by putting their religious beliefs as something more important than anything else.

Yup =\.

 

[internutt]

Its getting harder to express freedom in gaming, mainly because games have a worldwide appeal.

Ocarina of Time had Islamic symbols on blocks and the music in the Fire Temple was Arabic, all that was removed in future releases of the game.
The same thing happened to Zack and Wiki too I believe (either way it was a Wii game not made by Nintendo).

Its a shame developers do not have the freedom to do as they please, but we live in a society where we fear offending or being offended.