I think we are all on the same page when it comes to video games and censorship. The fact that it sucks and we need to fight it at all costs with closing our wallets and maintaining physical copies. Skullgirls being the most recent debacle of censorship and theft of content has lead the fan base rebelling and fighting with the developers and journos who shame the gamers who paid for their content.
Yesterday, I took a bit of a risk to see if Skullgirls on the Switch was censored from a pre-owned copy at my local GameStop. I paid $25 and thank God the cartridge was not corrupted with the censorship update. This was a purchase of empathy and passion for gaming and as dramatic as it sounds, but a purchase I do not have any regrets purchasing. The only way to prevent the updates is to turn off automatic updates on your switch in the settings and going straight to the software.
While it does come at the cost of playing online, it’s a trade well made considering the best 1 v 1 gaming is done in person with friends. Ultimately this purchase was thankfully made by me and I am happy to say that the censorship will not affect my copy of the game and I will be able to share it with friends.
Why is this important to me? Well simply due to he fact that removing content after a game has been released for OVER 10 YEARS is absolute THEFT OF CONTENT.
If a person pays for a video game, you pay for the WHOLE GAME. If a merchant sold you a brand new TV without a remote and refused to give you one, did they rip you off ? Yes. If you bought a steal but I cut a third of the steak and ate it and told you that you can’t have the whole steak, would you not complain?
While it may not be 1:1 identical comparison, if you’re missing something that the content promised, wouldn’t you consider that a rip off or theft? The answer is yes. I love video games and while I may not have been a fan of skull girls to begin with, I certainly will preserve a game for it’s full content that the fans appreciated before I see it censored.
But if you’re a fan and you can find the cartridge version for the switch, buy it while you can. It has the full 14 roster and full depicting of sexy characters and full symbolism of villainous characters which should never have been censored in the first place.
Lastly, fictional characters are fictional. How they’re depicted is of little consequences and if you cannot disassociate reality from fantasy, you definitely should stay away from fandoms, video games, or anything that requires an open imagination and a non judgemental mindset. Video games are about free expressions and skullgirls having lewd and creatively expressed content did nothing wrong to real women or real teens. It’s fantasy and to even compare real world predators or perversions is a despicably bad take and the studios new management and the journos should be blacklisted from the industry and communities. They do not represent us, the real gamers.
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