Censoring

[devo193]

How do you think HMX will handle censoring in this game? With songs like Master Exploder with its frequent use of **** and ****, to Down With the Sickness with its mommy interlude, they will have to find a balance between acceptable and staying as close to the original as possible.

[hawkofva]

I admit I was a little disappointed when "Who Are You" was the curse-less and shorter radio-edit of the song, but the censorship is neccessary if they want to keep the T rating, is it not?

[Reveries]

they usually use the radio edits, for example the radio edit of down with the sickness doesnt even include the "die mommy" part.

[zack10house]

my voice is "freakin" powerful!
that "stuff" happens to me all the time (YAY WAL-MART! you should here the rest of the CD, it's even more hilarious than the unedited one. although my favorite EDT track is still **** the System by SOAD. "War! ...the system!")

no mommy interlude in DWtS. love the song though

[krammkracker]

Censorship is evil.

[coolcool23]

Censorship is evil.

I concur. For a number of reasons.

[dastuffPS3]

They do this to let the game be for i wider audience a mother will not let lyrics like "die mommy" slip to there little sons are daughters ears.

[sorgen]

Censorship is wrong... period...

[aray]

imagine if cable TV censored your HBO programs.

If you pay extra for select TV programs like HBO you should get the real deal not some water down version.


So. HMX should save the M rated songs for DLC only.
As all games via. ONLINE have a disclaimer... even if a game is rated T when played online they can not control what is being said or typed by the mass players.

DLC is a paid service and if a song is in question due to lyric content it should have a !!!WARNING!!! must be 18 to purchase.

If a kid has access to purchase DLC thats a parents fault.

Keep Mature Theme Songs for DLC and dont water down songs on the (Game Disk) .

An for the love of all things good... dont edit DLC songs.

[Verditude]

imagine if cable TV censored your HBO programs.

If you pay extra for select TV programs like HBO you should get the real deal not some water down version.


So. HMX should save the M rated songs for DLC only.
As all games via. ONLINE have a disclaimer... even if a game is rated T when played online they can not control what is being said or typed by the mass players.

DLC is a paid service and if a song is in question due to lyric content it should have a !!!WARNING!!! must be 18 to purchase.

If a kid has access to purchase DLC thats a parents fault.

Keep Mature Theme Songs for DLC and dont water down songs on the (Game Disk) .

An for the love of all things good... dont edit DLC songs.
HMX would have a PR nightmare if they released unedited, explicit DLC. Stupid soccer moms don't want their kids to have access to stuff they don't like, but aren't willing to put in the time to parent well.
Also, even if the explicit DLC could be rerated, that would require getting the ESRB to sign off on it, which would take time and money.
BTW, the online interactions disclaimer only really extends to personal contact with others online, not company-provided content.

I don't like censorship either, but it seems to be inevitable.

[PNT510]

imagine if cable TV censored your HBO programs.

If you pay extra for select TV programs like HBO you should get the real deal not some water down version.


So. HMX should save the M rated songs for DLC only.
As all games via. ONLINE have a disclaimer... even if a game is rated T when played online they can not control what is being said or typed by the mass players.

DLC is a paid service and if a song is in question due to lyric content it should have a !!!WARNING!!! must be 18 to purchase.

If a kid has access to purchase DLC thats a parents fault.

Keep Mature Theme Songs for DLC and dont water down songs on the (Game Disk) .

An for the love of all things good... dont edit DLC songs.

Even though there is the disclaimer about game play may change when online I think it's more talking about people you interact with might do or say things that they can't rate.

Also I read somewhere that if a games DLC is mature and the game is only rated teen the rating for the game gets bumped up to mature. So it's not like they can release whatever they want for DLC and not have it change the boxed copies.

[fatasthmatic]

it doesnt bother me really. it has to be this way. i just the curse words when i sing it.

[CaptainFeral]

Even though there is the disclaimer about game play may change when online I think it's more talking about people you interact with might do or say things that they can't rate.

Also I read somewhere that if a games DLC is mature and the game is only rated teen the rating for the game gets bumped up to mature. So it's not like they can release whatever they want for DLC and not have it change the boxed copies.

That's because the ESRB are a bunch of nazis.
Oblivion became mature because of modders for ****s sake.

Honestly, I say screw the soccer moms, don't censor the songs. The same people who would ***** about uncensored songs are the same people who wouldn't buy Rock Band because it has "the devil's music" in it.

[Jainay]

Why not just make a censored version, and an uncensored version? I would pay more money to get original songs, than half, censored songs. Like, 5 bucks more or something, dont know. JUST GIVE ME ORIGINALITY!

[My name is Fez]

It would be too much effort to make "two versions." Not to mention what happens when said soccer mom takes her kid to Best Buy for Rock Band (unaware of the two versions) and gets the mature one by accident? Her 13 year old son goes through the whole "die mommy" part of Down with the Sickness, the game gets returned, and Harmonix gets an angry phone call. Repeat a couple million times, and you have a PR nightmare.

Not to mention the extra time it would take to actually make more than one DLC song a week if one required censoring.

And furthermore, it's more money for them because a wider audience is available, and very, VERY few people are going to not buy the game because the f word is cut out.

Yes, censoring sucks on just about every level, but at the end of the day no one's going to care, and Harmonix is going to have more money.

[BathTub]

Man it's going to be interesting when some people let their kids sing stuff like Man in the Box.

[zack10house]

Man it's going to be interesting when some people let their kids sing stuff like Man in the Box.

I'm sure it'll be censored as well (although it goes uncensored on the radio typically)

[hankchill]

To be honest, I think that songs with cursing actually ruins the song. I'd rather listen to a good clean song :)

I'd say HMX is pretty lenient on the cursing though, they don't seem to have a problem using the word '*****' in some of the songs (aka Queen ***** by David Bowie or even the usage of it in Promised Land).

[Ten_Dollar_Tease]

They should have two download options. Uncensored and Censored. That way no one can say that there wasn't an option for the younger crowd. It's the same as a store that sells CD's there's an edited version and a non-edited version.

[Ten_Dollar_Tease]

It would be too much effort to make "two versions." Not to mention what happens when said soccer mom takes her kid to Best Buy for Rock Band (unaware of the two versions) and gets the mature one by accident? Her 13 year old son goes through the whole "die mommy" part of Down with the Sickness, the game gets returned, and Harmonix gets an angry phone call. Repeat a couple million times, and you have a PR nightmare.

Not to mention the extra time it would take to actually make more than one DLC song a week if one required censoring.

And furthermore, it's more money for them because a wider audience is available, and very, VERY few people are going to not buy the game because the f word is cut out.

Yes, censoring sucks on just about every level, but at the end of the day no one's going to care, and Harmonix is going to have more money.


Well I think that the original 58 songs can stay censored, however the downloads coming out can give us a choice of buying censored or non-censored.This leaves it up to the parent then.... same as in a store when you buy a CD.

I don't think he meant come out with the bundle as censored or uncensored. I think you read it wrong.

[Axe Man]

Wow, this is deja vu. I have seen these arguments before. Where was that? Oh yeah, in the fifty million threads about this very subject over the past 2 months.

Please use the search button people. This topic has been beat to death and also answered my HMX in other threads.

Here, I searched for you, go pick one of these threads:

http://rockband.com/forums/search.php?searchid=610954

[CaptainFeral]

Wow, this is deja vu. I have seen these arguments before. Where was that? Oh yeah, in the fifty million threads about this very subject over the past 2 months.

Please use the search button people. This topic has been beat to death and also answered my HMX in other threads.

Here, I searched for you, go pick one of these threads:

http://rockband.com/forums/search.php?searchid=610954

Since you've taken time out of your day to do that, I'll return the favor.
Your signature should end in a question mark, not with a period.

[Axe Man]

Since you've taken time out of your day to do that, I'll return the favor.
Your signature should end in a question mark, not with a period.


This is relevant because.....? I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I would just like people to use the search button as that is what it is there for. That way we don't have 100 threads all on the same subject.

Censorship has nothing to do with HMX. There are many other people involved. Band members, lawyers, PR people ect. It just seems like once again HMX is getting beat over the head for something that is not their fault.

[CaptainFeral]

This is relevant because.....? I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I would just like people to use the search button as that is what it is there for. That way we don't have 100 threads all on the same subject.

Censorship has nothing to do with HMX. There are many other people involved. Band members, lawyers, PR people ect. It just seems like once again HMX is getting beat over the head for something that is not their fault.

It was a joke. You doing us a "favor", me doing you a "favor."
I think most of us know this thread has been done before, but we post anyway because it is a subject that irks us. That and talking about it feels nice even if nothing is actually gonna be done.

I won't blame HMX for it anyway, it's MTV Games fault. Hell, have you seen some of the words they censor on MTV these days? I heard knob get censored last year. As in door knob. The phrase was god damn door knob.
What's offensive about a door knob?
"Knock" even gets censored. And crack, no matter the context it is in.

In reality:
"Hey Bob, can you help me out here? Someone knocked too hard on my door last night and now there's a crack in it. I want you to hold the door knob while I fix it."

On MTV:
"Hey Bob, can you help me out here? Someone **** too hard on my door last night and now there's a **** in it. I want you to hold the door **** while I **** it."

[Ten_Dollar_Tease]

Well, I think it's just something to talk about. As much fun as it is to search for threads, a lot of people get stuff on their mind and just post. Sometimes it's fun to start a fresh thread as opposed to going through 10 pages from 2007.

Guess it can go both ways hehe.

[Axe Man]

Well, I think it's just something to talk about. As much fun as it is to search for threads, a lot of people get stuff on their mind and just post. Sometimes it's fun to start a fresh thread as opposed to going through 10 pages from 2007.

Guess it can go both ways hehe.

Just to clarify, there are quite a few threads as recent as a few days ago, not 2007. It may be fun to start ones' own thread but it adds to the clutter on these pages.

[Axe Man]

Hey captian, thx for the heads up on the signature. I wasn't trying to take your post the wrong way. It's been a late night and sometimes it is hard to tell if someone is being a bit sarcastic.:D

[CaptainFeral]

Hey captian, thx for the heads up on the signature. I wasn't trying to take your post the wrong way. It's been a late night and sometimes it is hard to tell if someone is being a bit sarcastic.:D

No problem.

And... yeah I'll admit these threads do add to the clutter we have on this board, but you have to realize that most of this board -is- clutter.

If we started banning people for making threads about:
-Harmonix being evil Europe-hating Americans
-What DLCs we might get
-What GH4 got
-Whiny opinion threads about things we don't have yet

...then the forums would be empty. Entirely.

[darknessmoon]

In reality:
"Hey Bob, can you help me out here? Someone knocked too hard on my door last night and now there's a crack in it. I want you to hold the door knob while I fix it."

On MTV:
"Hey Bob, can you help me out here? Someone **** too hard on my door last night and now there's a **** in it. I want you to hold the door **** while I **** it."

Lol that reminds me so much of that one skit on MadTV where the Sopranos was being aired on PAX tv. Sh** was so funny! :D (I'd post a link to it from youtube but that site is now blocked here at work ;_;)

[BathTub]

I'm sure it'll be censored as well (although it goes uncensored on the radio typically) What word would be censored? I'm just referring to the people who have conniptions over blasphemy in songs, they're going to have kittens when they realize their children are singing "Jesus Christ, Deny your maker".

[drumlover]

Censorship is necessary. If you want to sell a game, and a parent sees a Mature 17+ rating on it, most parents will not buy it for their child. A big percentage of buyers are parents who buy the game for their kids.

No censorship = Mature rating = less buyers

[InB4Lock]

They censor it for more sales but if you can't live without the words just say them in the song when the censor comes up.

[TornShaun]

Well i still believe imo that you can clearly hear the word **** a few times through the Vagiant song ;) (and don't give me that rubbish about the it being 'rough')

[InB4Lock]

Ya i'm convinced on the Vagiant song saying f**k

[KaoAtlas]

Ya i'm convinced on the Vagiant song saying f**k

In the real version of all of their songs in Harmonix games (GH2 and Rock Band) they really are saying f**k, with FTK being what you think it means.

[BathTub]

You oughta Know is going to be funny too.

[KaoAtlas]

Really, I'm just wondering what they're going to with some of the songs that don't really get radio time.

I know Tenacious D self censors their songs so thats one band out of the way.

[ZombieZ1010]

Yes......because the censorship to date has really slowed down DLC sales. Censorship allows both the liberal and conservative markets purchasing power.

It aint gonna change.

[CantStopTheHopp]

As much as censorship ticks me off, the only possible solution is two versions of Rock Band...one edited, one unedited with a parental advisory label. Problem is, HMX and MTV Games have no incentive to do that since sales are sky high. To get uncensored songs, enough people will have to openly refuse to buy Rock Band until an unedited version is available.

[Archaicbereft]

I really wish we had the option to purchase non edited content... I know they have to keep stuff edited for the childlings, but cmon the people with credit cards are the ones snagging the DLC!

[hmxsean]

Plenty of threads on this already.