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Canada7115 Posts
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179413
Blood has been recolored black, smoking and "vulgar language" removed from cutscenes.
StarCraft 2 will have its content censored when it is released in South Korea later this year.
Korean e-sports website FOMOS reports that changes made include coloring the in-game blood black, along with the removal of smoking references and "vulgar" language.
According to a translation of the article by Team Liquid forums member gngfn, Blizzard submitted the new build on May 11, after an earlier version received an adults-only rating by The Games Rating Board.
The new version will receive an Age 12 rating, expanding the game's potential audience drastically.
"Since StarCraft 2 was originally developed to be a game adolescents could enjoy, we're very pleased with the Game Rating Board's decision," said Blizzard, via the translation. "In the remaining time until StarCraft 2 goes on sale, we'll do our best to continue to perfect the game so that even more fans can enjoy it."
The article goes on to say that Blizzard is considering releasing a separate adults-only version of the game with all of the offending content intact, but a decision has not yet been made.
Korean players of the original StarCraft have been in the headlines lately, as a betting scandal involving the nation's top professional players has led to the arrest of at least sixteen people.
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Sucks but it doesn't sound like too big of a change. Black blood instead of red blood might be harder to see on creep though.
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oh my god lol thats so ridiculous, come on KeSPA T_T
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In terms of censorship laws, the same will probably be true for China. I hope Blizzard hits two birds with one stone here, as otherwise it'll delay the release of SC 2 in that censorship-heavy country for at least a year.
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On May 21 2010 08:47 TelecOm1 wrote:
oh my god lol thats so ridiculous, come on KeSPA T_T
It's not Kespa is it? I thought it was the Korean government.
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How soon until we look back on censorship like we look back on slavery?
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It's good that Bliz has given in since it would suck if the koreans didn't have the same access to the game as everyone else. SK and China aren't going to give in over some video game.
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Didn't the exact same thing happen to Brood War though? And they changed it back to the original after some time.
I remember hearing about some version with green blood anyway.
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Kespa is believed to be in league with the Korean government, and some suspect that it was Kespa that contributed to the decision, though there is no proof. The reason people suspected this is because Korea is usually not that anal when it comes to censorship. It's not China, where the censors banned WOTLK because of the undead "showing skeletons and organs." But it could be that the new ratings board has just become more strict. Adult-only for drug-use and blood & gore is not totally incomprehensible - it is something that could very well happen if the moral conservatives were running the US. The problem is when double standards are applied.
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Good to hear it will be expanded to a larger audience, if they even bother caring about their rating system.
Really wish it was an option though, just flick all the vulgarity and smoking back on in the options.
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Good for e-sports, sucks for koreans... especially the adults. I hope they release a mature version for those people.
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Not a fan of censorship, but blood and badwords are not worth an adult rating :D Tbh, theyre not vital to the spirit of SC anyway, so its not a big loss.
gogo 12 yr old sc2 prodigies!
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wow really?
This is hilarious. As if kids with internet access aren't going to see this shit anyways...
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On May 21 2010 08:47 TelecOm1 wrote:
oh my god lol thats so ridiculous, come on KeSPA T_T
This sir, has nothing to do with KeSPA, KeSPA doesn't want Starcraft 2 in Korea as they want to continue and control SC:BW as they are making a decent amount of money on them, at first glance I thought it was KeSPA paying the Korean government's game rating company to give it an A rating to try and minimize the sales in Korea for Starcraft II, To my surprise it was the game ratings bringing it down and they are going to just "censor" it in Korea, this will not affect sales so much, might even bring a much younger audience.
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Blood? Smoking?
Like they don't see someone smoking every week or get a cut every month.
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Man, I hope they changed this in a ridiculously easy way so people could still enjoy it. Say... an .ini file with something stupid like "Blood Color = Black" and "Language Filter = On" just so koreans can enjoy the game as it is, feel bad, hate censoring.
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Fucking lol... because kids don't see smoking, vulgar language or blood in their daily lives.
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There was far more blood in BW, and there were cutscenes/units smoking. Seems a bit odd. Maybe the 3D graphics makes a difference. 
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One thing to note: adult-only ratings aren't necessarily restrictive. At least in the US, ESRB ratings are more like guidelines for parents than alcohol laws. I'm not sure how things are done in Korea, though; I have heard that you need to input your SSN in order to get onto certain gaming services, so that might be a big deal if you're a minor.
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That's all they had to do to get the teen rating back for the game? Nice.
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EPT
