Blizzard Forced to Censor StarCraft II

[hansari]

Note: This does not affect StarCraft II in other regions, such as the U.S.

Didn't the new Aliens game say no and went head to head with the Australia rating board?

I imagine Blizzard could have done the same thing here. There would have been rioting in the streets if the Korean government tried to keep Starcraft out of the hands of a single consumer group.

 

[LWS666]

tbh if people didn't publisise this no-one would notice, red blood and smoking are not what people are buying this for.

also,

That doesn't seem too bad. I doubt many hardcore fans will care too much about the blood or smoking as long as the game play is unchanged.

Sure the gameplay won't be affected, but the cutscenes will. They seem to be saying that they'll cut all scenes with smoking or vulgarity, it'll probably fuck up the narrative quite a bit.

Why don't they do what the BBC used to do with swearing in movies and dub it really badly with a posh English man saying things like "Blasted" and "Jolly good show". The cigarettes could be re-rendered into pencils, party blowers, or sausages. Problem solved.

there needs to be a mod for this. for every game ever.

 

[RicoADF]

Korea must be spending time with the Australian ratings board, well it was only a matter of time I suppose.

Even Australia wouldn't censor SC2 for blood, looks like we have a new contender for dumbest ratings board.

 

[Gladion]

Blizzard Forced to Censor StarCraft II

This title is extremely misleading. Blizzard isn't forced to do anything, they did it so they can sell more units.
Very understandable from a marketing-point of view, but victimizing this company at this point is absolutely inappropriate.

An AO rating is a death sentence. Disagree if you'd like, but Blizzard was forced to censor the game.

What AO rating? We're talking about South Korea here, this has nothing to do with the ESRB.

Edit: Oh, I see. Well, it's still misleading - an 18+ in Korea does not equal an AO-rating in the US. The rating is essentially the same, the consequences differ a lot, though.

 

[Veleste]

The game is way too popular in Korea, I can kinda understand why they're censoring it. It's so utterly huge kids will do anything to get their hand on it with out without their parents consent. They can play it in net café's or at their friends so it's hard for parents to really control this.

 

[rabidmidget]

It doesn't sound as bad as the censored version of left 4 dead 2, I could understand removing dismemberment but making the bodies disappear before they hit the ground was just annoying.

 

[Marmooset]

[edit] For the record, it makes no mention of whether or not the US version is affected.

Except on the last line.

Note: This does not affect StarCraft II in other regions, such as the U.S.

But it does not say it twice, at least...

 

[paragon1]

Did Michael Atkinson move to South Korea while no one was looking? Quick, someone in Australia make sure he's still there! We mustn't allow the creep to spread to another continent.

 

[Antari]

And they probably expect to legalize manditory helmet wearing at all times for anyone under the age of 18 ... Useless protections that do nothing to help anyone. A bunch of useless people with useless jobs wasting money (Advisory Board not Blizzard!). Better to expose your child to it and explain whats going on, than try to hide it from them. Hiding it from them, is how you create an idiot. A rating on a box doesn't raise your child, you do. Or atleast you are supposed to.

 

[ShadowKirby]

My own little theory is that Korea is trying to limit the sale of this game to minor so they don't get 100 dead kids 2 or 3 weeks after the game is released because those kids will have stopped eating or sleeping to get up the ladder.

Anyone ready to take bets on the first SC2 related death?

 

[Nouw]

I feel sorry for my Korean Relatives. Oh well, they can easily counter that.

 

[Byers]

So stimpacks are okay, but smoking is not. Gotcha.

 

[Straz]

There had better be an uncensored version still. I for one, am not 12, and so I would like the grit that always befit the Scarcraft series intact.

YOU BIG SILLY THEY ALREADY SAID AS MUCH.

 

[blankedboy]

Really, is there that much blood and gore coming out for the game?

Sadly, I lacked the Desktop I wanted to play the Beta, so I ended up missing my chance, but really, was there that much?

Or is Kerrigan showing off more breasts now? @.@

Speaking of which, google image searching 'kerrigan' returns this on the first page:

Spoiler: NSFW!!!

Spoiler: seriously

I want SC2

 

[Arcticflame]

Korea must be spending time with the Australian ratings board, well it was only a matter of time I suppose.

Korea is the new Australia!

Note: This does not affect StarCraft II in other regions, such as the U.S.

Didn't the new Aliens game say no and went head to head with the Australia rating board?

I imagine Blizzard could have done the same thing here. There would have been rioting in the streets if the Korean government tried to keep Starcraft out of the hands of a single consumer group.

Korea must be spending time with the Australian ratings board, well it was only a matter of time I suppose.

Even Australia wouldn't censor SC2 for blood, looks like we have a new contender for dumbest ratings board.

That doesn't make sense.

The Australian ratings board is notorious for giving R rated games MA ratings. The problem was that games that finally did get R ratings (rightfully so) would get banned because of a lack of an R rating.

If it was an australians rating board, it would of got an M rating. (a reccomended rating with no actual regulation).

 

[King of the Sandbox]

Just exactly what falls under "vulgarity" in their opinion?

Black blood, kinda cool tbh.

Makes me think of Black blood of the Earth from Big trouble in Little China. ^_^

 

[Slashe]

am i the only one who is shocked that this kinda of rating is given in South Korean?
Seriously? The South Korea? AKA The Capital of Starcraft with actual television channels featuring the tournments daily?

....

Maybe they wanted to restrict it so that their children don't get addicted like their adults

 

[Dommyboy]

Wow, that's just horrible. Insane censorship for South Koreans.

 

[Vitor Goncalves]

Why the fuck would Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh need to be censored?

I only have two things to say to that, 4kids and Shadow realm. look it up I guess.

As to why, 'cause 4kids is a bunch of over protective nannys that think kids under 16 can't watch anything more offensive than telletubbies.

What, there are things more offensive then telletubbies?!

I wonder if they censored the blood in warcraft: Orcs vs Humans back in the day. Those bloody ultrapixelized corpses were such a gory sight. I still have nightmares with it 16 years later. And those orcish words, I bet they were swearing in Korean.

Censor Starcraft?! I mean Starcraft?!

By the way, I hope the final game looks better then that picture and the youtube videos as it looks something middle way from warcarft 2 and warcraft 3. But probably its due to the bed resolution, hopefully. Anyone here in the beta of the game with some reliable idea?!