Minori website

[BurningLeaves]

I don't know if this has been brought up before but I went to go to minori's (company that made the ef, wind, and other VNs) website and this is what I find, the site is now blocked from anyone with a non-Japanese IP, it's easy enough to use a proxy to get past that but I found their reasons very interesting.

It's quite short but here are some excerpts

Some foreigners seem to be having an antipathy against EROGE.
Therefore, We prohibited the access from foreign countries, to defend our culture.

Currently, The bill that allows to limiting the content (It is censorship. Isn't it?) to all EROGEs is being discussed in the Diet because intellectuals and politicians said "Japanese EROGE were being problem and troubled with the foreign country. Therefore we should make EROGE hidden away from foreign country, and also its content should be limited and censored".

(...)So we blocked you to make stay away from the trouble

So basically my understanding of this is that Japanese officials are looking to censor VNs (and with that I'd assume hentai and anime to follow) because of trouble it may cause to other countries and that the VN companies are going to try to limit the amount of exposure they get outside of Japan for fear of this censorship bill actually passing.

Which makes me think, right now all we can't do is go to their website (without tweeking your IP) but how long before we cant order or buy VN's because of this? And with that hentai to follow, if the makers of it need to try to hide themselves from outside countries in order not to be censored I would think they would go through quite alot to keep their primary market open.

Though I'm interested to find out just what this 'trouble' eroge has caused, I know in America there were a few people charged with child pornography for owning loli manga, but out side of that I haven't heard of anything.

It never ceases to amaze me how easily people get offended, if you don't like it, don't look at it. If you're honestly so stupid to believe that watching a rape scene breeds rapists then you are ignorant. I've seen thousands of people get murdered in movies, yet have not once picked up a gun and did it myself. And if they are so disgusted about someone possibly finding torture erotic, instead of passing their disgust across seas, pass it to the mom and pop next door with the choker and bsdm setup in the basement. Either way none of which have done anything wrong and the people complaining need to just get over themselves and focus on their own lives instead of poking their nose into the lives of others and calling it wrong.

Minori offers some links at the bottom of their site to try to petition their government officials into rejecting the bill.

[Kionon]

Minori isn't being clear here. That or they are intentionally being racist jackasses. The Diet can't even move to make possession of child pornography a crime. The idea they would move on EROGE is just... I live here. I follow this. And it's bullshit.

RATHER, this is a self-policing action by the game trade union:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... n-For-Real

The trade union can deny ratings to games in the same way the MPAA or RIAA can in regards to film/music. Sounds to me like Minori needs to take it up with the ECOS, not the Diet.

[hasteroth]

...

I like my proxy

...

Nuff said.

[Vivaldi]

Has no one heard about this? I thought it was fairly big news. Every since "rapelay" was accedentally put on the front page of amazon. goverment groups from the UK, the EOCS, and several womens orginizasion where outraged, and demanded Japan ban all such games. They eventually caved in. Partially. Japanese law now has some major restrictions on what can be in a game. But scared game companies are covering their asses even more by blocking their websites from people outside the country. Even if the products are outside the spesifications for the original ban.

Article on the website blocks in question.

Article on the event itself.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... ay-Boycott

[Vivaldi]

Ninja'd

[Subtle Sorrow]

What does NV mean?

[hasteroth]

What does NV mean?

/facepalm

You mean VN?

It stands for Visual Novel. No point explaining. If you want to know what that is go look it up yourself.

[Vivaldi]

What does NV mean?

If you mean "VN", then Visual Novel.

[godix]

Not really surprising. We're all kinda used to it, but the extreme elements of Japanese culture are really really out there for most western cultures. I'm surprised it hasn't caused more problems than it has in the past. Although the rapelay amazon thing was pretty damned funny.

[hasteroth]

Not really surprising. We're all kinda used to it, but the extreme elements of Japanese culture are really really out there for most western cultures. I'm surprised it hasn't caused more problems than it has in the past. Although the rapelay amazon thing was pretty damned funny.

That game wasn't worth the bandwidth it took to torrent it.