2111: On Censorship, Bikinis and The Cheapening of Real Issues Through Stupid Arguments

Controversy erupted once again recently in the gaming sphere when it seemingly became apparent that, despite saying they wouldn’t, Nintendo of America had made edits to one of the characters’ costumes in the upcoming RPG Xenoblade Chronicles X. (I’m still a little skeptical this has actually happened, but I’m going to work on the assumption that it has for now, since Nintendo has indeed done this before with games like Fire Emblem Awakening.)

The character in question is canonically “underage” (though remember that the age of consent in Japan is different to that in other parts of the world — legally, it’s 13, though in certain areas of the country a higher age is enforced at the discretion of the local government) and one of her outfits was a set of bikini-like armour. Impractical, but not particularly offensive, and indeed nothing unusual for a Japanese role-playing game, which often have swimsuit costumes available either as downloadable content or unlockable extras.

As those of you who follow this particular part of the gaming sector can probably surmise, this quickly escalated into the inevitable clashing between those who are against censorship in any form, preferring an authentic experience true to the creators’ original intentions, and those who believe that Japanese games are inherently “creepy”, whom we’ve had words about before.

The usual argument against vaguely (or indeed explicitly) sexualised outfits in video games is that it is, yes, “creepy” with a garnish of paedophilia. This is a natural escalation of the current trend for feminist “criticism” (and I use that term loosely) of video games and popular media by people like Anita Sarkeesian and her ilk. Said “criticism” already fails to take into account the fact that sex and art have been inextricably intertwined for many hundreds — probably even thousands — of years, but criticism such as that we’ve seen of, in this case, Xenoblade Chronicles X and, at other times, games like Criminal Girls, Omega Labyrinth, Dungeon Travelers 2, Hyperdimension Neptunia and any number of other Japanese-developed games you might care to mention, takes this to a whole new level by cheapening the unfortunately very real, horrendous issue of child abuse.

I am no expert on child abuse, though remember I did once work as a teacher and consequently had the “telltale signs” of abuse drummed into me; I also came into contact with a number of children who had had somewhat difficult home lives, to say the least. Thankfully, I don’t think I ever dealt with anyone who had been outright sexually abused, though there were certainly a few who had “seen some shit”, as it were. This was often reflected in their behaviour in the classroom which, unfortunately, made them somewhat difficult to deal with, and difficult children were, frankly, one of the main reasons I decided not to continue pursuing teaching as a career. I just wasn’t built to stand up to them, particularly when I knew — or at least had an idea — where their anger was coming from.

One thing I do know about child abuse and paedophilia, though, is that it is absolutely abhorrent. The very thought of a child suffering in such a way makes me feel sick to my stomach. And I know that most rational people that I count among my circles of acquaintances and friends would feel the same way too. Which is why it makes us so utterly livid that something as inherently harmless and stupid in the grand scheme of things as liking drawings or polygonal models of titties is equated with such a horrible, disgusting crime.

To put it another way: those who criticise anime-style art, Japanese video games such as Xenoblade Chronicles X — or indeed any form of fictional media that takes a non-literal approach to the representation of characters — are cheapening and devaluing the very real issue of paedophilia in modern society by applying that label to something that is, let’s be clear here, absolutely completely and utterly legal, not to mention completely and utterly harmless, given that there are no “real people” involved at all. Child abuse destroys lives, and often leaves both physical and mental scars that never heal. Dungeon Travelers 2 features bosses who occasionally show you their bum when you beat them. Xenoblade Chronicles X has a character who wears a bikini. That’s it. She’s not even doing anything sexual in it, she’s just wearing it. And yet that, it seems, is enough to bring out the editing scissors in the name of “catering to an audience”.

Guess what, though: the “audience” you should be catering to is the audience that wants to see the work in its original form. That audience are passionate and enthusiastic about being able to enjoy work from another culture in their own native language. That audience wants to feel like they are having the same experience as their Japanese cousins, not being “protected” against things that they don’t feel they need to be protected against. That audience will pay through the nose for the privilege of enjoying these delightful, surprising, wonderful games that, thanks to their laser-sharp focus on a very specific niche audience, feel like they’re tailor-made for each and every individual consumer.

The audience that you are catering to by hacking away at content, though, probably weren’t interested in these games in the first place. Do you really see Her Most Holy Ladyship Twatface Sarkeesian slogging through 100+ hours of Xenoblade Chronicles X? Do you see Jonathan Cuntrag McIntosh slapping down the readies for a copy of Fatal Frame? I certainly don’t, and so no consideration should be given to their opinion whatsoever, and no consideration whatsoever should be given to people who believe that drawings are equatable to fucking child abuse, either.

Don’t get me wrong, if the only choice I have to play and enjoy a game in a way that I understand is to purchase an edited version, I’ll do it, because I believe showing companies that there are people out there hungry for the localisation of these games is more important than anything a “boycott” might imply — if anything, a boycott is more likely to send the mistaken message that there aren’t people who want to buy these games. I’d import if my Japanese was good enough for me to have an enjoyable experience in the original language version, but it isn’t, so that’s not an option for me right now for anything other than games in which spoken or written text isn’t a major part of the experience. (Shoot ’em ups, in other words.) This doesn’t mean that I’m particularly happy with games having the editor’s scissors taken to them in the name of “cultural differences”, though; games are, like it or not, works of art, and to have to deal with an inferior version in my native language because someone, somewhere went “heavens to Betsy, think of the children!” isn’t really acceptable.

Grow up. Deal with the fact not everyone likes everything. And if a polygonal character in a bikini offends your sensibilities or makes you think of child abuse, perhaps you’re the one with the issues here.