Sherack Nhar Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 Province of Québec, Canada: As of tonight at midnight, about 60% of the games sold in legal electronic stores such as EB, Compucentre, and Futureshop will be removed from the shelves and no longer be available for purchase, being labelled as "illegal" by the government of Québec. Why? Not because these games feature excessive amount of gore or violence. Not because they feature scandalous representations of females. No: They will be illegal because they sport an english-only packaging and instruction manual. This might be hard to believe for most of you here that such a thing is possible; on north american grounds even. Heck, go to France and they don't care about this kind of stuff; you only see it here, in Québec. Unless you're ready to make a bilingual packaging and instruction manual for your game, forget about trying to sell it legally in Québec. Obviously, losing 60% of your wares is a catastrophic news to any videogames retailer across the province. I wouldn't be surprised if the smaller shops will go bankrupt. Not to mention that customers such as myself will find themselves unable to buy certain games unless they are ready to import. Unless it comes from a big name publisher, I doubt we're gonna see it retail here. Too bad, Egosoft's X2: The Threat just went gold a few days ago. Just when I thought everything was fine here -_- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 I know what you mean man. These extremists are a bunch of stupid f*****' idiots who have too much time on their hands. Geez... They waste their time with stupid things like this that no one cares(at least a VERY HUGE MAJORITY) while there are some bigger problems. Waste of money to make a law and waste of money to apply it and huge insult to all the gamers here. Damn, I'm gonna have to drive to Ottawa to buy something now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clefo Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 Here's what we do: We (America) take over Quebec (Since the rest of Canada hates it anyway) make the mother****ers speak english and rename it "Kwebek" That'll learn em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 hmmm... It's not about everyone here here. You forget that these laws are being made by extremists, not the regular people. Actually I know a lot more people who want the place to be more open and maybe one day bilingual(I'm one of those). Syphon Fliter 2: For anyone in québec right now, you must remember the story about the subway separatist terrorists. Anyone else things it's some kind of irony that a week after this was found out, a real terrorist group is found? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Homer Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 Dude, this is pretty f***ed up right here.[/stan from South Park] for some reason a scene from Canadian Bacon (bad John Candy movie about strained relations w/ Canada). It had some Americans driving through Quebec in a large truck that had the message "Canadians Suck" written in huuuge, spray-paint letters on the side. They get pulled over by a cop for not having the same message in French... like I said, bad movie...and, ironically, a bad law-making decision. I give this move by the Quebec government Darth Homer's Two Thumbs Down Award! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 damn canadians;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swphreak Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 Originally posted by Chase Windu Where I live there are a lot of mexicans and most, if not all, don't speak english. So everything is printed in both English and Spanish. Lots of people are getting mad that buisnesses don't speak Spanish. It' really f***ed up too. I mean if you're going to move to another country to work and/or live at least learn some of that country's language. I'd try to learn some of a different language if I was just visiting another country but these people are living here and don't speak the language. It's so bad here I think they're going to start ban english products here too. I hope I'm not coming accross as a racist or anything because I'm not. It's just that there are so many people that don't speak english where I live. It just so happens that they are Mexican. I'm sorry for my ranting. I just needed to get that off my chest. It just makes me so mad. Nono, please continue. I agree with you. English is the language of the U.S., not Spanish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clefo Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 You live in Iowa, right Chase? Well I live on the border, multiply all those complaints by 10 and you got me. What's REALLY funny is that you have all these people in Arizona (which last time I checked was the 48th state of America) who are VERY nationalistic... towards Mexico. To say it in my very best Jerry Seinfeld voice: "What's the deal.. with that?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praetorian Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 How in the world does a group get a law like that passed? Did you guys elect that many extremist into your government or did they just pull a lot of strings. That is SERIOUSLY messed up. This is even worthy of a "WTF of the week". An as for the spanish thing...I realize that they want to speak their native tongue, but you can't just come into another country and demand the inhabitants their speak your language. You moved in, you learn the language. Last I checked that's what everyone else does when they move to a new country. It's only polite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherack Nhar Posted November 7, 2003 Author Share Posted November 7, 2003 Originally posted by Praetorian How in the world does a group get a law like that passed? Did you guys elect that many extremist into your government or did they just pull a lot of strings. That is SERIOUSLY messed up. This is even worthy of a "WTF of the week". Actually our political groups are not all that extremists (much less than those in the US). But the general population feels threatened when it comes to languages. Chase, this isn't exactly the same situation. The french were here *before* the english took over. That's why they are so bent on keeping their culture intact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edlib Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 Originally posted by Clefo ... rename it "Kwebek" How about we rename it "Trebek" and take over all the major TV outlets and force them all to play 24-hours of Jeopardy reruns; translated into Mandarin and Swahili, with Sanskrit subtitles?!? Actually,.. what's so hard about pointing people to a game-maker's website where they could download a French-translated manual as a PDF? Silly laws... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praetorian Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 Originally posted by Sherack Nhar Actually our political groups are not all that extremists (much less than those in the US). But the general population feels threatened when it comes to languages. Chase, this isn't exactly the same situation. The french were here *before* the english took over. That's why they are so bent on keeping their culture intact. That makes it clearer. However, now that you can't sell video games in 1 language, I guess pretty soon you can't sell books that are only in one language. Or how about groceries, resturants, computers, tvs, phones, toliet paper, shoes, pens, internet sites, garage door openers, wallpaper, deoderant, fire extingishers...and while were at it, if you print something, you have to print it in both languages. I understand the feeling of the threat to the language, but why video games? That seems an unusual choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherack Nhar Posted November 7, 2003 Author Share Posted November 7, 2003 Originally posted by Praetorian That makes it clearer. However, now that you can't sell video games in 1 language, I guess pretty soon you can't sell books that are only in one language. Or how about groceries, resturants, computers, tvs, phones, toliet paper, shoes, pens, internet sites, garage door openers, wallpaper, deoderant, fire extingishers...and while were at it, if you print something, you have to print it in both languages. I understand the feeling of the threat to the language, but why video games? That seems an unusual choice. Hah, way ahead of you. The law is called "bill 101". It contains all the rules pertaining to the languages in the province, and the main rules is that everything must be at least bilingual, including everything you have named and more. Packaging for just about any products here has one side in french and one side in english. It is also against the law to have more packages showing the english side on the shelves than french sides. A few months ago, a restaurant called both "The Lion and the Walrus" and its french translation "La Lionne et le Morse" got fined... because the english sign just outside the restaurant was bigger than the french one just below it. They took it to court, trying to declare bill 101 as unconstitutional but they failed and got shut down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swphreak Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 God Bless America Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherack Nhar Posted November 8, 2003 Author Share Posted November 8, 2003 Originally posted by StarWarsPhreak God Bless America You know what, despite the bill 101 I would still rather live here than in the US. But I'd rather live elsewhere altogether, like in Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jediduo Posted November 8, 2003 Share Posted November 8, 2003 That sign thing seems ridiculous, but I guess that's just the way it is in Canada. Why don't you want to live in the US? Someplaces aren't actually that bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted November 8, 2003 Share Posted November 8, 2003 Nah although we're overtaxed by far and have some problems, Québec is a very nice place to live. Conserving your culture here is more effective as a matter of facts. I've observed that in Québec, it was actually easier for immigants to keep their original cultures, this also goes for their kids. In the US and in Canada(outside Québec), I've yet to bump into another vietnamese guy who's 35 years old and under and still speaks his maternal language. As for bill 101, it still has its merit outside its stupidity. I think it should have been made to make everything bilingual instead of advantaging one language over another. A while ago, in Greenfield Park, a small town outside of Montréal, they fined the city because the street signs in english weren't written 50% smaller then the french one...they were the same size... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Homer Posted November 8, 2003 Share Posted November 8, 2003 Originally posted by StarWarsPhreak Nono, please continue. I agree with you. English is the language of the U.S., not Spanish. The U.S. has no official language. As we are supposed to be a "melting pot" of the world. It just happens that we predominately speak english. Probably because the English settled the country. If we were settled by the French we'd all probably be surrendering...I mean speaking french... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthfergie Posted November 8, 2003 Share Posted November 8, 2003 Last I checked, the US's official language is English. <_< >_> I thought Canadian Bacon was a good movie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Homer Posted November 8, 2003 Share Posted November 8, 2003 see: http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20011107.html http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_lang.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_in_the_United_States though some states have mandated that English is the official language, the Federal Government has not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praetorian Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 Originally posted by Darth Homer The U.S. has no official language. As we are supposed to be a "melting pot" of the world. It just happens that we predominately speak english. Probably because the English settled the country. If we were settled by the French we'd all probably be surrendering...I mean speaking french... ROFL!!! Anyway, Don't you guys have a freedom of speech in your constitution? I would think that a freedom of speech and freedom of press would negate any rule like this. I realized the need to preserve the languages, but WHY WOULD YOU FINE SOMEONE FOR HAVING THE LANGUAGES THE SAME SIZE??? That's sounds like a little thing I call insanity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherack Nhar Posted November 10, 2003 Author Share Posted November 10, 2003 Originally posted by Praetorian Anyway, Don't you guys have a freedom of speech in your constitution? I would think that a freedom of speech and freedom of press would negate any rule like this. Theorically, yes. In practice, it's a different story, since the majority of the people here agree with the bill. It's kind of like your beloved senator Lieberman who would censor all videogame violence if he had his way; it's against freedom of speech, but he's still pushing for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praetorian Posted November 12, 2003 Share Posted November 12, 2003 I think people have forgoten the point of the constitution. (or whatever you equivalent is in Cananda) It's not just laws, it's a safeguard to prevent people from putting bad laws into place. However, to counter-point myself, the people give the government it's power (I forget the name of that concept), so I guess if the people want it, that's different...however, they should change the rule before they contradict it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 We do have a constitution and it has remained unchanged until the 80's if I'm correct. Québec did not agree with the new Constitution and did not sign it...so you can guess they didn't really follow it. Bill 101 has its good sides but a lot of people are taking it too seriously and are exploiting its flaws for the worst. Well my friend, who's a separartist by the way, tried to buy the GTA3/GTA:Vice City Bundle pack but he couldn't because they wouldn't sell it to him. Even he thinks this is starting to be ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jed Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 I'm sorry, this boggles the mind. I can't see any reason why this would be beneficial. I don't understand why that government cannot, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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