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What are your thoughts on censorship in games?

twilitfalchion

and thus comes the end of an era
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As games have been released in different regions and on different consoles, certain aspects of the games released have been changed or censored for different audiences, ranging from mild profanity being edited out to more drastic changes like fatalities being censored in some Mortal Kombat games or a swimsuit DLC scene being altered in Fire Emblem: Awakening, for example.

What are your opinions on censorship like this? Do you think it's a positive change, since a lower rating means a wider audience for a game? Or would you rather the original experience be released and let people decide for themselves whether or not they want to play the game, original content and all?

For me personally, I'm in favor of censorship for games that aren't specifically designed to be adult-oriented or h-games. Obviously, people who want to play games like those will play them and they have that available to them if they want it. But I would say that in most other cases, censorship is a positive change, since more people will ultimately be able to play the game and both the consumer and company will benefit from it.
 
I was actually talking about this earlier with someone.

I'm largely okay with censorship. Especially in video games since they're made in different countries with different cultures where various things are and aren't taboo, depending on where the game is made.

My issue is that sometimes the censorship can go far too far.

For example, Tokyo Mirage Sessions had censorship go way too far. Character costumes were completely changed into horrible and tacky alternates and in my opinion, the original costumes weren't as revealing and in need of censorship, especially since characters like Velvet Crowe from Tales of Berseria exist and has no censorship to her clothing whatsoever.

However, in the topic of Berseria, there is a scene in the Japanese original where a young child is stabbed with a sword and killed, even held aloft by said sword. Whereas in the English version this scene is changed to the child being killed by magic spell.

The censorship in the English version was to keep the age rating down (as censorship tends to do) and I completely understand why it would be changed. However, it wasn't changed all that well and made the scene flow in a rather weird way where characters between scenes would be in the wrong places.


So, long story short, I'm okay withbit as long as it has a good reason and is done well. Very middle of the road answer but it is annoying when it's taken too far.
 

Dio

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I think that parental censorship options could be there so that more mature games can be made suitable for young players. It's the parents responsibility if they don't want their kids hearing or seeing certain things. And having the swearing or blood off could give them some peace of mind. This was present in bulletstorm I believe. But otherwise no the games should be released as intended by the creators.
 

Kirino

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I don't usually like it or find it necessary, and I generally prefer to play games in their original form. This is especially true when what's censored is optional content that could easily just be avoided. The example from Fire Emblem: Awakening is particularly silly, since it's a paid DLC event that's literally meant to be fanservice, such that censoring it defeats the purpose, not to mention that it's hardly even lewd in the first place.

There are cases that I think are justified, though, such as when content is just too inappropriate or clashes too much with the culture. An example being Xenoblade Chronicles X having outfits that sexualize one of its party members, who is 13 years old, and which were censored in the West, which I think is pretty understandable.
 

Rubik

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I don't usually like it or find it necessary, and I generally prefer to play games in their original form. This is especially true when what's censored is optional content that could easily just be avoided. The example from Fire Emblem: Awakening is particularly silly, since it's a paid DLC event that's literally meant to be fanservice, such that censoring it defeats the purpose, not to mention that it's hardly even lewd in the first place.

There are cases that I think are justified, though, such as when content is just too inappropriate or clashes too much with the culture. An example being Xenoblade Chronicles X having outfits that sexualize one of its party members, who is 13 years old, and which were censored in the West, which I think is pretty understandable.
I think I agree with this, more or less.

On top of that, I do think it's a positive thing to include the option for people to censor content locally if they choose to, but I don't see much purpose in censoring most things automatically.
 
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I think we need to differentiate the three different types of censorship.

Lewd censorship - where overused nudity, sex and violence are censored, I am mostly ok with. Unless that's the basis of the game. Then I question why the game even exists in the first place. This kind of censorship is a good thing. Because we're here to play a video game, not watch a voilent porn film.

Cultural censorship - where video game developers/publishers remove/change parts of games because they feel the different audiences of the world would not understand the references. In my opinion this form of censorship in it's entirety is toxic and needs to go away.
Firstly this dilutes the developers original vision of the content in the game. Secondly it prevents us as gamers to further experience different cultures and aspects of the world.

Pre development censorship - this is where developers don't add things to the game for fear of being attacked by the pollitically correct crowds. Or for fear of the main themes of the game not being understood by a worldwide audience. This is usually decided in the design process before any code is written. Pushing certain stereotypes or forcing minorities into the game just because of society supposedly demands it.
This is the worst kind of censorship as it prevents good video game ideas from being fully realised.
 

Dizzi

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If theres a reason for it then yea ok but if its there for the heck of it then ugh..
 

Princess Niki

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It honestly depends on the game and what's being censored, like if a game is going to receive an AO rating instead of an M rating I see it as something necessary for publishers so they don't lose money.
 

Ragnarokio

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I have no issue with censorship as long as the original uncensored version is available in some form. Making a more accessible version of a game is a good thing in my eyes, and thats generally the goal of censorship in videogames.
 

el :BeoWolf:

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It has its place but there's definitely been times were censorship goes overboard. We have a ratings board for a reason.
 

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