Capcom acknowledges cultural insensitivities in Mega Man Battle Network

Then Capcom‘s characters/writers will be accused of cultural appropriation… The faux outrage will never stop

Nintendo America's censorship in the '80s and '90s is usually frowned upon in retro gaming circles today. Though back then, much of their censorship was usually to avoid offending Christians rather than liberals, as plenty of Japanese games (especially JRPGs) contained Christian iconography.

Western audiences are not homogenous. If you cater to one demographic, another demographic will get upset. If they censor it, then many liberals would be happy, but many purists will be unhappy. On the flip side, if they don't censor it, then purists would be happy, but many liberals would be unhappy. There's no pleasing either side. So simply adding a disclaimer is a good middle-ground.

Hence the disclaimer about cultural insensitivity. Most Japanese are ignorant about American history, just as most Americans are ignorant about Japanese history. I highly doubt they had any idea there was a black stereotype involving fried chicken (that's not a typical black stereotype in non-English-speaking countries). It looks like a coincidence more than anything, as the full context of the scene is that he's a butcher selling chicken meat, not referring to the "fried chicken" stereotype. But it can easily be misunderstood, so it was culturally insensitive in that sense.

Lol, I remember. I think it was in Yumland where Lan met a bunch of black people living in the ghetto. If I recall, their leader was sort of a tribal chief who had Thunderman as a NetNavi (which I thought was cool) but yeah, as a kid I definitely felt that it was racist back then but it didn't deter me from the game. I had seen much worse so meh.

Yeah, it's ThunderMan.exe who's unique to Battle Network as far as I'm aware. Not to be confused with Elecman.exe obviously who belonged to that dude in the OG Battle Network.

I haven't played the later entries so I cannot tell. I'm tempted to get the collection but wanna see how it fares on PC first. This is one case where I wish I had a Steam Deck. Seems perfect for it.

I watch 80's movies with my kids quite often, and i'm surprised at how many racist bits there were in movies. I didn't realize it at the time because I was young, but its a lil embarrassing when a movie that you hold in high regard is insensitive at best, and most likely racist.

I think the ideal solution would be to include the disclaimer and an option to run a modernized version. I understand this does require more resources, but they are selling the damn thing for money.

Alternatively, you could always go grab the rom hacking tools and make your own version if you are feeling adventurous and want a project to work on.

@pyro1245: Sounds like a good idea. But Capcom is too lazy put any effort into modding the ROM. Maybe they could release a DLC later on that gives an option. If not, then fans could just release a mod themselves.

@lhughey: Racial stereotypes were fairly common in older Hollywood movies up until the early 2000s (when this game was made). But then there was a cultural shift that took place around the 2000s, and racial stereotypes no longer became acceptable in Hollywood.

You could put it down to shifting demographics. The US was about 80% white in the '80s, but is now about 60% white today. Hollywood catered mainly to white audiences in the '80s, but now caters to more diverse audiences. The international markets have also exploded, so Hollywood is now also catering to diverse international audiences.

@pyro1245: If the cultural insensitive parts are the dialogue, then create a ROM where the characters speak in standard American English instead of the stereotyped Black English? Just keep the race of the characters involved.

It’s infants like those who get so offended by minuscule shit like this which is the reason we can no longer have shows like ‘In Living Color’ and films like ‘Airplane’.

You‘d have to be a child to believe that these instances were borne of any real racial animus. Are they culturally insensitive? I mean, I guess a bit? But boo-hoo. Just because something is insensitive to cultural considerations does not mean it is racist. Otherwise you can find racism and prejudice in nearly anything. We have to be able to trespass a bit on grounds uncomfortable, learn to laugh at our differences, grow up and grow thicker skins and understand that the world doesn’t (and shouldn’t) cater to our fragile sensibilities.

I genuinely don’t understand how people who take issues with things like this step out their front door and go out into the world. The world doesn’t owe you the right to not be offended.

@MirkoS77: Good post.

Must be a bitch to be a sensitive little snowflake..

Must be, I just don’t understand how one can live like that.

Was reading a story the other day about a university humoring giving “trigger warnings” about academia that may offend. Yes, heaven forbid these individuals must confront other perspectives that potentially offend them. I always thought a large part of going to college was being exposed to challenging and potentially upsetting material. The bar for being offended today is so low it’s ridiculous, and we’re doing nothing but raising and encouraging a society of infants if stuff like this is what bothers people.