What's the deal with video game censors??

I was thinking today about how wierd video game censors are.

What is the deal with companies censoring arcade games or games with only a small amount of violence, but then sometimes the put gratuitous amounts of mature content in a game (i.e. violence, nudity, etc.)?

For example, Metal Slug X has white blood, but then a game like BMX XX has tons of crap in it. Why, do companies censor a small amount of cortoonic violence as in Metal Slug X, but seems to just pour it on in games like Grand Theft Auto and others?

I just think it's crap. We should be able to have ports of games without such stupid censorship.

Yup, i agree.There are tons of game out there with blood and they were not censored.Examples include mortal kombat: DA, vice city, The getaway and then some.Those games were released in the US with those things intact.The getaway even has tons of swearing.It seems dumb to censor games with minimal violence.Even most of the KOF english versions have the blood taken out on default setting even though there is a way to enable it.Jojo's bizarre adventure has the red blood taken out for the US version(DC).LB2 US DC version was fucked with.It seems that games with minimal violence are censored if there is blood or some other things.Very evident in their english versions.Don't know why but it seems dumb to take out something that is very minimal.

<small>[ February 21, 2003, 12:13 AM: Message edited by: Devil_Gans ]</small>

Yea I really don't think it made sense to screw around with the US LB 2 for DC. How many kids knew what Last Blade was or would buy it anyway? I don't think an M rating would have made much of a difference in the sales numbers. As usual, hindsight is 20/20.

In the case of Darkstalkers 3 for PSX, the white blood looked worse when Dimitri did his "Midnight Bliss" super.

You guys are missing a little detail here...

The so-called "uncensored" games are domestic,

while the ones that have the important details

like red blood and gore- are imported Japanese games.

I believe US and JPN game companies must have done some sort of contract or agreement that would limit the material to their own regions. We know that censorship has been practiced here since the first Samurai Shodown game.

Though, what I find interesting is, in Japan they have similar censorship, like no pubic hairs, realistic genitalia, guns or specific war themes...

Yet allow all the blood and gore they want! loco

One of the reasons why I for the most part stay away from the mainstream, commercialized masses entertainment industry.

Cnidarian:
Though, what I find interesting is, in Japan they have similar censorship, like no pubic hairs, realistic genitalia, guns or specific war themes...

Yet allow all the blood and gore they want!

Click to expand...

Guns are OK, war themes seem to be no problem, and these days you can show pubic hair, but still no genitalia.

The thing I don't get is that rape and (simulated) child porn are no problem. Even in mainstream adult magazines they have layouts where it looks like the model is about to get raped.

tsukaesugi:

Cnidarian:
Though, what I find interesting is, in Japan they have similar censorship, like no pubic hairs, realistic genitalia, guns or specific war themes...

Yet allow all the blood and gore they want!

Click to expand...

Guns are OK, war themes seem to be no problem, and these days you can show pubic hair, but still no genitalia.

The thing I don't get is that rape and (simulated) child porn are no problem. Even in mainstream adult magazines they have layouts where it looks like the model is about to get raped.

Click to expand...

Ah, so its basically no genitalia, huh?

Wow. The last time I checked up on japanese censorship policies, there were a lot more that were prohibited.

I know about the rape thing, there are many mainstream comics depicting it, in fact there was even a comic called "Rapeman"... spock Its fairly absurd, I agree.

The reason I know all this is because I have bought many movies in the past that were banned here in North America thru Japanese distributors and channels. Most of these are still unavailable in the US.

And just to be clear, no it was not pornography! :o

<small>[ February 21, 2003, 09:57 PM: Message edited by: Cnidarian ]</small>

John:
In the case of Darkstalkers 3 for PSX, the white blood looked worse when Dimitri did his "Midnight Bliss" super.

Click to expand...

Are you sure it's white? I was certain it was violet.

Cnidarian:
Ah, so its basically no genitalia, huh?

Wow. The last time I checked up on japanese censorship policies, there were a lot more that were prohibited.

I know about the rape thing, there are many mainstream comics depicting it, in fact there was even a comic called "Rapeman"... Its fairly absurd, I agree.

The reason I know all this is because I have bought many movies in the past that were banned here in North America thru Japanese distributors and channels. Most of these are still unavailable in the US.

And just to be clear, no it was not pornography!

Click to expand...

lol, it sounds like you're talking about mainstream movies and games, while I'm talking about porn!

Again, there are lots of guns in movies, obviously, and war movies like 'Pearl Harbour' play over here, so I'm not sure what guidelines or laws you're refering to exactly. You could very well be correct. Lots of laws and things in this country get ignored. Pachinko is technically illegal, but that doesn't stop the pachinko industry from generating more revenue than the automobile industry!