I'm a fan of this. It's better to offer content with context and education than to fully censor it.
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100% this is the way things should be handled. If we get rid of or hide mistakes of the past, they will simply be repeated as people forget.
A note about historical context is an easy, and small solution to acknowledge the change in society without altering the original content.
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection did this as well.
What did they have to provide context for in the Master Collection?
i think misogyny and incest
And portrayal of Tobacco which you can't really do anymore
Imma just be pissed if her tiddies ain’t triangles.
If that thumbnail is a screenshot of the remaster, then they're looking rather round to me.
The collection has both a remastered graphics mode and an option to switch to the original graphics.
Well I’ll put the torch and pitchfork away for now then
But when will Nintendo start issuing those warnings for Mario games?
This is fine, no issues really, but if you're offended by something in a video game fictional story that was made over 20 years ago you should go touch grass.
They did the same thing with the Destroy All Humans! remakes. Which was probably needed, because the Japanese level in 2 is really iffy
eh. i get the 'need' for these companies to have the disclaimers and i honestly appreciate that they are not changing anything here. but the mob is fickle and seemingly can't distinguish real life from the online life where being offended somehow gives them clout.
Yeah the Japan level made my jaw drop... the early 2000's really were the last time you could be this blatantly racist against the Asian Community in popular media.... But I'd rather go "Oooof" than pretend the game and by extension society was never like this.
Even if I agree some games have gone too far on censorship, I don't like having this totalitarian attitude to any kind of "offense".
There are certain weird themes I really like in niche games, but I acknowledge if they were "thrown in" to a game about shooting or adventure, would sour the experience for a lot of common players. I'd point to perverted character designs as a common one - sexualized character designs are obviously appealing to some players, but to others they can actually make it hard to get absorbed in the story of a game like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or Nier Automata. Even for a series like Persona, there have been players that decided "What weeb shit" and abandon the game because of the way female characters get harassed at times.
It's easy to call it "political", but politics comes from personal opinions - and it can genuinely affect how people view the media. These days I have a much more vehement reaction to stereotyped Native-American depictions ("Indians") over when I was a kid. I doubt it'd make me hate Tomb Raider, but I can see why they'd have a warning.
What stereotypes were in the games?
The stereotype that old British men are all butlers who get off on being locked in the freezer.
Indeed. Some of us prefer being locked in the pantry.
That’s not a stereotype.
Of course it isn't. I am clearly making a joke. lol holy crap this is happening every single day on lemmy now whats happening to this place?
I think you were both making jokes
There might be others, but The Dagger of Xian plotline in Tomb Raider II is a little "woo woo Chinese mysticism". You plunge it into your heart and turn into a dragon.
I'm not offended by it but I'd imagine that's not the kind of thing you'd write in a video game today.
Yet the Uncharted games exist.
While Crystal Dynamics didn’t specify which content it’s referring to, it’s speculated that it could be the animalistic depiction of Pacific Island natives in Tomb Raider 3, who are implied to be cannibals.
Like the fictional Indiana Jones style villages? Or the real life North Sentinel Island Sentinelese? I'm scratching my head too...
Dinosaurs without feathers.
Honestly I'm glad we've moved from "Censor out anything that might be slightly objectionable" (Like they did with Sam & Max for example, and I believe the GTA Trilogy got hit with a bit of this), to "Look the game is old and from a different time, what society deems acceptable is always changing, deal with it or move on."
I'm so beyond tired of being told I can't have a steak because a baby can't chew it. I actually bought this three pack solely because it didn't censor Tomb Raider, a game I was very sure they were going to censor
Genuinely struggling to remember what that could even be about.
I mean, it's been like 25 years since I played them, but I don't recall any obviously bad things in there. It's not like it was filled with old Jackie Chan film levels of cartoon racism.
The voice acting has quite a range of stereotyped accents. Nothing they say is overtly racist, but the over the top accents themselves are insensitive.
Oh, OK. So more George Lucas than Tintin in the Congo.
I think there were some "jungle tribe" type enemies somewhere but don't quote me on that
This is perfectly fine, its how they did it for the old Looney Tunes DVDs.
And is what they should do rather than trying to delete it.
Provide context so that future generations can enjoy what's good about the media and acknowledge how parts of the content/media are problematic and not appropriate.
Something I and probably everyone else forgets is that Looney Tunes was made in the 1930s and 1940s, not the 1990s.
Much better then censoring the original content. Should also give a warning for dangerously sharp tiddies!
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didn't need to be news does it?
No but they have to make it news before some teenager who just learned about virtue signalling goes off on one because their mum paid more attention to Candy Crush than them
I'm glad they did that, change on a remake or something, I don't recall if they actually did it for Anniversary since it was still a ps2 game, but if games are art they should be preserved as they were, this is just a remaster that you can even play with the old graphics if you want.
Neat, I'm with everyone here when I say this is the much better solution.I'd prefer it to be a bit more clear of a warning and a bit less of a company apology so people who do need the warnings such as younger kids are informed and not immediately put off by playing something almost immediately presented as 'inexcusable'.
Isn't this what the ESRB rating description is for? We label games M for Mature if there's swearing, blood, violence, and sex, but not for insensitive cultural stereotypes?