Talk:Computer Entertainment Rating Organization/Archive 1

Archive 1

major overhaul

CERO rolled out a new ratings system back in February, and it took effect in march. I added in the new ABCDZ rating scheme and moved the old ratings system to a "Classic Ratings" section. --YesIAmAnIdiot 16:21, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Ratings

Doesn't the "A" rating mean that the content is mild, and that the "B" rating means the content is moderate, and that the "C" rating means that the content is strong, and that the "D" rating means it has high impact content, and that the "Z" rating is for games available in sex shops where their sale is illegal? --PJ Pete

Not quite on first part and "Z" part is definitely misinformed. To some extent, CERO checks overall atmosphere and the message that a game as a whole have. For example, take Dragon Quest VIII. It has a gambling place actually called "casino", a number of drunk people and bars, and other numerous contents. Yet it is rated "All Ages" meaning that anyone who can read text messages can play it. I believe this is because "Good will prevail over Evil" tone of this game. So, content and story are both rated, and essentially higher ratings mean that those games are more morally conflicting.

On "Z" games, stores merely need clearly displayed signs and somewhat separated section to sell them and such games don't need to be sold through specialty stores. Stores also need to check ID before selling them. Japanese culture is highly tolerant of contents in published materials that in most cultures will become a political controversy. For example, in a game section of a store in Shibuya, Tokyo, you only need to take about six steps to get from PS2 and DS section to the adult (=hentai) PC game section. You can't buy them if you are underage, but only your self-respect and knowledge that you are not suppose to see them is keeping you from checking their box arts. Maybe this is something that should be changed, but Japan's crime rate is still low enough that this is clearly not broken. --Revth 08:15, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, video games in Japan, including hentai are rated "Z". --PJ Pete

eroge are typically rated by the EOCS system, not the CERO. -Afker (talk) 06:30, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I noticed that almost the entire list of of Z rated games given as examples are major release western (mostly US and western European developers). I wanted to see if this was a representative sample and if this could be explained in a more satisfactory manner than making assumptions about either cultural differences or protectionism in terms of placing a barrier to easy entry into the Japanese market.

    I found a few editorials on the subject of CERO's assigning the Z rating and have found examples of them putting heavy pressure on similarly popular AAA titles developed by Japanese owned companies as well.  It seems that in these examples however the companies were successfully pressured into altering content to avoid the rating which, since it requires ID for purchase, is not exactly something you want your game getting in your primary market.
    Unfortunately I haven't found any primary sources or statistics which I would normally prefer if they existed.  Based on what I have found (links below) do you guys think it is worth mentioning that what the games that though most of the listed Z rated titles are foreign imports that there are several examples of Japanese publishers agreeing to censor foreign and domestically produced games alike in order to avoid being rated Z (I've found 4 relatively recent releases of flagship games including Metal Gear as I mentioned as well as the version of Call of Duty: Black Ops to be published in Japan by Square Enix and even the box art for Left for Dead 4.  While items besides directly violent imagery and content were censored in some cases (swastikas in black ops changed to iron crosses for zombie mode) the focus of attention and cited reason for agreeing to censor content highlighted by CERO was violence that was not justified by context (CERO's words not mine) as well as scenes and images of "brutality."

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Video_game_controversy#Japan http://www.1up.com/news/metal-gear-rising-face-censorship http://www.geek.com/articles/games/left-4-dead-cover-art-censored-in-japan-and-germany-20081226/ http://www.next-gen.biz/news/fallout-3-censored-japan

I found an article that contains a decently long history of Nintendo self-censoring Japanese release versions as well. The text of the article contains quite a bit of editorializing but it does provide picture comparisons illustrating things like- Bars in FFVI being replaced with cafes, images of classical Greek statues being made less anatomically correct, and a few other visually obvious changes. The second article details that this was not a one way street for Nintendo in terms of censoring their games for the sake of what they perceived to be the acceptable limits for their Japanese market. They also censored games for other markets in an attempt to avoid avoiding what they believed were that audience's cultural sensibilities. For example, the character Poison (female in the Japanese release) was intended to be rewritten as a post op transsexual in the American release. The justification for this was that American audiences considered it rude to hit women. As odd as this might sound - a discomfort for hitting a woman in-game was a complaint raised by an American play tester. The explanation that the character was actually a transsexual did not seem to work as well as intended and the character was changed to a generic male thug. The difficulty in dealing with region-based gender of the character "Poison" was cited as the reason she was left out of subsequent releases. Neat stuff right? Apparently Nintendo learned that while yes Americans did consider hitting women to be inappropriate swapping them out with gay, lesbian and transgendered characters was not an effective means of regionalization. This was followed by a pattern of editing out homosexual and transgendered characters from the English versions of many games (listed in some of the articles below) as well as characters who while not explicitly gay or transgendered deviated significantly from what Nintendo determined to be culturally acceptable gender roles for an American audience. Heck there was a whole game that revolved around a conflict that came about because of confusion over Birdo's transgendered status in-game (brido is arrested for using the women's toilet and hilarity ensues; at least I imagine there would be hilarity as it was removed from the regionalization pipeline and never released to American audiences.)

http://www.filibustercartoons.com/Nintendo.php http://www.bilerico.com/2009/12/videogame_censorship_lgbt_and_birdo_part_i.php http://www.bilerico.com/2009/12/videogame_censorship_lgbt_and_birdo_part_ii.php http://www.bilerico.com/2009/12/videogame_censorship_lgbt_and_birdo_part_iii.php

There is actually quite a bit of information establishing common attitude among several major Japanese publishers with regard to the idea of censorship. At first it seemed that CERO standards and established cultural norms in Japan considered violence to be far more undesirable in titles available to minors. This appears to be true but it also seems that Japanese publishers and developers were equally willing to tailor their releases to the sensibilities of their target market even when those sensibilities were were not their own and required the deletion or substitution of entire characters (and in some cases side stories related to what they feared may be issues that would make the audience uncomfortable.)

We also can find examples of Japanese developed titles (such as No More Heroes) being censored for excessive violence in ALL release territories except one. While it was fully censored in Japanese release, the American release included all the violence the author had originally envisioned. I'm starting to think people see Americans as desensitized to Wiimote controlled slaughter or something.

http://gamingbolt.com/top-six-video-games-censored-because-of-violent-content

To further illustrate the differences in not only cultural norms believed to be be reflected in video games but also the perception of censorship- there was a public backlash against Sega over censorship of mild sexual context removed from the American release of the violent video game "Yakuza 3." Yes it was the context in which the content was presented what was edited out rather than the characters or or associated dialogs and game-play. Characters were simply moved out of the hostess club they had originally been placed in and were found in random restaurants where they would ask you out on dates pretty much out of the blue. Sega claimed the controversy over this censorship improved sales yet, in interviews preceding the American release of Yakuza 4 they regularly made sure to announce that such content would not be cut from the 4 game as it was from the 3rd.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/06/21/preview-yakuza-4/

That is not to say there are no voices complaining about censorship from within Japan (just as America is not entirely devoid of people who think nothing of violent video games). In this particular case a Japanese games developer lamented the state of the Japanese game industry and makes reference to Dead Rising

Where, if anywhere, would this belong? it seems that inserting it into an existing section in this article would not make sense. Is there another article in which would make more sense? I couldn't find much reference to video game censorship besides public outcry. This is more like preemptive self-censorship than a response to actual public pressure. In fact as Nintendo went to great lengths to keep these things under wraps (such as replacing Mario 2 manuals in mid-launch) they completely avoided public outcry over both the existence of this material as well as potentially over its removal. Attitudes on censorship (even self censorship when it means cutting or altering an existing work) vary widely between cultures around the world. Anyways for most of its history this sort of censorship does not reactionary and visible censorship that is done in response to public outcry- which appears to be the principal focus of the only article I count find on video game censorship. This sort is, with the exception of some of the most recent examples, the quiet kind of censorship that most people never really hear much about because it is often done without prompting by the people releasing the game. Even in the recent more visible examples (such as with the Japanese release of fallout 3 or Modern Warfare: Black Ops) it is done not in response to controversy or public anger but in deference to the requests of a a ratings board.

Year Founded/Established

What year was CERO founded/established? --PJ Pete

Rating Equivalence of Video Games and Films

Well, "A" is similar to "G", "B" is similar to "PG-12", "C" is similar to "R-15", and "Z" is similar to "R-18". I don't know what "D" is similar to, but there is officially no "R-17" rating in Japan. --PJ Pete

Type of Age of the Ratings

In Japan, people at least 12 years old are teenagers, people at least 15 years old are mature audiences, people at age 17 are pre-adults, and people at least 18 years old are adults. --PJ Pete

Another thing, "A" means "All Ages", "B" means "Teen", "C" means "Mature Audiences", "D" means "Pre-Adults", and "Z" means "Adults ONLY" --PJ Pete

Contents descriptor items... or w/e

A lot of the games listed in this section are not rated by CERO. I question the factuality of this part of the article.. can someone respond or do something about this? RedKlonoa 06:19, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Sakura Wars

Sakura wars isn't a sexual game —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.15.52.139 (talk) 16:20, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Shin Megami Tensai

I wonder how they managed to pull that one off...Emma Hordika (talk) 21:36, 29 January 2008 (UTC) Emma Hordika

Maybe it's just the ESRB, because most Shin Megami Tensei games in Germany got an USK 12 rating. Especially Persona 4 got very different ratings: CERO 12, USK 12, PEGI 16+, ESRB M.217.227.215.155 (talk) 14:21, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Uh... name?

Here it says the name is "Tokutei Hieiri Katsudō Hōjin Konpyūta Entāteinmento Rētingu Kikō", but on the Japanese Wikipedia it says the name is "とくていひえいりほうじん - きこう" (Tokutei Hieiri Hōjin - Kikō"). Which name is it? わwaらraうu Smile! 02:02, 21 November 2008 (UTC)moocowsrule

I think Tokutei Hieiri Katsudō Hōjin Konpyūta Entāteinmento Rētingu Kikō.

Hownever i am unsure what's correct, English or Japanese Wikipedia version is correct. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Junkcops (talk • contribs) 02:37, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

XD I think I was having an off day... I don't see any immediate differences (other than the Katakana missing, replaced with a dash), or somebody edited what I wrote... The official Japanese name is "特定非営利活動法人コンピュータエンターテインメントレーティング機構" "Tokutei Hieiri Hōjin Konpyūta Entāteinmento Rētingu Kikō"... moocowsrule^{(Talk to Moo)} 09:35, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

CERO vs. Computer Entertainment Rating Organization

Although Wikipedia:Naming conventions#Prefer spelled-out phrases to abbreviations suggests that we use spelled-out phrases rather than abbreviations, does anyone think that this article should be renamed to CERO? The main website ([1]) uses CERO rather than the lengthier title. moocowsrule^{(Talk to Moo)} 09:42, 29 December 2008 (UTC)