The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
This story is exactly as incoherent as the title makes it sound
http://kotaku.com/localizer-asks-to-be-removed-from-games-credits-after-d-1794678587
So just to be entirely clear here: when the original devs heard what KKK meant in the US they immedietly decided to change it
And this is censorship
Fucking
What
http://kotaku.com/localizer-asks-to-be-removed-from-games-credits-after-d-1794678587
Yesterday, a localizer for the publisher XSEED took a dramatic stance on what he saw as potential censorship, asking his company to remove his name from the credits of the upcoming JRPG Akibas Beat after the developers removed a controversial phrase involving the KKK from the game.
I wanted to make a statement, localization specialist Tom Lipschultz wrote in an e-mail. I dont think its right to make any change, no matter how minor, for the purpose of sanitizing a game.
Localization gets thorny when certain cultural themes dont make sense in other languagesor, worse, when theyre too controversial. Akibas Beats most egregious change, Lipschultz wrote in an XSEED forum post, had to do with a parody of the Japanese light switch company NKK Switches. A sign in the original Japanese version of the game read KKK witches, a play on the phrase. He wrote on XSEEDs forum, I personally felt KKK witches was pretty funny for its shock value, but when I mentioned it to my coworkers, they... were not as amused. Lipschultz has long been an advocate against what he sees as censorship in localization, and he says his priority is retaining as much of Akibas Beats original meaning as possible.
XSEED (sans Lipschultz) e-mailed Acquire asking what originally inspired the sign. Ken Berry, XSEEDs executive vice president, helped explain what the letters meant in the U.S. Acquire immediately responded that they had no idea the sign could be taken that way in English, Berry told me in an e-mail. Two weeks later, Acquire removed the phrase from Akibas Beat, with no further conversation or discussion, replacing it with ACQ witches.
Although this decision was made by the developer, Lipschultz decided to take a stand, asking XSEED to remove his name from the credits of Akibas Beat. As a result, he wont appear in XSEEDs credits againXSEED has a policy maintaining that If someone is ashamed to be associated with one of our games, then they are ashamed to be associated with the company as a whole and wont be credited in future games either. Lipschultz says that, because KKK witches isnt being removed to aid the players comprehension, but to avoid offending people and to avoid the possibility of retailers protesting, it infringes on the games artistic value.
So just to be entirely clear here: when the original devs heard what KKK meant in the US they immedietly decided to change it
And this is censorship
Fucking
What