China is interesting in that they don't enforce their standards as much domestically as they do with import products. There are plenty of chinese-made games which have skulls in them, etc, but everything has to be done to the letter for foreign companies. So I think it plays a bit of a protectionist role on top of everything else.
The influence of Tencent on game content.
- Thread starter Parmo
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Dunno maybe the insane, non-toggleable, out-of-control language filter in the current beta is an indication of something?
It's not unusual for a country to require games be rated pre-release. In the UK the PEGI rating has been required and legally enforceable since 1989.
China introducing the same sort of requirement nearly thirty years later doesn't make them evil.
This isn't something I'm familiar with. In what way are you connecting anything to do with a language filter to any kind of censorship?
I'm not being sarcastic, it's a genuine question.
1º "For years the chinese regime had banned videogame consoles, although that ban has now been lifted, restrictions apply."
2º "Chinese censors will need to approve every mobile game before it's released." (note that approve is different from rate)
3º "Some developers in China have reported their games got canned because they contained english words [...] like "mission start" [...]"
4º "Others have reported similar problems with games containing traditional chinese characters."
5º "This is going to kill the indie game scene in China." (To figure out what's "this" just keep watching from there)
6º "Foreign companies are requiered to work with domestic content providers and they now need to get approval from SAPPFRT for online publication."
Yep, just like the UK.
Different <> Evil Flowey
IDK but banning characters of your language because they are used in regions outside (or mostly outside) the CCP control seems fishy to me, but once more, do you know of a country that does similar things?
LOL. Good to hear there is no censorship in germany, as long as you bring the right message in the right format as determined by the government. Glad we got this misunderstanding out of the way.
I'm just going to stay nice & general on this Flowey to avoid a political debate (which is not allowed here). Think about what other countries think about each other, and try to take into consideration that each is working primarily for their own benefit, but trading that off with diplomacy and not wanting to upset other countries that matter to them. No country is perfect, they all just prioritise different things. None of them think they are the evil ones, and they all think that what they are doing is what's best for all, without compromising themselves too much.
It really is just a big school playground
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I'm just going to stay nice & general on this Flowey to avoid a political debate (which is not allowed here). Think about what other countries think about each other, and try to take into consideration that each is working primarily for their own benefit, but trading that off with diplomacy and not wanting to upset other countries that matter to them. No country is perfect, they all just priorities different things. None of them think they are the evil ones, and they all think that what they are doing is what's best for all, without compromising themselves too much.
It really is just a big school playground
Which is why this idea the big software houses have of "One Size Fits All" can't fly. If they want to please every government, then they'll be able to include nothing!
If censorship is done in the client based on local restrictions and age disclaimers etc, then we'd have no issues, but no... it has to be global, so for the US we can't have this, for China we can't have that, for the EU we can't have the other... Oh what's left... but that's not allowed in the republic of somewhere else... so in the end...
And these developers think the product is still worth paying for after all this...
A language filter is censorship. That's not debatable. My question is why are they doing it? We got on fine without it until now, and suddenly it's being forced into the game. I'm wondering if these strict controls on speech in-game are also one of those "one size fits all" implementations designed to appease the requirements of a particular government, but imposed on everyone and everything just because it's easier to implement that way. I don't claim to know the answer I'm wondering what other people think about it.
What do designers have to take out of their games in order to comply with US regulations? I think the US is probably the only exception to this rule. There might be changes made to appeal to American tastes because it's a big market, but the U.S. government doesn't impose content restrictions.
Yes it is.
Ah sorry I thought you meant the place where you choose which language the game will display, you are talking about what I would call a swear filter. It's a pegi7 game, and Frontier are a private company (ie not government owned) with their own internal guidelines which clearly err on the side of caution rather than contention. I've never written anything in chat or had a ship name censored.
Yes, I can see that it clearly is censorship and why some may not like this, but it isn't our decision, the only power we have is our wallets.
It's a new thing it's just in the beta but it seems to be across everything including private chat. Anyway not sure why they're doing it but hopefully it won't make it to release.
Yeah with your clarification I realised I'd seen a thread on it somewhere, although as mentioned it's not a topic I feel strongly about in ED. I swear like a trooper where the situation allows or warrants it but I am also capable of conversing with a more varied vocabulary when required.
As far as potential justification for introduction is concerned while it could be connected to some sway tencent has it could also be down to simple quantity of complaints, and people taking things too far (both doing and complaining).
Regardless of how any individual may feel about their right to express themselves in as obnoxious a way as possible, it has to be weighed against how others feel about their right not to have to see that sort of thing at any given random moment, particularly if they are already being fired upon in a particular way they feel infringes their implied right to go anywhere they want in any mode they want unchallenged.
Or in other words, in those occasions where polar opposite personality types clash, it's just easier to filter the chat than it is to persuade the meek to stay in the shallow end of the pool.
tbh I always assumed there was a swear filter anyway and had just never bumped up against it.
Lol, does the UK ban games that have words from other languages? If so give an example and a source.
For sure. The parts that concern me is to do with it being mandatory and comprehensive. Censor people's ship names, local chat, fine. I'd like a toggle but OK. But direct messages between people on a friend list seems unecessary and really needs to be an individual choice.
The other thing is that that the filters are always simultaneously too restrictive for normal honest communication and not restrictive enough to prevent people from saying truly heinous things to each other. As an example, No Man's Sky has mandatory always-on chat censorship, and it seems incredibly annoying. This is a game where people get to permanently rename plants animals planets and systems, so *of course* it needs to have a strong and robust filter for nasty or even suggestive words. But then they apply this same filter to chat and it's like every 10th word is stricken from the record, because words like "got" are in the filter list somehow. And NMS is a game about GETTING things, so it comes up a lot.
I don't know what my point is I guess this is just a roundabout way of saying that you would have noticed Elites chat censorship whether you use curse words or not.
I have a very low opinion of any and all censorship, drawing the line only to protect the personally identifiable information of individuals.
As for Ubisoft, they stole 15 dollars from me in 2004, so I don't buy any of their products, try to goad those who do into fist fights, and vandalize Ubisoft property whenever convenient.
As for Ubisoft, they stole 15 dollars from me in 2004, so I don't buy any of their products, try to goad those who do into fist fights, and vandalize Ubisoft property whenever convenient.