How has this thread gone from censoring words and phrases unsuitable for 7yr olds, to gassing people with chemical weapons and fighting the state?
I'll say it again, slowly for those unable to understand English.
The. Game. Is. Rated. PEGI. 7.
Therefore, Frontier must either
a) Adhere to the rules they voluntarily agreed to
or
b) Change their rating, which would change the game to at least a PEGI 16, and would easily lose them a large chunk of their playerbase (legally, we know that wouldn't actually happen).
The censor is there because Frontier agreed to the rules when they decided to adhere to the PEGI system of game rating. Arguing about how bad words don't bother 'you', or that other games have it much worse, is completely pointless and irrelevant - and I actually think the mods should probably close this topic, as it is getting more and more 'angry'.
Trust me. Noone is going to ignore a rating that has been self-imposed. It would be a PR nightmare for one.
There's a simpler solution - publicly denounce the Ratings Systems (PEGI/ESRB) not just a single developer, but in a gathering of developers - industry wide. State the truth we all already know - that these ratings are arbitrary and meaningless as they are not only not enforced but cannot be enforced.
Sure, we all know the guy at the game store is SUPPOSED to ask, but we also know they don't give a rat's unwashed business end about who buys what. They're there to make money.
And what happens if Johnny 10 year old happens to buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto IX? Do the police come and shut down the business? Arrest Billy Gamejockey? No. Maybe some news station with nothing else to report on tries a bit of public shaming, but that's about it. Most people roll their eyes, and no one cares.
It's not like they're selling drugs, alcohol or tobacco. They're selling games.
And let's not forget, even if Johnny 10 Yearold gets told "No, you're too young to buy that", he's just going to cry at his mommy and she'll buy it for him to shut him up. And the almighty ratings system goes swirling down the drain once more.
Why? Because they really are nothing more than a bunch of powerless, meaningless, unimportant nosy folk who think they know better than anyone else - especially when it comes to raising children which many of them do not and with any luck will not ever have of their own.