Their is a certain subset, rather large in many areas of the US, for whom showing a child ahem anatomically correct depictions would take exception to. Keep in mind there is a non trivial portion in the more conservative states who object to middle school aged children having sex ed classes to the point they will either withhold those children from those classes, or petition to have those classes removed. Even where I live it was an option, though not one taken by almost any parents.
So the protection element is irrelevant, it has everything to do with not wanting their kids exposed to any sexual* content. So having unmodified statues etc. would effectively prohibit this from being used in almost all grade schools, and many jr high schools, across the US. Because, whether you agree, disagree, or are a dick about it** it is mostly about not wanting to expose boys to girl bits, and visa versa.
Hell, until recently, breastfeeding in public was implicitly looked down upon. I know my wife got a few looks, and I returned them with a few choice words. Which in some places in recent memory a store or restaurant might have kicked you out if someone objected!
People can be pricks about dicks ;)
*or perceived sexual
**definitely not directed at you! I liked the wordplay.
I’m hopelessly corrupted because I live on an island city with a large urban beach which is often rammed with people, and a large number of the women walk and swim and sunbathe entirely topless.
It can be nice, but it can be…not so nice! All depending on your preference in boob size and shape etc.
So for me, as much as I like them, I just don’t see the big deal.
I’m not arrogant enough to judge the subset of people you mentioned although it is mightily tempting.
I also spent time in the military and have been exposed to far more than my fair share of penis views (I suspect the same is true if you’ve played any sort of sport at university) so again, not remotely fussed about a statue.
Look, BBB, I can see that we’re not getting through to you and I’m going to take a shot in the dark that you aren’t a citizen of the good ol’ U.S. of A. Which, I mean, bummer for you and all that, but you’ll never understand the crippling fear we live with at all times. Can you appreciate the terror of being American and just going into a locker room? Of knowing that you are constantly surrounded by people who may now or soon will be naked? Of flipping carelessly through a Sears catalog and catching a glimpse of the brassiere section? Of walking in on your wife as she steps out of the shower? No, I think you never will, and you’re the luckier for it. I for one praise and thank our friends at Ubisoft for taking this existential terror out of my daily existence. Now if only they’d reply to my suggestion about putting more guns in AC: Origins we’d be in business.
They should have gone one step further and gone the modern day Muslim fundamentalist routte and chiseled off the naughty bits, maybe machine gun off their faces. After all, we want to align ourselves with the gasping and angry religious folk, don’t we? Appease the lowest common denominator, art be damned!
I think it was pretty common to erase the carvings of previous eras in Egypt and other places. You can still see the results if you visit some older sites. I wouldn’t be surprised if Origins has that already somewhere.
Oh, yeah, while immersed in this game several weeks ago I was reading that a lot of old tombs and monuments would be defaced by successive generations of rulers by chiselling out the original ruler’s name and replacing it with their own. Rameses II had the brilliant idea to start making reverse bas relief carvings so they were much harder to deface. It’s amazing that culture and achievement was appropriated like that even thousands of years ago.
The great pyramid of Cheops/Giza is over 4200 years old! Imagine what it will look like another 2000 years from now in the year 4000.
I had loads of books as a kid on ancient history, especially Egypt, Rome, and Greece. I didnt learn about how integral onanism was to Egyptian religious and royal ceremony until a lot later. I’m not going to be too outraged if this game didn’t have too much Pharaonic wanking and semen rituals, I presume it doesn’t?
This theme park also changes gender ratios etc, its a bit of educational fun, not a historical resource.
I mean it’s not too huge of a deal, just looks like Puritanical nonsense. And yes, there was a Simpsons about covering David’s genitals with a leaf. It was an episode where Marge is trying to censor Itchy and Scratchy, I believe, and Marge saw the irony in her position. Unlike perhaps Ubisoft.
It’s a simple mesh replacement, not too much effort, literally a replacement mesh for dingdong and boob statues. They only have to change the reference. They could change it back in a heartbeat.
I don’t know the specific reason, but Ubisoft did give this statement when asked about the nudity censoring:
Discovery Tour was created to offer the maximum amount of people from various ages and cultural backgrounds the ability to visit the long lost world of Ancient Egypt and learn about its history. We worked hand in hand with educators and academic institutions to tailor the content to be suited for every audience, including younger students, taking into account cultural sensitivities that can be different from one country to another.
I suspect the real reason why there isn’t an EU booby version is because Ubisoft just made the one build and didn’t want to deal with different regional options.
Well they may be talking about the UK or Italy in that case. Because for sure they need to have a separate build for PEGI regardless, flipping the line of “shells on/ shells off” seems rather trivial. Unless by some level of oddness they went and actually re did all those models in the game. Which would be a strange choice.
I mention it because I have worked with the ESRB before on such matters, I find it very difficult to believe they would say ancient statues needed to be changed to get an E rating. It seems much more likely to me this is an Ubisoft decision and I feel there is a rush to judgement about the USA here. Oh USA! USA! Etc. I am not American.
Clearly it’s because Ubisoft are Americans here today. Don’t tell me any crap about Ubisoft being located in France - don’t matter a bit. They’re American. If you’ve ever pulled a book off the shelf and said to yourself, screw it, I’ll watch the movie, you’re American. If you’ve ever sat down to a healthy dinner and thought, I’d kill for a cheeseburger, you’re American. If you’ve ever found yourself fantasizing in traffic about bashing your way through the lanes, leaving slowpoke granny a smoking mess, you’re American. And if you’ve ever looked at the size of David’s … hands and felt inadequate, you’re American. Ubisoft is doing American work here, and I love them for it.
It’s interesting that the most noteworthy thing about medieval Bohemia is its save system and the most noteworthy thing about ancient Egypt is some seashells.
Is there really any country where 13-year old boys are so mature that they wouldn’t spend all their time trying to grab statue titty? That’s what teachers would be thinking of when deciding whether or not to buy this.
