Action 53 volume 3

[infiniteneslives]

It was pointed out to me privately that like Slappin' Bitches from volume 1, Sinking Feeling has text in its intro that could wreck a hypothetical E10+ rating.

And for those of us opposed to and offended by censorship?

We can leave the entry out completely if that's desired by the creator. Or someone can arrange put in the effort to arrange and produce their own adult/MA compilation rom and cartridges if they'd like.

The compo rules specifically cover explicit content:

Explicit content is not prohibited from the competition, but will most likely not be considered for multicart inclusion.

[tepples]

You're using all four BG palettes for that black-gray-white menu & TV boundary?

Three of four. One is a gray ramp (0F001020), and two are for the text, which is rendered to two bitplanes (0F100F10 and 0F0F1010). Somehow the screenshot color limit didn't cause a problem for the first two volumes.

Now, if we had some means of shrinking images into black+18 colors… (would require scroll split or a height increase of the TV to get around attribute clash of it being 8x7).

A scroll split would make Zapper navigation more difficult, as the Zapper requires timed code to read the Y coordinate. I'd have to either A. split the Zapper polling loop into two "is it above the scroll split" and "is it below the scroll split" loops, or B. offer a build-time choice between support for the Zapper and support for higher color depth.

And for those of us opposed to and offended by censorship?

In the United States, it's common for DVD Video publishers to offer particularly raunchy movies with separate SKUs for the theatrically rated and "unrated" editions. But I haven't seen this for video games for some reason.

[pubby]

I guess it would be possible to display zoomed-in screenshots when game descriptions are displayed. That is, if there's enough space and it isn't too much effort.

[calima]

I really didn't think a couple swear words would be explicit content. I hear much worse from 5 year olds.

If that's the criteria for keeping it in, then do censor it like you said above.

[Myask]

And for those of us opposed to and offended by censorship?

In the United States, it's common for DVD Video publishers to offer particularly raunchy movies with separate SKUs for the theatrically rated and "unrated" editions. But I haven't seen this for video games for some reason.

Hot Coffee.

An IPS for the competition versions of Mojon games will be difficult what with compression.

I really didn't think a couple swear words would be explicit content. I hear much worse from 5 year olds.

If that's the criteria for keeping it in, then do censor it like you said above.

Do leave extra spaces in the string to make reverting them easy, if you would, please.

Everyone missed the joke: censorship, sinking feeling? But I do hate censorship, generally…

[tepples]

In the United States, it's common for DVD Video publishers to offer particularly raunchy movies with separate SKUs for the theatrically rated and "unrated" editions. But I haven't seen this for video games for some reason.

Hot Coffee.

The first edition of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was recalled once Hot Coffee was discovered. I should have clarified that the theatrical and explicit cuts of a film or the edited and explicit versions of a popular music recording are purposely sold side by side.

If that's the criteria for keeping it in, then do censor it like you said above.

Do leave extra spaces in the string to make reverting them easy, if you would, please.

I have done that. It was a lazy hack in a hex editor, after all.

[Myask]

I was providing it as a reason, not a counterexample. If concurrent releases happened, then it makes it downright trivial to provide an explicit mod of the allegedly-inexplicit game, and, with that precedent's horrible implications…

I have done that. It was a lazy hack in a hex editor, after all.

Much obliged.

[Sumez]

I can understand "fucking", but is "goddamn" really considered explicit at all? o_O
Isn't that really weak by today's standards?

[tepples]

On U.S. TV, you can say "ass", and you can say "hole", but "asshole" is bleeped. Likewise, you can say "god", and you can say "damn", but "goddamn" is bleeped.

Further reading: ELI5; All The Tropes

[infiniteneslives]

Despite what one might believe these cartridges are played by many young children. Plain and simple these words are unacceptable for children. Just because you heard some 5 year old using these words doesn't make it acceptable. If you want some one to yell at and be mad about for the censorship I'll take that heat.

Sounds like we need to be more descriptive of what's considered explicit, or general rating guidelines for games to be accepted on cartridge.

[Sumez]

I don't have any problem with self censorship and catering to these kinds of "ratings". I don't believe a good game needs any kind of "explicits", and any excessive use of such usually comes across as immature rather than mature (see GTA games, etc, for example)

It's just genuinely confusing to me that you consider it wrong for a kid to see a word like "goddamn" on a cartridge full of games that involve shooting stuff and kicking people. Hell, there's a russian roulette game in this compo. It's a pretty absurd dissonance that I keep seeing in American culture, and I don't think I'll ever understand that. But it's not like I object to it, I don't think it's important enough to get upset about.

[gauauu]

Sounds like we need to be more descriptive of what's considered explicit, or general rating guidelines for games to be accepted on cartridge.

That sounds like a hassle, but not a bad idea -- particularly as different countries have different things that are considered worse. Nudity like in Wo Xiao Niu Niu is generally considered a big deal in America, but other places may have more issues with the violence found in most of the games. Different swear words are more or less "serious" in different cultures. Picking a standard at the beginning would help people know what to expect.

[tepples]

Hell, there's a russian roulette game in this compo.

The Russian Roulette game in volume 1 was at least perfectly clear that it was paintball.

[Alp]

And for those of us opposed to and offended by censorship?

Yeah, after na_th_an's game was censored, I didn't bother to submit my own entry at all. I'm completely disgusted by censorship.
(You can download the 4-level demo of "Cotton" over on 2CH instead, if you know where to look! )

Despite what one might believe these cartridges are played by many young children. Plain and simple these words are unacceptable for children.

Yeah, I learned this the hard way. Clearly, the 40 year-old man-children of NA will be so offended, if you say something they don't like.

I've jokingly suggested to my colleagues, to make our own, adults-only compo, "Action 69"

[mikejmoffitt]

This is a tough call to make, especially after the fact, but if anyone chooses to use a nude or sexualized character they knew what they were in for from the start.

I'm completely disgusted by censorship.

Complaining in this melodramatic way about censorship isn't going to garner much sympathy; it's not like this kind of change is a violation of one's rights or some serious offense. Nobody said to na_th_an, "you can't make your game with a nude character ever", just that it is not appropriate for the multi-cart. It's just asking "can you not use this community project as an excuse to share drawings of your favorite body parts?"

I guess you can argue that the expectations were not made clear in the beginning, but if nobody has said otherwise, it's safe to assume that it's inappropriate for the context, not the other way around. I can not think of any contexts where it's a safe assumption otherwise.