Censorship & Foreign Values

SkyblazeHydraX3 · 2014-11-14T21:04:44.464Z

I don't intend this to be a rant or a long discussion. Really, I just have a question I'd like answered by my fellow players; is it wrong that I feel upset and disappointed that League of Legends has to be censored worldwide in order to meet the values of foreign countries? The Karthus and Sion updates, Graves' new splasharts, and now even Urgot and Riven's armor. It's just upsetting that we have to lose out on cool ideas or even just small details that make the community happy in order to appease the (in my very likely biased opinion) of restrictive and censor-heavy values of some far off countr(y/ies). Take the "undead" genre for example; we'll only ever have reanimated corpses, emaciated liches, and ghoulish ghosts given form; we'll never see a skeletal body walk the rift- I mean hell, they had to remove/alter the skeletons on Urgot and Riven's armor! But again, this isn't a rant. I just have to ask if it's wrong that I feel this way on the matter? I know it probably comes off as close-minded and insensitive, but all the same...

doviendeNov 14, 20143 votes

It's similar the other way around. For example, the rest of the world perceives the USA as rather backward regarding things like evolution, nudity and homosexuality. Perhaps US sensibilities are preventing us from getting a proper "fabulous" skin for Taric?

SkyblazeHydraX3Nov 14, 20142 votes

While not entirely relevant, the Taric bit is likely due to his hefty need for an update across all fronts. Dunno if we'll get a "fabulous" skin even after he gets an update, because Riot themselves say the "fabulous" aspect of Taric's characterization has been rather overblown by the community.

EMOFRATPARTYNov 14, 20145 votes

It's not entirely fair to say "defs China, all." Every country has their own cultural boundaries. The United States censors nudity. Japan avoids the number "4." You can't display swastikas in a depiction of WWII era Germany and have that work be sold in Germany. Censorship comes in many forms and is active in every culture on Earth in some way.

You won't see League end up "heavily warped," but concessions need to be made considering it is a global product with a global community. Small changes are inevitable, but League will always be League.

Regarding TenCent, they know that Riot can handle themselves.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/08/riot-games-marc-merrill-on-the-tencent-acquisition-and-the-futu/

Merrill says that Tencent is interested in the same quality at Riot Games, and that's why the buyout is more of a stock purchase than an actual acquisition. "Tencent has no desire to run the company, they have no desire to influence our direction at all," he says. "It's not the traditional acquisition, where you get assimilated and you report to some VP and they say, 'Let's find synergy!' No, they're saying, 'We believe in what you guys are doing, here's capital, here's resources, let us know how we can help, but we're going to stay out of your way. Go to town, because we believe in what you're doing.'"

That should say all you need to know about the acquisition and general attitude behind Riot. They'll do what they can to ensure a positive experience for every player, regardless of region. It's a task that is much easier said than done, but take solace in the fact that they are trying.

SkyblazeHydraX3Nov 14, 20142 votes

Yeah, that really helps to ease concerns. But honestly I still fail to understand why they removed Graves' cigar. They explicitly mention tobacco usage in their rating, so why remove it? It was obviously quite popular, to boot.

EMOFRATPARTYNov 15, 20141 votes

Could be the ESRB or one of the many other international ratings boards who just didn't want to "encourage" it so outwardly. Hard to say.

RoyaiChaosNov 15, 20143 votes

They removed it because it wasn't worth keeping such a small detail (it's a detail, in no way had it ever been a significant part of Grave's character) that may cause some issues. League is only removing stuff that's small and unnecessary, or if it was more major such as Karthus being a skeleton, changing it so that although it is different, it follows generally the same theme and still looks pretty cool or even better than before.

PryotraNov 15, 20141 votes

Graves didn't even make sense, his mafia skin has him smoking as well. Gragas smokes in his esquire skin, as well as Cho in his gentleman skin. Honestly, If that logic were to hold true, they would need to refund a LOT of people on legendary skins, simply because they put other countries beliefs above their customers.

I don't feel this holds up, and following through with it will COST Riot money, not generate cash. There is no basis that people not invested due to smoking will suddenly become invested because it got removed. Yet I sure know I will be asking for a refund on anything I have in my inventory that gets changed due to this guidelines.

I respect the diseased parts decision on karth and co simply because it is a respect for the dead thing. I get it, and can live with that. I can't respect the decision to take out things that only pacify soccer moms that won't even play the game. Heck, in this day and age, Ratings mean very little. Most parents let their kids play whatever, so long as it can babysit the kids.

This is the same reason we will never see Popeye cartoons return. This is the cartoon that heavily promoted vegies I might add.

RoyaiChaosNov 15, 20141 votes

This isn't about America, this is about entire FOREIGN governments.

Also, first off It's hardly noticeable (literally a white line) that Grave's is smoking in his mafia skin, and it's not in his model. If it were to be removed, no one would notice it. Regarding the two other skins, skins are much less restricted than main game content, because they're optional, which is probably why they're safe (for now) until Riot can think of a compromisable solution. Grave's cigar however, is in pretty much every game Grave's is in.

Re-reading your post, it seems that you are very confused. This isn't about people who dislike smoking, this is about governments that dis-like smoking and may possibly ban the game because of it. Why should Riot care about foreign nations? Well, League is a global game, even if it started in NA, it is now a global game.

PryotraNov 16, 20142 votes

That's just it though. These laws in other nations were spurred into life by, you guessed it, soccer moms that believe the imagery of a pipe will incline their children to smoke. (This actually was a thing in Australia a while back, so this isn't even just a Murican happening.)

There is no basis for this, and it attacks video games as a medium to even respond to these sort of critiques. I really feel this is just a ploy for them to lower their rating to open their audience, but the thing is that the increased audience have no spending power of their own, and are limited to whatever their parents allow them. Parents that, if they truly didn't let their kids play the game previously due to the rating, will likely allow them little to nothing assuming they let the kids play video games period.

And even if you are looking at it from a government perspective, these are countries that have far greater bars to entry than the cigar of a splash art. Australia won't have blood or guns, N. Korea barely even gets internet, and Turkey censors anything deemed "violent" or having to do with alchohol. And those are the big ones that come to my mind when we look at anti-smoking imagery legislation.

Honestly, if you tried catering to to even half of these issues, instead of League you would be playing single-player Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

FebruAhriNov 14, 20141 votes

Yeah, that makes sense. I dunno, I guess when I see this type of stuff I automatically think "China" (quite wrong to assume or generalize, I know), and given China's reputation for extensive censorship and removal of free speech, AND the blatant rip-off game using League of Legend assets with models from numerous different series (like Shrek for example), I feel a twinge of frustration when it seems like we're accommodating such values. It doesn't help that Riot Games is apparently "owned" by a China-based holding company called Tencent.

It might be immature selfishness or misplaced national pride, but I just don't want to see League of Legends end up heavily warped and censored to comply with the desires of a foreign company, when Riot started out as and still is a company based in the U.S.

isn't rito irish or something though?

SkyblazeHydraX3Nov 14, 20141 votes

No, their headquarters is based in California.

SecretAgentHulkNov 14, 20143 votes

In the Irish-language version of LoL Teemo is actually a leprechaun and Gragas is based on Finn MacCoul. Summoner's Rift (before the update) also heavily featured the hexes from Giant's Causeway in the jungle terrain.

DreamspitterNov 14, 20142 votes

In the Irish-language version of LoL Teemo is actually a leprechaun and Gragas is based on Finn MacCoul. Summoner's Rift (before the update) also heavily featured the hexes from Giant's Causeway in the jungle terrain.

When does his wife Sadhbh get added to the game?

SecretAgentHulkNov 15, 20141 votes

She was polymorphed by Lulu before Lulu joined the League. It's not all fun and games in the Glade.

RoyaiChaosNov 15, 20142 votes

It won't become heavily warped, League has it's limits and won't end up censoring things like guns and such, but only small things such as a Grave's cigar which was never an important part of him, or the skull on Urgot's shoulder pads (which I doubt anyone played Urgot just for the skull if they even noticed it was there).

SkyblazeHydraX3Nov 15, 20141 votes

True. But while the Urgot and Riven changes were pretty much irrelevant, I do feel like the cigar is a bit more important. People found it to be an incredibly appropriate addition to Graves, and it became very, very popular.

Censorship & Foreign Values

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