Alex Ayala

Professor Erin McLaughlin

WR-13300-SS-14
10 November 2015
Part 1: Research Proposal
YOUR NAME: Alejandro Ayala
TOPIC: I am studying the cultural implications of censorship in the video game industry.
RESEARCH QUESTION: What does video game censorship say about the differences in
modern American and Japanese culture?
AUDIENCE & SIGNIFICANCE: I will use this project in order to help video gamers
understand why the games they play get censored. I will also use it to get parents to understand
why some of the games that their children play originally contained themes that would be less
appropriate for the younger demographic in the United States.
CONTEXT: There have been many video games since their inception that have been censored
or banned throughout the world for various reasons depending on the country that censors them.
For example, this year, a 13 year old character in Xenoblade Chronicles X will have an altered
appearance in from the Japanese release to the American release due to her racy outfit in the
Japanese release.
EXHIBIT: I plan to specifically focus on the American and Japanese attitudes on sexuality and
violence as those themes are relatively common for games censored in the United States from
their Japanese releases.

SOURCES SO FAR:

MLA citation

Type of source

What does the source

offer your project?

Nofuente, Kyle. Nintendo Is

Censoring 13-Year-Old
'Xenoblade Chronicles X'
Character Over Racy
Costume. Tech Times. Tech
Times LLC, 3 Nov. 2015.
Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Website

Example of sexual
censorship

Calvert, Clay and Robert D.

Richards. Precedent be
Damned- Its All about Good
Politics & Sensational
Soundbites: The Video Game
Censorship Saga of 2005.
Texas Review of
Entertainment & Sports Law
6.1(1 May 2005): 79-155.
EBSCOhost. Web. 10 Nov.
2015

Peer reviewed journal article

gives some background to

the laws during the video
game censorship saga of
2005

Dill, Karen. Video Game

Violence: A Review of the
Empirical Literature.
Aggression and Violent
Behavior 3.4 (1998): 407428. ScienceDirect. Web. 10
Nov. 2015

Peer reviewed journal article

provides statistics on
popularity of video games as
well as some theories about
the effects of violent video
games

Part 2: Exploratory Draft

I plan to analyze censorship in the video game industry in order to examine its
implications about the cultural attitudes towards sexuality and violence in the United States and
Japan. I, personally, am primarily interested in this topic because I am a fan of Japanese video
games, so I want to know why it is that I do not always receive the same product (besides the
translation) as a Japanese customer. There have been many games that have been censored or
banned in various areas for a number of reasons for as long as video games have been around.
For example, recently a topic of conversation amongst some video gamers now has been the
censorship of the outfit of a 13-year old character in the US version of the game Xenoblade
Chronicles X. I hope that through my project, I will be able to provide people with a greater

understanding as to why sexual censorship like that occurs, as well as censorship of violence, in
the United States but remains present in the Japanese versions.
The intended audience of this project is primarily fellow video gamers as well as parents
of children who play video gamers. Video gamers would be interested because they are the ones
who play these censored games after all, and many would appreciate learning about the cultural
significance of video game censorship. Parents, especially of blossoming gamers, should be
interested because their children are the ones who will be playing these games, and it would be
beneficial to them to understand why some of the games that their kids play had more graphic
versions in Japan.
At this point, I think that I would lay the paper out in such a way that I would first
provide some examples of violence being censored in video games between the Japan and United
States versions. I would then go on to talk about Japans attitudes towards media portrayal of
violence. Then, I would discuss some of the theories that people have, especially in the United
States, about the psychological effects of violent games as well as the laws created in the US in
an attempt to tame the content of video games. Following this, I would provide some examples
of censorship of sexuality in video games between the two versions. Once, again, I would then
go on to discuss Japans attitudes towards media portrayal of sexuality, perhaps by talking about
sexuality in anime. After this, I would discuss the cultural attitudes that Americans have towards
sexuality (and maybe nudity), especially as it relates to the younger generation.
So far, I have found a source discussing the laws in the US that were created to combat
some of the more mature themes in video games. I also have a source that talks about some of
the theories that people have about the effects of violent video games. One of my sources
provides me with an example of sexuality being censored in America. I still need to find sources

about Japans attitudes towards media portrayal of violence and sexuality, about American
attitudes towards sexuality, and more examples of censored video games. My audience will
probably be expecting examples of video games (and anime for the Japanese attitudes towards
sexuality in media) and statistics when it comes to the psychological effects of violent gaming. I
will accommodate those expectations by making sure that I find multiples examples and statistics
and analyzing them. People who would probably disagree with me in some areas are advocates
of the violent game genre. They would probably point to the psychological effects of violent
gaming and propose their own findings that contradict those effects.
I think my biggest concern about this project is the possibility of not being able to find
the sources I am looking for. I already encountered one such situation using the online database
for the library. The database referred to a source that sounded like it would be helpful with
studying sexuality in video games, but there was no online source available. It also did not look
like it was physically in the library either.