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So NCsoft are censoring western Blade and Soul afterall?
scorpex-x
Member RarePosts: 1,030
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?
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?
Post edited by scorpex-x on
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
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.
"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.
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"?
Here is the same scene censored.
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
"*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.
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.
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.
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)?
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?
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.
"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. "
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/
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.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
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
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.