Message Forum: Let's go for a joyride

Let's go for a joyride

Posted By: Matthew, on host 138.38.32.87
Date: Monday, June 10, 2002, at 05:58:22

Poking around your hard drive to find out just what has been installed is part of the fun of owning a PC. It's one of the few joys we have left, now that we no longer have to reconfigure IRQ settings just to get our games to beep at us. Anyway, I was fondling around my GTA3 installation and I noticed something very weird indeed. The game lets you play in any of five languages, and there are text files appropriate to each. Fair enough. So why is there a specific intro movie for the German translation, but no others?

Investigation revealed that that's because the Germans get to play "GTA3," while we get the full-blown expansion of the abbreviation. The intro movie had been reshot to reflect that fact. Also, the readme had been changed likewise. As far as the Germans are concerned, it seems, "Grand Theft Auto 3" doesn't exist.

I know that Germany has some pretty strict media censorship laws, and that it's lucky that it even got released over there at all, but why is this change necessary? German GTA3 isn't about rescuing kittens from trees and helping old ladies across the street. It's the same game once you get past the intro. Only in German, natch. One possibility is that the name change is for the shops; maybe seeing that title on shelves and in "top 10" lists isn't allowed in Germany. Even then, all someone has to do is turn the box over and read the blurb on the back. Or is the box itself censored? That would seem rather foolish, allowing people to buy a game that they might not know anything about. And that still doesn't really answer the question about the intro movie. If you're watching it, you're about to play the game. So presumably you wouldn't be too offended to see the full title.

Rinkworks has a fair number of German readers, so maybe they could shine a light on this matter. What *is* on the shelves under the GTA3 label? At what point does the censorship stop?

Oh, and on the subject of games, has anyone else noticed that the Medal of Honour PS2 advert features the quote, "One more soldier of fortune, sir, I've served my time in hell"? Saucer of milk there.

Matthew

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Message:	> Poking around your hard drive to find out just what has been installed is part of the fun of owning a PC. It's one of the few joys we have left, now that we no longer have to reconfigure IRQ settings just to get our games to beep at us. Anyway, I was fondling around my GTA3 installation and I noticed something very weird indeed. The game lets you play in any of five languages, and there are text files appropriate to each. Fair enough. So why is there a specific intro movie for the German translation, but no others? > > Investigation revealed that that's because the Germans get to play "GTA3," while we get the full-blown expansion of the abbreviation. The intro movie had been reshot to reflect that fact. Also, the readme had been changed likewise. As far as the Germans are concerned, it seems, "Grand Theft Auto 3" doesn't exist. > > I know that Germany has some pretty strict media censorship laws, and that it's lucky that it even got released over there at all, but why is this change necessary? German GTA3 isn't about rescuing kittens from trees and helping old ladies across the street. It's the same game once you get past the intro. Only in German, natch. One possibility is that the name change is for the shops; maybe seeing that title on shelves and in "top 10" lists isn't allowed in Germany. Even then, all someone has to do is turn the box over and read the blurb on the back. Or is the box itself censored? That would seem rather foolish, allowing people to buy a game that they might not know anything about. And that still doesn't really answer the question about the intro movie. If you're watching it, you're about to play the game. So presumably you wouldn't be too offended to see the full title. > > Rinkworks has a fair number of German readers, so maybe they could shine a light on this matter. What is on the shelves under the GTA3 label? At what point does the censorship stop? > > Oh, and on the subject of games, has anyone else noticed that the Medal of Honour PS2 advert features the quote, "One more soldier of fortune, sir, I've served my time in hell"? Saucer of milk there. > > Matthew
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