[quote name='olanmills']Are you serious? There are tons and tons of games movies and TV shows with incendental refrences to other religions. Do think all of those should be censored?
And forget about the incendental references, how about all of the movies and TV shows that directly purposefully ridicule religions like Christianity or Judaism? How about disrespectful depictions of Jesus?
Why should Islam get special treatment?
Sony is stupid for apoligizing and recalling a game over an incendental reference that only people who understand Arabic would notice. (BTW MS is guilty of this too, they recalled a game in the past over a similar issue).
Besides, Sony has a hand in publishing lots of other movies and TV shows that could be considered offensive to some consumers by the same standards they're applying here to LBP. They've ignored other complaints in the past over other concerns. So why does everyone want to bend backwards for this complaint?
And I am honestly pretty shocked by the number of apologetic comments I've seen (like the comment by leveskikesko). I thought that the disgust over this move by Sony would be more universal. This is just plain stupid.[/QUOTE]
Brain ... going to ... asplode.
First off, LBP isn't a movie or a show; they're irrelevant, so restrict your argument to games. Even if that weren't the case, Sony/Columbia/TriStar/Destination/MGM/United Artists (all owned by Sony) have managed to put out movies on enough subjects, offensive and otherwise, that saying Sony is giving anyone special treatment is ridiculous.
Back on the subject of games, religious elements get censored all the time. Obviously you weren't aware that the ADL convinced Nintendo to pull a Pokemon card because they found the swastika on it offensive (in spite of its obvious Japanese usage). Or that Christian iconography is censored from Castlevania games all the time (most notably in Symphony of the Night, which appeared on ... oh yes. The Sony Playstation). I'm curious: what other games has Sony been asked to censor for religious reasons and chosen to go ahead with?
Also, your question of "Why would they censor something that only the people who might be offended would understand?" is self-evidently silly in retrospect, I hope.
So let me break it down: For controversial or offensive subject matter, they'd have to re-rate the game, and they don't want to skirt a more restrictive rating that might impact sales when they're obviously trying to go for as wide an audience as possible. Beating a hooker (or flirting with offending a religion) might be fine for some games, but if you want an all-ages vibe, it doesn't belong. It's not that complicated.
Lastly: why isn't this in VS?
