Question:
South Korea's board of game censors has warned U.S and European game makers against demonizing North Korea in games. Titles that portray North Korea as an aggressive, belligerent military dictatorship will be banned.
The Korea Media Rating Board has already banned Ghost Recon 2, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Ubisoft) and Mercenaries: Playgrounds of Destruction (LucasArts) on the basis of their portrayal of North Korea as global bad guy, threatening stability in the region via thinly veiled military threats.
According to an article in today's New York Times, the Korean authorities are responding to a public mood of reconciliation with its Northern neighbor.
Lee Chan Gyeong, of the KMRB said, Korea continues to have society members who experienced the Korean War, families that are separated. If you export cultural products such as movies, you have to understand the culture of that country.
He added, Games like Ghost Recon 2 assume that North Korea has nuclear weapons at a time when we are unable to verify their possession of nuclear weapons. If we were to allow distribution, the users might perceive an unreal opinion, one that is unfavorable in an international setting.
The NY Times article quoted some members of the public. Im Boo Gil, a student, said, In South Korea, such games won't be popular these days - North Korea is no longer our main enemy.
Hannah Kim, 25, added, People want to make peace on the Korean peninsula, so North Korea is not seen as an enemy for the South Korean people. North Korea is our adversary. In another way, it is our partner for the future. Americans are trying to find an imaginary enemy. Before it was the Soviet Union.
In contrast to prosperous and democratic South Korea, North Korea is one of the poorest countries in Asia, ruled by a military dictatorship. Even so, the country is unhappy with the way it's being portrayed. A newspaper editor wrote, Ghost Recon may be just a game to them [Americans] now, but it will not be a game for them later. In war, they will only face miserable defeat and gruesome deaths.
Answer:
I have a feeling it'll fall on deaf areas...America has a pretty big habit of demonizing this and that nation in video games, but when talking about trying to sway public opinion by means of media I don't think North or South Korea are completely innocent either. But come on it's the gaming industry, I really doubt the majority of people take it seriously. The minority that do probably aren't going to go to Korea armed in kevlar with colts anyways
If North and South are so close now why don't they sign a peace treaty? Aren't they technically still at war?
Answer:
hahha forget the gaming industry.. look at Hollywood! In the 80s through mid 90s, they always used to pick on Muslims (think Delta Force :shudders:) and Russians as the mindless evil people terrorizing the world. But now that they can't really pick on those two no more, they've begun demonizing North Korea. And it trickled down to the gaming industry.
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Censoring is bad.
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hahha forget the gaming industry.. look at Hollywood! In the 80s through mid 90s, they always used to pick on Muslims (think Delta Force :shudders:) and Russians as the mindless evil people terrorizing the world. But now
Ivan Drago says: Who you callin mindless evil?
(IMG:http://www.wwltv.com/sports/stories/L_IMAGE.1047004b7dd.93.88.fa.7c.ababde4b.jpg)
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psh, bootleg copies are already being played by countless koreans as we speak!
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hmm, It's just a game..
It makes me wonder how many titles from overseas that depict Americans as bad guys don't make it over here (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)
