Age of Conan

Originally posted by Mark701

Americans have a very twisted sense of morality (I'm an American). It might be the only country in the world where you can see blood and gore on prime time television but GOD FORBID if anyone shows a little tit because it might corrupt the children. Sex, the most natural and pleasant thing on the planet, is forbidden fruit, but blowing people away on national televison is just fine.

Sex isnt "forbidden fruit" however showing sex in national television infront of millions of people, including children I wouldnt say is a bit natural.

The fact remains that female breasts give a sexual signal to most men, it is a sexual organ just as the genitalia. So giving sexual signals to children and underage people might be considered wrong. Its called ethics.

I hate to bring politics in, but, the fact remains, if the M rating disappears, it originated from here.. and this is only the beginning  folks.

http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/146121.html

The game is rated Mature, they have no legal recourse to censor it.  Might be different if they were going for a 17 and under crowd.

I'm a mature gamer and live in the US. If they do indeed censor the US version I will be greatly disappointed. I really don't care if there is boobs or not in the game but if I'm going to pay a monthly fee for the game then I want the full version of the game not the watered down one. I want what is offered to the rest of the world.

Right now around the world, Video games are being sighted as the root of all evil and corruption. Legislation like that has come up across more then a dozen states and with each one, in the end, they are shut out because the court deemed them Unconstitutional. Our constitution in the US is a wonderful thing, and I love judges who adhere to it. Because more and more in this country our civil liberties are being reduced constantly from laws that come up like this.

IMHO if a game is rated M, then it can have boobs and gore and sex. It's intended for people 17+ after all. In the US (and I suspect in other 'civilized' parts of the world,) people go ballistic when a game or movie or what not features a lot of violence and sex, even if it's rated R and only 17 and older folks can attend. To some people today 17 is still a child. But they seem to forget that in MOST parts of the world, women are married off by 14 or 15, and by 17 very likely have at least a single child.

Seriously though, having boobs in a game that is intended for people 17 or older is just fine. We all have tits after all. I mean it does stem down the hard core Christian conservative part of our nation, stemming from the Puritan movement that first settled this country. I mean hell, just a few years ago one of said hardcore conservative Christian senators tried to pass a movement to get the statues built into the bannesters in the Senate removed, because they had breasts! They didn't even have tits! He started by just covering them up. Of course his 'bill' got shut down QUICK.

In the end, I'd rather have to deal with no tits (though a player made patch is almost assured,) then the poor folks in German who will have no blood and no fatalities. Even in England the gore is likely going to be reduced quite significantly.

When you open the box a chip is implanted under your skin so they can track you!

Seriously people grab hold of some reality...

The point isn't whether it's an absence of flesh, less blood or any other form of censorship.

The point is that Robert E. Howard's Hyborian age was filled with just this type of content. Any less, and it simply isn't Conan. Period.

Drinking, carousing, womanizing, thieving and killing... that was largely the life of an adventurer like Conan. If those elements aren't in the game, then it will just be another fantasy MMORPG.

Welcome to MEDIOCRITY, Funcom. The pool is a little crowded, but at least all the other also-ran fantasy MMORPGs will start to fall off and you won't be here for long either, so try not to worry about it too much.

The issue doesn't lie with the ESRB; it lies with Funcom and their cowardice in not seeking an outright AO rating in the U.S. They knew a Mature rating with all of the proposed content would be a hard, if not impossible, sell with the current media and political hysteria over games.

They should have just ripped the band-aid off, cried a few tears and went for the AO rating.

The function of the ESRB is to act as a self-policing rating scheme similar to the MPAA. Are movie studios as gun shy about rated R movies? How much money do movies with an R rating lose compared to movies with a PG-13 rating? If it is such a significant amount, why do studios continue making R-rated movies?

Honestly, the fact is that game studios and their publishers are complete cowards. Which is probably why they will never be taken seriously in the entertainment industry and why their audience will always be infantilized by the press, politicians and the general public.

We aren't adults. We are all just little children, playing our cute little games.

Awww, isn't that cute! Widdle Johnny is pretending to be a Cimmerian!

They wouldn't think a yard of Hyrkanian steel spilling some Nemedian's intestines and blood into the dust was "cute".

And they shouldn't; it's not supposed to be frigging cute, cuddly, nice, gentle or pretty. The whole Conan mythos is about blood, sweat, tears, sorcery, death and sex.

If I wanted cute, I'd play Flyff or some other juvenile, elementary pablum.

For those who are saying "wait and see", you obviously have more faith in the embattled ESRB than I and many others have. They have been beaten so much in the press and by politicians lately that it is highly unlikely they would approve any content for a Mature rating if there is even the slightest chance it will cause controversy.

Originally posted by xenogias

Keep in mind that in America boobs are still taboo. I live here and it sickens me how much censorship we have to deal with.  I cant even purchase a Playboy at sam goody without getting wierd looks from people

Here in the land down under all you have to do is walk down to the beach and the White Pointers [ boobies] are on display, dear god I love summer

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316925,00.html

Humors me that as long as boobs are allowed, people think their societies are free from censorship. What a narrow view of things.

For instance, most Canadians didn't know they had a serial killer in the Vancouver area killing women, chopping them up, and feeding them to his pigs (which he then sold some as food). To 'protect' their citizens they withhold that kind of information.

And from what the Spanish are doing with this rather tame calendar, I wouldn't be suprised if the EU doesn't start cracking down on nudity far more than the USA does. Ain't the EU a wonderful thing? Heh.