Graves cigar got removed :(
Rito why??? Please keep part of graves personality and don't remove his cigar.
574 Comments
Hey all,
I can give a bit of context on why the cigar was removed. Essentially, there was a significant risk of censorship or age rating problems in various regions based on the depiction of tobacco usage. This kind of thing is pretty strictly enforced in parts of the world, and in this case it became clear that we needed to remove the cigar in his splash. The relevant laws sometimes apply differently depending on content type, which is why something that might work in peripheral content like a cinematic may not work in content like splashes that are tied specifically to the core game.
I can also speak a bit as to why we wouldn't create multiple splashes in response to this kind of issue. One of our goals moving forward with splash art, compared to how things have been done in the past, is to create content for all regions. In the past we've created modified or entirely different splashes based on the needs or appeal of certain regions, but this is something we've been working to change moving forward. Where possible, we want to stay away from sharding the game unnecessarily for different regions. It may seem like a small thing in this case, but we believe that being consistent with this artistic approach best allows for a common community and common stories for players to experience and share with each other.
-Silver
i guess you could say, "close but no cigar"
Because people believe that showing a fictional character smoking is actually worse than Hitler. I'm not surprised Riot decided to cower and remove it.
Murder, A-ok. Smoking, what are you satan himself?
Huge loss of respect. This is very disappointing.
Are they going to remove the cigar from the cinematic as well?
wow he looks significantly less cool without the cigar
Badass levels decreased by 1000%
I think they removed it because Graves doesn't have a cigar in game. I would much rather they add one to the game then remove it from the splash art though.
This is really disappointing. I can't believe this is the same Riot. I mean... I'm certainly going to be playing the game still but I'm just depressed. Let me try and explain why.
Even though this is such a minor thing it just doesn't make sense. Their are many mature themes in this game and they take out a cigar? Remember the removal of bones and things sensitive to the Chinese audience? I was disappointed but I eventually got behind it. I mean it's just one thing. I convinced myself that it wasn't that important to the game's art style and was worth not upsetting many people.
The thing that irks me the most is that the cigar has been a cool part of his character that you've given him. The cinematic that he's in has the cigar complimenting his "I'm not worried." attitude. With the removal of this I am worried you may be starting down a path that is gonna lead to further censorship and removal of your original art direction and feel of the game. Gragas's brew is gonna be punch (to be fair it practically is already), Talon isn't gonna leave a trail of blood, and Miss Fortune is gonna wear a raincoat.
Also, I can only imagine what is going on at Riot. "I think people will notice the cigar is gone." "They will get over it." "It looks like people don't like the change." "It doesn't matter."
You really dropped in on this one Riot. Countries want to censor everything. I can only imagine the regions who are bothered by the tabacco use are also bothered by alcohol, murder, and sexually revealing outfits. All this to deal with this broken ratings system and under the guise of artistic consistency.
now he's 15% less cool :(
Keep the gun,remove the cigar. smoking is killing our youth faster than guns are.
The censorship laws in some place may actually ban the game because of the cigar. Is having the cigar really worth several hundred players not being able to play? Is it really worth Riot losing money and producing less content? Is just one, not really noticeable part of one drawing, really worth all that?
Riot has no control over laws, however stupid they may seem, and it's not fair to punish the players of those regions because "I want mah cigar". Yes, it was a pretty big part of his character, but he's still Graves without it, and it's not like they completely removed it, they just removed it from ONE drawing.
Definitely unnecessary. They should put out a statement about why this was being done... Localization to international markets?
It has a rating that supports having the presence of tobacco, so I don't think they'd need to do so for North American audiences.