Am I the only one not put-off by the Dead Island statue?

[AT God]

I wouldn't have known about it if I didn't stare at the Escapist news feed hoping for good news about THQ so I don't think it matters. Dead Island was such a bad game, its not like a Call of Duty game where hundreds of thousands of people are going to buy the collectors edition. Also, if you don't want a bloody statue, don't buy the collector's edition.

Sex sells, we have sexy ladies on our pasta sauce jars, they put tomatoes in her hand to link the products. Why can't game devs sell statues of lady parts with blood on them to link it to their product.

 

[Shadowcreed]

The whole idea is just pretty damn stupid. I mean who the hell wants a female torso in their living room?? It's just a poor, poor idea and should be scolded for it. Or just ignore it - better that honestly. Bad Marketing is bad..

 

[joshthor]

i dont think most sane people are offended by it. it is however, incredibly stupid.

 

[AngloDoom]

A bikini babe is a perfect symbol of a beach holiday. It's been twisted to symbolize the horror. Because the game itself is a fantasy holiday that's been twisted. If you honestly think that it's made like this because men like to jerk off to that, then maybe you are the sick one.

Then why are the boobs intact?

Seriously, it'd be a lot more effective if one of the boobs were torn off. It just wouldn't be as sexually appealing.

I don't think anyone who would find a dismembered torso sexy would find it any less sexy if it was missing the breasts. But, I guarantee this thing would be getting WAY more cries of it being misogynistic if it was detailed in a fashion that shows the breasts torn away.

Think about what you're saying before you say it.

I disagree, since I think people who find the statue attractive (or at least eye-catching) aren't necessarily finding it sexy because it has no arms. I don't think the only people who would find this attractive are people who are into gore pornography, either. I'm on the fence regarding the misogyny, though, since a torn breast is very clearly female-orientated violence, but the problem people seem to be having isn't that a statue of a woman is dismembered, but that the statue of a woman dismembered is being made sexy. If the state was of a fat woman's torso covered by a denim jacket then I doubt it would be considered (as?) misogynist, for example.

Also, don't imply I'm stupid for holding a different opinion. There really was no need to be rude.

 

[m19]

Seriously, it'd be a lot more effective if one of the boobs were torn off. It just wouldn't be as sexually appealing.

Actually it would not be more effective. It would just be gruesome. In the conflict of the arousing imagery with the twisted fact lies a deeper more effective horror.

 

[WWmelb]

The fact of the matter is this about it being "sexualised".

The game is based from my understanding in a resort. Where women sexualise themselves. So do men. People in resorts sexualise themselves to try and be appealing to their preferred sex. It happens.

A woman at this resort got eaten.

Now is a statue.

The violence inflicted upon this woman was in NO WAY sexual in nature. The pre-death sexualised woman was part eaten and dismembered by a zombie. Would it have been okay if the torso was a fat woman's torso instead of a fit attractive torso? Would it have been okay if it had a t-shirt on? Would it have been okay if it had smaller breasts? or no breasts? or was a child?

Fucking hell, it's a bad taste statue because slasher horror is bad taste.

Here we fuckin go, lets go retroactively ban every fucking 80's slasher film because someone might be offended by a bare chested girl getting cut up by jason vorhees.

Hell we can even ban Cabin in the Woods. Girl got decapitated while topless and Thor didn't even get his kit off!!! ZOMG misogyny.

Seriously, i can see why people want to try and make this into an issue, and their REASONS are good ones, but THIS STATUE IS NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Said my bit.

for the record, as a fan of the slasher film genre, i love this statue lol

If we meet you're getting a beer.

Furthermore I think that anyone being offended by this should have said the same thing about Magic Mike when it came out for equal measure. And for the record very little people did. I know for a fact no one would have said anything even if it was a chiseled chest modeled after Ryan Gosling for crying out loud.

Sweet as. Free beer!!!! Its bloody hot here too so that would be great! I'll rest it on the neck stump of my mutilated woman torso!

 

[Orange12345]

I am not really offended by it or anything I just think it's fucking stupid

 

[AngloDoom]

Seriously, it'd be a lot more effective if one of the boobs were torn off. It just wouldn't be as sexually appealing.

Actually it would not be more effective. It would just be gruesome. In the conflict of the arousing imagery with the twisted fact lies a deeper more effective horror.

Oh, I completely agree that gruesome images + sexual arousing images = another layer of horror. It's probably a matter of opinion as to whether having a pair of breasts on a torn body is more horrifying than the same thing with one of the breasts torn itself due to the subjective nature of horror, and we can only speculate as to what reasons the marketers had behind the statue: horror or sex appeal.

Huh. I think I just created a discussion black-hole. Apologies, although I guess it's made me realise that there's not much discussion in something that ambiguous when we don't have someone on the team on-hand to say "Yup, we thought boobs = customers".

 

[Hagi]

Not offended in the least.

In fact, ever since I read a post of someone highly offended by it who suggested we'd imagine it being the mutilated crotch of a male with a bulging erection barely hidden by skimpy swimwear, I've started to find it somewhat hilarious. Because, seriously, if that's an adequate comparison I don't understand how you ladies keep from laughing your socks off at this ridiculous thing.

 

[Tumedus]

Way to go dude, calling everyone who thinks differently on this matter a "fucking idiot". Oh internet...

COnsider the fact that they included the torso as a special edition bonus, i.e a factor they thought might make customers want to buy the special edition instead of the standard version. A mutilated, headless torso with notably large breasts wearing a bikini. To what kind of person over 18 years of age does that kind of thing appeal to enough to make them want to buy the special edition?

I am not normally so antagonistic towards other's opinions but I stand by mine on this one. And it isn't because people disagree with me, its because getting upset over something like this is akin to being upset that water is wet. Yes I classify that as being a "fucking idiot".

And your consideration does nothing to change my view.

For one, I would say probably a much larger percentage of over 18s would actually like that thing. People too often conflate being childish with being a child.

But secondly, and more importanty, the effectiveness of their marketing strategy, unless you happen to be a stockholder, is not something anyone gets offended over. We could have a debate about whether this strategy is effective. Do the sales gains from exposure outweigh the sales lost from controvery? Or, had there been no controversy, would the statue inspire as many additional purchases as another item might have? But again, that's not a conversation that inspires moral outrage.

No this is people being upset that a game that celebrates a genre that is overflowing with boobs and blood and body parts, decided to immortalize it in a cheesy statue. I think it probably has more to do with the people not wanting to face the reality of what the zombie genre offers, and what it means about them, than it does about a silly statue.

 

[TheCommanders]

The thing is, I'm not so much offended by the statue/figure/whatever itself, but more the implication that gamers are all greasy 14 year olds with a gore fetish. And whether or not you think that's true, I guarantee at least one media pundit will spin in that way in their endless campaign against games. I for one am tired of juvenile marketing departments continually feeding them ammunition. If you want porn, there's an internet for that, you don't need a weird shrine thingy to put on your bookcase.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

At 10 years old I saw my older brother buy Spawn action figures and they were far more disturbing than that statue.

I'm put off by the statue, but not more than any other zombie or gore-ridden promotionals (toys, masks, posters, internet adds).

 

[An00bis]

You're probably the only guy here that's older than 12 and isn't offended by TOYS and VIDEO GAMES anymore. I personally wouldn't mind even if the box said "Fuck Romania because it's full of gypsies" (I'm from Romania) and had another message where they added "your mom" insults. I'm not offended by anything and I'm very surprised when people do, I think it's because they never had responsible parents that taught them how to behave properly as an adult. My father always used to tell me (when I was a kid and was scared because of movies) "son, those are just special effects, don't cry they're not real don't be a dumbass and stop caring about non existent characters". If a 6 year old kid could learn that fact after a few sentences spoken by his dad, why do feminists and 30 year old dumb as shit game reviewers give a crap about this? It demeans women? Until now you got to murder only men, what's wrong with a bit of gender equality? Yep, gender equality. You want male privileges? then you must perpare to be treated like men as well, real men don't cry when they see a male torso in a game.

BTW, I personally never heard someone complain about men getting so abused in videogames. I remember than in Postal 2 there were these taliban fellows that used to throw poisoned decapitated cow heads at you, poisoning you and killing you, why didn't anyone complain about that? It hurt my man feelings, I fell into depression and I kept telling myself "dude, you're a man, start behaving like one, don't let the big bad meanie developers that made Postal 2 make you cry! never!" while banging my head on the wall like an autistic teenager who also had ADHD. Why don't we treat men as we treat women? I'd really like to stop seeing violent movies where men get shot or murdered, or comedy movies where... *GASP* MEN GET KICKED IN THE BALLSACK! HOW CAN YOU SHOW THAT ON TV? YOUR FATHER WAS A MAN TOO! WHY DO YOU HATE MEN SO MUCH? OMFG
Damn... we live in such a cruel world, a world that's also retarded as fuck.

You want women to be treated equally? Become better parents and teach your kids how to respect women. I mean really now, stop blaming video games and movies for your mistakes, you bad parents. I played Duke Nukem as a kid, Postal 2 when I grew older, each and every Unreal and Quake game and I used to score hundreds of headshots in Counter Strike almost every day. Did i turn out to be a serial murderer? Nope. Did I turn out to be a rapist? Nope. Do I steal every thing I see in shops because in Morrowind I used to loot stuff from houses and chests and now I made that a habit in real life too? Nope. Did I have shitty, lazy parents that blamed others for their mistakes? Nope, UNFORTUNATELY I didn't.

Now excuse me while I load up Artificial Academy and Skyrim (modded with nude mods) to have a quick fap. I'm a real man so doing that in my free time won't make me a monster in real life, I'll still respect women because they're human too, and my mother was a woman who gave birth to me, worked hard and still makes me respect women even though I see feminist scum and dumb superficial whores on the street and on TV every day. She isn't a dumb ***** who wants privileges over privileges and hates men, she worked as hard as my dad, even harder probably, that's a real woman, the feminist animals and the white knights who love to perpetuate that feminist bullshit are scum and I'd rather lick my dog's ass after he eats spicy food than shake hands with them.

If I weren't an agnostic (I don't believe in this "Jesus" bullshit) I'd thank god for not being born with mental disorders, instead I'll just thank my loving parents that didn't give birth to a deranged individual that gets so easily transformed by videogames.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I think that if you are a fan of collecting a lot of horror or zombie articles and you have it displayed along side those other items, I don't see how it would be a problem.

If you have just this one thing that would obviously stick out to anyone who enter the room, then it would be a bit off to some people. I just don't see the point/idea behind selling this at all. It doesn't light up, there are no sounds, you can't do anything else with it besides having it next to your desk or computer, and it really is an eyesore.

I don't understand why they couldn't just include some figures instead of this statue. Is this really what people will remember/have fond memories of when they hear about/buy DIR? "Hey guys, check out this statue. Doesn't it remind you of that one time I killed a zombie in a bikini by first removing their arms and then their head? That was awesome, right?!" I just don't see that happening.

 

[Olas]

No, I'm not off put by it, I just think it's sleazy and childish and doesn't exactly challenge the stereotype that gamers see women as pairs of breasts. I mean, they could have theoretically gone with anything, they didn't have to choose this.

Also, it just wreaks of necrophilia, which as far as taboos go is somewhere between patricide and forced cannibalism in most cultures.

 

[Amaror]

I see what you're trying to say, but something tells me that when they made it, they weren't just specifically trying to pander to the necrophelia crowd. Thats not really good marketing, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want it on my shelf, but I'm not exactly insulted to the core.

If theres one thing you have to admit, it is kinda indicative of the game's actual content. Well, the first one anyways, but I doubt they're gonna be taking it in any new direction.

Of course they aren't trying to appeal to the necrophelia crowd.
But it is still pretty obvious how the thought process of the designer went:
Objective: A statue of a dismemberet body part.
So, what kind of crowd am i supposed to sell this to?
hmm, mostly men, ok then. I am going to make it something sexy.
When i make it a female torso with boobs, they're gonna love it!
I KNOW that Dead Island is a zombie game were you can dismember zombies.
I KNOW that it's on a tropical island were women tend to wear bikinis.
That doesn't change the fact that dismembered female torsos were never an integral part of the game.
They were there, sure, but there were also pistols in bioshock and yet when you try to convince someone that a statue of a single ordinary pistol would be a great addition to an bioshock collectors edition, you would be called an idiot.
It's obvious that they chose the female torso as a sexy advertisement, because there is no other reason why they should use a female torse. And no people in advertisement don't flip coins on such things!