Curious question about censorship.

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I was curious about something. Someone brought to my attention about a game on steam (Which shall be nameless) anyway, you can purchase the game on steam but like all games have to follow the conduct of publication. The game is available for purchase, on steam, but there is also a link to the publishers website to download a patch to uncensor the game back to the normal state.

So I was curious, I know console games usually avoid submitting games of the AO 18+ rating or even mature if it can (whatever their rating they want to aim for) but it sometimes require cutting content and not having things available, would it be possible to just have a patch or dlc like system to allow the player to play the uncut version of the game? ESRB usually give ratings for the content of software that is published on the formatted device media (Disc or cart) but not the stuff downloaded from the online store digitally like dlc right? As is usually said "Online not rated by ESRB"

For the international people ESRB = Entertainment software ratings board who give the age group rating for games in USA (and some other countries I think) and is equal to europe PEGI or Asia CERO. (Did I get that right?) The rating between countries are different at how they decide the ratings but short part, I wasn't sure how they function specifically. So it was just a idea, to allow players who i guess would want the uncut experience of a game but wasn't sure if it was actually allowed to do it that way.

 

[Deleted member 388531]

Almost always a patch or DLC of some sort to remove the cut content.

 

[Taleweaver]

So, erm...what's the question, exactly?



The problem with adult games is that prudish people have more power than they really should have (IMHO, obviously). Any attempt at an open debate tends to end badly. Credit card companies can just decide to shut down payment possibilities if they deem content "inappropriate"(1). For this reason, steam is pretty hesitant when it comes to games with adult content, let alone actual games made for adults. Because even though the freaking average age of someone playing video games is over 18, the very fact that a toddler might just see a fraction of something sexual anywhere anytime means that these companies can just pull whatever they want.

Remember the "hot coffee" incident of GTA: San Andreas? Rockstar submitted a few minigames featuring sexual content in the game. This didn't pass that board (I think it was ESRB, but not sure), so they patched it out. However, even though there was no way to access this content from within the game, it was still there. All the infamous hot coffee mod did was undo those patches, but that was apparently enough to get prudish America up in arms against GTA. Oh, and against video games in general (because why hate on one game when you can just generalize a bit and thus make the problem seem far more important). The end result was a huge fine by rockstar. And a step back for the industry that learned that it's okay to portray violence but not sexual content (the game was rated for adults, but apparently the fact that everyone ignored that somehow wasn't the fault of the board that enforced that rating in the first place).

But I digress...in any case: some games just can't be sold on steam (lula: the sexy empire is one of those). Others have to go out of their way to make sure that the game doesn't contain too much things that may suggest that both sexes might like interaction with each other. But because sex sells (either because it's forbidden, or - more likely - because it's pretty to look at), developers want to walk that thin line.

One game that comes to mind for me is Sakura dungeon, but if I check similar games I can find a whole bunch of similar games. I don't know how many have official nude patches, sexual patches or any other kind of patches, but I guess there's enough of a market in them to make 'em viable. It's a very double standard that steam has to pretty much force developers to cut their games, but that's unfortunately how it is: once the soccer moms decide that they've had enough tea parties and want to take down some game they deemed evil because someone found out that sex is actually a pretty fun activity, then at least steam can argue that they aren't responsible for what they aren't selling.



(1): y'know...like portraying two consenting adults doing the very thing that got everyone into this world after some time.

 

[Kioku]

So, erm...what's the question, exactly?



The problem with adult games is that prudish people have more power than they really should have (IMHO, obviously). Any attempt at an open debate tends to end badly. Credit card companies can just decide to shut down payment possibilities if they deem content "inappropriate"(1). For this reason, steam is pretty hesitant when it comes to games with adult content, let alone actual games made for adults. Because even though the freaking average age of someone playing video games is over 18, the very fact that a toddler might just see a fraction of something sexual anywhere anytime means that these companies can just pull whatever they want.

Remember the "hot coffee" incident of GTA: San Andreas? Rockstar submitted a few minigames featuring sexual content in the game. This didn't pass that board (I think it was ESRB, but not sure), so they patched it out. However, even though there was no way to access this content from within the game, it was still there. All the infamous hot coffee mod did was undo those patches, but that was apparently enough to get prudish America up in arms against GTA. Oh, and against video games in general (because why hate on one game when you can just generalize a bit and thus make the problem seem far more important). The end result was a huge fine by rockstar. And a step back for the industry that learned that it's okay to portray violence but not sexual content (the game was rated for adults, but apparently the fact that everyone ignored that somehow wasn't the fault of the board that enforced that rating in the first place).

But I digress...in any case: some games just can't be sold on steam (lula: the sexy empire is one of those). Others have to go out of their way to make sure that the game doesn't contain too much things that may suggest that both sexes might like interaction with each other. But because sex sells (either because it's forbidden, or - more likely - because it's pretty to look at), developers want to walk that thin line.

One game that comes to mind for me is Sakura dungeon, but if I check similar games I can find a whole bunch of similar games. I don't know how many have official nude patches, sexual patches or any other kind of patches, but I guess there's enough of a market in them to make 'em viable. It's a very double standard that steam has to pretty much force developers to cut their games, but that's unfortunately how it is: once the soccer moms decide that they've had enough tea parties and want to take down some game they deemed evil because someone found out that sex is actually a pretty fun activity, then at least steam can argue that they aren't responsible for what they aren't selling.



(1): y'know...like portraying two consenting adults doing the very thing that got everyone into this world after some time.

San Andreas only got the AO rating after the mod came into play. Before it was rated M.

From what I remember, they released a 1.1 copy because numbers were dropping after they were forced to give it the AO rating.

 

[leon315]

is Tc talking about NEKOPARA or SAKURA ANGELS??? Tc is weeb, 100% confirmed

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I was referring to any game that is censored, Criminal girls invite only for example. was a game censored internationally on psvita, but if playstation store had a dlc option for to restore the game to is intended uncensored game, because ESRB doesn't rate "Online interactions" content.

 

[Ryccardo]

San Andreas only got the AO rating after the mod came into play. Before it was rated M.

tl;dr 17+ is morally acceptable and 18+ isn't, but the game can be handled just fine by early teens

but if playstation store had a dlc option

The most intuitive reasoning is that the game would have a rating and the DLC another (assuming it's actually separate content and not just a key), but then come the policies of the PS store -- I only know Nintendo and they require any updates/dlc to be compatible with the game's rating