Author: Gabriel Persechino-Forest Published: April 15th, 2018
Danmachi Game – Crunchyroll Gets Worse… Again!
Those who have been following these updates will know that Crunchyroll first advertised a feature that then turned out to not be in the game and that they then doubled down by trying to erase the evidence. Well, they’re at it again. This time around they gave Anime News Network an official statement:
We recently launched Memoria Freese as our first Crunchyroll Game, to bring both anime and gaming enthusiasts a new experience to connect through the content they love. As this was our first official game and included several partners, we had many moving parts that led to the official launch on March 30, 2018. We apologize if there was any miscommunication around game features for the U.S. version of Memoria Freese — addressing the specific issue at hand, there was an interactive “communication mode” that was inadvertently included in some of our early promotional content. However, that feature was never intended to be released in the U.S. version of the game. It was not our intent to miscommunicate to any of our players.
Memoria Freese is a free-to-play mobile game for iOS and Android devices, and as part of the download process, users agree to a terms of service that acknowledges that we may update or make changes to both the Game or user accounts at any time without notification. Our Crunchyroll community is strong and passionate, and while we actively listen to their valuable feedback, we also must reserve the right to modify game features at any time. We plan to continue updating Memoria Freese and are working closely with partners to enhance this popular Japanese game for the U.S. market. While there are many similarities between the Japanese and U.S. releases, the markets and distribution partners are very different, so not all Japanese features are part of the U.S. release.
Now the official scenario is that it was “never intended for an American audience”. That… sorta feels insulting when you think about it and the implication on US consumers. And the less said about the shrewdness of removing an optional feature from a game where most of the audience buying it is likely to want it the better. They also try to pretend that blatantly censoring a game is now “Modifying game features” and “Updating” with, apparently, plans to do more going in the future. Here’s something to look forward to.
For those interested in seeing the feature in question, here is the original trailer as reposted by Azarioplays (Go to the 1:40 min. mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jshH8QEkDmg
Many outlets are now covering this fiasco, including One Angry Gamer (One of the first to report on it actually), Anime News Network and Scratch Point (Who continues to make regular updates):
Also, this news has been making the rounds online on anime-related websites and social media and many are defending the company by saying this is the “first such incident”. Sorry to give you a rude awakening but Crunchyroll had censored Juden-chan when they streamed it back in 2009. Back then, they also made a statement:
Due to the nature of the original AT-X version, Crunchyroll chose to air the censored version of Charger Girl Ju-den Chan to ensure the protection of our younger audiences and allow all audiences to watch and enjoy Charger Girl Ju-den Chan.
Game Journalists are at it Again
After a game developer accidentally (He thought it was someone else) tea-bagged a female game journalist in an unnamed PvP game, the game journalists attempted to abuse their authority and power to smear and threaten the game developer in question:
Yes, they are openly threatening to use their power of the press to suppress coverage of those who don’t play the PC game.
Then trying to “establish” that for some reason different standards should apply to people playing games both when they’re women and game journalists (No real reason given for either) one of them said:
Friendly tip for devs showcasing games: don’t intentionally team-kill a journalist and then teabag them… especially if she’s a woman.
This is when we found out everything was actually an accident and the offended brigade got further humiliated (Which is hard after you openly admit to wanting to use your authority as a game journalist to wilfully censor and blacklist):
Amanda Farough further added:
One Angry Gamer attempted to contact Micheal Futter but he has not responded to his request.
This incident certainly vindicated gamergate, who claimed game journalists were corrupt and intentionally abusing their authority and community’s trust for all sorts of nefarious purposes. You also have to admire how they pretend that women are “fragile little flowers” who can’t be treated the same as men in a game (Which actually perpetuates dangerous stereotypes), even though that’s not actually true and most women have actually been playing games with men with the same level of passion and sometimes, yes, rudeness, as their male counter-parts and no one seemed to have had a problem with it until the behavior controlling, perpetually offended brigade showed up.
You should watch out for a possible renewed media attack on gamergate as many believe this is partly responsible for why the troll group GamerGateHD was created.
As for the reason I’m covering this, if there is to be an animegate then I want people to know who these so called “journalists” really are within the entertainment industry so you know who will be doing the bashing and campaigning against our hobby.
Source: Article Image: Taken from the Danmachi: Memoria Freese trailer