Why is HMX so pro-censorship?

[DavyinaToga]

For some reason, I don't think any of those starred out words are "Rock" or "Band" or "Guitar" or "Hero".

Only because it's not April Fool's Day.

[exploder]

who cares about censorship?
oh and HMX add these songs please
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exaw0oa24AY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cvJynC5Kgw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM3sz87IRpk

[RBB3AST]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91iNpfdPadM

I wish

[gamrrpol]

So, in spite of henry's heavily censored post, where he talks about the potential costs for creating and submitting two different versions of the same song, you believe that any suggestion that the cost might actually be a bit prohibitive for HMX to actually do so is...full of crap?

Handwaving things away that don't match your personal philosophy doesn't actually make your position more correct.

Well, Henry's post does confirm that costs play a role in the decision-making (but not the only role).

But I hadn't read his post when I posted...and neither had you. I would still argue that you have no actual knowledge of the costs involved and, having Henry confirm you hypothesis, doesn't change the fact you were making stuff up in your original post.

[celebritykillingspree]

And at the ************* end of the ******* day, it's worth noting that we still get far more ***** emails complaining about what we keep in than what we take out. Sex, rape, murder, violence, demonic imagery, drug use, **** all that good stuff... if the majority had their say, we'd have more ******* censorship, not less.

To be fair though, peeved parents are always going to bother to send an angry email, but those millions of others sitting at home and enjoying the music despite the filth are less likely to bother. Hence, I'm not sure the 'majority' of emails you receive regarding censorship are really a fair indication of the 'majority' opinion.

[batsea]

BINGO!!!!! Glad to see I'm not the only sensible person around here.

And even still no one is saying 'don't offer the censored version' anyway, we just take offense that we don't ALSO have the option to get the uncensored one.

They obviously COULD if they wanted to and even still manage to maintain their T rating (by not making M rated songs available to systems with parental settings engaged etc.) They just must not WANT to .

Why WOULD they want to go to the additional expense of giving you 14 year olds (mentally of course) a version so you could sing "dirty" songs. And why are you entitled to the extra versions?

[Der_Lex]

Great, but I didn't choose to have children and this argument that it takes a village to raise a child suggests that you expect those that have made that choice not to to have to make considerations upon their freedom of speech (or exposure to speech) regardless.

But despite that we aren't talking about something that is free to air like radio or broadcast tv, this is a video game with PAY content and if parents aren't dilligent enough to be aware of what their kids are buying why am I being asked to be the one who 'limits their exposure?'

'parental control' is an option available in the console menu, not the expectation that others will sacrifice their enjoyment just to make sure your little Johnny doesn't hear any naughty words.

At the end of the day, regardless of your personal procreational choices, you're still buying a product marketed at not only adults, but younger players as well. You know this before you buy the game, and you know that the content you're paying for will have some form of censorship to comply with current standards. I'm not saying I agree with those standards personally, despite being a parent myself (fortunately, my spawn is still too young to realize daddy dearest swears like a ****ing sailor IRL), but you can't expect HMX to somehow be able to avoid rules and standards that apply to any T-rated product.

Now what you could validly complain about is the lack of an M-rated alternative, but as has been stated by others, there's simply not enough demand for that to make it financially viable. Like it or not, but I'm pretty sure that the amount of families that play the game together far outweighs the amount of players that really have an issue with the amount of censorship in the game and aren't satisfied with just singing the blanked out words anyway.

For some reason, I don't think any of those starred out words are "Rock" or "Band" or "Guitar" or "Hero".

Pssh, that would be so two years ago.

[celebritykillingspree]

@batsea
No one is asking to be 'entitled' to any extra anything, we'd simply like the option to buy an M rated alternative.

@Der_Lax
You don't think censorship should be an issue for everyone?

[gamrrpol]

But if you're us, and you're doing all of this market research into who plays your games, and who your audience is, and you have to juggle additional factors such as development time, authoring budgets, and ratings from the ESRB, you also have to look at what makes the most business sense. I know it seems (b/c I've read threads like this over and over the last few years), like it would really be a simple thing to just make an "M" rated version of our game ON TOP of all of the development we do for the regular versions. If that were the case, and it made business sense to do so, or made sense for the audience we've spent so much time researching, that's perhaps what would happen. BUT our goal, before we even get into the economics of game development and distribution, is to expose as many people as we can to new music. If someone hears something in-game and loves it, hopefully they'll go check out more by that band. At this time a "T for Teen" rated game not only helps us do that, but it also makes business sense for us to do that, plain and simple.

Like I said too we work with the artists who appear in our game - and their affiliates - very carefully to ensure that they're happy and comfortable with what shows up in game.

This I can fully understand. It IS a business decision and I recognize that.

I'm still thinking HMX is going overboard though. Take SIr Pyscho again...that song could have left some of the phrases in, with everything else (dev time, authoring budgest, rating, etc.) wouldn't have changed. Someone somewhere had to make the EXACT decisions on which words stayed and which got left out....and I'm guessin it was an HMX person and they erred on the "safe" side in seemingly every instance. I'm just saying I'd like to see that line moved a little....but fully understand the rationale not to.

[exploder]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91iNpfdPadM

I wish

well...it's in GH