With an emphasis on poorly made, have you seen the gameplay footage? It looks TERRIBLE!godofslack said:
You are allowed to have sex in your game, The Witcher 1 and 2, Mass Effect 1, Dragon Age Origins, and many more games include sex and they are allowed. The reason why we don't see many games with sex is because they instantly get labeled with the AO rating, which immediately damns them to not appearing on store shelves. This is not the case with PC games, including the infamous Manhunt 2.ResonanceSD said:
I never claimed American sensibilities make sense. But they certainly aren't a new thing.ResonanceSD said:
Rainboq said:
So, what is that signifier? Why is it so hard for you to answer this simple question? You keep saying it's all so obvious, but you cannot even say what this supposed symbol is.Rainboq said:
Yes, that was my point. I am morally offended by Steam... but just can't work up the steam for a good angry rant about it. Pun not intended, but welcome.RhombusHatesYou said:
I'd say it's either 1) they make them vague to keep people from gaming a hard-and-fast rule system, or 2) they are taking a playbook from the justice system on what constitutes "obscenity": you can't define it, but you know it when you see it.Legion said:
Your first argument is the same as those who condemn violence in video games. The fact of the matter is that it's still fantasy and not real. Sane adults can tell the difference, and as for children it comes down to the parents to make sure their children know the difference as well. As for your second argument, see below.peruvianskys said:
I'm not denying that Valve has the right to deny this on their service - they do. You're 100% right about how it should be up to the individuals, not societies. My point is that American Culture holds consensual sex in media as more taboo than violence and torture by a long shot, which is very hypocritical. It took Manhunt 2's extremely graphic violence to get it AO, all it took San Andreas was a sex minigame that wasn't even playable without hacking the game. Now about the whole "first amendment" thing...Baresark said:
If violence in video games is a solved issue because of the first amendment, then why isn't consensual sex? Valve's reasoning was that the game was "offensive", but why is this more offensive than Black Ops having players drown someone with their bare hands and mutilating someone with glass? Why is violence excusable because of the first amendment but consensual sex isn't? It once again comes back to the fact that most Americans are more comfortable with people getting burned, gutted, tortured, exploded (for a lack of a better word), maimed, and all-around harmed in fantasy than they are with consensual sex. A game with sex as the premise doesn't just get banned from Steam, it gets banned from just about everywhere. A game specifically about killing people en masse without sympathy or remorse gets sold in stores all across America. If that's not a sign that American Culture looks down on sex in media, then I don't know what is.Baresark said:
^ What this guy said.AdamRBi said:
But that would require a sizeable amount of money.Sober Thal said:
A symbol is anything that has had a meaning assigned to it. It could be something as simple the Roman Numeral V which is meant to represent 5 of something, or the alphabet itself is a collection of symbols with assigned phonetic sounds and meanings. In fact language is a collection of symbols humans use to communicate. And the American Constitution is a symbol of freedom and government for Americans.Aardvaarkman said:
... but.. that's how it is already on the store. Right now on the store highlights, there are only 2 or 3 games (depending on your region) that aren't explicitly "blood & guts" games. Those are Football Manager and 1 or 2 indie platformers, which is usually the way of things. Everything else is either military-porn games, or games where shooting for blood & guts is the primary mechanic.AdamRBi said:
It's not the same. Children don't get their cues on "how to be violent" from movies or television in the same way that they get their cues on how to be sexually aware. The violence in movies is strictly relegated to the realms of fantasy whereas the abusive, exploitative, and otherwise negative interactions between men and women in the American media landscape are often presented without a fine line between fantasy and reality or appropriate and inappropriate. I don't think that anything should be illegal, I'm just saying that depictions of sexuality on television or in other media can have a greater impact on children's views of the world than violence.V da Mighty Taco said:
The First Amendment does not guarantee that everyone must allow you to express yourself; it simply prevents the government from actively stopping you. A private business like Valve can decide to deny whatever it wants. They could take down all games with black people or refuse to carry any puzzle games featuring wizards if they wanted to and it wouldn't violate the First Amendment.V da Mighty Taco said:
In this case the signifier is the text 'the American political system' and is ultimately arbitrary, all that matters is the signified, which, as stated is all the components. Like a 'computer' is just the wrapper for the hardware and the software that goes into a computing device. Like 'the American news media' is the wrapper for all the news channels based in the USA, their shows, the personalities on screen, etc. It's very simple, but odds are you don't get it because you don't want to. You like your world view, as blatantly false as it is and you have a conformation bias to support it.Aardvaarkman said:
