While I was recouperating over the weekend, a fax was sent out to all the game makers from the EOCS, with details as to what some of the regulations are. Naturally, we turn to none other than our friends at Canned Dogs for more information on the whole thing.
Some of the main details include:
- "Training" and "slave" aren't allowed anymore.
- Rape, confinement, stalking, domestic violence, or anything that promotes a criminal offense is no-go.
- Hentai CG images cannot contain more than 20% of sexual violation.
- Hypnosis is OK
One of the interesting things in the wording about rape/confinement/etc is that it can't show the offenders in a positive light -- it gives me flashbacks to my class on Film Noir and talking about the Hayes Code, and the impact that had on the American film industry. Just a cross-cultural comparison I'm highlighting here.
Apparently pressure for regulations were aimed at retailers first, and then it finally worked its way up to the EOCS -- and already there had been regulations happening in the AV world, with rape and loli-like live action stuff being put on hold after the summer of 2008.
This is a huge problem for some people, like one company that had a project 90% done, only to find out that it's no-good under these regulations. Some of the reactions that Canned Dogs collected, as well as the ones in the comments, are really worth reading.
I wonder if the word training only applies to training the character to be a slave, or no matter the context, it is not allowed.
Somehow I get the feeling this won't last to long. The speed at which the ban came was a little too fast, so I think they will reverse it for a while, giving devs a chance to do something at least.