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Rockstar Censors GTA After Haitian Outcry
Thanks to VE3D for carrying a statement from Take Two/Rockstar announcing the removal of alleged anti-Haitian content from future copies of Grand Theft Auto:Vice City, after a furore which started last month following a CBS TV segment on the game. The controversy, which even had New York's Mayor Bloomberg weighing in on the game's rival gang-related urgings to "Kill all the Haitians", has ended with Rockstar's press release indicating: "We believe that recent media coverage has taken certain statements made in the game out of context... nevertheless, we are aware of the hurt and anger in the Haitian community... we will remove the objectionable statements from future copies of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City."
What about the Orcs? Nobody ever backs the Orcs. They get dissed in more games than anyone. How many other enemies explode on eye contact?
This is getting just ludicrous. So not only is Manhunt not Adults Only, there's also no appreciable outcry about it, and the Rockstar game being censored is getting censored for a quote that sounds racist out of context, as opposed to being censored for, say, sodomizing a gang member with a crowbar. U.S. society is collectively insane. I'm not sure what variety of insanity (although I'd speculate a diagnosis of disorganized schizophrenia), but still... This is all getting disgusting.
Kill cops.. thats politically correct
Wasn't the point of the game to be crude and offensive?? That's what makes it fun. If they're going to censor themselves they have a lot of work ahead of them
I would understand if Haitians were the only ethnic group singled out for mindless killing, but honestly....at a point in the game, you actually -work- for the Haitians, specifically for the purpose of killing the rival Cubans. At other points in the game, you kill Italians, French, Colombians, hell, I think I even killed some seagulls. If one took killing people out (and don't whine about ethnicity - in case it's not obvious, -everyone- is part of some ethnicity), you'd have.....nothing. And if you have a problem with killing in general........ DON'T BUY THE FSCKING GAME!!!!! I swear, we need to hold a telethon for these people......
[este]
Sales of Vice City spike up as the last few geeks who live under rocks crawl out to purchase a pre-censored copy.
If you disagree then it must be overrated, redundant or trolling.
I don't believe that they should sensor themselves just because certain people become offended. But, if Rockstar and Take Two truly believed that it is their right to keep a sense of realism in their game, then they shouldn't have removed the content at all. They're already getting enough bad press from the game, which has helped its popularity anyways.
Most importantly, because Rockstar and Take Two are censoring themselves in this manner, they have severely hurt the argument that video games are an artform. It's going to be much harder to have video games gain the same amount of artistic respect that movies and music have to the general public. Special interest groups will have a much easier time getting other companies to follow suit and self-censor as well, because now they can say "Rockstar and Take Two did it, why won't you?"
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
It's valuable pre-christmas publicity!
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
They can replace the Haitians with elves and the cubans with reindeer. The main character will be Santa Claus and he only scores with Mrs. Claus, who happens to wear a bikini. Merry Christmas indeed! Or was that not the effect these people were looking for?
With all the WW2 games out nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised if thats what they'll replace the Haitians with in the censored version. Hell, if they did that, I'd buy the game again just so I could hear German ghetto talk.
Ja sind jene Weinerschnitzel die Bombe!
Oh yeah, a Mercedes S class with hydraulics would be better than those slow Voodoos.
not all liberals are PC fascists. i am very liberal and make un-pc jokes all the time... i dont care so much when people are stereotpyed, and it doesnt bother me when a small group of people are offended over an out of context comment from a video game.
Seriously, though, we should really be more concerned about the rampant genocide already present in gaming culture.
One last thing: why is the "strike" tag not supported? I can't be the only one sick of seeing ^Hs.
Co-founder of GerbilMechs
Brits call themselves brits, Scots call themselves Scots so those two are probably self explanatory.
It probably doesn't help if you've been at war with someone in reasonably recent history as the abbreviated names tend to have retained their pejorative edge.
It also has to be said that I don't think I've ever heard "nip", "chink" or "paki" said without a degree of ill-feeling behind it (GWB's "pakis" statement being the exception).
It's not terribly unreasonable to accept that some shortened names have gathered a negative meaning while some haven't. Language evolves like that.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
There was an _awesome_ scene in Medal of Honor, in the level where you infiltrate the German submarine pen in Norway. Dressed as a kraut officer, you walk past two troopers having a chat in perfectly accented idiomatic German; something utterly hilarious, to the extent of "I don't know why the Norwegians are all so mad at us, we just want to bring their chicks back to Germany to breed the master race."
I'm a native German speaker, and I think I would have noticed any trace of an accent there, so I can only assume that they used real Germans to record the voiceovers. Frankly, I can't imagine a German voice actor not pissing himself laughing when asked to read something like that out loud."
The BF1942 clips are actually pretty funny--I like the Italians best--it all sounds romantic and beautiful (Va fa'in culo! I have a headwound! Mamma mia, I love you!)
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage