Capcom recently made some changes to the animations for its upcoming release of Street Fighter V. Those changes are minimal, essentially only removing a taunting “butt slap” from Mika’s Critical Art sequence, and making changes to the camera angle that zooms in on Cammy’s crotch during her Critical Art move. This has sparked another example of gamer outrage, but is it really censorship or pandering?
A petition on change.org certainly seems to think so. It reads, “We do not want to accept any censorship of this kind, and we do not wish to purchase censored games.This content must remain uncensored, retained in its original form when the game is released, as should all the current content in the beta builds thus far that your company may wish to censor for whatever reason.”
First off, we do not know this is censorship. There are many possibilities here but one thing that seems especially unlikely is that Capcom is pandering to some imagined, outraged group that can’t stand how sexualized the characters in Street Fighter V are. If that were the case, well, they still have a product that will leave that group immensely dissatisfied; the characters in the game are still scantily clad, and plenty of fan service remains.
One reason the developers at Capcom could have decided to make these changes could be a result of dealing with the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Sometimes the differences between an M rating and a T rating are subtle, and the aforementioned adjustments could have been the deciding factor. If this is the case, I’m not certain it quite qualifies as censorship. Capcom has every right to push for an M rating if they decide to. Sometimes, though, it’s a safer bet from a sales perspective to aim for a T rating.
Another possibility is that they just decided, for artistic reasons, to change the way the camera handles these particular Critical Art animations. Really, content isn’t being cut from the game; it’s just being altered to change our perspective. It is entirely within the realm of possibility that the designers decided that these animations were bordering on tacky or excessive.
The game, after all, doesn’t seem interested in totally desexualizing its male or female characters. On almost every character, features are super exaggerated, and the outfits often border on ridiculous. Fan service remains present, and I seriously doubt anyone who took offense to the game’s content is now placated by these minor adjustments.
Players have the option to boycott the game, as some have chosen to do. But, chances are, if you find this small change to be a deal breaker, then you probably weren’t that big a fan of Street Fighter V in the first place. The game is primarily about fighting other players in highly technical, one on one combat. A character slapping their butt should be way down the list of what’s important to fans.
On both sides of the debate, extremists are eager to turn every video game occurrence into a point for their side. This us vs. them mentality needs to stop, and people should find a way to locate some middle ground, relate to one another, and less aggressively discuss their concerns. May I suggest their mutual enjoyment of video games?