Little Big Planet delayed due to Qu'ran quotes
You've all heard about LBP being delayed because it uses a licensed song that has some quotes from the Qu'ran in it.
I would like to hear your thoughts about this matter.
Personally I'm frustrated by the delay. And I'm frustrated that Media Molecule and/or Sony didn't find out about the song sooner. The text in the song obviously isn't suited for this type of game or the audience. But recalling every copy of the game and reprinting hundreds of thousands of units is just a overreaction imo.
Some muslims e-mailed Sony/MM because they're offended by the quote from the Qu'ran finding it's way in a song.. Why are they offended? They read these texts and they preach them to everyone. I should feel offended by those sickening words about death and anger. But I'm not offended. Because I see there isn't any connection between the quote and the game. And the context isn't there. And the song is a form of art chosen for it's musical composition.
Religious people are again causing censorship because they're offended by something they themselves condone/preach. I understand why sony/mm want to remove this from the game. But the delay is bs. They could've just asked the retailers to add a letter with every copy of the game explaining the issue and telling consumers to use the day zero update. I as a atheist am AGAIN experiencing the discomfort of their ways.
I am not a Muslim, but I praise Sony action...
First, in the Muslim religion there are specific rules about music and arts, and they are specific in saying that in music the Qu'ran should not be quoted unless the music is a religious one (something that the music is not, and out of context too)
To them this is not offending but also a sin, they even do not demanded sony anything, they made a request (and a polite one) and sony done even better than their expectations, and fixed the problem without relying on a patch (something that some companies do today in a already annoying way)
Some people get offended because Sony gave attention to muslims that are faw away and few (to them), but they forgot that their religion IS one of the biggests of the world, and that the amount of Muslims playing the game IS significant, for a "family" game that is to be sold to "everyone", Sony would do things that any significant group asked, if they offended atheists for example, and one pointed out, sony would fix it.
I agree with Speeder. As long as they fight with litigation and requests instead of bombs and hate speech, then the Muslim community has every right to fight for the tenets of their religion. For some perspective, if a hypothetical game -- say "Little White Planet"-- used the "N-word" over and over in it's song, what do you think the American reception of such a game would be? Exactly! There would be an uproar! Same thing with Muslims and the Qu'ran so let's not be hypocrites. 
Originally posted by BMH
I as a atheist am AGAIN experiencing the discomfort of their ways.
LOL C'mon on. What kind of a society are we growing up to be when we can't even take a delay on a game with good grace out of respect for other peoples belief, whether it be religion or anything else? It's not censorship... in my mind it's a matter of IP rights. I can make the arguement that the Qu'ran IP belongs to the muslims and thus they have every right to say how it's used or not. No more censorship than if I wanted to use Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings quotes in a song for my game... the respective parties would do exactly the same as the Muslims have done. Of course, the Qu'ran just like every other piece of ancient literature is outside of formal copyright laws by being so old, but I think that if we all take the time to think of it in this light, as the Muslims protecting their IP, it becomes more palatable to atheists and gamers alike. 
Originally posted by DarrenAdams
I have no problem with people being religious, but likewise they should respect others decisions not to be.
But obviously you do have a problem with people being religious if you are offended or upset by these religious people standing up for what they believe through legal and peaceful discourse.
Originally posted by ricardorademacher
But obviously you do have a problem with people being religious if you are offended or upset by these religious people standing up for what they believe through legal and peaceful discourse.
You read into it what you want.
I just think it’s totally stupid and really shouldn't be a problem as I am sure it wasn't intentional. Besides, they are only words at the end of the day.
Managing Director
Good on Sony. This is akin to taking God's name in vain in Christianity. Can you imagine how many Christians would be up in arms if they bought a game that was rated "E" and a character said "God damnit"? This is not only a good display of social sensitivity, but a smart business decision.
Try not to be less forgiving of Muslims just because you're less familiar with Islam.
Signed, an agnostic atheist.
I say... clear away all the problems you can before releasing a game- that way there's less or no backlash when it finally comes out and you can just simply enjoy the gameplay!
The focus should always be on the game, not the 'drama' surrounding it.
Originally posted by RayneRules
The focus should always be on the game, not the 'drama' surrounding it.
But we all know the bods at Sony are milking this for all it's worth and this will do nothing but cement the 'good guy' image of LBP and Sony in general.
Well played Sony.
Managing Director
Originally posted by Skorpion
Good on Sony. This is akin to taking God's name in vain in Christianity. Can you imagine how many Christians would be up in arms if they bought a game that was rated "E" and a character said "God damnit"? This is not only a good display of social sensitivity, but a smart business decision.
Try not to be less forgiving of Muslims just because you're less familiar with Islam.
Signed, an agnostic atheist. The fact that you should be scared of religious people making a fuzz is prove enough.
News flash: people won't buy your game if you offend them. Full story at eleven.
Look, you don't need to be scared of religious people, but you should try not to offend them if you want to sell to the biggest audience. Likewise, it would be a poor decision to mention atheists and foxholes.
But we all know the bods at Sony are milking this for all it's worth and this will do nothing but cement the 'good guy' image of LBP and Sony in general.
Well played Sony.
So this was a marketing decision? Well, interesting theory, but it falls apart for two reasons.
First, the people who kicked off this thread weren't exactly singing Sony's praises. The people who defended Sony were just as happy never to mention this.
Second, Sony's marketing department is clearly incapable of something this clever. If this improves Sony's image, it's assuredly accidental.
Lol, of course this is pure chance and unforeseen by Sony, but like I said; Sony bods will make the most of this opportunity and come out of it with some good public opinion that they didn't have going into it, which is where they 'played well'.
As for offending people = people not buying your product. It's not quite as clear cut as that.
There are many situations in entertainment when the watcher/player is purposely offended and they love it. Sure, you will lose a small percentage of your audience if you offend people, but chances are you will make up the loss with the ‘curious’ people who want to see what is so ‘shocking and offensive’ about your product.
Offending people is not always bad marketing.
Managing Director
Postal is the original example of that. But, offense is usually used to generate publicity for an otherwise unpublicized product. It would remain niche, albeit with expanded awareness within the niche.
LBP seems intended to be mainstream, and is well publicized. Offense works against it by eliminating a niche within the broad scope they're trying to appeal to. As was mentioned before, Islam is a large niche to be offensing, potentially the largest.
By Sony acknowledging the severity of the offense, and performing such a major act of contrition, they give extremists one less thing to recruit with. Debatably (as we're doing here), Sony's response is more conducive with promoting cultural harmony than cultural division.
Nothing core to the game was lost. Give one person both versions of the game and anyone non-Arabic probably won't be able to tell the difference. The game was only delayed a week or two, and no lives were lost. Personally, I see nothing for anyone outside of Islam to be intolerant of.
Admittedly, I can see the delay being upsetting and frustrating to those anticipating the game. In a way, they're being "punished" for something that has nothing to do with them. I could see myself being the same way if something like Diablo 3 gets shipped and pulled due to say the Witch Doctor being found eating fried chicken in his standing-idle animation. You can't just patch something like that out. Community groups would boycott the stores and alot of black people wouldn't even touch the box.
Yeah I'll probably end up personally more angry from the extra wait than the inappropriate content, but they couldn't ship like that. They'd be eliminating an entire sales demographic to save a negligible amount of sales from people who would buy a different game during the delay. Sony inadvertently got painted into a corner and they took the less damaging route. It's hard to frown on them from an industry perspective.
Originally posted by DarrenAdams
Offending people is not always bad marketing.
Of course not. But that tactic is almost mutually exclusive with releasing a game that's rated "E".
Originally posted by Skorpion
Of course not. But that tactic is almost mutually exclusive with releasing a game that's rated "E".
I agree. LBP is not exactly shock tactic material. :p
Managing Director
Just to throw this out there, let's not forget the employees at Sony and the distributors they rely on who might take up the cause and boycott the game.
You might say words are just words at the end of the day, but words are the vessels through which we communicate - meaning language can respect (or disrespect) very real ideals and the people who hold those ideals.
Another bit of info.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/using-koran-quotes-in-music-quite-normal
For those that can't be bothered to read the link; the song writer (he's a Muslim btw) has defended his work and the use of the words. Interesting....
Managing Director
I played the beta and can't wait for this game to come out, that being said if this situation would shed a bad light on LBP I would rather it be released when its fixed. This game is really a work of art.
And from the "damn if you do-damned if you don't" files:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/86936-Muslim-Group-Criticizes-LittleBigPlanet-Recall
Summary: a MUSLIM person (not group as the headline states) is criticizing the recall. :P
So the score is so far ONE muslim against the recall; ONE muslim for it. Now if we could only get the other MILLIONS to voice their vote we might get to the "moral" bottom of this!
We need to read the original e-mail from the muslim that called for the patch (sony did the recall, but they asked for a patch...)
He wrote that SOME muslims MAY get offended...
We need to remember that for example there are the xiites, sunites and several other "types" os muslims, Mali muslims for example do not care (the author is a Mali muslim), xiites probably really care, muslims from saudi arabia (a HUGE market), probably get offended too...
So why risk it? Some muslims may even like the music, but millions of muslims may hate it, it is better in that case to respect the millions that may hate it.
When it came out THE LIFE OF BRIAN had a campaign engineered against it by the Christian community, a community that holds its religion as dear to them as the Muslim community does.
The Python team fought them, and legal battles, and won.
For an anti-censorship board, you guys appear depressingly willing to self-censor.
To Helder: so what if in the Islamic religion there are restrictions on the Koran, Allah, and the arts? Those restrictions should only apply to Muslims, not non-Muslims.
Ricardo: as for the N-word as a musical repeated refrain, the song "Rock N Roll Nigger" by by Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye, which uses the N-word as a musical refrain, was used in Natural Born Killers without white riots.
As for the Koran and Allah being the "IP" of Muslims. Eh? EH? That's like saying African developers should be prohibited from developing a Spore-like game because evolution was discovered by Charles Darwin, who he was white. And it is an argument that would MOST CERTAINLY have seen LIFE OF BRIAN not made.
As you say, religion people have the right to defend their religion peacefully. That means boycott and peaceful protest. If a Muslim dislikes a Koranic quote, they should not purchase the product.
Of course, in the real world that's not the case. The three most prominent anti-Islamic media acts in the last few years, Danish cartoons, Dutch documentaries, and an English novel, have in two cases led to an assassination, and in the other case attempted assassination.
Rick: this is like taking the lords name in vain? Good! Any self-declared creator of existence who cannot tolerate a little mockery isn't as big and as powerful as he is making out.
If we're to avoid offending major the branches of the Abrahamic faiths, who not ban homosexuality, both in real life and in games such as Fable?
And we could certainly organise parties to burn copies of THE LIFE OF BRIAN and THE GOD DELUSION.
What is it with these people??
Though I understand the empowerment and well being some individuals attain from religion, I think that these zealots are allowed to get away with far too much and the rest of the world happily complies. I have no problem with people being religious, but likewise they should respect others decisions not to be.
Cartoons, song lyrics, teddy bears!!! Where will it all end?? sigh..
Managing Director
