To understand the American market, where hardcore porn is legal but games with minor nudity are suppressed, you have to understand the difference between the role of the ESRB and the role of ratings boards in other countries (such as the USK in Germany or the BBFC in the UK), and you have to understand the power distributors have in the American market.There isn't a national law preventing the sale of ESRB AO or M-rated titles to minors, nor is there even a law compelling video game publishers to obtain an ESRB rating. Attempts to make such laws are consistently struck down as infringements on the freedom of speech. This is different from the situation in, say, the UK, where the Video Recordings Act governs what you may or may not sell, and whom you may or may not sell to.The situation in the US, however, is that the chain of distribution is equally free to refuse to handle your product. If you cannot get wholesalers and retailers to sell your product, it will be a commercial failure, and there is no business case you can make for publishing a game that you know will fail.Retailers in particular are out to protect their trade image. A game retailer who gets caught dealing in what some prudish locals and a sensationalist TV station or newspaper consider inappropriate for children takes a huge hit to his reputation, deserved or not. It is more profitable not to deal in such titles at all than to act on the courage of your conviction that this is a worthwhile game and should be sold.Voivod999 said:1) I wonder what's wrong with Americans. They ban things like breasts on TV, but most of the worlds porn comes from there. People like the Porn Clown Posse can do their thing openly on the streets. Contradictory, no?2) Sex is a normal human thing. Back in the medieval times (and later on) was nudity normal, people wore "clothes" as they could afford it, and most could not. Furthermore: think about paintings from Masters like Rubens, Jordaens, ...: most are with nudity.3) Nothing is as gorgeous (not from an erotic point of view, but from artistic point of view) as a female body. Hell: there should be a law that forbids women to wear clothes: it's a grave crime hiding the beauty with clothes. Just not during winter, of course...What I am getting at: To America: either allow "sex" (nudity, ...) or COMPLETELY ban it. You cannot have it 2 ways. That's just hypocritical, and not to mention: SILLY. We Europeans laugh with this.Furthermore: the "erotic part" of this magnificent game is from artistic point of view tolerable. It is not gross, and the so called "collectible sex cards" are well painted, and yes, they do show a breast every so often, but not in a vulgar way.To end: if you really think that the content is pornographic, I suggest that you play the game then, and see for yourself. Crap, most teens got worse books and movies at home. Or will you go hunt these down as well? *grins*PS: This post is not mentioned to insult anyone, I am merely making a statement here. If I insulted anyone I apologize...
That pretty well nails it for Canada as well, which is very unfortunate especially since most of the people doing the complaining don't seem to know or care about the parental control systems built into modern consoles and PCs. This is also one of the reasons why I think digital distribution is a good thing, send the censored version to the retailers and then sell an uncut version directly, in theory that would solve the problem.GuyN039wah said:To understand the American market, where hardcore porn is legal but games with minor nudity are suppressed, you have to understand the difference between the role of the ESRB and the role of ratings boards in other countries (such as the USK in Germany or the BBFC in the UK), and you have to understand the power distributors have in the American market.There isn't a national law preventing the sale of ESRB AO or M-rated titles to minors, nor is there even a law compelling video game publishers to obtain an ESRB rating. Attempts to make such laws are consistently struck down as infringements on the freedom of speech. This is different from the situation in, say, the UK, where the Video Recordings Act governs what you may or may not sell, and whom you may or may not sell to.The situation in the US, however, is that the chain of distribution is equally free to refuse to handle your product. If you cannot get wholesalers and retailers to sell your product, it will be a commercial failure, and there is no business case you can make for publishing a game that you know will fail.Retailers in particular are out to protect their trade image. A game retailer who gets caught dealing in what some prudish locals and a sensationalist TV station or newspaper consider inappropriate for children takes a huge hit to his reputation, deserved or not. It is more profitable not to deal in such titles at all than to act on the courage of your conviction that this is a worthwhile game and should be sold.