Diablo 3 To Be Edited For Australia, Germany

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Feel free to correct me, but doesn't adding parental controls to a game thats sold as a Mature Rated series kinda defeat the purpose? It's kinda like if they made Friday the 13th: Sesame Street Edition.

You speak as-though the game will force you to use said controls. Just toggle the parental controls to the "off" position, and you are 99.999% unaffected by this (and that's only if you want to make an issue about the .001% effort it takes to toggle one setting, IF that setting even needs to be toggled). Seriously, I've seen dozens of highly violent games that had some form of a "turn off the blood and guts" option, and this is the first time I've seen someone whine about it. I guess it must be a Blizzard customer thing. :/

Well, Yahtzee's not gona like this I bet.

Yeah, his "We have the nicest beaches" tax sometimes demands a bit much. Still, he managed to get his hands on Manhunt, which was apparently banned in Australia, so I'm sure he'll be ready to rip into Diablo 3 when the time comes.

 

[mikezombie777]

The developers haven't even submitted the game for classification in Australia - therefore they are merely making assumptions about whether or not they have to edit certain content. This is a classic case of paranoid self censorship. Games such as Gears of War 1/2, Dead Rising, Saints Row 1/2, God of War 1/2, Dead Space, Bioshock, UT3, FEAR 2 etc have all been released in Australia uncut. The last time this happened the assumptions turned out to be unfounded - GTA IV was edited by Rockstar originally because they thought the uncut version would be banned, but they submitted the uncut version for classification when they released the PC version and it passed without any edits.

All that will happen is people will download the uncut version, whether the CB censors it or if Blizzard self censors it. This is a case of the developers being unwilling to try to get the uncut version classified. It is THEIR decision, not the Classification Boards.

If the uncut version were submitted for classification in Australia it would most likely be passed. Contrary to popular belief most adult games don't actually get censored - the sensationalistic media just LOVE perpetuating complete BS. The system in Australia has a lot of problems, it does indeed need an R rating but there is no way Diablo III would be banned. It's just the developers being paranoid.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Feel free to correct me, but doesn't adding parental controls to a game thats sold as a Mature Rated series kinda defeat the purpose? It's kinda like if they made Friday the 13th: Sesame Street Edition.

You speak as-though the game will force you to use said controls. Just toggle the parental controls to the "off" position, and you are 99.999% unaffected by this (and that's only if you want to make an issue about the .001% effort it takes to toggle one setting, IF that setting even needs to be toggled). Seriously, I've seen dozens of highly violent games that had some form of a "turn off the blood and guts" option, and this is the first time I've seen someone whine about it. I guess it must be a Blizzard customer thing. :/

You misunderstand me. It doesn't bother me all that much that they're putting the setting in there. It just seems odd to me that they tout the series as their "Mature-rated series" and then go and add a feature that allows you to turn off the things that make it "mature-rated".
I suppose voluntary censorship is better than forced censorship.

 

[KDR_11k]

Yes, but Jay Wilson himself said in the above article that "Diablo is our Mature-rated series," so putting parental controls on your quote "Mature-rated series" seems like, to me at least, putting training wheels on a Harley.

On the other hand declaring the gore in a game to be an integral part and denying the game to anyone living in a censoring country strikes me as extremely shallow. Mature means more than just excessive blood, it also mean no wacky jokes and stuff like that.

Blizzard has three choices in Germany:
1) Hand over D3 for classification to the USK and aim for a USK 16 release which means if you're 16 years of age or older, you can grab your copy from the local retailer or amazon.
2) Hand over D3 for classification to the USK and aim for a USK 18 release which means the seller has to verify the buyers age.
3) Completely skip classification which would result in a "no youth release" label which means it is not allowed to be sold to persons under the age of 18.

No rating means no label at all, the old "no youth clearance" sticker was the 18 rating, they redesigned it to a big red 18 recently but it's the same thing. AFAIK you need to verify the age of the buyer on a 16 rated game too, just not when doing online sales.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I wanna know what the hell china demanded!

Is the list anywhere?

No Skeletons for one. The Chinese are super paranoid about skeletons.

Remember how many goddamn skeletons were in Diablo 2?

 

[karmapolizei]

Blizzard has three choices in Germany:
1) Hand over D3 for classification to the USK and aim for a USK 16 release which means if you're 16 years of age or older, you can grab your copy from the local retailer or amazon.
2) Hand over D3 for classification to the USK and aim for a USK 18 release which means the seller has to verify the buyers age.
3) Completely skip classification which would result in a "no youth release" label which means it is not allowed to be sold to persons under the age of 18.

Actually, that's incorrect. 3) means the game gets no label at all - the "No youth release" label doesn't exist anymore since they revamped the labels and just meant the same as 2).

On a different note, I wonder how much gorier than its predecessors Diablo 3 actually is, because both of them were released unedited and got a USK 16 rating back in the days.

 

[Zallest]

I wanna know what the hell china demanded!

Is the list anywhere?

No Skeletons for one. The Chinese are super paranoid about skeletons.

Remember how many goddamn skeletons were in Diablo 2?

I don't see how you can have WoW or any Diablo series without skeletons, i mean they are such a big part of the game! How can the lich king have a army if he has no undead? how can you gain levels if there are no skeles to grind. HOW COULD THE NECROMANCER WORK?!? Crazy China

 

[Amnestic]

I wanna know what the hell china demanded!

Is the list anywhere?

No Skeletons for one. The Chinese are super paranoid about skeletons.

Remember how many goddamn skeletons were in Diablo 2?

I don't see how you can have WoW or any Diablo series without skeletons, i mean they are such a big part of the game! How can the lich king have a army if he has no undead? how can you gain levels if there are no skeles to grind. HOW COULD THE NECROMANCER WORK?!? Crazy China

I'm 90% sure that Wrath of the Lich King hasn't had a Chinese release. Players like those in the guild (Of Yogg-Saron+0 World First 'fame') are chinese players playing on a Taiwanese release of the game so they can actually access the latest expansion.

 

[skeanthu]

While the world becomes the sheep, the wolves circle closer.

 

[Spucktier]

Blizzard has three choices in Germany:
1) Hand over D3 for classification to the USK and aim for a USK 16 release which means if you're 16 years of age or older, you can grab your copy from the local retailer or amazon.
2) Hand over D3 for classification to the USK and aim for a USK 18 release which means the seller has to verify the buyers age.
3) Completely skip classification which would result in a "no youth release" label which means it is not allowed to be sold to persons under the age of 18.

Actually, that's incorrect

Right, "label" was a poor choice of words.

 

[Daedalus1942]

"For regions like Germany and Australia, we will have to change blood if we're going to sell there. And that's fine. Those are the standards for those regions, and we don't really have a problem with catering to what they need and what they want," he told Wired."

I'm going to say what everyone's thinking...
WE DO have a problem with the standards for our region.
Also, another important note...
FUCK YOU TO HELL, MICHAEL ATKINSON!!!
FUCK YOU TO HELL!