EPTSC2 has less blood in Germany - Page 2
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zatic
Zurich15359 Posts
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TwilightStar
United States649 Posts
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Excalibur_Z
United States12240 Posts
And yes, realistic violence. Space marines getting killed by enormous cows with scythe-like tusks is extremely realistic. | ||
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spinesheath
Germany8679 Posts
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prOxi.Beater
Denmark626 Posts
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Stratos_speAr
United States6959 Posts
On September 02 2009 03:36 AdunToridas wrote: Blizzard: Starcraft 2 with less blood in Germany It seems like Blizzard wants to adjust Starcraft 2 for the German market this has been revealed in an interview. Just recently it has been reported that Blizzard will cut Diablo 3 for the German and the Australian markets. Now it has been announced in an interview at the fan website instarcraft2.de that this also applies to Starcraft 2. Allen Dilling, Lead 3D Artist of Starcraft 2 said that there will be slight adjustments - blood will be removed or changed in color. Cutting enemies in half is one of the discussed things, too. But According to Dilling only few units are affected, because there are a lot of robot units and those wouldn't be changed since they don't bleed. Blizzard wants to get an USK (German rating board) rating for Starcraft 2 that restricts the game for those below 12 years of age only. The exact modifications have not been decided on yet and the German employees of Activision Blizzard will be consulted first. [source] (And for German TLers the original interview in German.) It kind of sucks for the German people that they have a rating system that strict in their country, and it's pretty frustrating to see this kind of censorship (I'm very libertarian), but it actually doesn't make me that incredibly angry. I think I've just kind of given up on caring at this point. Humanity's fucked, we're too stupid to do any real good. | ||
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Retsukage
United States1002 Posts
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Husky
United States3362 Posts
Censorship is so dumb. It doesnt affect me so I cant get that mad, but I would be furious if its something I had to listen with. I'm pretty sure Germans can handle a little bit of blood... | ||
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imperator-xy
Germany1377 Posts
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Mastermind
Canada7096 Posts
On September 02 2009 05:12 imperator-xy wrote: i am german and i dont see the point how this could somehow lower the fun It has nothing to do with fun. It is about how the government wants to control you. | ||
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DoomFish
Germany19 Posts
Well, guess what? I just decided to get the english version, with original voices and graphics that don't let you feel like you got "beschissen" as we Germans say. Do you know what they did to Metal Slug Anthology? They made the blood white! Fucking white! I don't want to see a Space Marine die and think he just came. What the heck?! I prefer graphics which are nice to look at. German politicans just do this to not deal with the actual problems, which cause those kids to run amok! Gaming gets killed in Germany! (They had to cancel wc3 tournaments due to people who are afraid of "killer games".) | ||
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zatic
Zurich15359 Posts
Here is how it works: The government issues licenses for rating bodies for media. The industry itself is called to install an institution that will rate their media, voluntarily. The government has no direct influence on how the media will be rated. Ultimately they could revoke the license, however that would have to be justified and a couple of questionable rating will not suffice. Also, the rating board would probably file a complaint instantly, and if there is anyone the government does not want to face in Germany, it's the judges. And, the government would have to issue a new license to another institution or all media would be sold unrated (which was the case with computer games for quite some time). So, each industry, movies, computer games, arcades, etc, has their own rating board. The USK, which is the rating agency for computer games, generally does a very good job. In fact, they are under constant attack from right wing politicians and NGOs that want to replace them for being too soft when rating games. The real problem is the German distributors being scared of high age ratings, whether this is justified or not. They just care about # sold and they don't care about the games. So the ask the game makers to provide them "softened" versions upfront, so they are guaranteed a low age rating. This leads to those mutilated games with content removed or altered. Often they go totally overboard, for example this time with Starcraft2. I am convinced Starcraft would not get a 16+ rating. As I said, generally the USK does a pretty good job and surely does not apply simply one dimensional amount of blood numbers. It's just that the distributors don't care about the games and just want their 12+ boxes in the shelves no matter what. But, again, it's not the government that does this. In fact, 'concerned' politicians have been trying to ban Counter-Strike for 10 years now to no avail. They find ever better ways to hit ESPORTS where it hurts but banning or censoring games just like that doesn't work in Germany either. And, after all you will just be able to buy the English version in Germany, it's not like it won't be sold. | ||
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DoomFish
Germany19 Posts
On September 02 2009 05:28 zatic wrote: OK people lighten up. It's not the government that is 'censoring' here, at least not directly. We have no censorship, freedom of expression is right in our constitution, not in some amendment :-) But, Germany is a very complicated place. Here is how it works: The government issues licenses for rating bodies for media. The industry itself is called to install an institution that will rate their media, voluntarily. The government has no direct influence on how the media will be rated. Ultimately they could revoke the license, however that would have to be justified and a couple of questionable rating will not suffice. Also, the rating board would probably file a complaint instantly. And, the government would have to issue a new license to another institution or all media would be sold unrated (which was the case with computer games for quite some time). So, each industry, movies, computer games, arcades, etc, has their own rating board. The USK, which is the rating agency for computer games, generally does a very good job. In fact, they are under constant attack from right wing politicians and NGOs that want to replace them for being too soft when rating games. The real problem is the German distributors being scared of high age ratings, whether this is justified or not. They just care about # sold and they don't care about the games. So the ask the game makers to provide them "softened" versions upfront, so they are guaranteed a low age rating. This leads to those mutilated games with content removed or altered. Often they go totally overboard, for example this time with Starcraft2. I am convinced Starcraft would not get a 16+ rating. As I said, generally the USK does a pretty good job and surely does not apply simply one dimensional amount of blood numbers. It's just that the distributors don't care about the games and just want their 12+ boxes in the shelves no matter what. But, again, it's not the government that does this. In fact, 'concerned' politicians have been trying to ban Counter-Strike for 10 years now to no avail. They find ever better ways to hit ESPORTS where it hurts but banning or censoring games just like that doesn't work in Germany either. And, after all you will just be able to buy the English version in Germany, it's not like it won't be sold. And you know what sucks about Germany, too? It's never as easy as it seems as first. ;D | ||
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spinesheath
Germany8679 Posts
On September 02 2009 05:17 Mastermind wrote: It has nothing to do with fun. It is about how the government wants to control you. You are seeing things here. We indeed have a problem with censorship at the moment, but that is because of a law that has to do with child pornography on the internet and could lead to lots of internet censorship. The government obviously only controls the underaged with game censorship. According to our Grundgesetz children are to be protected from the influence of violence and pornography, and that's what the censorship does. After all, there are plenty of parents that don't care what their children watch or play. Also, the system has become less restrictive over time imo. Stuff that would have been 16+ 5-10 years ago now is 12+. Maybe the 16+ should be changed to 15+, but apart from that I think the system works fine. Also, if the parents think that their child is free to play whatever game, they can just go and buy it for them. I don't even think it would be illegal to do so. I probably could continue ranting, but in short: I don't get why the whole world is so damn bloodthirsty. If you play a game because you like to kill and see fountains of blood something is wrong with you. Seriously. | ||
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aqui
Germany1023 Posts
On September 02 2009 05:02 HuskyTheHusky wrote: Ok, I seriously have to know. What the fuck is wrong with the German government? I live in the US and something like this would NEVER fly, even though a huge percentage of our population is conservative. No matter how hard Bill O'reilly would push something like this it simply would never happen. What is different about Germany that something like this can pass? Censorship is so dumb. It doesnt affect me so I cant get that mad, but I would be furious if its something I had to listen with. I'm pretty sure Germans can handle a little bit of blood... You say something like that would never fly in the US, yet live broadcastings of your superbowl are delayed to cut nudity out, correct me if im wrong. Assuming im not it is both stupid ofc, but reducing nudity makes less sense than violence imho. Wether a civilian institution (in the US case i guess?) or a government forbids something makes no difference to me. The pressure from society is even worse i think, because i can try to resist a government, but not the pressure of my society. Btw The USK who does the rating is no government organisation, there is "just" a law that makes their ratings binding for the sellers. | ||
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FabledIntegral
United States9232 Posts
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hixhix
1156 Posts
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eMbrace
United States1300 Posts
to be honest, I think showing blood when I pop someone in the head and watching them die teaches a more positive lesson than pretending bullets don't hurt people. germany is silly | ||
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onmach
United States1241 Posts
The reason these ratings agencies exist is because they work. Each ratings agency takes a crack at the game and unless it is like a disney movie, they order something to be taken out. In fallout 3, objections by the rating agencies in australia caused them to make changes. But bethesda didn't want to pay for distributing different versions of the game, so they just released the edited game to every country. That is why children are invincible in fallout without modifications. This is how texas censors text books. Since texas is a big state and it has a rule that every text book must be approved by the state, a bunch of right wingers show up at the state wide school text book approval meetings and demand aspects like evolution be toned down or removed or that references to christianity be made more positive. The book publishers know that if their books don't make it in texas, they will lose a massive portion of their yearly revenue, so they put up no fight whatsoever and make any change they are asked. Once they gain approval in texas they then sell those edited textbooks everywhere else with minimal modifications. It is an insidious system because it just looks like a ratings system (who could object to that?), but realize that this system is designed to affect you, regardless of what country you are in. And know that it works extremely well. | ||
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Unentschieden
Germany1471 Posts
The bad thing isn´t that Germans can´t have Marines being cut in half but Politicians pretending that it would have ANY effect on child violence. School shooting here inevetably result in crys for new Gun and Censorship laws distracting from reforms that would REALLY help. | ||
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