游戏的文化和法律问题编辑本段回目录
将游戏推向新市场会面临许多重要文化和法律问题，在某些情况下，这些问题将阻碍游戏的发行工作。瞄准成熟玩家的游戏通常需要进行某些调整，以顺应其他地区的审核制度。有时调整是为了得到较低的游戏评级，但主要原因通常是避免遭到限制。即便游戏通过审核，顺利发行，但公众/媒体意见可能对你不利，多数零售商都会关注大众市场的看法。
暴力、血腥和残暴内容
bloody from jama.ama-assn.org
无目的、直接针对无辜旁观者、非常血腥和残酷的暴力内容无法令游戏受审核者青睐。若你的游戏融入大量暴力元素，那么不要自找麻烦，而是好好追踪所有血腥素材、模型、死亡动画循环、暴力音效和屠杀环境，这样你能够在必要时轻松做出调整。追踪暴力和血腥元素能够促使开发者制作两个游戏版本（游戏邦注：青少年版和成人版）。
投放德国市场的作品通常需要做出广泛调整，但其实澳大利亚、新西兰和韩国在审查暴力游戏时也非常谨慎，就连美国也开始处罚某些向未成年销售游戏的行为。
犯罪
在这一点让的不慎，可能会让你遭遇在法庭给游戏控诉做辩护，花时间调整游戏的情况。犯罪是违法行为，是危险职业，若游戏融入大量犯罪元素，势必会蒙受间接伤害。
毒品
尽管毒品内容倍受欢迎，但审核者排挤所有公然融入毒品元素的作品。若游戏融入当地非法毒品，那么这些毒品多半在其他地区也属于非法物品，但有些地区也许会更严肃看待关于毒品的描述。
历史、民族和宗教
基于历史的战争游戏在某些地区更受欢迎，但其他地区的审核者反对涉及种族主义的内容。即便在你看来无伤大雅的内容也可能造成负面公众舆论，促使你做出相应调整（游戏邦：就如微软一些产品所遇到的问题）。
政治
若游戏是虚幻故事，但基于真实国家，需注意不要让游戏对此国的描述激怒当地舆论。最近索尼就已因此将孟加拉国从旗下某游戏中移除。
设计师需注意的事项
设计成人游戏时，你总是希望向用户呈现预期的内容，但记住未购买游戏的用户也会给游戏销量带来很大影响。设计师最好能够预见所需做出的改变，而非意外发现游戏深陷媒体风暴，毫无退出策略。
时刻准备做出如下调整：
—调整血腥颜色
—缓和血液溅洒画面
—调整血腥素材
—令尸体场景消失
—旁观者不能遭射击或杀害
—缓和死亡动画和音效
—清理屠杀场面
—就传播消极公众舆论的故事做出调整
—出于政治原因进行调整
设计师应具有国际化视野，查看某些或将影响游戏的技术问题。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）
Blood & Gore – Cultural and legal issues for designers
There are many cultural and legal issues that can have a major impact on the process of adapting a game for a new territory, in some cases these issues can even prevent a game from being released. Games developed for a mature gamer often need to undergo changes necessitated by censorship regulations in other territories. Sometimes the changes are based on a marketing decision to get a lower rating, but the primary reason to change is the prospect that your game could be banned. Even if your game passes the censors and gets released, public/media opinion could still go against you and large retailers pay close attention to what the public is thinking.
Violence, Blood and Gore
Violence that does not have a purpose, that is directed against innocent bystanders and violence that is particularly bloody and gory will not endear your game to the censors. If you do have a lot of violence in your game then don’t shoot yourself in the foot, just keep track of all gory textures, models, death animation cycles, violent sounds and carnage environments so you can easily make changes if necessary. Astute tracking of violent and gory assets could even let you create two SKUs, a teen version and a mature version.
Germany is often cited as the country that requires most change, but Australia, New Zealand and South Korea will also closely scrutinize violent games, even the US is even getting in on the act with fines for game sales to minors in some states.
Crime
Sometimes crime doesn’t pay as easily as you would think, and you find yourself in the courts defending your game against lawsuits and doing time making changes to your game. Crime is illegal and is a dangerous occupation, if your game features a lot of crime then expect collateral damage.
Drugs
Despite the popularity of drugs, the censors may take a dislike to any overt use of drugs in your game. If your game features overt use of drugs that are illegal in your country then it is likely that these drugs are also illegal in other territories, but some territories may take a more serious view of the depiction of their use. Games with mild drug use usually experience light-headedness and a queasy feeling brought on by the positive/negative marketing impact of a sticker on the box, but more serious games can expect to experience weird and unexpected feelings of disconnection.
History, Nationality and Religion
Historically based war games will naturally be more popular in some of the featured territories than in the others, but censors in the rest of the world will take a dim view of anything that could be construed as insulting or racist. Even something that you believe is innocuous can cause negative public opinion and give rise to changes to your game, as Microsoft encountered with a number of different products.
Politics
If your game is a fictional story, but is based in real countries, you need to be careful not to enflame local opinion through the depiction of their country in your game or any overt statements or inferences about their country in your story. Recently, for just such a reason, Sony removed Bangladesh from one of their games.
Things a Designer Should Anticipate
When designing a mature game you are trying to give your audience what they expect, but keep in mind that the people who will never buy your game can have a big influence on whether your game can actually go on sale. It is better to anticipate change than to find your game in an unexpected media storm without an exit strategy.
Be prepared to make the following types of change …
- changes to blood color
- toning down of blood splash sprites
- changes to gory textures
- dead bodies fade away
- bystanders cannot be shot or killed
- toning down of death animations and sounds
- clean up of carnage environments
- changes to the story to diffuse negative public opinion (and satisfy large retailers)
- changes to the story for political reasons
Designers should also look at the internationalization section to see some of the technical issues that can affect your game.（Source：gamelocalization）
