Re: Viz Edits FMA Manga Vol. 8


"8-Bit Star" <nesstar@xxxxxxxxx> escribió en el mensaje
news:1158213630.130679.320610@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

junior-kun wrote:

If you're going to make that argument, its hardly a video game
exclusive one. I'm sure the censored FMA manga is fun to read
regardless, and is still the same comic in all the important ways.

I thought about this, and... no. At least with regards to
that panel.

Is Greed Christ? Was pinning him to a specifically cross-shaped slab
significant in any way? Did changing the slab to a random block affect the
narrative? Was the cross a symbol or allegory with definite narrative
purposes (say, to represent that Greed is voluntarily sacrificing himself
for the good of others, or that whoever pinned him was making a specific
point to his or her audience)?

If not, then it's merely an aesthetic change, and ultimately as meaningless
as removing the cross from Dracula's tomb in Castlevania 4 or covering
Siren's naked derriere in Final Fantasy 6. Therefore, the censored version
is just as interesting to read as the original one.

Mind, I don't necessarily condone the censorship (personally, unless the
original artwork served a narrative purpose, I don't care for it, but it
DOES set a negative precedent for future releases.) For the purposes of this
argument, though, you can't have a double standard regarding censorship to a
panel in a comic book compared to narrative or gameplay changes to a
videogame.

See, reading a comic is 1/4 reading, 1/4 looking at
pictures, and 2/4 forming an interpretation based on
what you read and see.

For many people, playing a videogame is a combination of the audiovisual
experience (which ties into the narrative by way of presentation,) the
intellectual and physical exercise of mastering the gameplay, the wonder of
exploring the game world, the emotional impact of the narrative, and the
academic considerations of the way the plot and characters are developed.
The difference in genres such as "RPG" or "stealth" or "action" lies in the
way the developers approach those aspects --the action in Super Mario Bros.
is different from the action in Contra, for instance, and the Metroid games
have a way of presenting narrative that is worlds apart from Prince of
Persia.

Your opinion may vary, of course. You might consider narrative a throwaway
concept next to the gameplay. But yours is not the only valid view.

If the image is changed, then
the reader's interpretation of that image is also changed.

That can apply to videogames too. In Final Fantasy II US, all the
status-healing items were combined into a single, relatively common one.
That definitely changes the videogame experience, since you don't have to be
as careful with your inventory as you would have needed to otherwise. In
Kingdom Hearts, many optional bosses were added to the US release, so the
game gained a variety of new objectives which themselves required the player
to acquire new skills and accessories.

In Ico, the European and Japanese releases gave players the opportunity to
read Yorda's dialogue during the second playthrough, and they added a bonus
ending with quite a bit of emotional baggage. The gameplay also changed,
because those versions also added a two-player mode, an optional weapon, and
a more obvious "hint" AI for Yorda. The entire game has changed dramatically
between the North American and the Euro/Japanese releases.

The whole of the game experience, akin to the reader's interpretation, has
changed. You can change the gameplay without changing the narrative, and the
plot can be just as intriguing as before. You can change the narrative, and
the gameplay can be just as fun to master. But the overall _experience_ is
different. The differences in one aspect or another may be negligible (as I
mentioned in another post) but I can assure you that a Kirby fan would enjoy
Kirby's Avalanche more than Mean Bean Machine, merely because the Kirby fan
would appreciate the former's atmosphere better than the latter's, even if
it's the same game.

No one interprets a video game, you're just expected
to take everything at face value.

........riiiiiight. Which is exactly why Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have
such clear and obvious storylines, I assume. And Indigo Prophecy? And Metal
Gear Solid 2? Both Ueda and Kojima have explicitly stated that they _wanted_
the player to make up his own interpretation of the events presented in
their games, and they certainly delivered in that regard.

That's why its perfectly
okay that Sonic the Hedgehog gets powers from
smashing television screens and why the characters
of Final Fantasy 6 can learn magic just by killing
things

You're confusing gameplay conventions with narrative issues.

while carrying around the dead corpses of
mythical beings

That's an important aspect of the narrative, since the entire war over the
Espers is what drives the game onward.

(and why it's okay that said corpses
take on the shape of oversized Tylenol pills instead
of becoming rotting, messy hunks of flesh).

*shrug* Fantasy convention, irrelevant to the gameplay (otherwise, you'd
have to explain why the party can carry 99 of every item without having to
pull a wagon behind them) but of undeniable importance to the plot.

The translators
of FF6, in fact, could've come up with a totally different
explanation altogether for how the magic system
fits into the story,

That would've been quite a task, unless they also decided to change the
visuals and entire _scenes_ in the game.

but the actual game wouldn't be
affected at all.

No. The _gameplay_ might have not been affected, but the storyline and
character development certainly would have. Since those are essential to an
RPG, then the entire experience would have changed. For better or worse, it
wouldn't have been Final Fantasy 6 as we know it. Again, look at Street
Combat.


Jorge A. Pratt


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: My Take on Halo3
    ... The gameplay is very nice and very very smooth, even with a lot of fighting ... character models don't look great compared to how the graphics display ... The lighting effects are awesome showing incredible realism. ... more physics in this game than GRAW or RSV and you can move quite a few ...
    (alt.games.video.xbox)
  • Re: Intelligence
    ... remember where they are is actually a gameplay change disguised as ... The stash tracker just removes the need (for those that would ... You just have to look at the game to see ...
    (rec.games.roguelike.nethack)
  • Re: Intelligence
    ... You just have to look at the game to ... Gameplay on the other hand is things the game provides you with, ... And all the stash tracker does is keep ...
    (rec.games.roguelike.nethack)
  • Re: Fallout 3 gameplay video link here
    ... as exemplified by FO1 and FO2 and the gameplay mechanics of circa-2000 ... You are certain that FO3 will not follow the spirit of FO1 ... Considering that Austrialia is banning the game, ... at all indicative of what FO3 will be, I think if it looks like a POS, ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg)
  • Re: What have you played in JULY?
    ... and already felt nostalgic for that kind of gameplay, ... experience for me playing a game like this. ... Caribbean 2, it inspired me to play Sid Meiers' Pirates again, ... with the ship to ship action, cannonade after cannonade against ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action)