Something that just drove me NUTS

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

and i feel i have to rant, because you will all understand what I’m talking about…it makes me SO mad at Americans what the heck is wrong with most of us???

i opened up one of my gaming magazines the other day, and was greeted by an advertisement for, i think, Soul Reaver 2…i didn’t even remember the title of the game, I remember the ad picture more…

it was a picture of the main demon guy from the game standing behind a man in some sort of body armor, with his fist punched right through to the front of the armor guy, with the armor guy’s still-beating heart clutched in his fist and blood spurting everywhere, very graphically depicted mind you, with the caption “Be still thy beating heart”…

i almost threw up…i really did…after i fought down my nausea, i thought of something and spent ten mniutes yelling at my inanimate magazine…so apparently it’s ok for a horridly graphic image like that to be plastered in every game magazine from Providence to LA, but heaven forbid you show a nipple? is this not twisted or what? “OH MY GOD IT’S A NIPPLE!!! RUN, CHILDREN, COVER YOUR EYES! DON’T LOOK BACK!”…"Oh, wait a minute, someone’s being disemboweled… children, stop! turn around and look at this!"

i am really tempted to create a flyer that says "Why is this so much better morally than this ???"

what do you think? are you as pissed off as i am?

#2

oops, messed up in the flyer thing …i mean to put “Why is this (insert picture of ad mentioned above) so much better morally than this (insert picture of the girls from Tokimeki Checkin)?”

#3
quote:
Originally posted by ladyphoenix:
and i feel i have to rant, because you will all understand what I'm talking about...it makes me SO mad at Americans [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img] what the heck is wrong with most of us???

i opened up one of my gaming magazines the other day, and was greeted by an advertisement for, i think, Soul Reaver 2...i didn't even remember the title of the game, I remember the ad picture more...

it was a picture of the main demon guy from the game standing behind a man in some sort of body armor, with his fist punched right through to the front of the armor guy, with the armor guy's still-beating heart clutched in his fist and blood spurting everywhere, very graphically depicted mind you, with the caption "Be still thy beating heart"....

i almost threw up...i really did...after i fought down my nausea, i thought of something and spent ten mniutes yelling at my inanimate magazine...so apparently it's ok for a horridly graphic image like that to be plastered in every game magazine from Providence to LA, but heaven forbid you show a nipple? is this not twisted or what? "OH MY GOD IT'S A NIPPLE!!! RUN, CHILDREN, COVER YOUR EYES! DON'T LOOK BACK!"......"Oh, wait a minute, someone's being disemboweled... children, stop! turn around and look at this!"

i am really tempted to create a flyer that says "Why is this so much better morally than this ????"

what do you think? are you as pissed off as i am?

I understand what you mean. How can it be ok to allow something like that to be showen and not be ok to show even a little bit of skin? It just goes to show you what people think is necessary for a game to have "fun". Ha! It's ok to show violence and gory, but it's not ok to have sexuality. Hypocrites, damn hypocrites!

And ladyphoenix, I don't want to sound picky or anything. It's just that the game you mention, Soul Reaver 2. The game was Blood Omen 2 not Soul Reaver 2. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

#4

I saw the add as well and while I didn’t get sick, I was definately sickened. It is a sad state of affairs when stuff of that graphic a nature is ok, but the beauty of the human form is not. I personally like the idea of the add, but you won’t find anyone other than adult magazines who will run it. It is too bad really, because it would be a real eye opener for the far right to see just how far gone we are. Is it any wonder we have the highest Murder rate on the Planet.

#5

i was thinking more of making a flyer of my idea and sticking it on lots of telephone poles…or maybe sending it to some members of congress or something

as for the name of the game, i told you…i remember the ad clearly, but not the name of the game

#6
quote:
Originally posted by ladyphoenix:
i was thinking more of making a flyer of my idea and sticking it on lots of telephone poles...or maybe sending it to some members of congress or something [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

Oooh, now that would be interesting... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]

Personally, I just think humans in general are often very contradictory and illogical. Maybe American's more so than others, but it seems to be a species trait more than anything. I am glad I havn't seen the ad myself though, if I want to feel nausea I'll stick to reading my companies corporate strategy...

#7

If you have 10 minutes to spare, you might be interested in reading this.

#8

Well actually, the reasoning is fairly straightforward. For the most part, parents aren’t worried about their kids going on violent killing sprees. Despite a few isolated occurances, it just doesn’t tend to happen. Parents are however worried about their children becoming sexually active or pregnant when they are too young. This does happen it great numbers, and parents are rightfully worried about it. That is why sexual content receives more opposition than violent content. You can of course disagree with that reasoning - but I suppose it is worth understanding.

#9

But, when kids do go on killing sprees, parents are too often found the subject of scapegoating. I doubt parents talk to kids a whole lot more about ‘do not kill’ as they do about ‘do not be too sexually active.’ It’s mostly assumed that the kids should not kill others and not become too sexually active.

#10

israfel, you do make an interesting point…but within your logic lies part of the problem, in my opinion…

America is afraid of sex and afraid to explore it. Therefore, parents do not discuss it properly with their children. We all know about how embarrassing most parents find it to give their kids the ‘sex-talk’, and most times it is far inferior to the talk a child really needs about the subject. America, by being so afraid and reviled by sex, makes it a ‘forbidden fruit’ that children seek out. In France there is far less alcoholism than in America. Why? Because children are taught by example that alcohol is a part of life, not a forbidden pleasure. They grow up having wine with dinner and so on. It is the same with sex.

In any country in which sex is taught to be a natural part of life, there is less teen pregnancy, less sex crimes, and less rape. It ceases to be a ‘problem’ which must be swept under the rug.

The listing you posted, Bigrocket-san, was fascinating. It illustrated the point beautifully. The concept of violence in these games was ‘pooh-poohed’ out as not important, while the sexual aspect was attacked again and again and again. Americans need to accept their sexuality as a part of humankind instead of a sin that must be ‘overcome’.

#11

This was written in a number of PC-Gamer, in an article about Necrocon. This bit might be a little interesting to read, consodering the topic of this thread:
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PCG: Strip clubs are in the game, and topless dancers were features in the teaser video. Will Necrocon be an adults only game?

JB: We’ll try to find the best compromisse between a credible setting and a wide audience. We’ll see what this means in each indvidual case per country, especially since opinions differ on what’s okay for childen to view. In the U.S. we might have to conceade to take back the nudity a bit. As far as I know, Necrocon has alreday been already been approved for ages 12 and up in Europe because it really doesn’t show much brutality. In Europe, you get in trouble displaying brutality; in the States, it’s nudity.
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#12

Israfel’s explanation makes sense. To many people, poverty is more severe than violence. Sex can lead to pregnancy and pregnancy can lead to poverty. Raising children costs a lot of moeny. Young people can get into real trouble since they don’t have economic power. Many people actually endure violence, if they are not promoting it. Throughout the history, people promote strength and valor. It is vital for the tribal survival. The right to own gun is guaranteed by American Constitution. Its purpose is not just let people overthow government if government betrayl people’s will. It also give people to take control, such as gaining new lands. For example, Hawaii had been taken over by American people before American government controlled it.

#13

Heh, Woodelf’s comment on poverty reminded of something that Thomas Sowell (I think) wrote: “The rich get richer, and the poor have more babies.”

#14

Everywhere in ancient time, and in modern time so-called “poor” countries, children were/are thought as the “true” richness of their families…

#15
quote:
Originally posted by woodelf:
That is true, but there can be too much of a good thing like children. Read the book Clan of the Cavebear and the rest in the series how people could have lived 35,000 years ago. [/B]
Too much medicine is poison. Does than mean that taking medicine is a bad thing?
I just wanted to say I think it's not the "having children" which is problematic, but the "having unwanted children". So I agree with ladyphoenix-san that the way to resolve that problem is not to try to hide the reality of sex but at the contrary to talk about it and explain it. Kids all will have those sexual urges; adding to that curiosity (because they don't know about it) and attraction (because it's a forbidden fruit) is IMHO only contributing to the problem...

#16

Just as a little comment (sort of) on what Layphoenix said at the beginning of this tread… Yesterday, I watched End of Days, which I hadn’t seen before (loaned it from a friend). After seeing it, I felt like the movie was kinda OK, but… Why all that blood and that “scary stuff” at the first 30 minutes or so of the movie!? Some of the later parts of that movie had quite a lot of potiental for making a good story, but the quality of the story was from my point of view cut in the half because of the huge amount of blood and gore in the movie… And I have to ask myself: Why would anyone ruin a story with such potiental like this? Because that they think that those who watch the movie wants lots of blood and gore???

#17

I seen the pictures of some bishojo-type game for the Sega Saturn (some Resident Evil kind of thing I belive was made by Data East) and I was a little surprised on how close to erotic they were (Ok, so they were mostly panty shots but still).

Looking in the new issue of EGM, there is an ad for an "extreme" golf game with one (badly-rendered) woman spanking another (badly-rendered)woman so I guess sex sells....actually badly rendered, wannabe ecchi sex sells. Maybe someday erotic games will be well recieved but not just yet.


One more thing, it raises my hankles when someone calls a game "mature" when it only has a high amount of blood and gore but nothing else.

#18

From PSM’s (Yeah I still read it, go away ^^) 50 things we learned from playing games :

“13. Cursing? Fine. Exploding Heads? Okay. Mass Murder? No Prob. Shirtless Boobs? Why would anyone want that, you sicko?”

[This message has been edited by Zorian (edited 05-05-2002).]

#19

While browsing posts, and reading what everyone had to say, I started to think about bishoujo games being accepted in america. Everyone knows, sex sales, but how far it goes is a good question.

I think for bishoujo games to ever make it main stream, they will need to start out soft. The bishoujo genre will take a lot of heat by your typical narrow minded americans, and if you have a bunch of really dark type bishoujo games while the support is so minimal, it would be a lot easier to for people not to accept the genre. While if you start out with more love story type games, you may have the upper hand on them.

I don’t know if this makes any sense, I am half asleep right now, but wanted to share this. I am basically trying to say that a soft love story would have a wider audience compared to some s&m game where you have sex slaves. This is not to say that I don’t love the darker side if bishoujo games. I do =], but I would like to hear what everyone has to say about it.

Ohh and one other thing, I don’t own to many of the games yet, but if you want to get the major software retailers like say EB, or Software Etc… to sell your products, I think it would be a good idea to make it so the display boxes do not show any nudity.None of my games have anything on the boxes, but I only own 3 at the moment.

On a side note, A friend of mine said he saw a copy of Adam The Double Factor when ti was first released at a E.B at the Alderwood Mall in Lynwood Washington.

#20
quote:
Originally posted by smog:
While browsing posts, and reading what everyone had to say, I started to think about bishoujo games being accepted in america. Everyone knows, sex sales, but how far it goes is a good question.

I think for bishoujo games to ever make it main stream, they will need to start out soft. The bishoujo genre will take a lot of heat by your typical narrow minded americans, and if you have a bunch of really dark type bishoujo games while the support is so minimal, it would be a lot easier to for people not to accept the genre. While if you start out with more love story type games, you may have the upper hand on them.

I don't know if this makes any sense, I am half asleep right now, but wanted to share this. I am basically trying to say that a soft love story would have a wider audience compared to some s&m game where you have sex slaves. This is not to say that I don't love the darker side if bishoujo games. I do =], but I would like to hear what everyone has to say about it.

I think a soft-core game might do good over here. They have soft-core versions of Eve and Yu-no for the Saturn and Playstation. From the pictures of Yu-no I seen in Saturn Fan magazine, it looked soft core (I seen only one bare tush shot and the rest of them were just typical T and A shots). It's a shame that none of the softer games won't come over, since I want to play Yu-no.