The USA’s top game censorship body, the ESRB, has been condemned for publishing a heavily jaundiced rating of PSP micro-bikini simulator Dead or Alive Paradise, accusing the game of being “cheesy,” having “creepy voyeurism” and containing “bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want” by portraying them cavorting in bikinis on the beach.
Some more lewd bikinis to give an idea of what Dead or Alive Paradise is all about:
The Entertainment Software Rating Board’s evaluation roundly condemned the game in terms sure to sell more than a few extra copies:
This is a video game in which users watch grown women dressed in G-string bikinis jiggle their breasts while on a two-week vacation. Women’s breasts and butts will sway while playing volleyball, while hopping across cushions, while pole dancing, while posing on the ground, by the pool, on the beach, in front of the camera.
There are other activities: Users can gamble inside a casino to win credits for shopping; they can purchase bathing suits, sunglasses, hats, clothing at an island shop; they can “gift” these items to eight other women in hopes of winning their friendship, in hopes of playing more volleyball.
And as relationships blossom from the gift-giving and volleyball, users may get closer to the women, having earned their trust and confidence: users will then be prompted to zoom-in on their friends’ nearly-naked bodies, snap dozens of photos, and view them in the hotel later that night.
Parents and consumers should know that the game contains a fair amount of “cheesy,” and at times, creepy voyeurism—especially when users have complete rotate-pan-zoom control; but the game also contains bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want (if given two weeks, paid vacation, island resort)—Paradise cannot mean straddling felled tree trunks in dental-floss thongs.
Readers of such a description could be forgiven for thinking it was written by an outraged feminist…
After some questioned the “objectivity” of this evaluation, the ESRB quickly folded and replaced their description with a less puritanical one, merely saying “we mistakenly posted a rating summary that included what some could rightfully take to be subjective statements.”
The ESRB’s ratings do not carry legal force, but they can nonetheless issue de factor bans on games by issuing ratings “family-friendly” retailers will refuse to stock, ensuring developers must frequently cut content in order to appease them and secure a marketable rating. Unrated games are denied licensing on consoles or access to major retailers.
Incidentally, this is all the body chose to say about the incendiary but unproblematic scene in Modern Warfare 2 in which the player is given the chance to massacre dozens of innocents whilst playing as a terrorist attacking an airport:
The most intense depiction of violence occurs during a “No Russian” mission where players take on the role of an undercover Ranger: Several civilians are gunned down at an airport as players are given a choice to participate in the killings.
At least none of them were wearing skimpy bikinis.
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Looking forward to this one, gonna have to get a copy as soon as possible.
As for the ratings... damn it... Equality Now is going across the ocean to plague us on this side of the globe... WILL IT NEVER END?!
Imagine the fit they would have if there was a game where you gunned down bikini clad civilians playing volleyball in an airport.
I would buy that game
Just goes to show how our country would benefit from a genocide of feminists and conservatives.
Just your country? I beg to differ... The whole damn world would greatly benefit from such an inhumane slaughter... which is actually an oxymoron...
Oh, the paradoxes!
i see politicians getting gayer by the moment. the world is doomed anyway. :)
Do we have to stop there? I can think of all kinds of interest groups that need doing away with.
want pc version of this game plz
So what's the big fuss?Just give the damned game an Adult's Only rating so we can all go on and fap in peace!!!
america loves violence and hates sex -_-. no wonder so many rapes happen here
just BAN the game all together from the US, they don't fucken deserve it! and as with every other country who can't respect freedom and choices of individuals! BAN IT, be it anime, manga, games and whatever, go and be a CHINA!
Nooo dont ban it, I want to buy it and play it!
They need to develop "Cabela's Feminist Nazi Hunt"
They need DOA Paradise with battle scenes in the mud^^
just thinking about it, that would kick so much ass. hell yes.
Just make them naked. You are going to receive the same rating anyway.
And uncensored for the USA plz.
ESRB won't care if you slaughter scandily clad women in cold blood... If you oogle at them, THEN there's a problem...
Ah, They rate violence as mature as well, pretty much the second there is any blood in it.
This is why we can't have nice things. The ERSB would make us play games with telatubby like creatures if they could ( shudders at the thought ) But the screen shots look great.
HURRAH...............VOLLEYBALL!
SAy OHHH-AHH!!!!!! YEah
when I say D.O. you say A!
D.O.
A!
D.O.
A!
when I say PARA you say DISE!
PARA!
DISE!
PARA!
DISE!
When I say Shut The you say Fuck Up!
Shut The
Fuck Up!
Shut The
Fuck Up!
Damn you and your lame comment. You got me joining in your lame shenaniganns.
fucking nerd
This article is so biased. Not only was this rating published last week, but it was also AMENDED within hours of it's posting. So not only is this info weeks behind, but it's also after it's been corrected thus making this entire thing pointless. The only reason to even post a mistake THAT'S ALREADY BEEN CORRECTED it to piss people off and start flame wars.
This is especially evident by your comparison to the No Russian mission which has absolutely nothing to do with this at all. Honestly, get a fucking clue before you post next time instead of just throwing up invalid shit to generate clicks because it has tits and gives you an excuse to shit talk someone like the ESRB - which is one of the best organizations to ever happen to videogames (without them, we wouldn't even fucking have violence and sex in videogames. Though I don't suppose all the tweens reading this remember when Mortal Kombat came out and the government tried to ban everything violent). Here's a link to the current summary of DOAP which is nothing like the one in question:
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=28660&searchkeyword=doa%20paradise [http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=28660&searchkeyword=doa paradise]
My thoughts exactly, you win the internetz
Seriously, talking about the ESRB as if it were some kind of pro-censorship organization is just idiotic.
Anyways, looking forward to this game : P
Because a "mistake" once corrected never happened?
I would buy this game out of spite.
yea... spite... >_>
Like there's anything inaccurate about the description? This game is retarded and is too pussy to go full on Sexy Beach.
You guys can enjoy it all you want, but theres no sense being pedantic and pretending like the game isn't cheesy as all fuck.
DAMN YOU TIPPER GORE!
"Paradise cannot mean straddling felled tree trunks in dental-floss thongs."
I can't even....
That's exactly what it means...C'MON.
Sigh, esrb can get fucked.
to be fair, they pulled the first review...
anyone know what the CURRENT review of the game says?
hopefully it's as clinical as the No Russian review.
current review:
This is a collection of mini-games, based on the Dead or Alive game series, in which players assume the role of a bikini-clad female character on vacation on a tropical island. Players engage in daily activities that can include hopping across floating pads on a pool and beach volleyball. Players earn credits after each activity that can be used to purchase new outfits, accessories, and gifts to give other female characters on the island. Players can earn additional credits at the island casino as they wager credit in slot machines and in games of poker and black jack. Some purchasable outfits include string bikinis, one-piece thongs, and sling bikinis. Sling bikinis and thongs often provide very little coverage of breast and bare buttocks. Throughout the game players can view characters engaging in variety of activities—pole dancing, stretching, gyrating to music, and climbing trees. Characters are frequently displayed in compromising position (e.g., buttocks up in the air, legs splayed open, straddling tree trunks, etc.) during these activities. These scenes can often feel voyeuristic as players control the camera to rotate, pan, and zoom in on various body parts as they photograph the characters in different poses.
Ah, whats the point? As long as we will never see their nipples the ESRB can ban or unban it if they want.
That's because they are clearly targeting the wrong platform.
*cough* hot coffee* cough*
Only in America are brains and guts splattered on the walls considered more wholesome than a naked nipple.
Its not like there haven't been games that show nipples on women. God of War has had topless women and so will Dante's Inferno, in the demo they had frequent shots of a topless Beatrice. So saying the factor of showing nipples will result in a ban isn't necessarily true. I think it is more the presentation in this situation :/
Thanks to this game the PSP is the Portable Sex Player.
aka the Playstation Pornable according to Fox News.
It has been my pornable sex player for quite some time, yes...
Fuck Fox, who needs them.
Meth addicted southerners.
I wonder if its a Ero game?
You know, as much as I love myself a good pair of tits, these tits are just too much tit for me to like.
More natural sized tits would be tits.
Q: What am I presently thinking about?
I dont see how it looks like a feminist wrote this just because it's a bad review. Plenty of men downrate stuff just because its too different to what they classify as a 'game' (ie, shooting things)
But before everyone complains about the article, even if it says it negatively, it plainly says exactly what the game is: “cheesy,” having “creepy voyeurism” and containing “bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want”
Whether you think those things are good or bad, isnt that exactly why the fans want the game in the first place?
Plenty of men are also objective. So are women, but the probability of such depends on whether or not she "is" a woman and/or a feminist.
So it is perfectly natural to think, at first, it was written by a feminist.
Besides, it's DOA Paradise. I can already think of a few guys personally who'd buy it.
The use of language is extremly misleading.
The ESRB haven't censored anything, in fact the ESRB can't censor anything directly at all. The closest they can come is rating a game 'AO' which piratically limits it's sales to online purchases. Except in this case it's not rated 'AO,' It's rated M just like all the DoA games.
Jesus, Sankaku, get your facts straight.
Artefact probably thought he was in Australia for a moment there. Anyways, the only games that don't get sold at your "family-friendly" stores are straight up porn games. They do sell those at Fry's, though (small chain of electronics stores in the Western United States, for those who haven't heard of them)
There have been multiple games in the past for which developers had to cut content released in other regions so as to appease the ESRB enough to get it a less-than-AO rating. As Artefact said, they don't directly censor games, but since the vast majority of retailers will not sell AO-rated games, they effectively do.
Did you bother reading the article?
"The ESRB’s ratings do not carry legal force ... Unrated games are denied licensing on consoles or access to major retailers."
The ESRB is a de facto censorship body. The industry may have set it up to avoid congress doing it for them, but it is still censoring games.
Wait, so something that has no legal force is a censorship body?
The ESRB cannot force a content change, no matter what rating, nor can they refuse to rate something. The only way a game is unrated is if it's never submitted. An AO is often a death sentence, but only because most brick and mortar stores will not carry them, ditto for X rated films.
The ESRB exists so that game developers can cover their ass, shifting the blame to retailers or parents, same as with the MSRB.
My thoughts exactly. Article was obviously written by someone with no idea about what the ESRB is or how they function.
They are a ratings board, nothing more. They cannot and do not have the authority or ability to censor.