On the recent update of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe v1.1 Nintendo has removed the hand gesture of Splatoon Girl because some people might feel offended by it.

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This is insane. Even Mario Kart isn't safe from what this or that might be considered "offensive."

Splatoon Girl was only doing the hand gesture "YES!" and this is deemed unacceptable.

For those that may defend the censorship, there are people who may indeed find it disrespectful but that's them and in real life, this is a fictitious, harmless video game that should be left alone from being censored.

Source: Nintendo Everything

 

[ItsKipz]

I agree that it should be removed in countries where it's considered a rude gesture, but I don't see why it should be removed everywhere around the world.
Since the language options and timezone choice allow a pretty acurate way to determinate the location of the console (even more in online play with the help of the IP) and Nintendo should be able to slowly build-up a database with which gesture is rude where (I guess this update came due to complains in one country where this very gesture is considered rude. And for such a large company that underlines the importans of family-friendlyness it shouldn't be to much work).
It also would fit with there new politics to just show the country instead of the specific state in online matches (they only write US instead of NY and Germany instead of Bavaria in the Deluxe version which wasn't the case in the WiiU version)

BUT WHY DO YOU NEED IT IN THE GAME

 

[Lumince]

I wonder if they are laughing their asses off right now. You go nintendo!

 

[cheuble]

I agree that it should be removed in countries where it's considered a rude gesture, but I don't see why it should be removed everywhere around the world.
Since the language options and timezone choice allow a pretty acurate way to determinate the location of the console (even more in online play with the help of the IP) and Nintendo should be able to slowly build-up a database with which gesture is rude where (I guess this update came due to complains in one country where this very gesture is considered rude. And for such a large company that underlines the importans of family-friendlyness it shouldn't be to much work).
It also would fit with there new politics to just show the country instead of the specific state in online matches (they only write US instead of NY and Germany instead of Bavaria in the Deluxe version which wasn't the case in the WiiU version)

Why would they need to do something as complicated as this when they can just remove the gesture? Do you really NEED that gesture to play the game?

 

[DeslotlCL]

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/11/weirdness_mario_kart_8_contains_hidden_swearing

I wonder how many other things they've hidden in games, like

The video is set to private... Has someone reuploaded it somewhere else?

 

[ItsKipz]

Heres how i see censorship:

Does it affect my enjoyment of the game if its removed? No? Then i dont care.

 

[H1B1Esquire]

The video is set to private... Has someone reuploaded it somewhere else?

It's around 0:51

 

[Molina]

In the end people end up bitchin' even more about the animation change than bitchin' about the rude gesture.

 

[SonicfanCEMUTesting]

but some stuff happens ...
View attachment 87208

Oh yea, true. Non-Japanese players will not know who is that on the screen.

 

[VitaType]

Why would they need to do something as complicated as this when they can just remove the gesture? Do you really NEED that gesture to play the game?

I don't need that "It's me" from Mario either...
To expression of joy on very this way is part of the character and complety fits with the Splatoon franchise. I wouldn't expect Peach to ever express her joy this way. Would you?
The desicion to remove it in favor of not hurting anyone in a country where it's not a rude gesture at all means that a creative decision was branded as wrong without any logical reason for this countries.
It means that this very way the artist wanted to let express there character the joy of winning was forbidden without any locigal reason.

Some marble figures you see in greece or italy e.g. which where made several hundreds years ago are considered rude in some parts of the middle east because you can see the breasts. Statues that get shown to kids living in this countries.

In todays international art market some of this beatiful creations maybe wouldn't have ever been made if everytime a artist starts a project he would start with a "scissors in his head".
A scissor that makes him think before every move and before every detail he is adding to the artwork. Not if what he wants to add is the right thing to do to express or show what the artist wants to express or show with the artwork, but as in "Is it offensive to any group of people? Maybe I shouldn't add this part to my artwork".
This scissor in the head of the artist makes the artist truely unfree.

It's the scissor of censorship. If you love the freedom of art, you have to consider if what Nintendo did maybe was wrong.

If you consider videogames a form of art, then you maybe should consider that this new exciting technology empowers us to make art for all children around the world while still beeing able to hide stuff that is wrong for one location within this location and still don't completly destroies the artwork in total.

We can cut out small details if needed or we can cut-out a large part of our opportunities of our freedoms in thinking and expressing. We either can respect local culture or cut out part of our brains.

If censoring is around you it maybe serves a purpose, but if all kinds of censoring around the world enter your brain and change your habits you're hardly yourself anymore. You're nothing more then a prisoner in your own mind then.

They should do something "that complicated" for freedom of art. It may sound cynical to you, but Nintendo as a family-friendly company in small part raises our children. Nintendo games are part of the childhood and imagination of many. What they did was the opposite of beeing family-friendly.

 

[H1B1Esquire]

This is why you don't have more Naruto games on Nintendo consoles:

Too much of this.

And not enough of this:

Logic.

 

[Sliter]

Oh yea, true. Non-Japanese players will not know who is that on the screen.

they could just translate it instead of replace ...she's not even a known character, just generic cute girl (I think so XD)

I could have done better but well, no time for this :v
It would be really a problem if was like this?

 

[tech3475]

you can translate it instead of replace ... come on :v
View attachment 87220
I could have done better but well, no time for this :v
It would be really a problem if was like this?

For the marketing department it may be.

They may see a girl and think it will make males not want to play it.

Theres a reason why 'american kirby is hardcore' is a trope.

 

[Sliter]

For the marketing department it may be.

They may see a girl and think it will make males not want to play it.

Theres a reason why 'american kirby is hardcore' is a trope.

so make your awesome and intereisting new game that "fit your region" by themselves isntead of changing the work of the others
today the "necessary changes" they did to games box art are just joke in their big part, maybe other of these "cultural" or "improper" changes gonna be someday too :B

 

[Clydefrosch]

i've only read the first few comments, but i agree, all of you who complain about this should maybe go have the

I agree that it should be removed in countries where it's considered a rude gesture, but I don't see why it should be removed everywhere around the world.
Since the language options and timezone choice allow a pretty acurate way to determinate the location of the console (even more in online play with the help of the IP) and Nintendo should be able to slowly build-up a database with which gesture is rude where (I guess this update came due to complains in one country where this very gesture is considered rude. And for such a large company that underlines the importans of family-friendlyness it shouldn't be to much work).
It also would fit with there new politics to just show the country instead of the specific state in online matches (they only write US instead of NY and Germany instead of Bavaria in the Deluxe version which wasn't the case in the WiiU version)

you do realize that people from all over the world have moved all over the world?
and the fact that its a universally known gesture for fuck you is really all it takes to remove it from everywhere.
this is not some secluded mountain village where talking about, but entire countries. this is nothing a company with even the slightest interest in its public relations would want to keep in their game.

 

[sarkwalvein]

so make your awesome and intereisting new game that "fit your region" by themselves isntead of changing the work of the others
today the "necessary changes" they did to games box art are just joke in their big part, maybe other of these "cultural" or "improper" changes gonna be someday too :B

Oh please, it is cheaper to do it this way, and they already do it all the time.
E.g. in video games, how to make a SMB2 suitable for the west? Just take that other game we had and paste a Mario sprite over it!
Or in Anime even, how to make some good robot anime for the west, ah, just slap three random Japanese shows together, change the character names and rewrite the script a little to make it seem a whole thing and call it Robotech.
Etc.

 

[Clydefrosch]

but some stuff happens ...
View attachment 87208

this menu was entirely changed because in europe, a drawing game that advertises itself as somehow manga-related is automatically seen as intrinsically less serious.
so this change was made to appeal to western tastes. since this anime chick has literally no relevance to the program at hand, this was the second best thing after just not releasting it at all

 

[sarkwalvein]

you can translate it instead of replace ... come on :v
View attachment 87220
I could have done better but well, no time for this :v
It would be really a problem if was like this?

this menu was entirely changed because in europe, a drawing game that advertises itself as somehow manga-related is automatically seen as intrinsically less serious.
so this change was made to appeal to western tastes. since this anime chick has literally no relevance to the program at hand, this was the second best thing after just not releasting it at all

I was writing something in that point of view exactly, I think that is the way of the west on the 90s.

(pretentious) Western parents looking for a game: Oh look, this game looks so artsy, sure the kid will develop some great artistic skill with it!

(pretentious) Western parents looking for a game: Another shitty cartoon from Japan with unproportionate eyes, leave that shit away, it is a bad influence!

 

[Clydefrosch]

idk these stuff are too common when you get teen/adult that having to hide a "simple gesture" from kids sound strange ... I agree we don't have to teach them to do that... but seeing here and there as a common thing I don't see a problem... is how we learn these stuff after all...

the thing is, in any educational context, the child would see the gesture somewhere and you as a parent would instantly tell it that this is a very rude gesture.

here, they see this very rude gesture out of its widely known context and by the time you could try to explain to them that this is considered very rude and other people might get really mad at them for it, they've already been imitating it for a while in an entirely different context.

 

[VitaType]

and the fact that its a universally known gesture for fuck you is really all it takes to remove it from everywhere.

For the "fact" that it's a gesture known everywhere alot of people on the first two pages of this thread seem to not know it and wonder e.g. why it's removed without that a finger sticks out.
Personaly I didn't knowed it either... And this here is a very international community

 

[Clydefrosch]

I was writing something in that point of view exactly, I think that is the way of the west on the 90s.

(pretentious) Western parents looking for a game: Oh look, this game looks so artsy, sure the kid will develop some great artistic skill with it!

(pretentious) Western parents looking for a game: Another shitty cartoon from Japan with unproportionate eyes, leave that shit away, it is a bad influence!

it doesnt even have to be pretentious. this is just not a western style of art, its heavily out of proportions and to any parent in the 90's, extremely weird looking (not to mention only a handful of anime being present and the entire anime porn thing that was probably more well known around that time in general)
if they wanted their children to do art or something like that, this would not the be thing to go for, because their children live in the west, where a different style was established and widely enjoyed.

thats like supporting your childs wish to play concerty by paying for bagpipe lessons.
yeah its music too, yeah theres a place where its kinda enjoyed slightly, but no, its not gonne be very helpful if the kid doesn't want to leave its country to even try and be famous

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

For the "fact" that it's a gesture known everywhere alot of people on the first two pages of this thread seem to not know it and wonder e.g. why it's removed without that a finger sticks out.
Personaly I didn't knowed it either... And this here is a very international community

the fact that this place is populated mostly by ignorant children does explain that though.