The Most Saddening Realization- There Can Never be a Skeletal Character

Meep Man·Oct 31, 2016·122 votes·6,500 views

Because China bans de skeleton. We can never have a ginormous skeletal king or some giant confligeration of bones as a champion. We will never have a Bone Golem monster in the game... that saddens me.

94 Comments

L RayquazaOct 31, 201658 votes

There WAS a skeletal champ http://lolwp.com/wp-content/uploads/Karthus-Classic.jpg however in china he looked like this http://i.imgur.com/4G37xeD.png

http://orig11.deviantart.net/97d8/f/2010/140/e/6/lol___karthus_fsjal_by_glodefunk.jpg still the best Beta icon

GreenLoreOct 31, 201623 votes

Well the weird thing about Karthus was that technically he wasn't a skeleton even back then.

I mean take a close look at his ingame model and you'll see that he has visible skin on his neck and hands(he even has visible veins on his hand) http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/e/ea/Karthus_Render_old.png/revision/latest?cb=20140521025607

Its just that his face looked skeletal(and looking at his model I'm not even sure if it was really skeletal or if he just had no flesh,but still skin on his face) and given the perspective in the game it was barely noticeable that the rest of his body didn't show any bones at all.

Tobias EtoileOct 31, 20167 votes

He was a lich... never skeletal.

EedatOct 31, 201642 votes

We can never have a ginormous skeletal king or some giant confligeration of bones

Jurassic Chogath ?

Meep ManOct 31, 201611 votes

You got me there

Spaceman5pffOct 31, 201629 votes

That works because Jurassic skins are CLEARLY not human skeletons.

The Chinese censor bans HUMAN skeletons. This is why Karthus needed a whisp-like face in his VU.

Auz the RipperOct 31, 20165 votes

There's also commonly different laws for adds-on and "extra" content like skins.

It's how Gragas esq. got to keep his cigarette, unless they removed it in the last month or two without me noticing.

OwynNov 1, 20161 votes

HUMAN skeletons

what about ELVEN skeletons? or Orc skeletons? [zombie-brand-mindblown]

Ariel the CruelNov 1, 20163 votes

Getting into very grey areas that Riot probably doesn't want to deal with seeing as they're owned by Tencent. Let's just simplify this to say "humanoid".

TheHappyReaperzNov 1, 20161 votes

Ta Dah

SherogarthOct 31, 201633 votes

So... can we have bone construct as long as it's not clearly created from human bones?

MrWasjigOct 31, 201638 votes

We can't have a skeletal champion because they're too spoopy! https://media.giphy.com/media/FNnGlfxpLD36E/200.gif

Strâwbëewwy Nov 1, 20161 votes

spooky, scary, skeleton

TeCoolMageOct 31, 201610 votes

The skeleton thing is a myth - Blizzard decided to proactively censor their game due to China's extremely vague foreign games policy forbidding superstition and living skeletons are something that weren't particularly offensive or anything but had a slight chance of being called superstitious as it gave the concept of death a physical representation. Other games only followed in Blizzard's stead because why the hell not.

ElikainOct 31, 20165 votes

Well, if Blizzard didn't want to risk their games being pulled of the parts of the global market, it stands to reason no smaller company would want that as well.

RequiemsfireOct 31, 201610 votes

To be honest though Karthus's newer design is far better than his old design. :o

warpenguin555Oct 31, 20169 votes

Because Fuck China, thats why :(

billxxOct 31, 201623 votes

Hey, that's trump talk

macromiteOct 31, 201612 votes

But seriously though, I like me skellies and china is the reason why I can't have that fix in this game.

EeyoreOct 31, 20163 votes

And you're the reason Graves can't have a cigar... what with your sensitivity to tobacco. But guns are cool, right?

Jet SettOct 31, 20161 votes

How do you know they're sensitive about tobacco? Or are you just making an example?

EeyoreOct 31, 20162 votes

Because your (that is to say, NA's, based on your username's tag) laws prevent the depiction of tobacco in low age ratings (a decision that is made for cultural reasons, since laws aren't made arbitrarily). Pretty certain Disney almost felt pressured into removing Cruella's cigarette in the re-release of Dalmations, and the character lacks her cigarette in other depictions (e.g. Once Upon a Time).

Riot is trying to create a global community, and that means complying with global standards. No skeletons. No tobacco. No alcohol (Yasuo drinks milk, for example).

macromiteOct 31, 20163 votes

T is not considered a low age rating. In E10 or below Maybe, but T can get away with a whole lot of shit.

Also Gragas, explain that.

EeyoreOct 31, 20162 votes

Gragas hasn't been updated yet. Or his drinks grape juice. Or, as everyone does, there's an arbitrary line in the sand of what taboos they're happy with conforming to and those they're not. What triggers are "get over it" and what triggers are "we should all be avoiding this". Riot generally doesn't conform to dress code standards. Perhaps they think that alcohol is fine, although have generally made an effort to avoid it other than Gragas.

macromiteNov 1, 20162 votes

OR you don't actually know what your talking about. Pretty sure its that one.

JunkοOct 31, 20166 votes

Just saying, but Graves not being able to have a cigar is also because of China.

EeyoreOct 31, 20161 votes

China only really started caring about tobacco when they hosted the 2008 Olympics, due to international pressure (and not domestic qualms). In fact, this year there was discussions (and it may have already happened) about toning down their smoking laws (i.e. it's okay in public places again). They don't care about Graves' cigar.

JunkοOct 31, 20163 votes

It doesn't matter whenever China actually cares about Graves's cigar, Riot just doesn't want to (for understandable reasons as it could easily get the game banned) risk them caring about it. Same reason WoW bend over and turned the entire Undead race into zombies, same reason Karthus was reworekd into a lich from a Grim reaper-scythe, same reason other games localize the content so it fits the law of countries that could grant large playerbases.

And the fact that China didn't care about 2008 is completely irrelevant here, Graves didn't get his cigar until 2014, that's 6 years after the laws were added.

EeyoreOct 31, 20163 votes

... it has nothing to do with China.

If anything, it's more likely the EU is to blame. Changes to the EU's PEGI rating system now considers tobacco usage to be 16+ instead of 12+. NA's ESRB has a similar system and although tobacco usage doesn't raise the rating - removing depictions of tobacco lets them remove ESRB's required content/trigger warnings for Drug Usage. To keep Graves' cigar, League of Legends would need a T (Cartoon Violence, Alcohol Use and Drug Use) and PEGI16 rating.

It's what western parents consider suitable for their children that's to blame, not China. China isn't setting product standards in the EU/NA.

Jungle Lux GodNov 1, 20162 votes

Actually, League of Legends is already rated T by the ESRB for Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Fantasy Violence, and Use of Tobacco and Alcohol.

AeszarckOct 31, 20161 votes

{quoted}

But seriously though, I like me skellies and china is the reason why I can't have that fix in this game.

If Riot added skeletons because players from other servers asked for them and China banned the game, how would you feel if you were a Chinese player? Do you think it's fair for the game that you love to be taken away from you because of the inconsiderate wants of players from other regions? The Chinese playerbase is an important part of the League of Legends community. I don't want to lose them.

macromiteOct 31, 20162 votes

That's the wrong way to think, It's modern, but it's stupid. China should just stop. They have a lot of old traditions that rely heavily on honoring the dead but in the requirement of that kind we are not able to properly depict how other cultures respect their own ancestors.

In accepting the terrible choice that dictates that we can not depict human skeletons we are no longer capable of showing multiple methods throughout the globe of respect or honorifics from multiple cultures. Consider for instance the Sedlec Ossuary, the church of bones. there is no malice or otherwise and truly the dead there have gained a new amount of respect that the names that they belong to no longer garner. OR the indian Agori, skull wearing ash coated peace seeking people. They seek to bypass human existence by seeing no good or evil pure or impure. Another topic that Riot is also no longer capable of showing in full capacity because of China specifically.

I think the thing here that really needs to change is china, and if forcing them out of a great game is enough to cause such a change than that is a very good thing and by all means get rid of them.

LeetriNov 1, 20163 votes

To play the devil's advocate, why does China have to change? How would you feel if say Japan suddenly said "You Americans have to censor all your porn, your laws are stupid" or if the rest of the world demanded you completely get rid of the imperial system? It's their culture over there, it doesn't violate human rights (unlike say child marriage or slavery) so we really have no say in the matter. If Riot wants their product to be successful in China they have to adapt it so it can be sold there, and rather than maintaining tons of different versions of the game for different regions they'd rather that everyone experiences the same game. You don't expect an entire country to change which side of the road they drive on so a car manufacturer doesn't have to swap the steering wheel around.

Now, I'd love to have skeletons in this game, but it's unreasonable to expect an entire country on the other side of the world to change their culture so we over here can play as a spooky skeleton in a computer game.

macromiteNov 1, 20161 votes

I would be on board with the imperial system changes, seriously why the fuck do we still use that. What is wrong with my country.

DicersonOct 31, 20166 votes

Well China doesn't actually specifically ban skeletons, most companies in China just censor themselves and remove skeletons because of the slight chance that their skeletons in the context of the game would violate China's rules about religion and superstition, and thus get rejected, losing that company a fuckton of money. This usually happens for games that haven't been released yet, though.

So as far as LoL is concerned, there is a chance we could get a skeleton character. But they'd have to find a way to differentiate it from Karthus (As he used to be a skeleton) and Skeleton King (Or doom, or whatever his name is now. Damn Chinese censors :P) from Dota.