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A Survey of Nintendo's Game Censorship Policies
ccnull writes "Found a page which offers a survey of Nintendo's policies on censorship, paying particular attention to how U.S. games differ from their Japanese counterparts. It's not just blood splatters, the author has interesting comparative screen grabs showing "clothed" statues and de-Nazified Hitlers."
Indeed, but if you read the rest of the article, you'll see that they, indeed, exaggerated. Banning the red cross in a med-kit because it could be seen as a religious symbol? Replacing "Bars" with "Cafes"? WW2 games couldn't have Nazis in them?
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that kind of depends.
would it make star wars any more fun if they changed the mos eisley cantina into a starbucks cafe?
you see, subtle things do change the story to some extent, and the target audience - if you make a story for adults you'd usually could use places like bars and exotic dancers in the telling of the plot.
but if you make a kids book you wouldnt be using drugs or strippers... what this censorship did was that it took adult targeted games and re-targeted them at kids.
(and come on, covering statues? that's just lame. what's true though is that they could have done this because usa's err.. weird stance on some issues. like EXPLODING HEAD == OK! titty == BAD).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
> And really, does removing the cross from medkits make a game any less fun?
Definitely yes! I like realistic games, and medkits without red crosses make no sense. Those who feel disrespected with it simply shalt buy the games. I don't want my freedom threatened by others' religious beliefs. They can chose to not see that stuff, nobody is forcing them, but they try to force me into their systems, and that's where the real disrespect begins!
I think they define a range with that, anything, from nudity to rape, is to much.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Am I going to be the only one to say good job to Nintendo for actually having guidelines? Sure the censorship just got.. weird sometime (grey blood- what on earth?) but for the most part, Nintendo realized their market audience, and realized what would be acceptable in the American mainstream culture. Lets go over these one by one. 1) include sexually suggestive or explicit content including rape and/or nudity; Wow, I have no problem with Nintendo censoring that stuff on my NES- I was only 7 at the time. I certainly wouldn't want my kids playing that either. At the time, THIS was Nintendo's intended audience in america- not teenagers, not 27 year old geeks. 2) contain language or depiction which specifically denigrates members of either sex; Japan has.. a lot of problems as a society- and one of them is that sexist language is usually tolerated- especially in the late 80s and early 90s before the feminist movement caught on in Japan. These references would simply not fit in with todays (or the late 80s early 90s) USA culture. 3) depict random, gratuitous, and/or excessive violence; Meh, looks like you can't kill civilians or blow up hamsters in microwaves; ok. GTA wasn't attempting to publish on the NES; those types of games were long off. 4) depict graphic illustration of death; This is a pretty annoying one- it's why Mortal Kombat was so horrible for the SNES. Of course, this was a time with no rating system; I again ask you- looking back on the time when you were 7; do you think you should have been exposed to graphic illustration of death on a daily basis from your videogames? 5) depict domestic violence and/or abuse; Again, Japanese culture VS the USA culture. If you WANT to see domestic violence and abuse, you're a sicko- go someplace else. 6) depict excessive force in a sports game beyond what is inherent in actual contact sports; uhh. sure. 7) reflect ethnic, religious, nationalistic, or sexual stereotypes of language; this includes symbols that are related to any type of racial, religious, nationalistic, or ethnic group, such as crosses, pentagrams, God, Gods (Roman mythological gods are acceptable), Satan, hell, Buddha; Again, Japan's probably the most racist first world country out there today, and they're native games tend to reflect the stereotypes they feel as a culture- Nintendo Of America knew what they were doing when they decided they should probably edit out refereces to the N word, etc. As for the Gods thing- why piss anyone off? 8) use profanity or obscenity in any form or incorporate language or gestures that could be offensive by prevailing public standards and tastes; Again, 7 year old audience. There's nothign to complain about here. There's no reason for games to use curse words in 8 bits. 9) incorporate or encourage the use of illegal drugs, smoking materials, and/or alcohol (Nintendo does not allow a beer or cigarette ad to be placed on an arena, stadium or playing field wall, or fence in a sports game) This one might seem weird at first- but do you remember the huge anti smoking advertisement dealie that was going on in the US at a time? I wouldn't want my Nintendo of america to come under fire from idiot parents who say NES Solid Snake teachers their kids to smoke- would you? 10) include subliminal political messages or overt political statements Pretty broad What I'm saying is- while there are bad exmaples of the censorship in the games we love; there's been hundreds of cases where Nintendo censorship just caused a bad game with racial/sexual whatever overtones to not be released in the USA- leading to backlash against videogames.
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When private individuals or groups of individuals revise materials they created or created at their behest, it is usually referred to as editing and not censorship.
Auto manufacturers in both Japan and the USA change designs between countries to best suit each market. A concept is being muted in the transition; so is that too censorship?
The altering of products to conform to different markets (i.e. what research has led someone to believe different markets will respond best to) is nothing new. I don't see it as particularly evil, either.
Blame the very vocal "think of the children" advocates in America.
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These guidelines are well out of date. Nintendo no longer censors games and hasn't done so for about 10 years. These sort of articles really are unnecessary as they only reiterate the common misconception that Nintendo is for kids. This is the type of crap that is hurting Nintendo and may eventually lead them to the same destiny as Sega. If anyone censors games it is Sony. A fairly recent example of this is the game BMX XXX, in which the PS2 version was censored and the GameCube version stayed intact.
Sorry, but this statement is very silly. Stories about human beings might include domestic violence. Books, movies--why not video games? Not video games for kids, certainly, but this is what is meant by the author when he says these rules locked Nintendo into being a "kiddie" company.
I watch The Sopranos--it doesn't make me a sicko, and neither would a video game showing domestic violence in a similar context.
demi
People have a problem with ORGANIZED prayer, which, if a teacher was leading it, might make those who aren't religious or of a different religion, uncomfortable.
Anytime you think about organized prayer in schools, pretend the organized prayer is to Allah. Still comfortable with it? Or is it only comfortable when it's Christianity.
This is not directed at the parent but at "prayer in school" people in general.
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?