LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

[Pai Pai Master]

From MediaMolecule:

As some of you may have noticed, LBP has been slightly delayed in some territories. At MM we were as shocked and dismayed by this as anyone - shellshocked and gutted. We can’t wait for you all to get playing and creating!

We learnt yesterday that there is a lyric in one of the licensed tracks which some people may find offensive, and which slipped through the usual screening processes. Obviously MM and Sony together took this very seriously. LBP should be enjoyable by all. So within 12 hours of hearing about this issue involving a lyric (in Somalian, I believe!), we prepared an automatic day 0 patch and had a new disk image ready; however a decision was made within Sony that the right thing to do for quality and support of people with no on-line was to replace existing disks. They assure us that they are doing everything in their power to get things straightened out as fast as possible, and will announce dates soon.

Apologies to everyone excited to play the game and I can assure you that when it arrives, it will be worth the wait! We want everyone to be able to enjoy the game, and this tweak should help - we’re just gutted it couldn’t be sooner. MM continues to work hard to support the game too. We know that LBP will be something that you can enjoy for a long time to come, when all of this is forgotten and all that remains are thousands of incredible levels and creations to play, create and share.

[EDIT Sony are going to announce new dates and information re discs for each territory soon. We’ll keep you posted! The patch is ready from our side and I imagine it will go live at the same time as the game. More info when we get it.]

Damn you religion! You win again!

[Ziero]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

That's both a good thing and a bad thing.

Bad because I really want to play this and good because I don't really have the time right now.

Still though, overall this sucks!

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

I would've taken a long delay to 2009 for any game other than a short delay for this one....

[eticket109]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

Out of curiosity, where does it say the offensive lyric had anything to do with religion?

Ah... found it in another couple of articles

During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur'an.

IGN: LittleBigPlanet Delayed

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

The original complaint:

To: Sony Computer Entertainment & Media Molecule

While playing your latest game, "LittleBigPlanet" in the first level of the third world in the game (titled "Swinging Safari":smileywink:, I have noticed something strange in the lyrics of the music track of the level. When I listened carefully, I was surprised to hear some very familiar Arabic words from the Quran. You can listen to part of the track here:

mt14.quickshareit.com/share/p...lip22503c0.wav


The words are:

1- In the 18th second: "كل نفس ذائقة الموت" ("kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt", literally: 'Every soul shall have the taste of death').

2- Almost immediately after, in the 27th second: "كل من عليها فان" ("kollo man alaiha fan", literally: 'All that is on earth will perish').


I asked many of my friends online and offline and they heard the exact same thing that I heard easily when I played that part of the track. Certain Arabic hardcore gaming forums are already discussing this, so we decided to take action by emailing you before this spreads to mainstream attention.

We Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Quran deeply offending. We hope you would remove that track from the game immediately via an online patch, and make sure that all future shipments of the game disk do not contain it.

We would also like to mention that this isn't the first time something like this happened in videogames. Nintendo's 1998 hit "Zelda: Ocarina of Time" contained a musical track with islamic phrases, but it was removed in later shipments of the game after Nintendo was contacted by Muslim organizations. Last year, Capcom's "Zack & Wiki" and Activision's "Call of Duty 4" also contained objectionable material offensive to Muslims that was spotted before the release of the final games, and both companies thankfully removed the content.

We hope you act immediately to avoid any confusion and unnecessary controversy, and we thank you for making such an amazing game.

Regards,
yasser
psn id : solid08

[DakAttack]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

Muslims are so sensitive. You can't tell people a certain combination of words are off limits because they appear in the same exact order in a religious text.

[Ameroth]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

What about the non-religious people you offend by catering to the every demand of religious zealots?

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

Muslims are so sensitive. You can't tell people a certain combination of words are off limits because they appear in the same exact order in a religious text.

That's a pretty unfair generalization. The complaint came from one person.

[Caspian]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

Welcome to the super politically correct age.
One person complains and I'm left with a release date one day after the WoW expansion.

[Kitalrez]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

That's it, Kyle, grab your big wheel, we have to go stop Family Guy before they kill us all.

[Ziero]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

I'm not exactly Mr PC-man myself, but even I'll admit that doing this is an iffy subject. It's not like they're removing anything from the game that's particularly important, and the only people who would even realize it's there would mainly be the ones that would be offended by it. And it's not like the people involved made a big stink or overreaching issue about it, they sent a polite e-mail to the makers of the game explaining what the issue was, why it was offensive and asked if it could be removed. Yea it sucks that we have to wait longer for the game and all, but really, it's not that big of a deal.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

I'm tired of all this bullshit. The soup du jour is Muslims lately. It's always someone getting their nose out of whack over something and using the politically correct climate we live in to get their way.

This is an interesting little thing that happened in game. There was a character named Ahhllaah (or something like that) and another named God. Both characters were reported for being offensive to someone because of religious reasons. The character named Ahhllaah had to change his name and the character named God is still walking around.

The point is the majority of people wouldn't even have noticed that this shit was even in the damn game. Honestly can't we all just move past all this petty little stuff? Aren't there more important things in the world that we need to address?

[Ameroth]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

Yea it sucks that we have to wait longer for the game and all, but really, it's not that big of a deal.

You're right, it isn't really a big deal. But if I sent a letter of complaint to a video game company asking them to remove any lyrics or mentions of the word "god" because it offended me, what would happen? Would they do it? Would you be offended if they removed the word 'god' from their game?

The complaint came from one person.

According to the articles, many many people complained about this... most if not all of them Muslim descent.

Edit: the fact is, while I can be totally tolerant (albeit not so understanding) of people and their wacky ideas of creationism and gods, I cannot be totally tolerant when those people force other people to acknowledge their god(s) and/or treat them as if they really were a god.

[Kitalrez]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

You're right, it isn't really a big deal. But if I sent a letter of complaint to a video game company asking them to remove any lyrics or mentions of the word "god" because it offended me, what would happen? Would they do it? Would you be offended if they removed the word 'god' from their game?

I think you're leaving out a vital context element here. "God" might offend you, but your culture has a tradition of using that word in many potentially offensive contexts going back a hundred years or more. The Canterbury Tales were banned for centuries for making fun of the clergy, (and also being incredibly raunchy for the time). Several centuries to desensitize ourselves to one book speaks volumes about where we've been. You also have the element of World War I, which no muslim country other than Turkey really experienced in any major way. That was the turning point in foul language when religious references became less offensive than other references. The battlefields of Europe convinced millions of young men that God either didn't exist or didn't care, and suddenly using his name in vain really didn't carry the same weight it did. We had to invent new words describing intercourse or bowel movements in order to offend on the same level we had been.

When Deadwood, SD was settled it was the roughest spot in the frontier. This is where "God Damn" first gained popularity as a good curse word. If I went to any other part of the US at the time and said that, though, I'd be spending the night in lockup. 1st Amendment be damned, obscene language was not tolerated in this country, and in parts of it I might even get lynched. It wasn't until WWI, when the horrors of trench warfare made millions of men question whether there even was a god, before god damn lost its power over us.

The Muslim World never had to go through this. They're still back where we were centuries ago with respecting the clergy and revering their diety. Maybe that's not a bad thing.


Look at it like this, on the first week of this semester I was driving to meet some friends at a bar for Sunday Brunch. On the way there, I get plowed into by a white Ford Astro van. Seriously destroyed the car, the passenger side of the vehicle was a foot and a half closer to me than it had been. I had a dent in the paneling of the driver side door, (which came from a headlight that flew off that van, missed me by inches, and came to rest by my foot on the floor). My injuries were a mild concussion from being thrown around, and a bruise from the seatbelt strap on my shoulder. A week later, I was pretty much in fine physical condition. Little sore, but fine.

Mentally, I'm changed though. No, I got over the fear of white vans coming out of nowhere to kill me a week and a half later. What changed completely was my view of women. I used to be shy and reserved around them. Women were magical creatures who did not fart or sweat, they lived on magical hilltops in ivory towers and only graced us lowly mortals with their presence on special occasions. I didn't try to touch any of them unless it was a very conscious, deliberate, and well thought out act. "Hmm, this date is going well, I guess I'd better put my hand on hers and look her in the eye to seal the deal..." No, really, that actually went through my mind. Social Anxiety Disorder is fun.

Since my accident, I've become... "grabby". If you're female, we talk for over 5 minutes, and I haven't tried to at least give you a shoulder hug, I'm seriously off my game. I have realized I'm mortal, and I only have a limited amount of time to make more people. (Oddly enough, this wasn't my first near-death experience, just the most recent one). I don't necessarily want children, I'd just like to make sure I get plenty of practice in before I go. Now, compare this with my roommate, who wasn't in this accident. He still treats women the way I used to. The myth of the magical creature, incapable of noxious odor production is alive and well in him. Right now, he's at the gym, trying to work up the courage to ask out a girl he sees every single day, and who talks to him at least once during their workouts. Should I mock him for being "backward"? He's just not getting with the program, and joining the rest of the world? Now, which of us would a woman rather be around? My kind, respectful roommate, or "David Coppa-feel"? I changed. I'm the screwed up one. Why should I be dictating what's "normal"?

Same deal with muslims. These countries haven't had to deal with a clergy who owned all the good land, screwed everyone else over for centuries, and had to be overthrown for most of us to become literate and self-sufficient. They haven't had to endure mind-warping conflicts that made them question whether their diety even existed, much less gave a flying $@## about them. Maybe they are backward and naive. It's just as likely, though, that we're the screwed up ones. Maybe the crazies shouldn't be telling everyone else what's sane.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: LittleBigPlanet Delayed to November 14th, Gaming vs. Religion Strikes Again!

Same deal with muslims. These countries haven't had to deal with a clergy who owned all the good land, screwed everyone else over for centuries, and had to be overthrown for most of us to become literate and self-sufficient. They haven't had to endure mind-warping conflicts that made them question whether their diety even existed, much less gave a flying $@## about them. Maybe they are backward and naive. It's just as likely, though, that we're the screwed up ones. Maybe the crazies shouldn't be telling everyone else what's sane.

Islamic extremists don't only terrorize innocent Americans, you know.

EDIT: And just an update, the new day seems to be October 27th, not November 14th. So same day as MotorStorm and a week before R2...guess the delay would have been nice. XD