The Japanese Association of Psychiatric Hospitals is both a real organization and apparently extremely touchy about videogames. According to a Shacknews report, the JAPH has got some beef with the Nintendo DS title
Dementium: The Ward and wants the title erased from memory and pulled from retail.
The JAPH says the game “fosters prejudice and discrimination” and “…uses the tradition of psychiatry in name, but uses imagery of attacking patients.” At least the title wasn’t called
Sigmund Freud: You Want to Have Sex With Your Mom, Dude. I can’t imagine what the JAPH would have to say about that.
Since I don’t understand Japanese, Japanese politics, or Japanese culture, I can’t really say that
Dementium won’t get pulled from shelves. The game arrived in Japan in June, which in Internet time, means a billion years ago. I think the JAPH may want to find newer, hipper games to gripe about that don’t require styluses.
Contest:
7:24 PM on 10.02.2008
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Japan shoves so much potentially offensive material in videogames and anime per year that it's simply astounding. Dementium is about as offensive as Winnie the Pooh compared to some of the material they've covered.
What?
Sounds weird enough to be a total hit and a compliment to Japanese culture.
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