Rome's mayor demands Rule of Rose ban

by James Ransom-Wiley { Nov 15th 2006 at 5:55AM }

Apparently Rome's mayor doesn't think there's any more room on the market for another mediocre horror game; that, or Rule of Rose's erotic themes bugged him too. Either way, Mayor Walter Veltroni is outraged, declaring "There is no way that a violent video game should be sold and distributed in our country." O RLY?

Veltroni's beef has grown from a concern about shielding children from mature content. "There is no need for massive doses of horror to entertain our children," he argues. We agree; so slap on the Italian equivalent of an M-rating and move on.

[Via GameSpot]

Tags: 505 Gamestreet, 505Gamestreet, Atlus Co., AtlusCo., Horror, Punchline, Rule of Rose, RuleOfRose, Shirogumi

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

FSK405K @ Nov 15th 2006 6:23AM

I've never heard of the game, but I suspect that plenty of books, music, films, and games with similar content have been on the market for years there.

Akash @ Nov 15th 2006 6:23AM

Um, I live in Rome, do you have any idea how much sex and nudity is in the advertisments and on newsstands here? It's pretty ridiculous. You can't go a block without seeing tits, and he's worried about this game?

FSK405K @ Nov 15th 2006 6:39AM

This is one of the few times a trailer alone has made me seriously interested in playing a game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obfxV0MqpeQ Great music, great editing, and the graphics seem nice too. Folks who've played the Japanese edition, does the gameplay hold up?

Optimus Prime @ Nov 15th 2006 7:34AM

OMG Joystiq is so BIASED against ROME.

Amanda @ Nov 15th 2006 7:36AM

I thought this was already out here (US)...Opposable Thumbs rated it mediocre AGES ago...

Jerzat @ Nov 15th 2006 7:47AM

I live in Italy. And the author's point in the article "slap on the Italian equivalent of an M-rating and move on" isn't applicable, since the video-games rating system in Italy doesn't prevent a 12-years old with too much money in his hands to go in a shop and buy the game.
GTA: SA is rated 18+, yet every minor in the country can go and buy a copy. That's what brought up the mess on the medias yesterday. Hopefully they'll enforce some kind of sale restrictions on videogames rated 18+ as they do with DVDs and all the other stuff.

l0ne @ Nov 15th 2006 8:01AM

Pssst: The European equivalent of the ESRB is PEGI. IMHO it works better, as it does not use letter ratings, but rather shows the recommended age directly on the box (ie 13+, 18+). http://www.pegi.info/

syco @ Nov 15th 2006 8:06AM

I heard it was actually pretty good, I was planning on playing it eventually...

Baxayaun @ Nov 15th 2006 8:31AM

GAMES-ARE-NOT-JUST-FOR-KIDS... this is so stupid. Another grandfather telling to the "stupid people over the world" what is good and what is not. But hey! They don't care if a kid find a porn movie in his parents's closet and watch it. Completely agree with Akash.

Greetings from Spain.

Steve @ Nov 15th 2006 9:01AM

>> O RLY?

I've seen that random arrangement of letters on Joystiq before and assumed it was a typo. What does that mean?

Dogle @ Nov 15th 2006 9:22AM

It's a three year old catch phrase that wasn't even funny when it first started.

It means the blog poster is trying to be "hip" and "edgey" and "cool".

Maybe they'll move on to something newer, like 'All your base' or something. I can't wait.

Mr. Dark @ Nov 15th 2006 9:41AM

Just to chime in here: I'm playing RoR now and this one -is- a unique situation. It's such a unique situation that Sony decided against distributing it outside Japan, so Atlus bought the publishing for it. It's an 'adult' game in a big way...animal abuse, creepy sexual imagery and undertones, extremely bloody violence...and all involving primarily pre-teen girls. The story is told in the form of a children's storybook, and it's that focus on childhood (and the most disturbing possible facets of childhood) that makes the game unique, effective...and controversial as all hell. This one -does- need a special disclaimer of some sort, because it -is- something a kid could see and think it's for and about kids...when in reality, it's a surreal nightmarish journey into the darkest corner of the nature of man...using schoolgirls to tell the story.

32_Footsteps @ Nov 15th 2006 9:59AM

"O RLY?

I've seen that random arrangement of letters on Joystiq before and assumed it was a typo. What does that mean?"

You know, sometimes I see people like this, who obviously have not spent as much time on the Internet as I. And I desperately want to be them.

It's a stupid shorthand way of saying "Oh, really?" Either that, or alot of people are flying into Paris.

As for the game itself... given the ratings and the sales of the game, tens of Roman gamers are going to be disappointed by the ban. I don't think it's right, even though I wouldn't touch the game. But I don't know Italy's laws - they might be well within their rights to restrict its sales based on content.

I'm of the belief that content shouldn't be censored, no matter how odious it may be. As they say in journalism school, the best disinfectant is sunshine. But I'm not in a position to change, or really comment upon, Italian law.

Gioru @ Nov 15th 2006 10:20AM

Strange thing, the ANSA association in Italy refers the entire thing to the Justice Minister, Mastella, not the Mayor of Rome Veltroni...
anyway, it's the same. I Hope this would result in an improvement in the controls TOGETHER with the PEGI system, and not in a strictly political initiative, otherwise it could be very dangerous for the videogame market in Italy.

Braindead @ Nov 15th 2006 10:39AM

They're proposing an outright and complete ban on violent games,not a 18+ selling restriction...

If you can't read italian give Babelfish a spin,I guess its comicity should remain intact:
http://www.camera.it/_dati/leg15/lavori/stenografici/sed071/bozzesteno/s030.htm

Flit @ Nov 15th 2006 10:47AM

Me and my wife just beat rule of rose last week (3 times, to unlock everything, and I'm now selling it on Half.com for under $40 if anyone is interested) and the story is great. The atmosphere of the game is great. Definately creepy, and the chubby girl (Amanda) in the picture made me laugh several times, in an uncomfortable way (wait til you see her run!). Anyway, don't expect spectacular gameplay (it sucked basically, as bad as Silent hill 4 for those of you who played it) but you can skip most combat encounters, and just solve the puzzles. It is worth it for the experience of the story though.

Interesting story, crappy combat, and most of the crappy searching that is done in horror games is removed by your dog. He finds any items you need.

For survival horror fans, it's worth playing, but anyone who doesn't like the silent hill games, look elsewhere.

Gonzo @ Nov 15th 2006 11:32AM

Wow
Do only children play video games in Italy? Even Mario would think that's sad.

It is amazing to discover that there are even bigger censorship d-bags in other countries. Can we send Jackoff Thompson, Hillary, and Joe Pitts there now?

FSK405K @ Nov 15th 2006 4:56PM

Flit, does it have English?

Pince @ Nov 15th 2006 5:34PM

I realize the so-called "erotic" content of the game makes American audiences uncomfortable, but no one ever specifies exactly what they mean.

The game was rated as mediocre mainly because the battle system and playability bogged the game down (like many horror games that otherwise would have been good), but the story seems very interesting. I don't plan on playing the game, but I am interested in what the actual content is that people are so uncomfortable about and exactly how psychologically disturbing the game is (I am interested in that sort of survival horror, the type that is thought provoking but also scary in a disturbing way).

I don't care about spoilers, so with that has anyone found a plot summary of the game or played it that can go ahead and give me the spoilers. Its hard to talk about a game when the most we are given is vague terms referring to sexual content.