John "TotalBiscuit" Bain - On self-censorship and dat arse lyrics

There's plenty of valid concerns about people being scared into not saying what they think based on the reaction they might receive. Social media has enabled a scary online mob culture which results in disproportionate reactions to things people say. It s**s. That said, I am not of the belief that self-censorship is inherently bad 100% of the time. It can be, but sometimes its not. It seems very disconnected from reality to suggest that we should never self-censor. Everyone does, every day, its how you function in normal society. You don't always say what you think, you filter what you say in some way because deep down most of us are not just concerned about only ourselves. The feelings of others are worth considering, up to a point. The problem with the internet is that you are navigating an impossible mine-field with no metal detector (do those even work on mines anymore? seems like a critical design flaw... probably not, anyway). When you don't know a person, you don't know what they might be upset by and you don't know if they're being sincere when they claim to be upset in the first place. Also in real life you're not saying something that potentially the entire world could hear. I doubt if somebody you knew in real life told you "look I'd really prefer we not talk about X because its a sore spot for me for Y and Z reasons", you'd turn around and say "NO YOU SEE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, I CANNOT BE CENSORED, I MUST TALK ABOUT THIS WITH YOU". No, you wouldn't do that. The internet though is unfortunately full of liars and attention-seekers. Offense taken has become a currency to barter with, there's money to be made in being the victim and some people take advantage of that and that s**s. Those people are actively detrimental to proper, civilized discussion online not to mention how disgusted real victims must feel when others co-opt their trauma for capital. There's one important point I'd like to make though. If you defend freedom of artistic expression, you must also be willing to accept that self censorship is part of that freedom. The right to change your mind as a creator is fundamental and important. If someone decides they want to change the way a character is designed before a game comes out, they really need to be allowed to do that. After it comes out well, at that point you can maybe argue that you're no longer getting the product you paid for, but prior to release, everything is subject to change and that includes character design, not just game balance and mechanics. It's very easy to claim "THEY WERE FORCED TO DO THIS BY X GROUP OF PEOPLE" but without any clear evidence of said pressure, we don't truly know the reasons behind those changes. I'd like to contrast R.Mikas camera angle changes in the Street Fighter 5 beta (emphasis on "beta") to the removal of a joke some people claimed was transphobic in Pillars of Eternity. Pillars of Eternity was a clear, proveable example of a group of people going after a developer using social media, viciously in some cases and the game being changed after that fact. Contrary to the lies of some, censorship is not in fact exclusive to the government, it's a very broad concept and to present it otherwise is falsehood. In the Pillars case you can clearly correlate X cause with Y effect, but you can never 100% prove the exact reasoning for the change by the developer. Were they bullied into it or did they think it was a valid point? We'll never know. Even if a developer comes out and says it, they could be lying, either expressly or by omission, that is the nature of PR. Yoshinori Onos recent statements about R.Mika are no different, we have no idea how truthful they are. That said, it's also really hard to find evidence of any tangible pressure being put on Capcom to make those changes. In this situation, Capcom "self-censored" yes, but they have the right to change their minds, think better of something and of course, gauge fan reaction and act accordingly. What I want you to take away from this is that it is very dangerous to view self censorship in a hardline fashion. It can be bad, it can be good, it depends on the situation. When defending a developer's right to create the art they want, you must also defend their right to change their minds. Unless you're inside their head, you can never know 100% what their motivations for doing that are, even if they outright come out and tell you, because who knows if what they're saying is 100% true? My opinion on the arse slap? Harmless nonsense in a game full of cheese on all fronts for the most part, but also fan-service to the point of being a little cringeworthy in my eyes (coming from someone that dislikes most anime because of the fanservice aspect). I don't think Capcom's claims are 100% sincere, you still have big bouncy tits and thong outfits in your game, if you were truly committed to being a "family friendly franchise" (direct quote) or whatever, those wouldn't be there. There are some comparisons to be drawn with the Quiet situation. Just be honest about what you're trying to achieve. If you wanna make s**y, make s**y and own that fact. I don't buy Kojima's bullsh** about Quiet for a second, the explanation for her dress is appropriately enough, full of f**in' holes. "You will feel ashamed of your words and deeds" he said. Nope, not really. That character design's dodgy as hell and I'd rather take my damn dog on missions. As for the arse slap, that's maybe not a hill worth dying on or a battle worth choosing simply because of how minor the change is and the beta nature of the title. Slippery-slope is a fallacy for a reason. One final point that most people don't seem to have considered. The actual reason for the change might be due to concerns about SF5s eSports future. I have to wonder if any pressure came from Sony, who is banking on this title to be their platform's flagship eSports title in 2016 onwards, to make the game a little more "sponsor-friendly". We're in a weird spot in the game industry's history where the watchability of a title is now an important consideration. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Yeah yeah I know, shooting a guy in the head or literally anything Mortal Kombat ever does is fine but slapping your arse isn't, lolamericaamirite? Just a facet of this that doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet. That could have something to do with it and Capcom may be lying by omission. As a fan of the WWE, I'm very keenly aware that changes made to be "sponsor friendly" can seriously sh** up your product, but let's be honest, WWE's PG rating is not the reason Roman Reigns is making mildly racist jokes about the Irish in promos and calling someone's testicles "tater-tots". Bad writing and stupid characters transcend age ratings. Toys R Us may be the reason we don't see blood in the ring every other match, but it has nothing to do with the offal that comes out of Roman Reign's mouth every time he's given a microphone. I rewrote this post 3 times before putting it out. That was self-censorship. That's my right and thank f** for that. There are things we all wish we'd never said or done and the internet never forgets, sadly. The right to, must be paired with the right to not. P.S. For that dumba** on Reddit, THIS is what a scripted segment sounds like.