So what ISN'T allowed in video games now?

[Strelok]

First and foremost, let me explain what I always saw as the Halo/GoW controversy. Maybe halo was a personal one, but Halo was the game that made the community parent associate gaming with the devil. It wasn't Goldeneye that did it, it was Halo. Why this is, I have no idea, but the fact of the matter is, Halo was considered the violent...est of the violent when it came out.

GoW, from what I remember, was surrounded by a giant cloud of shit when it came out because people were disgusted by it. The chainsaw executions and the giant amounts of gore were something unseen by a lot of people, and it got a lot of heat for it. Again, maybe that was a localized event. But I remember without a doubt in my mind that both of these games put video games as completely off limits to a lot of people.

Huh? I have been gaming for a long time, never heard of either one of these controversies. Goldeneye? Seriously? There was no controversy over any of those games, well maybe some flak for Gears of Snore for the gore, Hell it isn't even the first game with a chainsaw in it. All of your controversies seem to be in your head, how did you come to the conclusion Halo made gaming the devil? Sorry, but all this seems really weird and disjointed, like you have never been allowed to play these games.

 

[Korten12]

Huh? I have been gaming for a long time, never heard of either one of these controversies. Goldeneye? Seriously? There was no controversy over any of those games, well maybe some flak for Gears of Snore for the gore, Hell it isn't even the first game with a chainsaw in it. All of your controversies seem to be in your head, how did you come to the conclusion Halo made gaming the devil? Sorry, but all this seems really weird and disjointed, like you have never been allowed to play these games.

Gears of Snore..? Really? Is that the best you have? Maybe I expected too much. :/

 

[rasputin0009]

I think it's shocking that the game industry doesn't take more risks censorship wise. Especially when video games aren't as mainstream such as television and movies. I don't see why video games don't go even further to push boundaries. Even television has been taking more risks lately and meeting success with shows such as Spartacus.

Mind = blown. 7 years ago? Christ, that means I played that when I was about 9.

Yeah, how time flies. I once recommended a game from 2007 to a friend, dont remember which game, and he was like "oh im not going to play such an old game", and i was like " old? its a new one". then oh wait, its been 6 years.... wow....

Ya, Skyrim is already 18 months old and it still feels brand new.

Captcha: can I love?
I ask myself the same question sometimes, too Captcha. We just have to wait for the right woman or anti-spam software in your case. Maybe ask SOLVEmedia on a date, Captcha?

 

[Stryc9]

I'm fairly certain that there would be an uproar if a game depicted something like the Holocaust. Even if it was done in a respectful and serious way. I can't recall any game that even really mentions those kinds of atrocities openly. I could be wrong though.

Here you are then. This was mid '90s by the way.

So far there is no mainstream game to my knowledge that encourages you to kill children out of the box with no mods. Never mind, forgot about the little plague infested brats in the first Deus Ex game.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Just make a game where you fly a Plane into the World Trade Center and you'll have your desired Shitstorm.

Didn't they remove some planned content from GTA4 just so that you couldn't do this? They removed planes because they thought people would spend the whole game crashing them into the 'World Shmade Centres'
I don't think games need to include everything. You don't see soldiers in CoD travel between the battlefields, you didn't see Altair or Ezio learn how to jump about rooftops. You therefore don't need to include their intimate lives in a story about jumping round stabbing people.

 

[Strelok]

Huh? I have been gaming for a long time, never heard of either one of these controversies. Goldeneye? Seriously? There was no controversy over any of those games, well maybe some flak for Gears of Snore for the gore, Hell it isn't even the first game with a chainsaw in it. All of your controversies seem to be in your head, how did you come to the conclusion Halo made gaming the devil? Sorry, but all this seems really weird and disjointed, like you have never been allowed to play these games.

Gears of Snore..? Really? Is that the best you have? Maybe I expected too much. :/

Sigh, so did I when I bought this terrible game, instead I got a chest high wall apocalypse, mutated circus clown cast of characters, and a flat tedious story, was almost as bad as Halo, but Halo at least I could finish, not so for this... game I guess you can call it. Was a long way off the trailer they showed. Sad, I will work harder at insulting the games you love next time, we both shouldn't be so disappointed.

 

[Jodah]

Violence wise there isn't anything as long as it serves a purpose and isn't violence for violence sake. Violence that serves no purpose hasn't been as well received in recent history as it used to be.

There still isn't any full on intercourse in mainstream games. Same-sex intercourse is also very limited. Dragon Age has touched on it but it's limited.

Side note: This completely ignores mods. Elder Scrolls mods provide enough evidence that nothing is taboo when the players are the ones making the decisions.

 

[Korten12]

Huh? I have been gaming for a long time, never heard of either one of these controversies. Goldeneye? Seriously? There was no controversy over any of those games, well maybe some flak for Gears of Snore for the gore, Hell it isn't even the first game with a chainsaw in it. All of your controversies seem to be in your head, how did you come to the conclusion Halo made gaming the devil? Sorry, but all this seems really weird and disjointed, like you have never been allowed to play these games.

Gears of Snore..? Really? Is that the best you have? Maybe I expected too much. :/

Sigh, so did I when I bought this terrible game, instead I got a chest high wall apocalypse, mutated circus clown cast of characters, and a flat tedious story, was almost as bad as Halo, but Halo at least I could finish, not so for this... game I guess you can call it. Was a long way off the trailer they showed. Sad, I will work harder at insulting the games you love next time, we both shouldn't be so disappointed.

Meh, I played only Gears 3 and thought it was fun... As for Halo, well it's one of my favorite series of all time. More so because of Halo's expansive EU.

 

[shadow skill]

Under-age sex/romance isn't allowed in video games, like in games that allow you to romance NPCs, children are just as immune to love as they are to war.

You can see this in Skyrim with the NPC Hroki in Markarth, who, despite being one of the more striking women in the game and an obvious choice for a romance option, is flagged as belonging to the child class, so won't respond to the Amulet of Mara and your interaction and conversation options with her are severely limited. I'd like to think this was intentional trolling by Bethesda rather than just a bug or database error, because she certainly doesn't appear to be an child and for many players, she is one of the most striking and noticeable NPCs you see when you enter Markarth.

I think the Fable series flirts with that taboo quite a funny way, like if you use a flirty expression on a child NPC, or even if a child gets caught in the crossfire of a flirty expression that is directed at an adult, the child will say something like "I don't like you any more", "But... but you're supposed to be a good person" or "That's just wrong".

Fable's recognition of that taboo, it's NPC's direct response to an attempt at romance on a child, combined with the way NPC's will follow you around town once your renown gets high enough, can lead to some unintentional and darkly humorous moments if you don't pay attention to your surroundings before engaging in sex with someone. Once I took a prostitute to bed with me and after the screen darkened and the sex scene played, when the image came back again, there was a crying child stood next to my bed, another child saying "You're a bad man" and an enraged parent admonishing me for my interactions with their child.

With all that being said, this is one taboo that I'm happy to have remain in videogames, as I can't imagine how it would be good or healthy for the industry to give the player that choice, even in the name of freedom and unparalleled interaction with the world.

That is truly awesome.
[On Topic]
Black men having sex with white women?

 

[RaginDrage]

A realistic looking game that isn't gritty.

 

[shadow skill]

A realistic looking game that isn't gritty.

Well shit, I think you are right. I can't think of the last time I have ever seen that.

 

[Weaver]

Why do American censor boards hate sex so much? Sex is awesome.
Keinohrhasen is rated FSK 12 (12 years plus) and tons of sex and full frontal nudity. It originally released as FSK 6! The equivalent of a 'G' here. Whys everyone gotta be so uptight?

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Can't kill kids... then the modders wouldn't have anything to do. On that note you can't have full frontal nudity (not unless massive censors). But sex has had the bar risen as well, using Mass Effect as the example, I'd been playing the Mass Effect series on my PS3 so I hadn't seen this sex scene that got Fox in a tizzy, but the one from Mass Effect 3 with Liara is really... visceral.

So by the time I got to play through Mass Effect I expect something Hardcore. Nope. Im surprised Fox didn't explode after Mass Effect 3.

*sigh* again stop saying you "can't" depict things just because it's not often done.

Deus ex 1 and 2 let you kill kids as well as House of the dead 2 although you lost a life for doing it (no it was not a zombie kid) and there are a few others as well.

Just speaking on part of Austrlian Censorship guidelines, can't have kid killing in games.

No you can have it in games, you just wouldn't be able to sell it legally in australia.

It's still something you are able to put in a game and even then people in Australia can probably get their hands on it somehow.

There's also (at least if I remember correctly) some strict rules on the portrayal of drugs and prostitution but that leads to region censorship more often than it leads to them taking it out of every version of the game. Just look at grand theft auto.

Well by that logical, there's nothing that cannot be in a game.

So something that you cannot have in games, the classic dream Pokemon Fans have been clamouring for since the series first started. A 3D Pokemon MMO.
That is never going to happen, sort of beyond hoping that'd happen anyway. Costs, amount of work involved, etc.

 

[Seydaman]

I would guess child porn and snuff video's are not allowed in games

Well, that would be considers a breach of the law in certain places.

OT: Nothing comes to mind, technically, we can depict damn near everything we want, within some technical boundaries that will away over time. Wether it will garner sales or not is another question.

ACTUALLY EDIT: In Vampire: Bloodlines the Masquerade, you hunt down a "snuff" tape, it's just some NPC being murderized by some creature thingies. It was still dark as hell and creeped me out, but nothing really beyond the boundaries in games.

 

[Seydaman]

Why do American censor boards hate sex so much? Sex is awesome.
Keinohrhasen is rated FSK 12 (12 years plus) and tons of sex and full frontal nudity. It originally released as FSK 6! The equivalent of a 'G' here. Whys everyone gotta be so uptight?

Because of the religious foundation of the country, there isn't any logic behind it. It's profoundly dumb and will never hold up to any serious inspection..

 

[Yelchor]

I'm fairly certain that there would be an uproar if a game depicted something like the Holocaust. Even if it was done in a respectful and serious way. I can't recall any game that even really mentions those kinds of atrocities openly. I could be wrong though.

I second this. While the appearance of Germans of the Whermacht or who have been influenced by propaganda of the Nazi party is still common day practice, I haven't seen any major attempt in the interactive media to show what they actually -did-. Not only doesn't it make any sense from a story perspective, as you basically just tell the player to combat the Third Reich because... because, but it also ignores historical factors of the real world which many of these developers would claim being "faithful" to.

Now, do you have to focus on what was done to many ethnicities in order to have a "real" WW2 game? Of course not. I love Inglorious Basterds for example, with their focus on black comedy to point out the absurdities of it all while not directly focusing on the holocaust. But even then, they still took their time to establish that the Nazis ruthlessly hunted down civilians and their families. When you have countless games depicting the fronts against Nazi Germany, and not -a single one- tries to explain why we should combat a particular side, there's a problem.

I would go as far as to say it's hypocritical, as while the developers often take pride in recreating soldiers in exact historical detail they barely even nod towards what actually happened. This is a pattern not just for the WW2 era shooters, but for most games that depict large scale violence in general. Almost without exception, it's all about having fun, to enjoy mindless carnage and death in a virtual world where you never have to pause for a second and think about what you are doing. To me, that is frightening.

 

[Lady Larunai]

I would guess child porn and snuff video's are not allowed in games

Well, that would be considers a breach of the law in certain places.

OT: Nothing comes to mind, technically, we can depict damn near everything we want, within some technical boundaries that will away over time. Wether it will garner sales or not is another question.

ACTUALLY EDIT: In Vampire: Bloodlines the Masquerade, you hunt down a "snuff" tape, it's just some NPC being murderized by some creature thingies. It was still dark as hell and creeped me out, but nothing really beyond the boundaries in games.

Its illegal but still not allowed in games, im also annoyed i cant kill the snot nosed little brats in skyrim, if we go off the other threat pixie porn is out now.. Thats ruins my weekends...

Maybe anything that teaches you real world techniques on how to prepare drugs or build a bomb?

 

[JakeNubbin]

Alright I'm actually going to help out the OP and be a bit realistic here. A Hitman style game, or something similar, main character is a child. A game that forces you to do obviously bad things, and I mean come on, I mean things like abusing puppies. But that stuff is obvious. I'd say, among things you can't do, would be things that wouldn't work in the sense of a video game. Like writing, and having it affect game-play. Besides Okami of course but I mean like full-on handwriting. Games where you can voice-chat talk to NPC's, can't happen yet. Maybe if it were really short and stylized. Games where you play as something really out of place in a grim-dark setting like a giraffe.

Or did you just want another, lets bash a really broad Triple-A amazingly easy target, insult Americans session? Ooooh we can't play as a foreigner!! Madness!!

 

[Carpenter]

Can't kill kids... then the modders wouldn't have anything to do. On that note you can't have full frontal nudity (not unless massive censors). But sex has had the bar risen as well, using Mass Effect as the example, I'd been playing the Mass Effect series on my PS3 so I hadn't seen this sex scene that got Fox in a tizzy, but the one from Mass Effect 3 with Liara is really... visceral.

So by the time I got to play through Mass Effect I expect something Hardcore. Nope. Im surprised Fox didn't explode after Mass Effect 3.

*sigh* again stop saying you "can't" depict things just because it's not often done.

Deus ex 1 and 2 let you kill kids as well as House of the dead 2 although you lost a life for doing it (no it was not a zombie kid) and there are a few others as well.

Just speaking on part of Austrlian Censorship guidelines, can't have kid killing in games.

No you can have it in games, you just wouldn't be able to sell it legally in australia.

It's still something you are able to put in a game and even then people in Australia can probably get their hands on it somehow.

There's also (at least if I remember correctly) some strict rules on the portrayal of drugs and prostitution but that leads to region censorship more often than it leads to them taking it out of every version of the game. Just look at grand theft auto.

Well by that logical, there's nothing that cannot be in a game.

So something that you cannot have in games, the classic dream Pokemon Fans have been clamouring for since the series first started. A 3D Pokemon MMO.
That is never going to happen, sort of beyond hoping that'd happen anyway. Costs, amount of work involved, etc.

Yes, by that "logical" any game "can" be made. It doesn't mean every game is made, just can be made. It's not being stopped. Most of what people keep claiming "can't" be done has been done.