No, Mr. Popo is indeed still a black face caricature. The only time he's been modified to blue is for a heavily edited US Saturday Morning broadcast of Dragon Ball Kai. This broadcast was used to point out the hypocrisy of US television where 15 years earlier episodes with practically the same content aired without fault on some of these exact same channels with no changes ever occurring to that character. The worst thing about it is that the original network for Kai in the US never changed the Popo design, even after the Saturday morning edit. Most people didn't know that Mr. Popo can be seen as a racist caricature so that edit brought unruly attention to something many didn't know about. Oh, and in the video games that continue to be published by Namco Bandai Mr. Popo has never been blue.
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Tekken Tag 2 to be modified due to use of 'Allah' in Saudi Arabia stage
- Thread starter ComputerMKII
- Start date
No, Mr. Popo is indeed still a black face caricature. The only time he's been modified to blue is for a heavily edited US Saturday Morning broadcast of Dragon Ball Kai. This broadcast was used to point out the hypocrisy of US television where 15 years earlier episodes with practically the same content aired without fault on some of these exact same channels with no changes ever occurring to that character. The worst thing about it is that the original network for Kai in the US never changed the Popo design, even after the Saturday morning edit. Most people didn't know that Mr. Popo can be seen as a racist caricature so that edit brought unruly attention to something many didn't know about. Oh, and in the video games that continue to be published by Namco Bandai Mr. Popo has never been blue.
Bjoern the Smexy
Member
I'D RAGE SO HARD OH MY GOD
Actually I wouldn't care.
I know that wasn't a serious question.
But I don't care about that either, so HA!
Rhazer Fusion
Member
Didn't someone complain about Zafina's Tekken 6 outfit forcing them to change it in TTT2 also?
I NEED SCISSORS
Banned
Wasn't there a Tekken story where the devs had to keep every character in the roster of each new game to prevent fans committing suicide?
Jawmuncher
Member
Considering some of the shit Devs spew out and never fix you never know.
dont know about that.
I do know they changed Miguel's costume for Tag 2 cuz Spanish players were complaining his bullfighter costume was too stereotypical
Rhazer Fusion
Member
Finaika
Member
What's wrong with Zafina's costume?
Good move by Harada.
Don't get all the rage in this thread, how is this a big deal?
It's like being culturally sensitive is a bad thing.
Yeah mainstream game developers love to piss on Christians and Buddists, remember "game that doesn't exist"?
Don't get all the rage in this thread, how is this a big deal?
It's like being culturally sensitive is a bad thing.
Yeah mainstream game developers love to piss on Christians and Buddists, remember "game that doesn't exist"?
Canis lupus
Member
This.
Right.
zonetrooper5
Member
Nobody in the world has a right to be offended, keep that in mind.
But plenty of things in games can be perceived as offensive to particular races, religions, sexes, et al. But it seems like one Muslim can complain over Twitter and this instantly forces the developer to issue a patch/pull copies. It's happened countless times with games like Little Big Planet, Modern Warfare 2, Ocarina of Time, and plenty of others. It's not like they patched Resident Evil 5 after accusations of racism against black people, or Duke Nukem for being comprehensively offensive to women. And I think it's 100% because they're afraid of physical retaliation from certain Muslims.
So Muslims can't complain about things because it might be perceived as a physical threat?
Nobody threatened them or forced them to change it.It's a small change that probably doesn't cost much (they wouldn't do it if it cost millions) so I doubt it's "100%" because they're afraid of being bombed.
Also there's a big difference between changing a floor texture in a fighting game or a soundtrack in OOT and changing the plot of RE5 and the writing of DNF.
Canis lupus
Member
Why are people so worked up? The text shouldn't have been there in the first place. Some people noticed it, notified Harada san and he's removing it. End of story.
You think there's some other reason why game developers seem to only address issues of the Muslim faith in their games?
Also, it's not cheap to recall every copy of a game like LittleBigPlanet, Ocarina of Time, or FIFA 2010.
Basically, yes.
Nobody threatened them.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
Two points that weren't mentioned in the thread:
- The tweet in the first post is the tamest one Harada got. He actually got a few more that weren't quite as polite if you check his profile.
- Harada has personally visited Saudi Arabia and Dubai and wants to visit them again.
- The tweet in the first post is the tamest one Harada got. He actually got a few more that weren't quite as polite if you check his profile.
- Harada has personally visited Saudi Arabia and Dubai and wants to visit them again.
But there's a precedent.
There's a precedence for every group.
But that doesn't explain what I initially stated, which was that the Muslim issues are the ones that usually get addressed in these situations.
In your quest for political correctness, I think you're ignoring a significant trend in recent years of Muslim threats against content creators.
Canis lupus
Member
You got to be kidding.
Which issues are you talking about?
Are you even paying attention? Am I imagining that topics like this have become a regular occurrence?
Schlachtor
Banned
Dude, it's still just a videogame, a texture. If you don't like it, don't buy or ignore the game.
Western and Japanese devs are less familiar with Muslim culture and religion so they often make mistakes about it.
Mistakes such as a single word?
At some point it becomes practically impossible for a designer to know every little social and religious convention in all countries though.
Clearly at this point nobody should use any Arabic words or at least get a basic translation done, but not all of these cases can be caught.
Glass Rebel
Member
I'm not sure I see the controversy here. Someone noticed it, asked Harada about the reason and he promised to change it, probably because he realized it'd be offensive.
You obviously don't know a lot about Muslim culture if you think it's "just" a single word...
You obviously don't know a lot about Muslim culture if you think it's "just" a single word...
Dictator93
Member
I really have no idea what to write in this thread. Everyone is always so sensitive about this stuff and I as a non-believer am most definitely not.
I guess I just don't get it and never will. For me, artistic liscence means the ability to write and say whatever you want. Even if that means "Allah."
But, this is a game company we are talking about here, they are definitely not just doing this so that they appear to be buddy buddy with muslim populations. More likely is the scenario in which they do not want to alienate a POTENTIAL MARKET (aka lets sell this game to muslims). They are not altruistics who want to have peace in the world and be friends to all religions.
I guess I just don't get it and never will. For me, artistic liscence means the ability to write and say whatever you want. Even if that means "Allah."
But, this is a game company we are talking about here, they are definitely not just doing this so that they appear to be buddy buddy with muslim populations. More likely is the scenario in which they do not want to alienate a POTENTIAL MARKET (aka lets sell this game to muslims). They are not altruistics who want to have peace in the world and be friends to all religions.
So what you're saying is Namco-Bandai just shot themselves in the foot.....
Do enlighten, then.
Glass Rebel
Member
At least I'm not making it sound like Muslims shot Harada in the foot.
There are several posts in this thread explaining why this is a big deal to some. I suggest you do the very minor research yourself before you dismiss it.
The point being made is that there are plenty of things in games that could be offensive to a wide variety of cultures and religions but the only ones that are commonly changed or removed are references to things that are a part of Muslim culture. There are reasons why, and we have and still can observe them quite frequently in all forms of media. Hopefully I don't have to lay them all out for you. This example is on the tame end of the spectrum but it still fits within the context of Muslims demanding or requesting changes or censorship.
It's not a big deal if it happens once, but it keeps happening and that's going to annoy people.
Look at it this way: if the argument was that their depiction of the word "Allah" was offensive because it had a shadow cast on it and Allah should only be represented in direct sunlight, and I told this to a dev and demanded they change the lighting, would they or anyone else even know that I just made that up?
Probably not.
Would they still change it and apologize?
Probably.
When you have people demanding that a blurry as fuck picture frame be removed because it's too close to a toilet, or that a word shouldn't be exposed to feet, they're not going to be familiar enough with the culture to understand why, or even care why. They just want to reach their audience without those kinds of issues, and they know of a precedent of extreme action taken based on similar claims from what appears to be from the same kinds of people.
Saying "Just do what they say, peace and love" is a really nice gesture but there's something fundamentally wrong with having that kind of power over the output of a creative work.
Canis lupus
Member
This has got nothing to do with free speech, its just a videogame. Tekken devs probably did a quick search on Arabic and found this and put it in their game since Allah in Arabic is so common. No secret message behind it, no attack on religion whatsoever.
Heavy's Sandvich
Member
Are Namco intending to offend Muslims by putting it in? If yes, then it becomes a freedom of speech issue.
The intent has no effect on whether it's a freedom of speech matter. A request for censorship does.
Namco shot themselves in the foot, you're an expert etc.
Its about religion having a special privilege to never be offended by anything, and be able to make any demands they want, and never have to justify it in any way other than "this offends me because i'm religious." Comes across as petty, childish and delusional, and if there's a better reason for religions to get whatever they want, the onus is on you (i.e. the people making the claim that there's nothing wrong with it) to prove it.
Heavy's Sandvich
Member
Then it was a mistake which genuinely offends people as they see it as a desecration of something they hold holy.
To those unoffended, or those that didn't notice it, changing the texture has absolutely no impact on them whatsoever.
This isn't an unreasonable request.
To those unoffended, or those that didn't notice it, changing the texture has absolutely no impact on them whatsoever.
This isn't an unreasonable request.
It's about not having to not offend every single group. Or do only the people that complain get consideration? I guarantee there are a whole bunch of things in every game that offends someone.
Exactly my point. They've seen results from their complaints before - sometimes through threats of violence. They know they'll continue to see results, and they'll continue to request "offensive" things be removed from media. No other group will get this treatment.
Heavy's Sandvich
Member
I'm not disputing that.
It's down to reasonableness.
It's down to reasonableness.
You can offend someone if you want to but you can also decide to not be a jerk and listen to reasonable complaints and decide not to offend.
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