So NCsoft are censoring western Blade and Soul afterall?

scorpex-x

There was a statement years back that NCsoft would not censor this game for NA release at all.

Now it seems they went back on that are are censoring it anyway, because they are changing all female underwears into shorts and making the female stances more "empowering?" instead of sexualised.

Babydoll lingerie was removed from gon female and replaced by some ugly ass short and sports looking top, they are also changing the stances to be less sexually provocative.  They even made an official post saying they are doing it because they think it looks better because a martial artist would not wear sexy underwear, a martial artists would not have tits like beach balls either.  It's a game, it's a highly sexualised game...leave it as it is.

Censorship is censorship, Ncsoft lying won't shock anyone but still it's funny.  First of many broken promises I guess.

Here are the changes to underwear and the stance changes.

http://i.imgur.com/r9Hrep4.jpg

Blade and Soul is now : "I'm a strong independent woman in a sports underwear"

Do they really think there is an army of feminist women lining up to play this game? xD  If so they need to change the giga tits too.

First Tera, then Wildstar now Blade and soul.  I know the feminist agenda is strong but do they play these games in such great numbers to be pandered to?

Coman

Why do people care so much whatever a character wears underwear or shorts. Does you gameplay expirience change in any way because of this?

scorpex-x

Coman said:

Why do people care so much whatever a character wears underwear or shorts. Does you gameplay expirience change in any way because of this?

Why do you bring gameplay into it?  I'm talking about a company saying they will not censor and lying, because they are doing it anyway.

If I'm playing a game that sells itself on sex then I want it to look the way it's supposed to look.

The point is that they took this stance that they would never censor for the western market and are doing it anyway, and they didn't tell us they were doing it either until players complained about it.  So on top of lying they are being sly about it.

$10 there is a feminist working there that forced these changes through.

Moodsor

If you're gonna call a company out on something, the least you could do is provide a source, I do not remember them promising that.

DXSins

"They even made an official post saying they are doing it because they think it looks better because a martial artist would not wear sexy underwear, a martial artists would not have tits like beach balls either."

"The point is that they took this stance that they would never censor for the western market and are doing it anyway, and they didn't tell us they were doing it either.  So on top of lying they are being sly about it."

Make your mind up... did they make an official post about it or just did it? lol

scorpex-x

MrSyn said:

"They even made an official post saying they are doing it because they think it looks better because a martial artist would not wear sexy underwear, a martial artists would not have tits like beach balls either."

"The point is that they took this stance that they would never censor for the western market and are doing it anyway, and they didn't tell us they were doing it either.  So on top of lying they are being sly about it."

Make your mind up... did they make an official post about it or just did it? lol

They only made an official response when players made a stink about it and pointed out what they were doing, they were not proactive about telling player they did it.

They basically did a "ahhh you caught us" instead of "here is what we are doing" and being upfront about it.

Moodsor said:

If you're gonna call a company out on something, the least you could do is provide a source, I do not remember them promising that.

http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/05/21/blade-game-wont-be-pay-to-win/


also

As you know, Blade & Soul features a rich, beautiful world inspired by the artistic style of Hyung-Tae Kim, an internationally renowned artist we consider ourselves fortunate to be working with. Hyung-Tae Kim brings with him a very recognizable and risqué anime style that, combined with the game's deep storyline and modern martial arts style combat, delivers a game experience like no other.

Due to ESRB guidelines, however, our marketing material must abide by a different set of considerations than the final product. This is why Blade & Soul's rating is listed as "pending." It is NCsoft West's intention to accurately depict the game in its original, unaltered form, with only minor adjustments for gameplay considerations.

In short: We are not planning to censor or alter the actual in-game content you have come to expect from an artist such as Hyung-Tae Kim and a studio such as Team Bloodlust. Rest assured that we love Blade & Soul as much as you do, and any modifications to the marketing material are not indicative of our plans for the final content.

We appreciate your concern, and we hope that we've helped set your minds at ease. We're very excited about bringing Blade & Soul to Western audiences, and we intend to do our best to deliver the game you want to play.

-- Blade & Soul Team, NCsoft West


Now, they are censoring it in 2 different ways.  Or shall we call it "westernizing"?

Ratero

Well.... I thought I'd never say this but... Woot!  Good going NCSoft!  I'm all for these changes they are going implement.

DXSins

Just wanna add... last weekend playing though the beta there was a cutscene of fully nude main character and that is not the censored version.

Here is the same scene censored.

scorpex-x

MrSyn said:

Just wanna add... last weekend playing though the beta there was a cutscene of fully nude main character and that is not the censored version.

Here is the same scene censored.

considering they are now actively censoring the game that will be changed for final no doubt, same as when archeage had a nude npc in beta that was fixed for final launch. They also changed underwear for western players in archeage the same as they are doing here.

Anyway what does that have to do with what I just posted?

as in:

changing underwear into a sports bra and changing poses from sexualised to "empowering" to pander to western feminists.

http://i.imgur.com/r9Hrep4.jpg

Dragonsfire9

Looks to me more like they are pandering to the prudery of our culture not to feminists in particular.  You know like making changes so they get a ESRB rating that will allow them to sell more games. 

DXSins

http://www.bladeandsouldojo.com/topic/125625-underwear-for-jin-females-changed-for-naeu-more-westernisation-to-follow/page__st__60__p__670527#entry670527

"*braces for the pitchforks*

So.. yes. that's the new underwear.

One of the very earliest pieces of feedback was the complaint that it was tough to customize the females' torso (and hips!) because of this frilly thing that also looked out-of-place for an eastern-themed MMO. So we asked the dev team to improve it; we actually wanted to see more skin and more of the body revealed, because character customization is super important. I personally love these new designs because it's so much easier to work with in the character creator - and trust me, I'm always in the character creator!

We're committed to providing more options rather than changing things; but this underwear design is the only thing that we couldn't provide an option for, so we continued with the look that was a better experience and more fitting for a martial artist to wear."

There is their reasoning behind the change to the underwear model... cant seem to find any other censorship issue yet tho... cant find any posts about them changing costumes.

So this seems like one minor thing you will only notice at the character creator... once in-game you will always have costume on because you don't get stats from gear unless you have one on.

kitarad

They said "there's no plan to implement censorship in Western release" which was probably true at the time they released that statement but they subsequently decided to introduce a plan. 

I do not see why it is lying they had no plans to at that time but when they were looked at the localizing and how to improve the Western release they decided to censor. Are you telling me companies are not allowed to change their mind basing their decisions on the current situation, that seems rather unbending and unproductive and completely wrong.

ReaperJoda

We Americans are a very different culture about nudity then the rest of the world,  that is a fact.  So this is just part of the localization process as DK Kano stated. 

scorpex-x

DMKano said:

OP - this is not censorship, it is part of localization. NCSOFT has done their market research and they know that  western gamer majority *prefer* strong female characters that are not overly sexualized.

Bottom line - NCSOFT is doing this because it's what will make them more money in the west, not because they are taking a high moral ground. 

So censorship is ok as long as you call it something else? also what other localization are they going to do that they don't tell us about? 

Here is an article about Nintendo doing some "localization"

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/10/yes_fatal_frames_lingerie_outfits_have_been_removed_from_the_western_version


Let me repost what they said about this game in-light of the changes they made to pander to some kind of "market research" they didn't do to make it more palatable to western gamers:

-----

In short: We are not planning to censor or alter the actual in-game content you have come to expect from an artist such as Hyung-Tae Kim and a studio such as Team Bloodlust. Rest assured that we love Blade & Soul as much as you do, and any modifications to the marketing material are not indicative of our plans for the final content.

--------

Because this fabled "market research" says NA players prefer "strong women" it means they can alter the artists original design and change the game from what it was, to something else?  It also means they can lie and not tell people until they catch them doing it? 

These are not minor changes, these are pretty massive changes to what is going to be a niche pervy (lets keep it real) title.  If you are honestly telling me people who play this game want "a strong female" with the art style it has then I'm going to laugh at you just the same as if you said it in relation to scarlet blade.


If there is nothing wrong with what they are doing why were they not upfront about it?  They had to pay quite a lot of money for these changes so this isn't something they would just forget they did.


Tera called it localization to placate the NA market too, it was still seen as censorship.  Wildstar did something similar in lowering boob size, for probably similar reasons.  People didn't like that either.

DXSins

They did tell people and was upfront about it tho... it was first noticed in a livestream then reasoning given about it on Sep 24th.

http://www.bladeandsouldojo.com/topic/125625-underwear-for-jin-females-changed-for-naeu-more-westernisation-to-follow/page__st__60__p__670527#entry670527.

It didn't go into playable alpha until Oct 9th and the response will have been given 4 months before launch... how much more up front they meant to be? News article on every website to say they changed the underwear and no sign on any other censorship(yet)?

scorpex-x

MrSyn said:

They did tell people and was upfront about it tho... it was first noticed in a livestream then reasoning given about it on Sep 24th.

http://www.bladeandsouldojo.com/topic/125625-underwear-for-jin-females-changed-for-naeu-more-westernisation-to-follow/page__st__60__p__670527#entry670527.

It didn't go into playable alpha until Oct 9th and the response will have been given 4 months before launch... how much more up front they meant to be? News article on every website to say they changed the underwear and no sign on any other censorship(yet)?

No they were not up-front about it at all.  They did it in secret, there has been no word at all about localization of this game.

They only talked about it when someone was like, hey that's not how it should be!  Then they owned up after being caught.

My main issue is that this shows a lack of respect for what this game is, and if they will do this in secret what else will they do?  what is next to be changed in order to pander to the western market?  Remove the sheen effect, lower boob size, censor lewd cosmetics?

makasouleater69

scorpex-x said:

MrSyn said:

Just wanna add... last weekend playing though the beta there was a cutscene of fully nude main character and that is not the censored version.

Here is the same scene censored.

considering they are now actively censoring the game that will be changed for final no doubt, same as when archeage had a nude npc in beta that was fixed for final launch. They also changed underwear for western players in archeage the same as they are doing here.

Anyway what does that have to do with what I just posted?

as in:

changing underwear into a sports bra and changing poses from sexualised to "empowering" to pander to western feminists.

http://i.imgur.com/r9Hrep4.jpg

Well you gotta understand, most western people are fat fucks. They dont want a reminder every second playing a game, that the human body can look good naked hahaha.

scorpex-x

post from a few months ago from Ncsoft:

Taking a stand against censorship

With American sensibilities regarding how women are portrayed in video games at an all time high,  many fans of Blade & Soul were concerned about the possibility of the game being censored “We’re not going to censor this game”, “We want to keep the original spirit, this game is beautiful  and we want to make sure people see it the way that is intended” said Omeed Dariani “That’s what is at the heart of Blade & Soul, this beautiful art style, and we don’t want to change that” added Mark Humes, Community Manager for B&S.

http://thegg.net/general-news/two-sexy-asians-coming-to-north-america-blade-soul-and-black-desert/

What a joke.

7SilentNights

They said themselves that the new underwear is apart of the westernization. Here are the exact words from the community manager,
"One of the very earliest pieces of feedback was the complaint that it was tough to customize the females' torso (and hips!) because of this frilly thing that also looked out-of-place for an eastern-themed MMO. So we asked the dev team to improve it; we actually wanted to see more skin and more of the body revealed, because character customization is super important. I personally love these new designs because it's so much easier to work with in the character creator - and trust me, I'm always in the character creator!

We're committed to providing more options rather than changing things; but this underwear design is the only thing that we couldn't provide an option for, so we continued with the look that was a better experience and more fitting for a martial artist to wear. "

makasouleater69

I honestly cant believe your arguing about mmo underwear haha. 

scorpex-x

makasouleater69 said:

I honestly cant believe your arguing about mmo underwear haha. 

Taking a stand against censorship

With American sensibilities regarding how women are portrayed in video games at an all time high,  many fans of Blade & Soul were concerned about the possibility of the game being censored “We’re not going to censor this game”, “We want to keep the original spirit, this game is beautiful  and we want to make sure people see it the way that is intended” said Omeed Dariani “That’s what is at the heart of Blade & Soul, this beautiful art style, and we don’t want to change that” added Mark Humes, Community Manager for B&S.

http://thegg.net/general-news/two-sexy-asians-coming-to-north-america-blade-soul-and-black-desert/

makasouleater69

scorpex-x said:

makasouleater69 said:

I honestly cant believe your arguing about mmo underwear haha. 

Taking a stand against censorship

With American sensibilities regarding how women are portrayed in video games at an all time high,  many fans of Blade & Soul were concerned about the possibility of the game being censored “We’re not going to censor this game”, “We want to keep the original spirit, this game is beautiful  and we want to make sure people see it the way that is intended” said Omeed Dariani “That’s what is at the heart of Blade & Soul, this beautiful art style, and we don’t want to change that” added Mark Humes, Community Manager for B&S.

http://thegg.net/general-news/two-sexy-asians-coming-to-north-america-blade-soul-and-black-desert/

hahaha so the spirit of the game was half naked women in thongs, nice game.  Feminists must of emailed them hate mail, till they changed it to shorts haha. 

Sovrath

scorpex-x said:

$10 there is a feminist working there that forced these changes through.

You've never actually worked in a large company have you?

Go read what DMKano said about these decisions are based upon market research. Because that's how big companies make decisions. They aren't always the best decisions but unless you can prove to me that NC Soft's mission statement is based upon something other than making money you should probably back off on the feminism stuff.

DXSins

There would be a lot more behind this if they was censoring more than something you only see on the character selection screen but they haven't. Most seem to agree/support the change that have commented on it, as providing a cleaner creator without full top clothing covering up the model (yes the new underwear is more revealing which is kinda counter-censorship lol).

Grimula

I think what the poster is trying to say .The Art style of Hyung-Tae Kim is being ruined "?

does Hyung -Tae Kim have a certain perverted style of drawing that these people want to see ???

I have no clue who this artist is ....but if he is Famous and Recognizable by the way he does all his drawing, and then they try to Change the way his art is....so maybe he will be Less recognizable to these people ?

a famous artist who only draws Nudes ....then the government comes in and Censor's all his naked pieces

would people be upset by this ? if they couldn't recognize who the artist was anymore because Random people came along and added Parachute pants on all his Male pictures

scorpex-x

This is less about the actual censorship (and YES that is what it is) because I think many can live with that, it's more about Ncsoft going back to their old tricks of bare faced lying.

The question is, what else are they lying about.  What else will be "westernized"?

NCsoft already have a filthy reputation and this kind of lying to the press and doing exactly what they said they would not won't help that.

They literally told all the press 2+ months ago that they would never censor OR ALTER the game in the way they are doing right here.