It’s no secret that my video game consoles have largely sat inactive, save for this little gem right here…
That’s a Raspberry Pi 3 motherboard inside an enclosure. All I have to do is USB to Micro-USB it to the box for power, HDMI it to the same TV for video, pop a USB controller into it and it’s back to the days of 8-Bit and 16-Bit Valholl for me. It’s not online, no one controls it but me. For multiplayer, I have a second controller. I pop that in there and you and I are playing Co-Op in games like T2: The Arcade Game or head-to-head in the old-school Mortal Kombat games.
I also have a PSP that still works, A “new” Nintendo 3DS I bought on launch day, a GameBoy Advance SP, another Pokémon Black Edition DS, a PS4, some device I bought to $2 at my last job and this computer.
In fact, I just recently cancelled my subscription to PlayStation Plus. Not because I’m a good guy or some moral virtue signal but because, I simply do not support censorship.
Listen, at one point in time, Sega reigned supreme in my neighborhood because we could activate the Blood Code (C,A,B,A,C,A,B,B) in Mortal Kombat. Super Nintendo didn’t have that kind of cheat that I was aware of at the time. If you owned one and you know what the cheat was, drop it in the comments below. In fact, the PC version of MK had far more blood and body parts than the Sega Version.
We played that as kids. Tearing off heads, immolating our opponents, knocking them into a pit of spikes, all that was awesome to us.
Today, we’re being told that Wildshaping into an animal for a sex scene in Baldur’s Gate 3 is acceptable but a scantily clad female warrior is not in Stellar Blade.
Stellar Blade was touted as the game that would have no censorship. None. We, the people who grew up seeing artwork like this…
This is a piece from Larry Elmore, he’s famous for his artwork for AD&D Second Edition. Back then, this showed that women could be both beautiful and badass at the same time. There were characters like Lady Death, Purgatori and Vampirella, all scantily-clad and voluptuous female characters who were both beautiful and badass.
“Oh but that’s objectifying to women!” they cry, “and it’s not realistic!”
I ask where they stand on this piece by Jeff Easley…
I don’t remember there being any gyms or steroids back in those days. How could someone come out looking like a bodybuilder in those times and where is his armor? He’s going to be taken out by the first sharp object or something fired at him as a missile if he doesn’t wear protection. Furthermore, you’re going to tell me that, not only can a man get that big and shredded without the use of pharmaceuticals but he can splinter a heavy, wooden door bound in iron? Could he also break that iron? I don’t see your objections to this at all.
Going back to Stellar Blade, Sony has decided that the Day One Patch will add more cover to some of her more “revealing” outfits. There are dozens of outfits in there but we know what’s going on. When Hyung-Tae Kim tells us that what’s released in the Day One Patch was always going to be the final result, many, myself included aren’t convinced. Sony has also made similar patches to Devil May Cry and other games. On some, reversals were made but not on all of them. The point being, Sony continues to keep trying to bow to the whims of these idiotic, puritanical, bloviating cancel mobs as though that works.
Mark Kern aka Grummz even is running a petition on Change Dot Org called Free Stellar Blade that currently sits at, as of the time of this article, 35,994 signatures with a new goal of 50k. I haven’t purchased the game, I haven’t purchased any new video games in the last two years with little to no intention of buying any, mostly for financial reasons, but I did sign that petition and I encourage all of you to do the same. It’s time to show this cult that they’re outnumbered and that their opinions don’t matter because it’s really only about two things; Dollars and Cents. If their opinions do not amount to those, they need to pound sand, plain and simple.
Remember that article I wrote about Warhammer 40K recently? Well, if you need a refresher, go back, skim that sucker and come back when ready. If you remember it, great.
So do we really want female Adeptus Custodes? Of course, not. We have The Sisters of Silence for that. That being said, I’m going to be super-reasonable here. I am willing to accept female Custodians and even female Space Marines but there is going to be a catch.
Every one of them has to be ultra sexy. I’m talking scantily-clad in armor that will function exactly the same as their male counterparts wear. They all must be absolutely gorgeous and I’m talking from hips to lips, chests and fingertips. Why do I bring that up? Why would I suddenly say something like that?
Because, while calling us “porn addicts” these people have wrapped their entire identities into their sexualities, now all games and media must follow suit. Ironic? Yep. Hypocritical? Oh absolutely but hey at least I’m not hiding what I like. This is someone who wants female imposition on factions that are completely male but have female divisions…and they want to censor a female character because, just my opinion here, these people are ugly on the inside, it’s reflected on the outside and they act like children while trying to claim dominion over the realm of the mature both in mind and in body. People like Shae here ignore the facts that players were promised no censorship, paid money that they earned and got censorship.
I’ve closed my wallet to Sony. Until they reverse course, I won’t be joining any more lobbies of GTA Online, won’t be taking anyone on head-to-head in Wipeout: The Omega Collection and I won’t be able to access my current library of freebies from the PS Plus Network. I still have other games on disc that I can play. I can fire up my little box or even the miniature Sega Genesis I bought that can take cartridges and play that, no problem. Still have my handhelds. I just don’t do mobile games or I can still play Second Life. I can pull any book or books out of my library and play a game solo or with friends. Remember what I said about Human Connections as well. That still applies. Nothing builds them like having fun. I also recently took advantage of Free League’s Alien RPG Sale that’s over now (Thanks to Servant of Shiloh for the recommendation!!) and bought Destroyer of Worlds and Heart of Darkness, respectively. I’ll have months, if not years of gameplay and I won’t need power or an internet connection to do it. I also have games like Cairn, Castles & Crusades, Shadowdark, Old-School Essentials, Lamentations of The Flame Princess, Savage Worlds, Wasted Lands, Night Shift, Cyberrats and even games I’ve personally worked on such as Cowpunchers: Reloaded and Wretched Darkness which you should also try. In those games, you make your character look and act however you want. Once that book is in your hands, it’s out of mine what you do with it. Also, still currently working on Wretched Is The New Black, a game that, upon release, will follow the exact same philosophy. You’ll tell whatever stories you like with that game at your table. It will feature no censorship, whatsoever. The morality and maturity levels will be completely under your control at the table.
I recommend anyone with a PS Plus account, cancel it. Instead, take that money and fund better creators, consoles or even your own gaming PC and as always, own physical editions or be able to own the files. Until these companies start going broke at a rapid pace, nothing will change.
Sony has been big on the censorshit for while now and it's my opinion that this didn't start until they moved their Playstation HQ to Commiepornia.
I am disappointed in Shift Up for the bait and switch that they pulled. Whether or not it was the whim of Soyny is irrelevant to me, the fact that one thing was promised only for them to deliver the opposite makes me glad I didn't pre-order the game. It's a shame because the demo was great and I enjoyed it. That being said I cannot abide this betrayal of my trust, Shift Up had one chance to make a good first impression and blew it. Even if they do decide to course correct, they've already poisoned the well for me and while I will not walk back what I said previously about the game, I refuse to support it.
I have long been over being told what I am allowed to enjoy, whether it be by the games urinalists who clearly have a bias toward western games over eastern made games. The posers in the hobby who are praising this censorship as no big deal, while lacking the self-awareness to think, if it truly was "no big deal" then what was the need for change? Or the old guard of industry veterans that allow their work, past and present to be compromised by whatever the flavor of the week sociopolitical issue is being talked about. It's all so tiring...
Well said!