Censors force Fallout 3 changes

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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Bethesda is cutting real world drug references out of Fallout 3 for all releases. That means no morphine.<blockquote>Calling the idea of an Australia-specific version of the game a “misconception,” Hines told us, “We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform.”

He continued, “An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names. To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories.” </blockquote>Link: Censors Force Fallout 3 Changes on Edge Online.

Thanks Ausir.
 
Not that big of a deal, since Fallout never had real-world drug names anyway.
 
Censorship is fun! Hooray!

It's kind of funny that massive amounts of gore and exploding heads are perfectly fine, but "morphine" is a no-no.
 
It makes sense because any other studio would do the AU version, and leave their original plan intact. Instead they just do a blanket change for all versions and call it a day. That is lazy.

It would be like Black Isle removing children from all versions, instead of just the European versions.
 
Uh-huh. Think for a minute here. Since the old version is done and you're editing out something for the Australian version, what is the difference in amount of work done for editing only for one version or editing for all versions: none, except that you get more work because the language localization has to be adapted for all versions.

Giving yourself more work = lazy?

They removed a minor item that never made sense anyway to keep help keep the game equal in all locations ('cept Germany). That's a good thing from where I'm sitting, and I don't see how laziness could be the motivation.
 
Fair enough. I'm not going to deny that what you said makes sense. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

I know my original comment was flippant, but it wasn't just a mindless attempt to bash them. I just feel like this is a lazy decision. Giving themselves more work, would have been to maintain both versions. They chose the easy way out, in my view, although I don't claim to be infallible. :)
 
I don't mind them renaming the chems to more sci-fi friendly versions. Something like: BUFFOUT 2.0 sounds a lot cooler than pcp. That's probably the least significant thing they could have censored, I don't mind.
 
we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories
Click to expand...

Brother None said:
keep the game equal in all locations ('cept Germany).
Click to expand...

"Does not compute."

So the German version will be the exception or what? I can't follow anymore. :aiee:
 
I never thought about that. Not getting Bloody Mess would make you miss out on about 85% of the game according to the Bethesda-run previews.

:D
 
rcorporon said:
Censorship is fun! Hooray!

It's kind of funny that massive amounts of gore and exploding heads are perfectly fine, but "morphine" is a no-no.
Click to expand...

It's amazing how censorship varies by region. Americans are really shy about sexuality which is a pretty open subject in Europe but violence is heavily edited. I was surprised to find that even Japan is beginning to crack down on violence in video games.
 
Violence isn't pretty heavily edited in "Europe". Most European countries couldn't care less. It's mostly Germany that goes into a fit every time.

Also, check your pms.
 
In Poland, we let the Dutch rate our games and legally enforce it, even though they don't.
 
The PEGI rating is given by the Netherlands Institute for the Classification of Audiovisual Media. It's legally enforceable in Poland, while it's not in the Netherlands.
 
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