So NCsoft are censoring western Blade and Soul afterall?

Kefo · November 2015

scorpex-x said:

This is less about the actual censorship (and YES that is what it is) because I think many can live with that, it's more about Ncsoft going back to their old tricks of bare faced lying.

The question is, what else are they lying about. What else will be "westernized"?

NCsoft already have a filthy reputation and this kind of lying to the press and doing exactly what they said they would not won't help that.

They literally told all the press 2+ months ago that they would never censor OR ALTER the game in the way they are doing right here.

Is not being able to stare at a pixel woman's ass in a nightie going to ruin your game experience? No? Then who gives 2 shits? If you don't like the decision then don't buy or play it, I'm sure NCSoft won't even notice.

If you're worried about them possibly changing other parts of the game then you stop playing when it isn't fun anymore. If you're that worried about the future of what could happen in a video game then maybe it's time to take a break from gaming

Nightlite · November 2015

Localization of the cash shop is all that this is.. if I'm willing to pay, I can have the best pixel affair of my life.

gaeanprayer · November 2015

Good, I'm all for these changes. And, yes, if they didn't think it was a huge part of getting their game to a diverse market (and thus making more money) it wouldn't be done. You can bury your head in the sand all you want to, but it's a FACT that the great majority of gamers these days, particularly the paying ones, are older and more mature like myself and, no, maturity =/= "sex" dipping its toe into everything. It means not being sidetracked by frilly bullshit and getting to the core experience of the game. If a martial artist class in a game has both male and female versions, and the male is in armor and defensive poses while the female is bent over in a thong cradling her cameltoe, it's a problem. It completely ruins the meta and makes the experience about something other than what it was supposed to be; me kicking ass.

Now, if they want to hyper-sexualize both men and women, that's different. In that case, I'm no longer being spoon-fed sexuality, it's not about a woman or a man, it's about a specific class and the culture and 'ways' of the class. For instance, there was a game a while ago (can't remember the name of it, but it was very gory) that had a kind of Incubus/Succubus class. Both of them were very sexual, and it made perfect sense, so I could embrace it and feel like I was fitting into lore instead of just some dev's fantasy. Also, because I already see it brewing, don't bother coming at me with the "men are objectified too!" tripe, that's apples to oranges when men look like they're in their underwear WHEN THEY'RE IN THEIR UNDERWEAR whereas women always look like they're in their underwear even when wearing "armor".

Shaigh · November 2015

I'm sure darknest will provide ways to bring back the lingerie. If you need rp connections to fill your needs I'm sure that can be fixed too. Just know that most times the other girl is a dude too.

Kyleran · November 2015

scorpex-x said:

MrSyn said:

They did tell people and was upfront about it tho... it was first noticed in a livestream then reasoning given about it on Sep 24th.

http://www.bladeandsouldojo.com/topic/125625-underwear-for-jin-females-changed-for-naeu-more-westernisation-to-follow/page__st__60__p__670527#entry670527.

It didn't go into playable alpha until Oct 9th and the response will have been given 4 months before launch... how much more up front they meant to be? News article on every website to say they changed the underwear and no sign on any other censorship(yet)?

No they were not up-front about it at all. They did it in secret, there has been no word at all about localization of this game.

They only talked about it when someone was like, hey that's not how it should be! Then they owned up after being caught.

My main issue is that this shows a lack of respect for what this game is, and if they will do this in secret what else will they do? what is next to be changed in order to pander to the western market? Remove the sheen effect, lower boob size, censor lewd cosmetics?

Maybe, just maybe, they don't care what you and others think, they plan to market this game in the manner they feel will make them the most money, and if that means redesigning the costumes so be it.

As for their "promises" not to change this or other facets, you should have stopped believing in fairies long ago.

reeereee · November 2015

Torval said:

Ignorant people keep throwing around the word censorship, but that's not what is happening here. There is no official suppression of expression here. They are free to and could easily publish the game as is. The US government isn't going to stop them. What they are trying to avoid is a rating and public perception that would cut into their sales.

DMKano is absolutely right. This is about money and mass appeal. I guess a few outraged hentai fappers don't get that, or aren't willing to.

In order to get others on this bandwagon of outrage a moral injustice has to have been committed. There is none so most people don't care.

The idea that only government is involved in censorship is about 60 years out of date.

Wizardry · November 2015

Torval said:

Ignorant people keep throwing around the word censorship, but that's not what is happening here. There is no official suppression of expression here. They are free to and could easily publish the game as is. The US government isn't going to stop them. What they are trying to avoid is a rating and public perception that would cut into their sales.

DMKano is absolutely right. This is about money and mass appeal. I guess a few outraged hentai fappers don't get that, or aren't willing to.

In order to get others on this bandwagon of outrage a moral injustice has to have been committed. There is none so most people don't care.

You know who enforces the ratings right?The government so YES they are trying to avoid the government and ratings.

Ratings are 100% a form of censorship,you cannot publish censored ideas unless your product carries the appropriate rating,simple as that.

Personally i think it is LAME and inappropriate to be using any form of sex to sell your game.All i keep hearing is games are for FUN,so why are you using any other methods to sell your game?I find their overall culture in the east to be very shotty,from underage girls performing in their night clubs to a constant barrage of young underage girls and sexual inuendo in their games.

It is like they have a bunch of perverted old men fixated on young underage girls or characters.

It comes off as nothing more than looking at their best chance at sales,do we include the young kids or not.

I remember when Halo came out ,it had a higher rating M for Mature,was crazy to see all the kids lined up at EB with their older family members buying it for them.Now there is controversy over the ESRB lowering Halo's rating from M>T.There should be a message we send to our kids and it should not be slack or carefree and often times developers couldn't care less.Society is ever changing and imo for the worse,we seem to not give a dam about anything anymore.

azurrei · November 2015

Scorp how many more places are you going to post this false information? I thought Reddit was enough...anyways, it was said there AND here, this is not censorship... I'm sorry your lingerie was taken away from you on the character creation screen *rollseyes*.

Tamanous · November 2015

Oh noes! Oppressing those who get off on sexualized animations.

How will the Western nations survive?!

scorpex-x · November 2015

Kyleran said:

scorpex-x said:

MrSyn said:

They did tell people and was upfront about it tho... it was first noticed in a livestream then reasoning given about it on Sep 24th.

http://www.bladeandsouldojo.com/topic/125625-underwear-for-jin-females-changed-for-naeu-more-westernisation-to-follow/page__st__60__p__670527#entry670527.

It didn't go into playable alpha until Oct 9th and the response will have been given 4 months before launch... how much more up front they meant to be? News article on every website to say they changed the underwear and no sign on any other censorship(yet)?

No they were not up-front about it at all. They did it in secret, there has been no word at all about localization of this game.

They only talked about it when someone was like, hey that's not how it should be! Then they owned up after being caught.

My main issue is that this shows a lack of respect for what this game is, and if they will do this in secret what else will they do? what is next to be changed in order to pander to the western market? Remove the sheen effect, lower boob size, censor lewd cosmetics?

Maybe, just maybe, they don't care what you and others think, they plan to market this game in the manner they feel will make them the most money, and if that means redesigning the costumes so be it.

As for their "promises" not to change this or other facets, you should have stopped believing in fairies long ago.

They do care though, they made a huge deal about talking to all the media saying they would not do this because of the outcry when tera did it, now they are doing worse than tera did.

So yeah, they care. My guess is that the game isn't getting the kind of attention they thought and so are now changing their strategy.

FlyByKnight · November 2015

LOL @ "Hentai Fappers".

To be honest the censored stuff isn't an improvement IMO. There's still oversexualized pedo stuff all over these Asian games. It's REALLY old now.

Iselin · November 2015

"Evil feminists forced those developer liars to censor my hentai" is quickly becoming a cliche around here.

You guys need a support group.

Tenkousei · November 2015

In the end, it all comes down to $$$. If "censoring" a game brings in more cash, corporations will censor. There's no morals or feminism involved. Art needs to take a step back for the green bills.

Do I approve of it? Hell no! But it is the reality of things.

Besides, as long as they keep their filthy money grabbing let's-appeal-to-feminists-so-we-can-make-more-money paws of the Lyn, i'll be fine :pleased:

Morbic_MMO_Addict · November 2015

Yeah, Scorpex-x wasn't playing the game for any of the other content that was left alone. He was just nitpicking a change in a type of base underwear and a few annoying poses at character creation due to localization. They haven't made any major changes that throw up censorship flags as far as I can see that would detract from the overall gameplay, like taking clips out of game videos due to censorship or altering of dialogue or quest context.

Tenkousei · November 2015

Morbic_MMO_Addict said:

Yeah, Scorpex-x wasn't playing the game for any of the other content that was left alone. He was just nitpicking a change in a type of base underwear and a few annoying poses at character creation due to localization. They haven't made any major changes that throw up censorship flags as far as I can see that would detract from the overall gameplay, like taking clips out of game videos due to censorship or altering of dialogue or quest context.

Actually they did change some of the quests and dialogue for being woman-unfriendly

Covet78 · November 2015

Moodsor said:

If you're gonna call a company out on something, the least you could do is provide a source, I do not remember them promising that.

http://thegg.net/general-news/two-sexy-asians-coming-to-north-america-blade-soul-and-black-desert/

Taking a stand against censorship

With American sensibilities regarding how women are portrayed in video games at an all time high, many fans of Blade & Soul were concerned about the possibility of the game being censored “We’re not going to censor this game”, “We want to keep the original spirit, this game is beautiful and we want to make sure people see it the way that is intended” said Omeed Dariani “That’s what is at the heart of Blade & Soul, this beautiful art style, and we don’t want to change that” added Mark Humes, Community Manager for B&S.

HighMarshal · November 2015

DMKano said:

ReaperJoda said:

We Americans are a very different culture about nudity then the rest of the world, that is a fact. So this is just part of the localization process as DK Kano stated.

What amazes me is that some players still don't understand that when it comes to multi million dollar MMOS - companies make decisions based on actual data from market research.

This wasn't a couple of NCSOFT execs saying "hey let's censor BnS just to piss off western players"

It doesnt work like that as there is far too much money at stake.

Nobody at ncsoft would want to put their neck our without actual data backing up their decision.

Wake up and smell the market research

I don't think companies do market research any more. I Think they just go, "Its the west, let take out the boobs and add more gore to make them happy!"

zzax · November 2015

Tenkousei said:

In the end, it all comes down to $$$. If "censoring" a game brings in more cash, corporations will censor. There's no morals or feminism involved. Art needs to take a step back for the green bills.

I don't understand how censoring would bring more money? If it was other way around, sure.

Sovrath · November 2015

zzax said:

Tenkousei said:

In the end, it all comes down to $$$. If "censoring" a game brings in more cash, corporations will censor. There's no morals or feminism involved. Art needs to take a step back for the green bills.

I don't understand how censoring would bring more money? If it was other way around, sure.

Because it will speak to a larger audience? Besides, I don't look at this as "censoring" so much as figuring out the target audience and tailoring to that audience.

psiic · November 2015

Submitted my refund request

scorpex-x · November 2015

Sovrath said:

zzax said:

Tenkousei said:

In the end, it all comes down to $$$. If "censoring" a game brings in more cash, corporations will censor. There's no morals or feminism involved. Art needs to take a step back for the green bills.

I don't understand how censoring would bring more money? If it was other way around, sure.

Because it will speak to a larger audience? Besides, I don't look at this as "censoring" so much as figuring out the target audience and tailoring to that audience.

You can't change what the game is, you can remove the sexualised poses and underwear but you can't remove the giga tits and oiled up legs. Blade and soul is a slightly tamer version of Scarlet blade and you know it.

Also feminists already hate the game anyway so all they will end up doing is annoying the people that will play their game to placate the people who won't.

https://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/blade-and-soul-youre-doing-it-wrong/

""Clearly this is not a game aimed at women, or anyone who sees women as anything other than pieces of meat.""

Tenkousei · November 2015

zzax said:

Tenkousei said:

In the end, it all comes down to $$$. If "censoring" a game brings in more cash, corporations will censor. There's no morals or feminism involved. Art needs to take a step back for the green bills.

I don't understand how censoring would bring more money? If it was other way around, sure.

Just look at the forums here and some of the editors fiercely advocating women integrity. They wouldn't do it if it wouldn't sell more units. It is merely the result of a cost and profit analisys. IF you lose more players by keeping suggestive outfits / poses / ... than you keep, then as a business whose aim it is to make money, you will alter the game.

purpose · November 2015

Well, hopefully someone does an uncensored patch. I really hate that they went back on it but what can you do nothing. I bet they will offer the models back in the cash shop.

Asm0deus · November 2015

purpose said:

Well, hopefully someone does an uncensored patch. I really hate that they went back on it but what can you do nothing. I bet they will offer the models back in the cash shop.

This, a nice uncensored patch or way to use a non NA client would be nice otherwise I personally don't see the appeal of this game anymore.

Also for the record I don't hate women, I don't think they are pieces of meat but I still like sexy outfits and jiggly boobies...

scorpex-x · November 2015

Tenkousei said:

zzax said:

Tenkousei said:

In the end, it all comes down to $$$. If "censoring" a game brings in more cash, corporations will censor. There's no morals or feminism involved. Art needs to take a step back for the green bills.

I don't understand how censoring would bring more money? If it was other way around, sure.

Just look at the forums here and some of the editors fiercely advocating women integrity. They wouldn't do it if it wouldn't sell more units. It is merely the result of a cost and profit analisys. IF you lose more players by keeping suggestive outfits / poses / ... than you keep, then as a business whose aim it is to make money, you will alter the game.

You know what though? I would at least respect them if they had the guts to admit what they were doing before they were called on it.

They tried to have their cake and eat it, they told all the press they would NEVER EVER censor or alter the game to keep fans happy and then they did exactly that. That is typical NCsoft.

Defending censoring the game is one thing, defending their lying is another. I remember some other Ncsoft players who were blind defenders, those guys are currently NOT playing City of Heroes.

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So NCsoft are censoring western Blade and Soul afterall?

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So NCsoft are censoring western Blade and Soul afterall?

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Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV