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Dead Island PR come up with most appalling idea in history of gaming PR
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http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121520-New-Dead-Island-Riptide-Bundle-Offers-Bloody-Boobs
Holy hell. I feel obliged to leave some kind of commentary about it to justify the thread but what can you even say? There's no indication that it's even a zombie, so for all intents and purposes a dev are giving away a foot high model of the grossly sexualised torso of the victim of a violent assault.
I don't see how misogyny in the gaming industry could get any more obvious or vile. I don't think of myself as a particularly sensitive or PC person but... just... holy shit.
Holy hell. I feel obliged to leave some kind of commentary about it to justify the thread but what can you even say? There's no indication that it's even a zombie, so for all intents and purposes a dev are giving away a foot high model of the grossly sexualised torso of the victim of a violent assault.
I don't see how misogyny in the gaming industry could get any more obvious or vile. I don't think of myself as a particularly sensitive or PC person but... just... holy shit.
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I mean, I've been making my jokes about Sam L. Jackson's Jurassic Park arm and such, but I do it with the understanding that this is not okay.
It is the most vile thing I've seen yet out of this industry. Hell, I was sort of interested in the new Dead Island - I played the first one after buying it on a Steam sale and found it enjoyable, if buggy and a little poorly implemented in some aspects. I was looking forward to seeing what they could do with a sequel but now I'm just going to take that money and spend it elsewhere. They've literally lost a customer in me.
He said, in the thread he made.
This thread isn't discussing the game, and it certainly isn't endorsing it.
Go for it man. Between this and the fun little sexist revelations in the games code shortly after release, it's hard to derive any positive interpretations of this development studio anymore.
I mean what the fuck
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Would that be equally as appalling?
Don't get me wrong, I think this thing is pretty stupid and has dissuaded me from purchasing the CE. I'm just having trouble seeing why I should be so upset by it. I don't fall into the "lol get over it" crowd, though.
I got nothing.
I actually didn't mind the original, but the whole weapons being made of paper mache thing really annoyed me and prevented me from making it too far in...I would have considered the sequel but I guess this cements not getting any deluxe edition.
I'm not sure that having a thread discussing a game is quite the same as promotion and it's certainly not endorsement. Yeah, I guess it's free advertisement of a sort, but you have to go looking for it; it's not like the Penny Arcade forum jumps out at you and pulls you into a conversation. I think the answer to your question is this: the line is drawn at your wallet. If you don't want to endorse that, don't buy it. I'd go so far as to say you can even buy the regular copy of the game and have a clean conscience.
My point is, I understand the reaction to this (I personally didn't realize it was a female torso until this thread, I skipped right over the joystiq.com article on my iPhone and didn't see the pic), but I don't think you need to go so far as to put the ban hammer down on talking about the game here.
It wouldn't be a man's torso though would it? Because you don't shift copies of a game by sexualising violence towards men.
It's a sexualized, bloody female torso.
Saying 'if it were X would it be as bad' isn't really a discussion point because it is not X. It is a sexualized, bloody female torso.
It absolutely screams 'serial killer rapist' and there is nothing defensible about it at all. It isn't even in poor taste. The mind that thought 'this will go over well!' is pretty damned fucked up.
How does one developer using a terrible debug name for a skill make an entire studio sexist? I completely fail to see it!
This bust on the other hand, it completely unacceptable.
It is worse because the social situations of women and men are different. They are not the same. Misogyny is endemic in video games.
I mean you realize what you're looking at here? There is no more literal demonstration of the idea of "women are just chunks of meat that exist to titillate (personality comes secondary and usually exists to justify titillation)" since that's exactly what this is! A hunk of bloody meat meant to titillate.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
It doesn't, but it suggests more than a little about the culture of their offices that he thought he could get away with it in the first place.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
That's like slamming Sim City for not having a mascot. Not every game needs a face. I could think of several things that would personify Dead Island better than a disembodied torso, personally, but then again I didn't make the box.
EDIT: added "consider" to more accurately reflect the situation at hand
It's pretty sad that the best outcome possible is the higher-ups in the company get wind of these, send an internal memo of "ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?", fire the ever-living crap out the person for being an idiot, then offer a profuse and sincere apology for their company having offered something so ridiculously terrible.
Though on the bright side, it does make choosing which version of the game to get pretty easy.
Well, those would be different statues. The games industry as a whole has a pretty poor reputation for how it treats women both on the development side, and on that of the audience. Dead Island as a specific example has its own terrible history (see the 'feminist whore' incident I referenced above). This statue that they have chosen to sell is a battered torso with an absurd pair of breasts in a bikini. It is both misogynistic, and paints an incredibly bleak picture of their intended audience.
Steam: BrocksMullet http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972421669/
I think this speaks volumes more about the publisher than the developer or the game, though. Now, if you want to have a discussion about dead island: the game, and it's many failings (I never was particularly taken by it), that would be another thing. But packaging really is a pretty separate deal from development.
banning discussion of a game because of the marketing team is kind of silly
yeah dismembered female bodies being an item which you can use would be better
wait what
Don't worry, there is an American Flag bra version for all your nationalistic needs.
If anything, banning discussion of a specific game would garner it more attention.
Really, they've accomplished what I imagine is their goal. They've spurred discussion of a product that most people didn't even know about, and it's absolutely appalling but I really don't think 'just ignore them' is the appropriate response here. I sincerely hope that this loses them customers that might've otherwise been interested in their product because we should not be rewarding this shit.
I suppose that explanation makes sense. It requires more assumption on motivations and beliefs than I'm comfortable with though.
Or, rather more than I would have been comfortable with had this bust not been approved by someone.
Right. That's the point. The feminist whore bit, in itself, suggested unsavory things about the culture of the studio but there was still some room to give them benefit of the doubt.
Now we have this and I think we can safely call it a fucking pattern.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
I'm certainly not buying this game now, barring some AMAZING act of contrition.
I've also let a friend know about this. He bought the original and I suspect he'll react the same way as me over this.
To quote RPS:
Regarding your hypothetical examples - A man's torso would be disgusting, but not sexist and less exploitative. A woman in that bikini fleeing from something would be exploitative, because she does not have to be in a bikini, even if it is set on a holiday resort. A man in a speedo similarly fleeing would not be exploitative, due to the position of the people behind this idea and the general position of men in society.
Please do not ban discussion of the game Tube. This is beyond gross, but better to forget it exists at all.
Even with the 'feminist whore' bit, if they were doing any kind of proper game development, there were more people who saw it (other programmers doing code reviews, for example). Which raises the disturbing possibility of either A) all those people were cool with it or
Neither of which make me feel great.