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South Park Game Censored On Consoles Outside North America
RogueyWon writes "South Park has long been vocal in its opposition to media censorship from any source, launching scathing attacks on everything from 'think of the children' moral crusades to the censorship of religious imagery. In a curious twist, therefore, Ubisoft, the publisher of the upcoming video game South Park: The Stick of Truth, has decided to censor certain scenes from the game's Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions from release in Europe, Australia, the Middle East and Africa. American versions, as well as the European PC release, so far appear to have escaped the censor's pen."
ON YOUR WEDDING DYEAH
Anything to incite civil unrest against a group of people(no, the government doesn't count) and lies to discredit people.
Those should be disallowed.
Anything else should be free game.
The Discount Window is merely bankers' language for the loan
window. When banks run short of money, the Federal Reserve
stands ready as the "bankers' bank" to lend it. There are many rea-
sons for them to need loans. Since they hold "reserves" of only
about one or two per cent of their deposits in vault cash and eight or
nine per cent in securities, their operating margin is extremely thin.
It is common for them to experience temporary negative balances
caused by unusual customer demand for cash or unusually large
clusters of checks all clearing through other banks at the same time.
Sometimes they make bad loans and, when these former "assets"
are removed from their books, their "reserves" are also decreased
and may, in fact, become negative. Finally, there is the profit motive.
When banks borrow from the Federal Reserve at one interest rate
and lend it out at a higher rate, there is an obvious advantage. But
that is merely the beginning. When a bank borrows a dollar from the
Fed, it becomes a one-dollar reserve. Since the banks are required to
keep reserves of only about ten per cent, they actually can loan up to
nine dollars for each dollar borrowed.
Let's take a look at the math. Assume the bank receives $1 mil-
lion from the Fed at a rate of 8%. The total annual cost, therefore, is
$80,000 (.08 X $1,000,000). The bank treats the loan as a cash deposit,
which means it becomes the basis for manufacturing an additional
$9 million to be lent to its customers. If we assume that it lends that
money at 11% interest, its gross return would be $990,000 (.11 X
$9,000,000). Subtract from this the bank's cost of $80,000 plus an
appropriate share of its overhead, and we have a net return of about
$900,000. In other words, the bank borrows a million and can almost
double it in one year. 1 That's leverage] But don't forget the source of
that leverage: the manufacture of another $9 million which is added
to the nation's money supply.
Heh... You got in trouble! You got in trouble!
Violate local laws, get censored. Dont like the laws, move and/or get them changed.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
...when you could play Hello Kitty: Island Adventure instead?
I dare say that it's a result of Ubisoft lazily deciding to produce and test only a single version for the quote-unquote international market, and having to meet the lowest-common-denominator levels of creative expression permitted in the Middle-Eastern and Australian regimes.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Are you sure that the US release wasn't also censored in some way?
Here's how it works: US companies submit their games to US ratings boards FIRST, then they remove shit the US censors don't like, and once the US censors approve it, they sent it to ratings boards in other countries, who sometimes remove OTHER stuff.
However, we, the consumers, never see the ORIGINAL version before the US censors make their cuts, because the game companies don't bother trying to put those things in non-US versions.
When the Australian classification board said no to a few things in Saints Row IV, a big fuss was made, but Volition have mentioned in the past that US ratings board said no to a few things, and there was no outcry.
From this, we learn: People are fine with censorship in the USA, but if it's allowed in the USA it should be allowed everywhere.
Each censored scene is replaced by an image background and a description text selected by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, Ubisoft said.
Apparently Trey and Matt are ok with releasing a censored version.
Anything to incite civil unrest against a group of people(no, the government doesn't count) and lies to discredit people.
That pretty much means NO criticisms against religion - especially Islam.
The things that are done in this World in the name of [insert religion - including Buddhists ] is appalling. The religious fundamentalists, unwilling and unable to adjust to the modern World, are bullying everyone else with violence, lobbying and other political maneuvering and outright lies - like Creation Museums.
There's a point when you just have to stand up to the bully. Those people need to be told - shouted down - that they are backwards, full of shit, and if they are going to live among us, they need to STFU.
Or compromise like the Amish do in the US. I highly respect those folks. They stick to their values, they don't try to force them on others, and they found a way to live peacefully and well with the modern World.
Ubisoft as nothing to do with this censorship btw. Ubisoft and other publishers do the games. It's the countries that makes the censorship so the main problem comes from those places...not the company. Look at Saint Row 4 problems in Australia. They dare censor and block the game but gave multiple different version of their blocking reasons...which changed from a day to day basis which made no sense. Censorship usually happens because of a lack of knowledge over computers, the game itself and the main reason of the censorship too oddly enough.
PC Gaming enthousiast that gives comments, opinions and reviews on Games. I'm just having fun with games while doing let
Wait, wait, wait...
1. Be anti-censorship and control
2. Have Ubisoft make your game
I take it EA Games was busy that day? What the actual fuck were they thinking?
Because you know. Germans are so strict an all with their cannibalism and nutty sex clubs.
"That's a vague explanation, but it may have something to do with Ubisoft hoping to secure release in Germany, which employs stricter guidelines on video game content than other European countries."
Whats the point point in censoring something that clearly labelled as 18+?
Hopefully the South Park guys will replace those scenes with obvious 'censored' graphics and text that lampoon the government/entity that caused said scenes to be removed from the game. They are good for doing things like that.
Considering South Park has been offending for decades, there's just 7 scenes in the game worth censoring? What about critter blood orgies, gay satan sex ir Martha Stewart? I had such high hopes.
Why would you sensor in the EU, we don't even *beep* on television, anything goes here! cmoooooon!
Yer lerp, yer lorp! yer berp, yer derp, you blerp, you blorp...AAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE
Guess the name of that one!
The last two weeks we've been too busy to play video games and, look at what we did. There's been drama, action, romance... I mean honestly you guys, do we need video games to play? Maybe we started to rely on Microsoft and Sony so much that we forgot that all we need to play are the simplest things. Like, like this. [grabs a stick from the ground] We could just play with this. Screw video games, dude! Who needs them?!
-Glires
Really I can't sit through even a few minutes of that stupidity. I don't understand the fascination with crap like this. Like so many other shows on TV, I block it using my cable parental controls. I can block by time, channel, and rating. But, I say I'm blocking it "By stupidity" because it makes me want to puke. I'm sure most of you will disagree with me, but I don't really care. You can keep watching crap if you want to and I'll stick to the National Geographic and the History Channel. It's a free country. (Yes I know those channels show some junk too, but its best there is to choose from.)
Will ubisoft rape America the way Lucas raped Indiana Jones?
otherwise known as staff working 100+ hour weeks for 30 cents an hour.
A mini-game in which the doctor is performing an abortion on the player.
A mini-game in which the player is performing an abortion on the character Randy.
Five anal probing scenes involving someone actively being probed. The scenes play out as normal before and after the active probing sequences.
Looks like part of the game is spent playing a Sea Org member of Scientology.
Jand the bootom of OpenBSD versus confirmed that *BSD NetBSD posts on IN TIME. FOR ALL to underscore to the crowd in
Do region locks still apply?
How, in a legal way, am I supposed to acquire this art piece in the version the artists wanted me to appreciate?
To make an analogy to a copyright doctrine established in Sony v. Universal and other cases, perhaps some kinds of speech should be considered "contributory rioting" if they're made with the intent of causing others to riot.
here is a difference between 'remove this content or you'll get an M/T/AO rating' and 'remove this content or we will outlaw your product.'
If a product is not censored down to M or lower, then Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony Computer Entertainment will outlaw it. Console makers don't want AO games on their platforms, and national legislation implementing the WIPO Copyright Treaty outlaws going around the console game vetting process.
Bethesda got in trouble with the ESRB for omitting a graphically wounded hanging corpse when submitting Oblivion for review.
I'd bet a lot of films submitted to MPAA and video games submitted to ESRB fail to declare the same thing, especially given the habit of displaying an image of Jesus of Nazareth nailed to a cross among members of certain Christian denominations.
They censored a game because of content? Ug, "think of the children."
The children now deprived...
If this is the case, will there be a legal addon to bring back the censored parts of the game?
i.e... Carmageddon had (in the german version off the top of my head) the peds changed to zombies, and there was an official patch to change them back to peds?
anyway... not like you can't accidentally download the US version.
Perhaps they should use more family friendly content, say from the Woodland Critter Christmas episode.
is The group that metadiscussions I thought it was my officers. Others Officers. Others 'doing some7hing' no matter how there are some
What you describe is political correctness. Where does it stop? Each one of us is a member in various groups of people: male/female, some race(s), social level, fitness level, etc.
PC is very bad for society because it stifles freedom of speech by creating polarised taboos. They're polarised in that, for any given topic, some people (usually the perceived underdogs) are allowed to speak negatively while others are not, regardless of the truth. Ironically, although PC tries to appear anti-bigotry, it is in itself bigoted because it establishes polarised taboos.
Taboos are bad because they prevent people from voicing legitimate concerns, thereby preventing people from having complete and honest discussions about those concerns. If people can't discuss legitimate problems, then improving our societies becomes hit and miss, usually miss.
That is why complete freedom of speech is so important, and why PC is do dangerous. And that is why your examples lead to a bad situation.
Many people have fallen for the misconception (or rather: lie) that PC is an attempt at tact. Of course, PC and tact are very different. Tact enables one to honestly state ones point without breaking down communications. In doing so, one is able to continue to convey opinions and the overall mood is improved, leading to a greater desire to understand and cooperate - all without compromising the truth.
Among those who confuse PC and tact there seem to be two camps:
- Those in the pro-PC camp don't seem to understand that enforcing PC actually hurts people. Sometimes PC hurts the very people that it intends to protect.
- Those in the militantly anti-PC camp seem to think that any attempt at tact is pandering to PC and fail to understand the value of respecting others, thereby "legitimising" the effort of the pro-PC group. (Well, at least that's how the pro-PC group sees it.) Not to mention that tactlessness breaks down communications, thereby rendering any speech (free or not) pointless.
it is when the gov request censoring or you cant publish your game in that specific country... Ubisoft didn't want trouble so they decided to go pre-emptive on the sensorship business before the gov or organisation goes apeshit on it like it happened in Australia multiple times.
PC Gaming enthousiast that gives comments, opinions and reviews on Games. I'm just having fun with games while doing let
Per TFA the game is being stripped of two abortions and five anal probes, allegedly to gain access to the German market. Have no idea where your rant on religion has its basis.
We all know how envious South Park is of Canada.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
They should just release both versions everywhere. Case solved.
South Park openly criticizes Scientology. They lost a voice actor over it, but that just inspired them to milk the Streisand effect and push the joke farther.
...carried out beheadings in this century?
How many synagogues did they burn?
How many honor killings did they carry out?
Well. you should keep in mind this is THEIR world. The various flavors of religious folk do outnumber us all across the planet. Maybe we should be grateful that at least they still let us live here. Well.. most of them do.. for now anyway...
There have been a few games I've seen that didn't bother with the ESRB, they just got a PEGI rating and that keeps the retailers happy. Civ 4 was such a title. No ESRB rating, even in the US, just PEGI. Kept Target, BestBuy, etc happy. Retailers don't seem to be that fussy about the rating system used, they just seem to want one. So supposing the ESRB were being dicks, but PEGI was being reasonable, a company could use the PEGI rating instead and that would work just fine in the US.
Of course on the PC side there's Steam, which is changing things because they have no fucks to give about ratings near as I can tell. They have plenty of indy titles that are unrated because the devs don't submit them for ratings. Given that Steam is becoming a major way of buying games it may lead to publishers being more willing to try games with content that would earn it a higher rating.
Most censorship in the US you see is self censorship of one variety or another. Like on TV, the only thing the government steps in on is over-the-air channels. The airwaves, belonging to the public, are regulated by the government. On cable? Do what you like.
So why then do cable channels censor/regulate various things? Well they internally decide what they want to show, what they are ok with. Usually this is based around what advertisers want and what kind of audience they target. But they are welcome to change it as they wish. Some do vary rules by time of day or things like that.
Same deal with game ratings. Publishers tend to avoid AO ratings because a number of retailers, like Walmart, refuse to carry AO games. So they shoot for M, or below. However the government isn't involved. You are free to make AO games, and you are free to sell games that are unrated at all. This is different from some places where a game gets refused classification by a government body and then cannot be legally sold.
Though the government has rumbled about more mandatory ratings/censorship in the US so far it has been nothing but rumblings. The government is fairly hands off.
in what way do you consider Sony v. Universal garbage?
You'll find that I disagree with many laws and do not think laws are necessarily moral.
So on what grounds do you disagree with the reasoning applied in MGM v. Grokster and other cases that establish an "inducement" or "incitement" legal theory?
Perhaps it's about protecting the public from people who [could plead insanity]
That makes no sense to the topic at hand, which is about free speech.
I was referring to riot-related speech restriction. Let me reword it to tie it into the topic: Some people might not construe free speech to cover knowingly speaking in such a manner as to incite undiagnosed insane people within earshot to riot.
Publish the censored and uncensored versions.
Put them on the shelf side by side clearly labelled.
Let the market choose its poison.
Myanmar.
'Nuff said.
Look it up. The Buddhist right wing clergy are being assholes.
Buddhists in those countries (SE Asia) are assholes. We don't hear about it here because there are dipshit third World countries. And there's the cult of personality with the Dali Lama.
But never the less, religion is evil.
ALL religions suffer the same treatment. Brilliant founder - assholes fuck it up later. Same with Buddhism.
The goddamn Japs fucked it up so bad as to make it a goddamn military cult.
Well. you should keep in mind this is THEIR world. The various flavors of religious folk do outnumber us all across the planet. Maybe we should be grateful that at least they still let us live here. Well.. most of them do.. for now anyway...
I am working on exterminating religion and its followers.
Religion is Evil and so are its followers.
There are no exceptions.
Whether singly or in concert, so when they censor, it's OK, right? Sorry champ, both examples you gave are censorship, and the fact that Americans are happy to have corporations make their decisions for them doesn't change that one iota.
Myanmar. 'Nuff said. Look it up. The Buddhist right wing clergy are being assholes.
That's disingenuous. Those assholes are dressing up as monks for fun and for profit, not "in the name of Buddhism" (even if that's what they say), and despite the great incentives in that country for assholes to dress up as monks, many of those monks are genuine Buddhists.
Despite Buddhisms many wrong notions (like reincarnation), meditation is immensely powerful. It's like martial arts for your brain. It significantly improves concentration, focus and clarity as well as being a tool that can readily create happiness. Buddhism has done so much to improve peoples lives that assholes in Burma and Thailand don't make it bad.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds -- Albert Einstein
Or compromise like the Amish do in the US. I highly respect those folks. They stick to their values, they don't try to force them on others, and they found a way to live peacefully and well with the modern World.
Have you ever lived --within-- an Amish community? While I agree they seem to respect outsiders [when they finally decided to accept them] they were the same way as Muslims, and you post is misleading.
The Majority of Muslims can take a joke, it is the 'old guard' [if you will] of the Religion that has gone to extremes to protect what fundamentals they think God would want to protect there religion from ridicule. The Amish are the same way, and were extreme within there system when it come to making sure outsiders didn't poison there communities, or poison there religious beliefs, which are just as ridiculous as the old guard for Muslim religion.
Misuse of a religion is always the problem.
Well. Except abrahamic religions where only misuse can make it decent.
The torah is fucked.
Despite Buddhisms many wrong notions (like reincarnation)
We do not know that, and neither do you. We live in a mystery in that regard. All we can do if we want to be truthful is admit we don't know what happens after death. We simply don't know. That's the truth. If you can't admit that to yourself, you are clinging to your notions the same way religious fundamentals cling to theirs. Its okay to have spiritual ideas, but none of us can honestly speak in certainties like that. You have no idea if reincarnation is true or false. To say you do is the type of arrogant/fearful clinging that keeps so many people from ever actually growing (I would say growing spiritually, but that is just my opinion based on the way I define spirituality). The idea is to live in wonder, not cling to fixed ideas about those things which are ultimately unknowable.
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Despite Buddhisms many wrong notions (like reincarnation)
We do not know that, and neither do you. We live in a mystery in that regard. All we can do if we want to be truthful is admit we don't know what happens after death. We simply don't know. That's the truth
There's lots of evidence that thinking and consciousness require a functioning brain, therefore it is reasonable to believe that you cease to exist if your brain decomposes. At this point, if you want to believe in an afterlife, you need to propose a mechanism for transmigration. The wikipedia page on Bardo says "The intermediate being ...existence is demonstrated by the fact that it cannot have any discontinuity in time and space between the place and moment of death and those of rebirth, and therefore it must be that the two existences belonging to the same series are linked in time and space by an intermediate stage." Which doesn't even constitute evidence let alone proof.
you are clinging to your notions the same way religious fundamentals cling to theirs
You're making wild assumptions about my convictions. I was open to the idea of reincarnation for many years, now once again I'm open to the idea that our universe is statistically likely to be a simulation, therefore an afterlife is possible. It's just that there's only worthless evidence for an afterlife and strong evidence against it.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds -- Albert Einstein
I'll have to watch an episode of South Park all the way through though. The couple I've seen bits of are funny enough for that to possibly be worth the effort.
will it be available on Wii? That might encourage me to actually use the thing.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"