Gears of War in Germany? Not going to happen.

[Rolf N]

It's very different from selling XXX games in the US.

You can advertise an XXX game in the US. There are no laws forbidding that. You can put the box out on an open shelf in full view of everyone that comes in, provided there is no XXX material on the cover. The only thing US law requires is age verification of the customer.

Many stores don't carry or don't display such things as a matter of corporate policy, but that's not law.

Let me explain the difference to you.
You can't advertise unrated games in Germany. However, you can buy and sell as much as you like, if you are at least 18 years old.

It's the same kind of corporate policy that keeps such games off the German Ebay branch and many stores. In fact it's only an MS corporate decision to not launch Gears of War in Germany, because they absolutely could if they wanted to.

However, I'll grant you that the organization doing all the rating is pretty fucked up, full of old geezers who lack understanding of games, not to mention respect towards games as a first-class form of entertainment and art. Might be worse than in the US. At least they aren't so afraid of nipples over here.

 

[Powderkeg]

You're not trying to imply that Gears of War censorship is a sign of a future Nazi videogame burning, culminating in WW4 (i expect WW3 to be earlier, North Korea will take care of that one) and videogamers concentration camps.... are you?

Not at all. Just pointing out the irony of the situation.

 

[Powderkeg]

Let me explain the difference to you.
You can't advertise unrated games in Germany.

Yes, you can't advertise, you can't publically display, and you must card.

Not even hardcore pornography is that heavily censored in the US.


And believe it or not, seeing nudity in the US isn't that big of a deal. Not nearly the issue you make it out to be. You can flash a set of tits in a PG-13 movie. It happens all of the time. Nudity is all over cable TV, fashion magazines, etc... It's only the hardcore porn that's heavily restricted.

 

[Sis]

Yes, you can't advertise, you can't publically display, and you must card.

Not even hardcore pornography is that heavily censored in the US.


And believe it or not, seeing nudity in the US isn't that big of a deal. Not nearly the issue you make it out to be. You can flash a set of tits in a PG-13 movie. It happens all of the time. Nudity is all over cable TV, fashion magazines, etc... It's only the hardcore porn that's heavily restricted.

But let's be fair: Wal-mart only carries rated M and lower games. If Gears got above a rated M, Microsoft would have censored the game until received a rated M. The same principle applies here, only a slightly different scale and with slightly less affects on the overall sales.

 

[Snyder]

And believe it or not, seeing nudity in the US isn't that big of a deal. Not nearly the issue you make it out to be. You can flash a set of tits in a PG-13 movie. It happens all of the time. Nudity is all over cable TV, fashion magazines, etc... It's only the hardcore porn that's heavily restricted.

If so - then why all the hubbub about the Hot Coffee mod? I mean, you couldn't even see tits there. In an M-rated game.

 

[Sis]

If so - then why all the hubbub about the Hot Coffee mod? I mean, you couldn't even see tits there. In an M-rated game.

The hub-bub was politically motivated and highlighted the basic weakness of the ESRB rating system, which is that they "trust" the developers to send them representative videos. The ESRB does not, and cannot play the entire game, like a movie.

It reminds of that scene in Fight Club, where Tyler is stitching in a porn shot into a family movie. Think what the outcry would be if the MPAA (here in the states) views a movie and hands out a PG-13 rating, and then after the fact people discover that the film makers had spliced in a porn scene.

Not trying to defend that witch hunt, however--the Hot Coffee mod outcry was pure bullshit. But that's the rational.

 

[zed]

And believe it or not, seeing nudity in the US isn't that big of a deal. Not nearly the issue you make it out to be. You can flash a set of tits in a PG-13 movie. It happens all of the time. Nudity is all over cable TV, fashion magazines, etc... It's only the hardcore porn that's heavily restricted.

janet jacksons on line one she wants to speak to you

 

[Powderkeg]

But let's be fair: Wal-mart only carries rated M and lower games. If Gears got above a rated M, Microsoft would have censored the game until received a rated M. The same principle applies here, only a slightly different scale and with slightly less affects on the overall sales.

The only thing worse than M is AO, and that requires pornagraphic content.

I don't think Gears was ever planned as a porn game.

 

[Powderkeg]

If so - then why all the hubbub about the Hot Coffee mod? I mean, you couldn't even see tits there. In an M-rated game.

The hubbub was about deception.

Rockstar was required to give an accurate report to the ESRB about the contents of the game. They lied. THAT was what the hubbub was about.

If they had told the ESRB about the content before the game had been rated no one would have cared.

 

[Powderkeg]

janet jacksons on line one she wants to speak to you

Wow, are you really so ignorant that you don't understand why flashing tits at the Superbowl halftime show caused such an uproar?

 

[Sis]

The only thing worse than M is AO, and that requires pornagraphic content.

I don't think Gears was ever planned as a porn game.

From the ESRB website:

ADULTS ONLY
Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.

 

[Powderkeg]

From the ESRB website:

Yeah, now show me an example of a game that got an AO with no pornagraphic material.

Do you even realize that since 1994 only 32 games have been given an AO rating? ALL of them due to porn.

 

[Sis]

Yeah, now show me an example of a game that got an AO with no pornagraphic material.

Do you even realize that since 1994 only 32 games have been given an AO rating? ALL of them due to porn.

You think that's because only porn gets that rating, or because developers avoid the AO ratings at all cost? Unless the point of the game is porn...

Show me how many non-porn movies got a rating above R, for example. Actually, they typically go unrated if they can't get an R and don't want to cut any more, in which case theaters won't run them. (This is different than a DVD "unrated" release.)

 

[AlNom]

Yeah, now show me an example of a game that got an AO with no pornagraphic material.

Do you even realize that since 1994 only 32 games have been given an AO rating? ALL of them due to porn.

You know... I'm not sure if I should be shocked about the number of games or that you know the exact number.

 

[Dr. Nick]

Violence can reach a level that could be considered pornographic. That's the reason why movies like Scarface, Bad Lieutenant, Street Fighter (the old, old Street Fighter) and House of a Thousand Corpses almost received an X or NC-17 ratings. The Wild Bunch was almost the first Hollywood movie to receive an adult rating for violence. Some people would consider films like The Passion and Sin City to almost reach a pornographic level of violence. Of course it is still debatable when something finally becomes pornography. Different cultures have different standards.

 

[Fox5]

Yes, you can't advertise, you can't publically display, and you must card.

Not even hardcore pornography is that heavily censored in the US.


And believe it or not, seeing nudity in the US isn't that big of a deal. Not nearly the issue you make it out to be. You can flash a set of tits in a PG-13 movie. It happens all of the time. Nudity is all over cable TV, fashion magazines, etc... It's only the hardcore porn that's heavily restricted.

What kind of nudity on cable TV (non-premium channels) are you talking about? For that matter, what fashion mags have nudity? Near nude yes, but nothing that people couldn't wear on a beach. Well, some beach.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Wow, are you really so ignorant that you don't understand why flashing tits at the Superbowl halftime show caused such an uproar?

It woulnd't have caused as big uproar in Europe. And I must say that censorship exists in US very clearly. Language and nudity is being censored to a degree that to us europeans seem very odd. Basically freedom of speech exists, but there is small print that says: certain restrictions apply...

For example TV-serie Shield feels unnatural because of the language restrictions and I can only dream how much better a HBO-version would have been. the same artificial restrictions apply to every cable show, it restricts things = no good.

I have lived a year in Billings Montana and I greatly enjoyed my time there, so it's not like I hate you guys, like many other europeans and I woulnd't be too suprised if in the future I'll find my self located there again, but some things like the stuff I mentioned before just clearly sucks.

BTW can't wait to play Gears of War...

 

[Platon]

So they can sell the game but not adverize it is that so?

That doesn't sound to bad maybe for some games like this, I can understand it. It is a bit like in Sweden, you can sell alcohol and tobaco, but they are not alowed to advertize them. It is a bit like some rules that you are not allowed the have commercials directed to young kids and so on. So it isn't so much censorship, as much as they don't want to have kids watching TV and then all of the sudden a commercial with a marine cutting trough some aliens pops up on the screen...