Bad news for all of us

Read and weep people, I know I am:

http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/05/28/...nned-in-japan/

Now I know a good deal of you are thinking, "so what, I don't play those kinds of eroge", which is fine as everyone's entitled to their opinion, but this is far from a difference of opinion but rather a government telling people what they can and can't look at.

[NTX]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

...but this is far from a difference of opinion but rather a government telling people what they can and can't look at.

Not exactly, it says they're banning sales and production, which means no new material. It doesn't say anything about continued usage of existant material you already have. There's nothing new about governments regulating what can and cannot be sold.

And of course I think this is a complete joke. Can we get some statistically relevant proof that these games do anything to increase the number of rapes that occur against real women?

[Moogy]

Yes, the government is definitely involved in this.

The PC software independent review committee is definitely the government.

By the way, said self-regulating committee also bans loli in games. Yet there are still loli characters... hmm.

This will just be ignored or loopholed like the loli rule, whatever.

[Asceai]

I made this exact same post on otakuism in response to the exact same thing, but what the hell, nothing wrong with cross-posting

Phbbbbbbbbbbbbt.

The sofurin, with their old fashioned bible-thumping subjective morals can SINK for all I care, and everyone else can sell on dlsite =P

[Apples]

Wow. Has anyone read the comments on the post the OP linked? People's reactions to this are friggin' crazy. You'd think that not being able to read rape eroge was like pulling the plug on their life support system or something.
Not saying I entirely agree with the ban, but calm down. People are calling this "Orwellian"? Seriously? It'll be quietly swept aside like the loli rules, and rape-focused doujinshi will flourish.

...old fashioned bible-thumping subjective morals...

Actually I think Equality Now spearheaded this misguided endeavour, and they and the bible do not get along.

[zalas]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

but rather a government telling people what they can and can't look at.

As far as I know, EOCS (sofurin) is simply an independent rating board. If you want their stamp of approval, you send them the game and they'll look through it to make sure it doesn't conflict against any of the rules they set. All member companies are required to get their games (and other related media) validated. The EOCS has no legal enforcement power on their own; they simply advise distributors to not carry games that have not passed their test and are used in around half the prefectures to determine what are "harmful" media. The way I think of it is that it's like the ESRB, where it's not required to get a stamp of approval from them, but good luck trying to sell anything without their approval.

[Asceai]

Originally Posted by zalas

The way I think of it is that it's like the ESRB, where it's not required to get a stamp of approval from them, but good luck trying to sell anything without their approval.

Non-sofurin companies like nitroplus seem to do alright. They've got the CSA, though, which is something like:
- No sex scenes with characters explicitly given to be <18 (so Kodomo H's games wouldn't exactly qualify here)
- However, characters can be named 高校生 or 学生 etc. whereas with the EOCS 高校生 is a no-go.
- No other restrictions

[Varion]

http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/05/28/...nd-i-hate-tbs/

Oh lol.

Not as bad as it sounds to me, they clearly state "rape game will be banned" right? So does it have nothing with non-rape h-game? But does sex scene count as rape? if so, it's retarded

[Enerccio]

Srsly, nothing should be banned. Especially since it's fucking not real and drawn.

[Apples]

Originally Posted by Varion

http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/05/28/...nd-i-hate-tbs/

Delicious! Now people who have read the first article and not this one will make fools of themselves all over the place! (Wishing I hadn't responded so quickly)

[Asceai]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not as bad as it sounds to me, they clearly state "rape game will be banned" right? So does it have nothing with non-rape h-game? But does sex scene count as rape? if so, it's retarded

A lot of very good eroges contain rape. Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO does, Baldr Force does, Baldr Sky does, Ayakashibito does, Ikusa Megami ZERO does, SWAN SONG does.. I could go on and on.

Originally Posted by Asceai

A lot of very good eroges contain rape. Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO does, Baldr Force does, Baldr Sky does, Ayakashibito does, Ikusa Megami ZERO does, SWAN SONG does.. I could go on and on.

But surely, the games u mentioned didnot focus strongly about rape? While, as far as I'm concerned rape game is well nothing but rape. I myself dont like this kind of game.

[Asceai]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

But surely, the games u mentioned didnot focus strongly about rape? While, as far as I'm concerned rape game is well nothing but rape. I myself dont like this kind of game.

My concern is more that any possible restrictions would need to be carefully worded so as not to exclude titles like this.

And I can name another one for you - Black Cyc's EXTRAVAGANZA is mostly rape. Nearly every H scene in the game is rape. It's also a very good eroge.

[zalas]

http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/06/02/...ill-be-banned/
I guess people will have to wait until later to get an exact definition of what game creators from the EOCS can and cannot put in their games. I'm wondering whether the "false" TBS report had anything to do with it. Was TBS trying to read the general atmosphere and come to what they think would be the obvious conclusion, or did their reporting, by some bizarre chance, influence the atmosphere at the meeting? From the description of the meeting, it looked very much like everyone wanted to reach a consensus and even people who would be vehemently opposed didn't want to directly speak out. Lastly, are there any eroge companies that *only* do rape games, as opposed to having specific rape game brands?

Oh, Kazue Yamamoto (formerly of Studio e.go!, now with Debonosu Productions) had this to say on her blog:

The meeting of [the eroge] software companies is over. There were many things talked about relating to regulations, but it doesn't seem that Debonosu in particular will be affected. Time to start my last spurt [on the current game project]! *sigh*

It's interesting to see that she doesn't see that the new regulations will affect Debonosu, because her current game, Kagura Douchuuki, like previous games in her Kagura series, will have rape scenes if one of your characters falls in battle.