Gamersquare Forum

[allenlxl]

Characters that have their genders changed due to censoring.

For example,Birdo from Super Mario.
He was originally male,since the game came out in NA first,but changed to female. In Japan,he's always been male. Also,Vivian,from "Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door". That's up for debate though,whether she's male in the japanese version(though,she does say that she and Peach would make a good couple,but then again..)


Or,Blanca,Saharah and Gracie from Animal Crossing. They're male in the japanese versions,but female in all other versions.
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/ruuj/chara…
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/ruuj/chara…

Blanca's says something about makeup,and surprise that "she"'s female,and Gracie's says:
Owner of Gracie Grace. He is designing all of the merchandise inside the store. Whoops, I let it slip already, but it's a "he".

There's also Poison from Final Fight. In the arcade version,she's female,but due to Nintendo's policy against violence to women in gaming at the time,they changed her to male. It's weird though,why don't they retcon her back to being female,Capcom retcons all the time.

Or in anime,or manga. I only know of one guy,some guy from Sailor Moon.

Are there any examples in literature?

Do you think of them as their actual genders,or their changed genders?
Do you agree with the censoring?

[baiyu136z]

Personally, I don't agree. I think they should just leave the characters as their original genders and let the game go on already! I mean, what's the point? If people don't agree with it, well, that's THEIR problem! And Poison? What do they mean they're against violence to women? Wasn't Nintendo the people who made up Super Smash Brothers Melee and Brawl? They're are women in that game getting beat up! And personally, I think of them as their actual gender, not their changed. So shut up Ninetendo and other video game creators! Just leave the characters as their original genders and not worry about it!!

[kjhkb]

What about Sheik/Zelda

[andywolf]

Personally, I think gender stereotypes are totally 100 years ago. We should be past all that.

Having said that, I can understand game developers, especially in America, being afraid of frivolous lawsuits over any little thing in the game. Parents nowadays are so worried about their kids seeing anything "wrong" that they'll go to extreme lengths to protect their kids, and that includes taking action against game companies that promote same-sex couples or "violence against women" (if it can really be called that, considering it a fighting game anyways and there shouldn't be a distinction between violence against men or women because violence outside a game is wrong any way you slice it).

TL;DR: I think it's horrible that our society leads game developers to be afraid to break the gender stereotypes.