Quote:
Originally Posted by Emu
How does MGS have no place in this game? Metal Gear was on the NES
|
Snake is in the game yes but he has to conform to the rules of the game. I imagine there would be certain countries that would demand a higher-then-E-rating if snake were seen with realistic weapons. Some might even be picky enough to not allow the game at all on store shelves for such a seemingly petty reason. Fantasy/cartoon violence = ok! Real or implied real violence = not so much.
For example I've heard of some Europian countries that consider it illegal to allow depicted children to be harmed in games. So a developer would either have to write a custom version of the game to comply with just that countries' laws, not sell in that country and miss out on the profit and stigma that comes with that choice, or they would have to just write it that way from the very beginning. The cheaper route would be the most obvious one.
Another fine example is Chinas' somewhat-recent decision to censor the undead characters in WoW so that they cannot show bones. I've heard that Blizzard had to whip up a patch that made all undead in those regions look like they had "muscle and skin covering their bones". Probably just done with a simple color change. Yes it was a dumb restriction China put on Blizzard but they said "If you don't make this change we will disallow your game in our country." And China has such a dense gamer population that it would have been like breaking Blizzard's legs.