Post Launch Censorship

[BecomingDeath13]

So... This gonna happen again I wonder. I never fully understood why they did this. I thought maybe it was because of eSports. Especially since it ended up being such a half assed job. Johnny can say John fucking Rambo but can't say fuck during his end round taunts. Kano gets bleeped for saying shit ass American tourist to Cassie. These are things that weren't censored when the game launched.

So here's the thing. Mortal Kombat is a mature rated game. Go figure right? So if this is actually an eSports issue, there's a fix that will solve the problem without dampening the game experience for everyone outside of competitions and that is a profanity toggle. Just put a profanity toggle in the options like they used to do for blood.

So I was thinking a fun thing we can do while we wait for gameplay and discuss censorship is to post examples of things within the previous game that were censored and why you think or should have or should not have been censored and how you would want that to pertain to the upcoming game.

I'll start. Uncensored

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1104816194375352320

Censored

Obviously this wasn't censored until later. The only real example here I would see censorship acceptable for would be Johnny Cage sa character and that's because he's an actor. So it can be used as a comedic measure.

 

[Vslayer]

What the hell, never knew his FU taunt was removed, or censored. That's wild.

I just feel like WB probably doesn't want to take chances and lose money, so they and won't let NRS do what they really want with the game, the characters and everything else. It's like they're slowly losing their identity. But then again, they made fatals super gruesome. I just don't get how a fatal is Esports appropriate but not saying fuck you?

Weird.

 

[zerosebaz]

Just bring back Kombat Kodes and put the options there.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

I thought Johnny's taunt was, as you said, censored for comedic effect. Cassie, in the very first story mode chapter, says "Well, we're in the shit now" and that is still, not censored, so...?

 

[BecomingDeath13]

What the hell, never knew his FU taunt was removed, or censored. That's wild.

I just feel like WB probably doesn't want to take chances and lose money, so they and won't let NRS do what they really want with the game, the characters and everything else. It's like they're slowly losing their identity. But then again, they made fatals super gruesome. I just don't get how a fatal is Esports appropriate but not saying fuck you?

Weird.

My point exactly. There are a lot of instances where things were censored after the game launched.

I thought Johnny's taunt was, as you said, censored for comedic effect. Cassie, in the very first story mode chapter, says "Well, we're in the shit now" and that is still, not censored, so...?

I think pretty much all of story mode is left uncensored.

If you turn on the Johnny Cage voice announcer and select Rambo, sometimes he will say "John Fucking Rambo" completely uncensored.
It is things like story mode and the announcer voice that make me strongly think this was all related to esports. I mean if you are going to tourneys you aren't using the johnny voice. You are using the default voice... which means there is technically no need to censor that considering it would never be heard during tournaments.

Then some of them are censored while others aren't. It makes it very difficult to come to a consensus on anything. If some intros or round taunts are censored shouldn't they all be?

Also here is the same taunt from my OP this version is censored and has been added to the OP as well.

 

[Law Hero]

Man, the majority of those intro dialogues are terrible.

 

[Juxtapose]

My whole take on this and censorship:

Don't obsess too much over it. While I don't always agree with it, it's very, very rarely anything to get worked up over. You do that, and things devolve into a style of that other thread we had going on here.

We're living in a world where, for better or worse, political correctness is a major deal and companies will change things based on sensationalistic reaction. Life is cyclical and over time I expect that'll decline and become less reactionary.

For now, what you can do:

1. Don't obsess over it, just shake your head or agree with it and move on.
2. Enjoy the game. The gameplay itself is untouched and still lots of fun.
3. Delete your social media accounts and stop interacting with social media. This one is huge, because so much of the shenanigans in the world today is spread, caused, and reacted too by social media. I've said this before and I'll say it again: your life will improve dramatically when you give social media up and move on.

 

[BecomingDeath13]

I'm not affected by it personally. It's obnoxious but at the end of the day I end up skipping intros after the first few times anyway. I merely thought this a compelling discussion while we wait for the game.

 

[Law Hero]

It's kind of hard to express my feelings on this without coming off as overly puritanical, but I'm not a fan of vulgarity in Mortal Kombat in general. It could be because I grew up with MK, and as a result, kind of view it as a kid's game/series. Couple that with the very safe-for-all-audiences media like the movies and TV show that I used to watch, and MK has always seemed like a very PG-13 series to me (even though I know it's not).

So when I hear swearing in MKX/11 it just seems out of place to me, especially in a story about ninjas, wizards, and kung-fu masters. It reminds me of cringe reboots of kids' shows made for their now-adult audience that inject raunchy dialogue and an overabundance of swearing just so you know exactly how "for adults" it is. I just personally think MK works best with PG-13 dialogue, especially if it's cheesy or a little silly.

 

[Tony at Home]

They definitely only did it in situations where they thought the bleep was funnier

 

[drewrman]

They also censored Kold War Skarlet in patch 1.30 last December, removing all communist symbols from her attire and changing her name to "Kold Skarlet" as a reaction to the Russia-Ukraine war. I guess nobody told them that Russia isn't the Soviet Union any more...

 

[BecomingDeath13]

They also censored Kold War Skarlet in patch 1.30 last December, removing all communist symbols from her attire and changing her name to "Kold Skarlet" as a reaction to the Russia-Ukraine war. I guess nobody told them that Russia isn't the Soviet Union any more...

I wasn't aware of this one. I also didn't play a lot of her.

I just hope whatever is being done with mk1. They put safeguards in place because while it won't really affect me personally. I'm sure there's quite a few people that would have a shit fit over it.

 

[Mikemetroid]

It's uncensored with movie Johnny Cage

 

[Mikemetroid]

Only closeted nerds be thinking "changes" are censorship. Please get a grip. They change things all the time from pre-release.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

Only closeted nerds be thinking "changes" are censorship. Please get a grip. They change things all the time from pre-release.

This was post-release, though.

Anyways, my opinion is that they just censored the things they thought would be funnier with the blip, as Tony said previously

 

[Mikemetroid]

This was post-release, though.

Anyways, my opinion is that they just censored the things they thought would be funnier with the blip, as Tony said previously

Anyone have proof that, ON LAUNCH it was "uncensored"? OP is linking to PRE-RELEASE footage from Betas.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

Anyone have proof that, ON LAUNCH it was "uncensored"? OP is linking to PRE-RELEASE footage from Betas.

My bad. I just assumed.

 

[spidey300]

just one of the hype things that tricked me into getting mk11. thought nrs was about to go crazy when they added that round taunt to johnny. immediately disappointed they removed it

 

[Juxtapose]

At least on PC, that Johnny round taunt was there at launch as I remember seeing it. I don't play Johnny though, so I had no idea it was removed. Honestly doesn't bother me either.

 

[Cobainevermind87]

Anyone have proof that, ON LAUNCH it was "uncensored"? OP is linking to PRE-RELEASE footage from Betas.

It was definitely in there, I remember being suprised the first time I heard it. It was at least a month into the game

 

[Mikemetroid]

It was definitely in there, I remember being suprised the first time I heard it. It was at least a month into the game

bro check ya memory bank




also: release day, another example:

 

[Cobainevermind87]

bro check ya memory bank

View attachment 19162


also: release day, another example:

I don't have to check my memory bro, it was in there. I did play it on PC as well as PS4, it probably got taken out a little later on PC as per the usual

 

[Juxtapose]

... it probably got taken out a little later on PC as per the usual

That is very likely, since updates happened on PlayStation 4/Xbox One, then QLOC got that data and had to port it to PC (and Shiver for the Switch). Changes to the game usually took one week longer on PC/Switch, sometimes as long as 2 weeks.

 

[Mikemetroid]

I don't have to check my memory bro, it was in there. I did play it on PC as well as PS4, it probably got taken out a little later on PC as per the usual

That is very likely, since updates happened on PlayStation 4/Xbox One, then QLOC got that data and had to port it to PC (and Shiver for the Switch). Changes to the game usually took one week longer on PC/Switch, sometimes as long as 2 weeks.

 

[Marinjuana]

Call it what you want, adding cursing to your game(or removing Cold War references you had no issue making in the first place) and then removing because you want to make more money is weak shit. Having that sorry ass attitude twenty years ago might have led have led the series to remove its gore.