Am I Wrong to feel Vindicated by this 'Censorship'?

[chozo_hybrid]

I think it doesn't matter, they decided to change it. No one forced them, and as they said, they were going to be replacing it anyway. I believe simply because lying about it gains them nothing really.

 

[Bombiz]

SNIP

Trust me, I was on the Bioware boards during the War. Censorship and the accusations of were everywhere! Even Bioware itself was saying they're not going to stifle the creativity of their writers and force an ending they didn't want to write. That's what censorship is. Silencing or rewriting for the mob.

Censoring the writers was a big part of the 'Leave this shit alone' camp.

By that time I had completely abandoned Bioware's forums (with the exception of the ME3 multiplayer board). I am sure that was ground zero for much of the discussion. I watched most of the debate from here, which IIRC 80%+ of the posters seemed to be in the "change it" camp. Most of the contrarians either liked the original ending or were just sick of seeing everyone acting so entitled.

@Fappy I honestly don't know how to feel about this. I mean the new ending we got was actually better than the original. At least IMHO. plus I always thought we got the original ending because EA forced them to release the game early. Kinda like how Sega forces CA to release everything they do early.

 

[JimB]

The Steven Universe thing struck me as a great time to show just what one was made of. Instead, I saw a stream of "take that, SJWs/feminists!"

Which only furthers my impression that free speech is only an issue when it applies to things we like.

I suppose it's technically fallacious to call people hypocrites unless we can name those people and point to them calling, say, Cammy's ass slap getting removed from Street Fighter V then laughing when something gets removed from Steven Universe, but god, it's really hard not to agree with your end assessment.

Also: Hooray! My favorite giant forum user has a face again!

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Caving to pressure includes changing the bug

And you think that "caving to pressure and fixing bugs" and "caving to pressure and removing something someone finds offensive" is the same thing?

Oh so you're saying pressure is okay if it's something that bothers you?

 

[Gorrath]

I tend to think of it like this:

An artist, company, creator, ect. may thoughtfully consider the feedback of its users and make changes to what is being produced. This is not something I would consider censorship, it is the natural relationship of creators and patrons of those creations. If a character design is too sexy that the user base doesn't care for it or someone thinks a pose doesn't fit with the character's perceived attitude, and complains, and changes happen, this is the expected nature of things and infringes on nothing. You can't please all of the people, all of the time, so someone is bound to end up feeling slighted or feel as if their desires are being silenced/ignored, but everything happening here is within the realm of thoughtful creation.

What I think becomes problematic is when the criticisms or preferences expressed become unjustly framed as morally or ethically superior to the criticisms or preferences of others. In other words, a company choosing to change a pose of one of its characters because of player feedback should be expected, even encouraged, since it shows a healthy relationship between creator and patron. However, if the creative process is co-opted by claims that one set of preferences are the morally or ethically superior choices, we do find a kind of censorship here because it is no longer a creative choice whether to add or subtract something but a moral or ethical duty to do it.

To butt pose or not to butt pose should be a creative concern, not an ethical one, since there is nothing unethical about showing off a butt. I don't think anyone should feel entitled to any representation from any creator but I do temper this by saying it should be the concern of all that we encourage diversity in our the creative endeavors of society since diversity in art is better for everyone not just the people the art is catering to.

In conclusion, creative people/groups/projects should be open to change through dialogue with its audience and is not a free speech problem if changes occur. No creator owes anyone any specific representation and to claim they do is to make the creative issue an ethical one unduly. And it is in everyone's best interests to encourage diversity in creative fields because it is good for everyone.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Oh so you're saying pressure is okay if it's something that bothers you?

Please answer the question I asked you first, and then I'll answer yours. Sound fair?

Here's my answer: They have equal censorship status

 

[Something Amyss]

I suppose it's technically fallacious to call people hypocrites unless we can name those people and point to them calling, say, Cammy's ass slap getting removed from Street Fighter V then laughing when something gets removed from Steven Universe, but god, it's really hard not to agree with your end assessment.

The problem in calling it fallacious is that were I to name such people, it would likely count as "calling out" and get me warned.

More broadly speaking, however, how much did you hear about the "censorship" of Mevis from that Final Fantasy game? How many cries of "censorship" did you hear over an athletic male in a revealing outfit? In fact, how often do you actually hear an outcry against such things unless it's girls' panties or ass shots? Does it come from the same people?

The "Mevis" thread I could find on here lasted three pages. The Tracer thread is on page eleven. And it's being brought up elsewhere. A lot.

I'll be honest, I think the character design for Mevis was awful, but I've generally hated character designs for FF games since they got detailed enough for me to hate. I thought they were bad in FFVII, and it's like an experiment to see how ridiculous they can get. I mean, censorship is censorship and censorship is bad, right? We've been told just recently that the most disturbing thing about Tracer and Star Ocean is that nobody would have noticed, and here almost nobody did.

The bigger irony is that they made a character whose armour resembles the attire women are frequently stuck in and it made men uncomfortable.

I also had trouble finding a lot of YouTubers or the usual Twitter folks demanding we gets us some hot man-ass. Well, man side-boob.

A search for a thread on KiA brought back nothing. I could find numerous results for Tracer from the last three days, though.

Honestly, is it fallacious at this point? When the response is so pronounced in one instance and the silence is deafening in another?

Also: Hooray! My favorite giant forum user has a face again!

Are you calling me fat?

 

[loa]

It's all a politicized shit-show and the people who whine the loudest are the people who actually give the least of a shit about games.

 

[JimB]

More broadly speaking, however, how much did you hear about the "censorship" of Mevis from that Final Fantasy game? How many cries of "censorship" did you hear over an athletic male in a revealing outfit? In fact, how often do you actually hear an outcry against such things unless it's girls' panties or ass shots?

Yeah, that's why it's hard to disagree with your conclusion. ...Which, if I'm being honest, is also my conclusion. I cannot convince myself the people who cry out about censorship actually care about censorship, because I have never once seen or heard anyone condemn that last Dead or Alive game manufacturing outrage to give itself free publicity being totally censored by people pressuring the developers and also condemning, say, the people who keep trying to pressure Marvel into giving Thor back his cock and balls.

Are you calling me fat?

My memory is fuzzy by nature, but I'm quite sure you once told me you are a giantess, standing nine-foot-eight and possessed of a semi-prehensile ponytail that allows you to communicate with woodland animals.