This is what I already do when I am unable to have enough control over said content. No TW or FO series for me.
But if Bioware can create a game without the loss of artistic license, and include an additional filter (eg Gore setting), then I am happy to help ask for it.
I think 'toggles' would just simply be too difficult.
Where do you draw the lines?
Would you list all these in the Options menu?
And once we go down those roads, where do we stop?
No, it's BioWare's game and their vision.
They need to set the tone and reasonably communicate what that tone and expectation is.
Then consumers can choose to purchase, or not.
I think 'toggles' would just simply be too difficult.
Where do you draw the lines?Would you list all these in the Options menu?
- Boobs toggle? nipples? side-boob? buttocks? genitals?
- 'Curse words', bad language, very bad language?
- Kissing, rolling about, banging?
And once we go down those roads, where do we stop?No, it's BioWare's game and their vision.
- Gay toggles?
- Trans content filters?
They need to set the tone and reasonably communicate what that tone and expectation is.
Then consumers can choose to purchase, or not.
The function is not too costly and difficult to implement, and sales covers the cost.
So looking at developing just a language filter, this is everything you're looking at:
> First you have to decide how you're going to go about doing it. Do we want to record new lines with non vulgar language or bleep things out?
> If recording entirely new lines, that's a lot of extra lines to record. Voice actors are not cheap. If you are doing this then you have to do this for EVERY language you support the game in, too.
> If bleeping them out, then you have to develop the system to detect and bleep those words. Pretty much all dialogue in the game is subtitled and those are stored as strings, so you can probably use that as an easy detection method.
> Then you need to develop the system that checks which setting you have and gives you the appropriate lines.
> Finally, there is testing it. It's worth noting that testing usually does not include just making sure that the switch is working for 1 or 2 lines and assuming that means it is working everywhere else. This is not the kind of feature you want messing up and turning off due to a bug.
> Fix any bugs you find during testing that you consider to be show stoppers, and then repeat the testing step.
Compare the cost of that against the number of purchases your marketing department believes you will gain in sales by adding in these features(minus whatever the retailers take). One has to image the people so offended by such content that they are not buying the game is a pretty small pool to begin with and even if you market that you have added such a feature(which costs more money) not everybody is going to know about it. A number of people will simply see the M rating and think it's unavoidable because they haven't been following the game's marketing.
The ESRB is not going to lower the rating just because the content is optional.
(and yes, I am a software developer =P)
And if BioWare can't/won't, then perhaps you should add Mass Effect to the list of games that just aren't for you?
Or Bioware can continue to install Options as they have been doing (eg; Gore toggle, Effects Quality). Am simply supporting a valid suggestion that could increase the customization for the indv Player, as well as the possible base.
Gore and effect quality toggles are different from content toggles. Apples and oranges, mate.
Already have.
ME2 was a rude surprise, and it took some info from Chris Priestly as to which characters I should likely avoid to get me to purchase ME3. And overall, ME3 was a better experience for it, while ME2 remains with a single campaign.
Am hoping for even greater control in ME:A.
So looking at developing just a language filter, this is everything you're looking at:
> First you have to decide how you're going to go about doing it. Do we want to record new lines with non vulgar language or bleep things out?
> If recording entirely new lines, that's a lot of extra lines to record. Voice actors are not cheap. If you are doing this then you have to do this for EVERY language you support the game in, too.
> If bleeping them out, then you have to develop the system to detect and bleep those words. Pretty much all dialogue in the game is subtitled and those are stored as strings, so you can probably use that as an easy detection method.
> Then you need to develop the system that checks which setting you have and gives you the appropriate lines.
> Finally, there is testing it. It's worth noting that testing usually does not include just making sure that the switch is working for 1 or 2 lines and assuming that means it is working everywhere else. This is not the kind of feature you want messing up and turning off due to a bug.
> Fix any bugs you find during testing that you consider to be show stoppers, and then repeat the testing step.
Compare the cost of that against the number of purchases your marketing department believes you will gain in sales by adding in these features(minus whatever the retailers take). One has to image the people so offended by such content that they are not buying the game is a pretty small pool to begin with and even if you market that you have added such a feature(which costs more money) not everybody is going to know about it. A number of people will simply see the M rating and think it's unavoidable because they haven't been following the game's marketing.
The ESRB is not going to lower the rating just because the content is optional.
(and yes, I am a software developer =P)
The bleeping out has to be done for all other languages seperately, too... since they use different words and grammar.
So looking at developing just a language filter, this is everything you're looking at:
> First you have to decide how you're going to go about doing it. Do we want to record new lines with non vulgar language or bleep things out?
> If recording entirely new lines, that's a lot of extra lines to record. Voice actors are not cheap. If you are doing this then you have to do this for EVERY language you support the game in, too.
> If bleeping them out, then you have to develop the system to detect and bleep those words. Pretty much all dialogue in the game is subtitled and those are stored as strings, so you can probably use that as an easy detection method.
> Then you need to develop the system that checks which setting you have and gives you the appropriate lines.
> Finally, there is testing it. It's worth noting that testing usually does not include just making sure that the switch is working for 1 or 2 lines and assuming that means it is working everywhere else. This is not the kind of feature you want messing up and turning off due to a bug.
> Fix any bugs you find during testing that you consider to be show stoppers, and then repeat the testing step.
Compare the cost of that against the number of purchases your marketing department believes you will gain in sales by adding in these features(minus whatever the retailers take). One has to image the people so offended by such content that they are not buying the game is a pretty small pool to begin with and even if you market that you have added such a feature(which costs more money) not everybody is going to know about it. A number of people will simply see the M rating and think it's unavoidable because they haven't been following the game's marketing.
The ESRB is not going to lower the rating just because the content is optional.
(and yes, I am a software developer =P)
So looking at developing just a language filter, this is everything you're looking at:
> First you have to decide how you're going to go about doing it. Do we want to record new lines with non vulgar language or bleep things out?
> If recording entirely new lines, that's a lot of extra lines to record. Voice actors are not cheap. If you are doing this then you have to do this for EVERY language you support the game in, too.
> If bleeping them out, then you have to develop the system to detect and bleep those words. Pretty much all dialogue in the game is subtitled and those are stored as strings, so you can probably use that as an easy detection method.
> Then you need to develop the system that checks which setting you have and gives you the appropriate lines.
> Finally, there is testing it. It's worth noting that testing usually does not include just making sure that the switch is working for 1 or 2 lines and assuming that means it is working everywhere else. This is not the kind of feature you want messing up and turning off due to a bug.
> Fix any bugs you find during testing that you consider to be show stoppers, and then repeat the testing step.
Compare the cost of that against the number of purchases your marketing department believes you will gain in sales by adding in these features(minus whatever the retailers take). One has to image the people so offended by such content that they are not buying the game is a pretty small pool to begin with and even if you market that you have added such a feature(which costs more money) not everybody is going to know about it. A number of people will simply see the M rating and think it's unavoidable because they haven't been following the game's marketing.
The ESRB is not going to lower the rating just because the content is optional.
(and yes, I am a software developer =P)
Thanks for expanding on my point 
Already have.
ME2 was a rude surprise, and it took some info from Chris Priestly as to which characters I should likely avoid to get me to purchase ME3. And overall, ME3 was a better experience for it, while ME2 remains with a single campaign.
Am hoping for even greater control in ME:A.
The galaxy would be pretty boring without rudeness.
Very different from ME, despite both being scifi. The story/characters have some issues, but it's got my favorite setting in a game, bar none. And it just reeks of style.
Yeah - Deus Ex is Thief in the future (or probably the past from Thief's perspective ... it's complicated) with a heavy dose of Blade Runner. It's a stealth game at heart; thankfully in Mankind Divided it'll be possible to ghost the whole game!
Mass Effect is basically NWN in space ... the formula hasn't changed much from those earlier D&D franchises; it's merely switched to more action-oriented combat... especially noticable when you go back and play ME1 after ME3.
The types of game aren't really comparable.
Have already answered about my personal choice here, and that would be a Silence toggle with blanks or * for vulgarity. Have the Devs look into it, and if viable and possible, create it.
Overall, I would prefer the content was not included, and given a T rating, but that is another thread.
So that once again creates 2 recordings, since the lines are generally in the form of something atune to a wav file, you would either have to hand edit each of those; break up your recording and have to re-assemble it back with a delay; or have 2 versions of the line, which in the case of something like DA's inquisitor is a minimum of 8 recordings.
Already have.
ME2 was a rude surprise, and it took some info from Chris Priestly as to which characters I should likely avoid to get me to purchase ME3. And overall, ME3 was a better experience for it, while ME2 remains with a single campaign.
Am hoping for even greater control in ME:A.
I suspect it's already too late for MEA - the engine has been decided upon and the game is under development. You'll not see the filters you want in the next 12 to 18 months ... if ever.
And what is "mature content"?
The galaxy would be pretty boring without rudeness.
The galaxy would be pretty boring without rudeness.
Boring for you, perhaps. I'd find it fascinating.
So looking at developing just a language filter, this is everything you're looking at:
> First you have to decide how you're going to go about doing it. Do we want to record new lines with non vulgar language or bleep things out?
> If recording entirely new lines, that's a lot of extra lines to record. Voice actors are not cheap. If you are doing this then you have to do this for EVERY language you support the game in, too.
> If bleeping them out, then you have to develop the system to detect and bleep those words. Pretty much all dialogue in the game is subtitled and those are stored as strings, so you can probably use that as an easy detection method.
> Then you need to develop the system that checks which setting you have and gives you the appropriate lines.
> Finally, there is testing it. It's worth noting that testing usually does not include just making sure that the switch is working for 1 or 2 lines and assuming that means it is working everywhere else. This is not the kind of feature you want messing up and turning off due to a bug.
> Fix any bugs you find during testing that you consider to be show stoppers, and then repeat the testing step.
Compare the cost of that against the number of purchases your marketing department believes you will gain in sales by adding in these features(minus whatever the retailers take). One has to image the people so offended by such content that they are not buying the game is a pretty small pool to begin with and even if you market that you have added such a feature(which costs more money) not everybody is going to know about it. A number of people will simply see the M rating and think it's unavoidable because they haven't been following the game's marketing.
The ESRB is not going to lower the rating just because the content is optional.
(and yes, I am a software developer =P)
... and there was me thinking it was just Ctrl+H in Notepad++ 
(note: this is a joke - I'm an ecommerce dev and sometime Perl hacker rather than a "proper" software dev)
...
. Strangely, no hint of male bits were to be seen even on creatures that were apparently otherwise based on males.
...
Would increase the poly-count and, I'm not joking, add extra bones for the inverse-kinematics on the models to be anything other than utterly laughable... though I suspect willies waving about would be pretty funny anyway (I can be quite juvenile sometimes).
As far as does it personally affect me? Not really, obviously. But I am fascinated by why people are so easily offended, and interested in the reasoning behind it. Of course, if such offense were broadcasted on the marquis sign of a church, I wouldn't find it interesting. But people are offended about sex and language in a game where you murder people and aliens. So, getting offended in that situation seems absurd to me. Do people compartmentalize their offense to such things? Really, its rather bizarre.
And, I dont mean to be particularly offensive with openly wondering if the sort of people that take offense to such things do so for religious reasons - other people here have wondered the same thing, and I honestly can't think of another reason why someone would be offended in such a fashion.
Truly, it is bizarre that one would pick and choose what explicit content to be offended by in an extremely explicit game. Violence and murder is ok, but language and sex isn't? Come on.
But does it have to be "offense" as the reason for not liking the content? Or religious reasons? maybe they're simply not comfortable around the content? Maybe they think resources can be better spent in other areas.
Why is not liking nudity or foul language any stranger than not liking mustard on a hamburger?
So that once again creates 2 recordings, since the lines are generally in the form of something atune to a wav file, you would either have to hand edit each of those; break up your recording and have to re-assemble it back with a delay; or have 2 versions of the line, which in the case of something like DA's inquisitor is a minimum of 8 recordings.
Boss fights aside, it does. And those were ripped apart pretty thoroughly by the fan base.
The Missing Link DLC allowed for nonlethal takedowns even for the final boss (there was an achievement for that)
Mankind Divided is said to allow for completely nonlethal playthroughs
Based on the prior ME games, they already are doing multiple recordings for gender and background choices, as well as the possible Paragon/ Renegade decisions. And if ME:A has races, that also boosts the included work.
If placing a silent moment is too 'problematic', then I can accept that, but am seeing that such content is already a priority for Bioware games, and adding an additional option that can widen the appeal appears to worthy of the research.
I had made the assumption that what you were arguing was it would not be too much work to add this. But what I am saying is if you want a "profane" and a "non-profane" version to exist then you would need to double up all your recordings. Yes there are things like background/gender choices but those allow for a different type of experience. IE calling someone a knife ears (youll notice this is generally from an NPC where it is only doubling up 1 line of dialog) is a unique experience and changes the context of the content instead of having something where there is the exact same line, just a pause or a bleep.
Based on the prior ME games, they already are doing multiple recordings for gender and background choices, as well as the possible Paragon/ Renegade decisions. And if ME:A has races, that also boosts the included work.
Logic fail. Implementing your toggle would mean creating a different version for all those multiple recordings. That means instead of male/female Paragon/Renegade (4 versions) you'd have to do 8. Four with mature dialoge and four without.
Yes, the censored content wouldn't have the same size or length as the original because you aren't replacing everything but it still needs to be recorded.
If placing a silent moment is too 'problematic', then I can accept that, but am seeing that such content is already a priority for Bioware games, and adding an additional option that can widen the appeal appears to worthy of the research.
I see no hint that it would widen the appeal at all.
And if BioWare can't/won't, then perhaps you should add Mass Effect to the list of games that just aren't for you?
A pity since it used to be.
Retour en haut