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La Pucelle Tactics Publisher Explains Alleged U.S. Censorship
Thanks to 1UP for its interview with La Pucelle: Tactics publisher Bill Swartz regarding alleged censorship to the PlayStation 2 SRPG from the developers of Disgaea, after an eToychest interview with the game's Japanese producer revealed: "We did take out a very few things we felt would cause problems in North America." Following sustained noises of discontent on the GameFAQs messageboards, it's explained: "Alloute wore cross earrings a few times and we took them out. We also removed a few other cross accessories and changed a handful of devices that looked like crosses (unless you looked carefully) to devices that looked a little less like crosses." Swartz laments: "There are well organized forces that work hard to punish software makers and sellers for what they consider religious transgressions", and clarifies the changes were "...not things that either carried meaning to the game's original audience or were in any way part of the substance of the game."
The delay with Duke Nukem, They're tidying up the level with the Stripper nuns in the mosque....
It's hard enough to remember my opinions, never mind the reasons for them..
Because people were wearing them decoratively in the game, and hard-core Christians can be incredibly mule-headed about forcing their views on other people when it comes to casual use of religious symbols. What if the bad guy likes to wear clothing with a cross on it, wears a full-black outfit (not uncommon for a Japanese game) and looks like a priest? C'mon, this is the nation that had Christian fundamentalists banning Harry Potter from school libraries because it contained "witchcraft".
I wonder how feasible it would be to make this switchable. We currently have "Kid mode" switches in many games. I wonder how feasible it would be to have a "Christian mode" to disable the display of content that Christians might be offended by.
<rant>Man, I wish that people could practice their religions in peace, and not force their religious views on other people (like stuff like this and banning of abortions).</rant>
May we never see th
As a Christian, I can tell you they can practice in peace, and many of us do; as do many Jews, Muslims, etc. In fact, important parts of my personal religious beliefs are that religion has no place in government, and that trying to force religion on others is inexcusable.
I have no explanation for you about those that do try to force their beliefs on others. All I can say is please don't paint us all with the same brush.
For what it's worth, aside from it not being my place to tell a company what it can or can't put in a game, I find the controversy generated by things like crosses in games to be fundamentally ridiculous. People are ascribing far too much importance to objects that lack inherent meaning. If I could say one thing to the people that get so worked up over it, I would ask them why they seem so much more concerned about earthly objects than their relationship with God.
Given the games visibility it's hard to imagine a church group on a letter writing campaign this early in the process. There's the soccer mom factor where in people with far too much time on their hands and not enough sense to use it well are asked their opinions on products which will be used by other demographics. And of course the headless suit factor which is practically the definition of following and never catching the wave.
I'd bet the latter. More likely they ran into some Walmart-esque troubles. (Hiring illegals because they're cheap and keep their traps shut is a Christian thing to do. Cosmo is communist, but products made exclusively by prison labor in China are all-American.)
It might be something for Sega or Nintendo's american brances to do, help other games cross the pacific. They could have either another subsidiary kind of like their own off brand Disney vs Buena Vista, or just do it on the downlow like how boeing finances used Airbus planes.
I wonder how feasible it would be to have a "Christian mode"
/me ducks...
I think we're safe. Most FPS games already have a God mode...
Mechanik
There was something a little more drastic done in Xenosaga.
**SPOILERS**
There's a scene in which the main antagonist nano-liquifies his arm and jams it into the abdomen of a young-girl-type character. In the original Japanese version it's pretty disturbing and pretty obviously suggestive. The US version replaced this scene was changed to him simply "absorbing" data from her brain through the air. It's been said that some of the creators actually prefer the gentler version.
Two other scenes were edited similarly. There is a full description with screenshots at Zenosaga.com.
It strikes me that self-imposed preemptive censorship (the MPAA's rating system, ESRB, the Hays Commission, the Comics Code Authority, Professor Felten, Cable TV standards & practices...) in America is reliably more draconian than any successful government censorship regime.
Perhaps the mainstream media outlets need to take a hint from the porn industry, tell the govenrment to screw off, and accept the occaisional raid+fine (if it even goes that far) as an advertising expense? "You heard about it on 20/20, now play it! the disgusting new action game BANNED in MICHIGAN!"
Basically anywhere south of Tennessee and east of the Mississippi River in the U.S., if you start Taking The Lord's Name (or symbols) In Vain, you're going to run into trouble with the fundamentalist Christian crowd. (Note the distinction between fundamentalist Christian and just plain ol' ordinary Christian.) IIRC, a Southern Baptist minister once called for a boycott on Mighty Mouse because he believed the super-powered cartoon character was doing cocaine. Not exactly the same thing, I know, but it shows the dedication of the fundies to protect you from what they believe is Immoral (like, say, everything except praying). I think this is who Swartz (and Mastiff Games by extension) is referring to and trying to appease.
Personally, I don't really care, so long as the plot and basic tenets of the story remain intact.
Oh, and I find it personally very ironic that people who misinterpret the Bible suddenly believe themselves capable of infallibly interpreting everything else. Call it flamebait, call it a troll, but it's just something to think about.
While its not a videogame, I sometimes wonder why I dont see "neon genesis evangelion" attacked for its heavy use of christian religious symbols. (not that they mean anything.)
Maybe Its just under their radar.
no
As much as I hate censorship, this is a minor change to the game. What's really odd is that they removed the crosses from the church scene! It appears the use of Christian symbology is taken out of context for most Japanese and therefore they blanket-remove them instead of understanding where they're gratuitous. It's also a shame they're removing things that look like crosses, because like Freudian Psychology (mostly bunk), you see certain common shapes everywhere because they're practical. Stop at the next intersection and ponder this.
I don't think that saying that the symbol of the man who suffered a lot to wash us from our sins lacks an inherent meaning... It's THE most important symbol of the Christian religion, and is expected to be respected as much as a country flag, maybe even more.
And why is the flag of a country to be respected?
I'm being serious. The USA is the only country I can think of where the flag is considered sacred. I hear things about schoolchildren being forced to swear allegiance to this flag and, as a European, I'm just bewildered. Set fire to a Tricolore or a Union Jack and the French or British people will think, oh, he's making a political statement. Set fire to the Stars and Stripes and you'll have Americans frothing at the mouth and acting like you just admitted to forcing nuns to boil babies in their own urine.
Flags aren't sacred - they're bits of cloth with pretty patterns on them. Crosses aren't sacred - they're just one pattern that commonly appears on flags. I'm a Christian too, but as far as I'm concerned when I see someone "desecrating" a cross it's just, well, someone pathetic doing something silly and pointless. It doesn't hurt God, why should it bother me?
There's censorship, and there's localization. Don't confuse the two.
For example, where an American would say 'can you throw this in, to sweeten the deal,' the equivalent Japanese phrase would be 'can you throw this in, to add a little sexy blush to the deal.'
The first phrase would be a perfectly good translation of the second phrase, but not a transliteration. So which is the more appropriate? Depends on what you're going for.
Well, Christian symbology means more to the average North American than it does to the average Japanese, even the Christian ones. Actually, they tend to be pretty pragmatic; you see your Christian priest for this, your Shinto priest for that, and your local Budhist monk for the other.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
i almost expected that the main problems would be with the name of the title...
La Pucelle means "the [female] virgin".
I didnt RTFA, but I guess this is a game about Joan of Arc, aka La Pucelle d'Orleans?
As the anonymous poster noted, I just did. And I do so any time it comes up, though you'd have no way of knowing that.
Admittedly it doesn't seem like you often see those that share my beliefs speaking out. Part of the problem is that they often don't see what is happening. Another part is external pressure. Yet another is that a lot are better people than I am and spend much of their time helping others. The biggest problem though, is that we don't really have a voice.
Fundamentalists are loud -- very loud. And they get propped up by other fundamentalists in influential places. Moderate and liberal voices get drowned out by those screaming about how evil everyone else is.
Do you know who I am? No, because I'm basically nobody. I'm an 18-year-old primary-school-dropout sysadmin that writes Perl and runs an extremely tiny, 4-day-old web hosting company in southeastern Washington State (seventh level of hell, if you're wondering; I want to be back west of the Cascades). My biggest claim to fame is having written an automation system for webcomics in use by maybe half a dozen sites, none of them wildly popular.
You don't hear me because I'm not somebody one listens to. I don't grab media attention when I rant about Christian fundamentalists or come out in support of gay marriage. I have no influence.
You hear me now only because you looked in the right place at the right time. I'm afraid I don't know how to fix that.
I didn't know Sony Playstation had these problems, considering they released Xenogears, which depicted the crucifixion of furry critters.