A week or two ago the "child pornography" allegations that saw Nintendo opt not to distribute DOA Dimensions in Europe hit the media here in Australia, even normally level headed outlets like ABC news were reporting on this issue and representing the game in such a light - while far from a media shitstorm, it was rather disconcertaing to witness the rumblings of stupidity. Reports were that the government were now looking into the issue with the classification review board contacting Nintendo about the issue. Sure enough, the Classification Review Board has now revoked Dead or Alive's PG rating. This means the game is now illegal to sell in Australia. As far as I'm aware there's no word at this point on whether the game will merely recieve a stronger rating or if it is due to be 'banned', but the game's chances of being sold again aren't looking good if you ask me. I'm not disappointed that I won't get to purchase this game, but I am frustrated with just how dumb this situation is. I suppose I should be immune to stupid decisions in this area by now, but goddamn.

I think its more of a problem with Japan's willingness to conceive and depict young female characters in over sexualised ways, whether they include nudity or not. It's stupid that it's banned but Japan needs a cultural slap in this one specific area.

That is pretty stupid. I don't know if the Review Board was aware of that photography mode and if they are, they are fucking stupid to revoke the classifications simply because the media is reporting on it. If it's because the feature was intentionally kept hidden from the Review Board by THQ then they are fucking stupid.

@AlisterCat: Why?

I think its more of a problem with Japan's willingness to conceive and depict young female characters in over sexualised ways, whether they include nudity or not. It's stupid that it's banned but Japan needs a cultural slap in this one specific area.

@AlisterCat said:

I think its more of a problem with Japan's willingness to conceive and depict young female characters in over sexualised ways, whether they include nudity or not. It's stupid that it's banned but Japan needs a cultural slap in this one specific area.

MY WAY OF LIFE CAN BEAT UP YOUR WAY OF LIFE  You might think their sexualization of pixelized women is wrong, they think it's retarded that you care about pixels.

@Pinworm45 said:

@AlisterCat said:

I think its more of a problem with Japan's willingness to conceive and depict young female characters in over sexualised ways, whether they include nudity or not. It's stupid that it's banned but Japan needs a cultural slap in this one specific area.

MY WAY OF LIFE CAN BEAT UP YOUR WAY OF LIFE  You might think their sexualization of pixelized women is wrong, they think it's retarded that you care about pixels.

It's not just pixels. Japan has a super fucking creepy obsession with sexualized underage girls in all of their media.

Yeah, but look at our beaches!

The funny thing about this article was when it was posted, the image that was posted along with the article was this:

It took about 3-4 hours before the ABC switched it out with a ...normal picture of DOA lol...

@KingWilly said:

@Pinworm45 said:

@AlisterCat said:

I think its more of a problem with Japan's willingness to conceive and depict young female characters in over sexualised ways, whether they include nudity or not. It's stupid that it's banned but Japan needs a cultural slap in this one specific area.

MY WAY OF LIFE CAN BEAT UP YOUR WAY OF LIFE  You might think their sexualization of pixelized women is wrong, they think it's retarded that you care about pixels.

It's not just pixels. Japan has a super fucking creepy obsession with sexualized underage girls in all of their media.

 
And we have a violence fetish.  We're all creeps. 

Looks like things aren't as grim as I had feared. It turns out that THQ hadn't submitted enough information for the classification to stand (as akiz_jack pondered, it looks like THQ hadn't provided information on the photography mode), Nintendo have taken over distribution of the game and it has been resubmitted for classification. So it looks like a stupid decision has yet to be made, we'll see how things fare.

@AlisterCat said:

I think its more of a problem with Japan's willingness to conceive and depict young female characters in over sexualised ways, whether they include nudity or not. It's stupid that it's banned but Japan needs a cultural slap in this one specific area.

These "My culture is superior to your culture" arguments never end well.

This is starting to get out of hand. While I find the immensely pandering and generally creepy nature of all Dead or Alive games to be sort of despicable, I wouldn't call them worth banning. Doesn't Australia have better things to do, like flood the market with Vegemite and Didgeridoos (because stereotypes are real, right?), causing a global economic boom?

The funny thing about this article was when it was posted, the image that was posted along with the article was this:

It took about 3-4 hours before the ABC switched it out with a ...normal picture of DOA lol...

@Hailinel said:

@AlisterCat said:

I think its more of a problem with Japan's willingness to conceive and depict young female characters in over sexualised ways, whether they include nudity or not. It's stupid that it's banned but Japan needs a cultural slap in this one specific area.

These "My culture is superior to your culture" arguments never end well.

It's not a vs culture thing, it's a standard that should be cultural neutral. A criticism, not a superiority claim. We do it in the west but not to the same extent.

I love the dead or alive series and having it caught up in bullshit like this is fucking dumb. Just cover the damn girls up and let people play the fun game

@AlisterCat said:

@Hailinel said:

@AlisterCat said:

I think its more of a problem with Japan's willingness to conceive and depict young female characters in over sexualised ways, whether they include nudity or not. It's stupid that it's banned but Japan needs a cultural slap in this one specific area.

These "My culture is superior to your culture" arguments never end well.

It's not a vs culture thing, it's a standard that should be cultural neutral. A criticism, not a superiority claim. We do it in the west but not to the same extent.

It's a vs. culture thing. While you're at it, why not attack Sweden, too? Their laws state that you can have legally have sex with someone as young as fifteen, but paradoxically you aren't allowed to look at pornography featuring anyone younger than eighteen.