Steam User Finds Misogynistic "Joke" Buried in Dead Island Code [UPDATED]

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Purna does come across as pretty scary when you pick her on the character selection screen. Her voice is just full of bitterness and hatred. I commented on it to my friend when I picked her as my character last night.

That aside I'm sometimes disturbed about the attitudes towards womens rights. It's very clear that a lot of people have no idea how things are for women atm. We still get paid less than men for example and are less likely to be hired becuase of maternity leave. That is a fact.

Also when women assault men it is an offence and women go to prison for it... if this wasn't the case people would have a point when they say that society overlooks this violence. I once nearly got done for GBH for beating up my attempted rapist. The police take physical assault VERY seriously from either sex. However, Men do need to feel more secure about reporting it.

The game is pretty awesome from what I played of it last night PS. My friend can't drive for crap...lol.

 

[BSCCollateral]

If it fits the character that she has some problem with men, then it makes sense she'd damage men more out of anger. The insinuation that all feminists wish to damage men more is the misogyny.

No, not really. Hating someone doesn't make the bullets leave your gun faster, or something.

I can imagine getting a damage bonus on another species ("Try to shoot the human above the eyes") but on male or female ... zombies?

Developers: the thing to take away from this is that this is literally the stupidest possible way in the world to get fired.

 

[0986875533423]

I'm saddenned and offended that said bigot programmer didn't just type 'Feminazi', which is way more shorter, far more descript, and way more offensive, and thus would make this whole sitation that much more hilarious.

Way more offensive? I'd have thought that way less offensive. It targets a narrower group of people who are much less liked publicly, and it's much more accurate in conveying what I presume to be the intentions of the programmer.

 

[ilikepie59]

I am so sick of bloody political correctness!
Learn to take a joke people.
How have you made it this far in life if you're offended so easily?

 

[CScuff]

I wanted to comment on this, but I think if I do, it will probably offend *someone*. I don't want to be the next subject of one of these articles!

 

[Sunrider]

That's my point. You're not being deprived of anything, so your choice to get all "circle the wagons" about suggests bad things. You have nothing at all to gain by defending some random jerkass who can't make it 9-to-5 without saying things that would get most people in trouble at work. If you have nothing to gain or protect, it starts to look really suspect -- like you think calling people "feminist whore" is something worth fighting for.

And I think you're overreacting and really calling out the wrong person here. I'm just annoyed over how people always take things far too seriously.
By your logic, embracing the idea of freedom of speech is the same thing as being free to call anyone anything and get away with it. I'm sorry, but I just don't care about it, and I don't think other people should pay it any heed either. I'm not defending it. I just think people are overreacting. I'm guessing you can see the difference.

But it's not that simple. If a game had a black character who was unsympathetic and a coder referred to him using the n-word, that does more than just sit there hidden in the code. It says something about the person who made it. It says they think it's appropriate to treat other human beings like that. And when other people choose to defend it, it says they approve of it. If I don't like a woman, my choice not to call her a whore has nothing to do with what I think of her as a person and everything to do with my understanding that whatever is wrong with her is not a product of her sex or of how well she adheres to gender roles. Techland's rogue coder and anyone else who resorts to gendered slurs doesn't seem to get that.

I don't think you should be quick to judge like that in your example either. There might be unknown circumstances, like how that character behaves in said game. You didn't give me anything else to go by here, and just made up an example that happened to fit your view of this whole thing. If that black character happened to be a "gangsta" like in GTA: San Andreas, where they call each other "******" and white people "cracker" over and over, it could be easily understandable between the coders. If it isn't an attack on you or anyone else, just get over it. As I said before, I'm not defending it. I just think you're overreacting about it, and that's what bothers me. If someone came out and called you something like that, like saying you're fat (not saying you are, I have no idea. I used it because I am.), it would be a whole different ballgame. If someone used "fatty" to describe an obese character, I wouldn't care, and nor should any other overweight person. That's all I'm saying. Stop saying I'm defending it as if I actually think it's "proper". I don't. I just don't think it's worth getting upset over.

If I got up in arms every time some knuckledragger said stupid crap about feminism because he didn't understand it, I wouldn't be able to use the internet or play video games. What does bother me is how the moment people pointed this out, a whole hell of a lot of people start straw-manning the hell out of the entire feminist movement or leaping to the defense of something that deserves no defense.

It's not the most awful thing anyone's ever done, but it's also unambiguously shitty to do and it makes no sense that people would defend it.

Seeing as I didn't straw-man the hell out of anything, I'll view this as a general statement, and just say "fair enough". I think the basic idea of feminism shouldn't even exist as feminism. It should just "be". Anything else is just silly. But I can see why people are upset with parts of the feminist movement, just as with any other group that has an extremist side to it. I won't go into it further, I'm pretty sure we will agree on the point of feminism in general.

 

[LiquidGrape]

I am so sick of bloody political correctness!
Learn to take a joke people.
How have you made it this far in life if you're offended so easily?

Yes, because describing an assertive female character as a "feminist whore" is absolutely hilarious. Ha.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

i think its just a programer thing, i doubt the person who found this was looking to incriminate the Dead Island guys, he/she probly just found it amusing, hell my i've named 4 programs using acronyms that spell: shit, fuck and ballsac.

This kind of reminds me of the hot coffee thing from Grand theft auto someone found something inside the game files no one was supposed to see and now a tizzy is being made about it.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I gotta say, after reading this thread, the sad thing about the whole matter is not the joke in itself, which is stupid, but meh.

The sad thing is the people here, eager to bring out straw feminists and slapping each other on the back because they are so proud they are un-PC and don't give a damn about hurting people; happy to condone things that are much more hurtful than this joke up there because oh, those wimmenfolks, they sure are getting their knickers in a bunch again. Yes, it's very nice how easily you can shrug off attacks that aren't aimed at you and don't hurt you. You are so very brave.

(Not saying this applies to everybody who defends Dead Island, of course. I don't find the "joke" in question that bad either and can certainly understand the "What's the big deal" faction of the comments.)

I really don't know what the hell is up with my generation. Like MovieBob said back on his Correctitude episode of the Big Picture "words mean things." Seriously, if someone made a trophy that threw an ethnic slur on it, would people just say for Asians, Latinos, or Blacks to "get over it" or "it's just a game"? Dear Buddha, you'd bet yer ass that if gamers were caught using that in public they'd be lucky to get away with only a few bruises.

 

[cobra_ky]

The thing is, during programming, people tend to lose most mental functions as the works goes by. So what most likely happened was that this specific person just thought, "God I have no idea what to label this specific ability," and--as it's rather crucial to organize things properly in work involving a team--said to his compeers, "Hey, I'm going to call this thing FeministWhorePerna." Everyone gets his reasoning because of what the ability does and they probably get a few kicks out of it too as they are also suffering from brain atrophy. Obviously, the self-imposed writer meant to take it out at the final stage of production; the title only exists as a placeholder for a better title that can be thought of later on. That didn't happen.

Considering that I do this all the time when I program--though with more gravity on my wit--I sympathize wholly with this guy. I don't think this person deserves to be put on the chopping board for this, except for a stern lecture on naming things more properly. Such a situation shouldn't be used as a battleground for feminist dicussion because that's not the major problem here. Of course, as a forum goes, this is irrelevant because the discussion is now on the commentary rather than the article. So rage on.

i guarantee this wouldn't have happened if there was a woman on the programming team. Best practice is to never put anything that could be construed as offensive in production code, because you never know if or when a customer will come across it. Whatever momentary amusement you get out of it is simply not worth the risk to your company's reputation.

The reason this is a feminist problem is because this guy was obviously in a mindset where the term "feminist whore" was OK. I get that his brain was probably fried from marathon coding, and normally he wouldn't do anything that stupid, but the issue is that thought was there in the first place.

It's also a problem that some presumably rational people here honestly don't understand why the phrase "feminist whore" is offensive. I worry for the human race sometimes.

 

[SMR]

Who cares if its hidden in the code? You're not SUPPOSED to be looking at the code anyway.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I bet if it said something against men on a male character, like "pig", nobody would say a thing about it being bad.

But wait really, "Pig" is equivalent to "feminist whore"?

No, it isn't, I just couldn't think of anything worse than pig that was used as a bad term towards men...

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

i think what most people think of as feminists are actually feminazi extremists. real feminists (from what i read in previous discussions) just want equality.

so should the script have read FeminaziWhorePurna ?

 

[oktalist]

The person responsible for this unfortunate situation will face professional consequences for violating the professional standards and beliefs Techland stands for.

While it is right that the programmer or designer in question should be reprimanded for including the joke in the first place, what about the QA team that allowed it to go through into the release? I don't imagine they will see any consequences for their failure to catch this.

 

[jmarquiso]

If it fits the character that she has some problem with men, then it makes sense she'd damage men more out of anger. The insinuation that all feminists wish to damage men more is the misogyny.

No, not really. Hating someone doesn't make the bullets leave your gun faster, or something.

I can imagine getting a damage bonus on another species ("Try to shoot the human above the eyes") but on male or female ... zombies?

Developers: the thing to take away from this is that this is literally the stupidest possible way in the world to get fired.

Last I checked it was mainly a melee game?

EDIT: And I agree he shouldn't be fired, but at least lectured.

 

[oktalist]

I am so sick of bloody political correctness!

I know mate, you can't do anything these days, it's political correctness gone mad, you can't even scrawl racial abuse in excrement on someone's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat.

 

[jmarquiso]

And I think you're overreacting and really calling out the wrong person here. I'm just annoyed over how people always take things far too seriously.
By your logic, embracing the idea of freedom of speech is the same thing as being free to call anyone anything and get away with it. I'm sorry, but I just don't care about it, and I don't think other people should pay it any heed either. I'm not defending it. I just think people are overreacting. I'm guessing you can see the difference.

One thing people forget about freedom of speech, that despite being free to say what you want, people still have the right to be offended by it, and are therefore free to choose how they react. If you're manufacturing cups for a fast food company, and secretly write hateful passages under the cups, the company will be held accountable for it. Further, that company will then react to their vendor / employee and make decisions that will cost someone money.

The right to freedom of speech also means the right to be offended. Further, it means the right to be corrected.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

That aside I'm sometimes disturbed about the attitudes towards womens rights. It's very clear that a lot of people have no idea how things are for women atm. We still get paid less than men for example and are less likely to be hired becuase of maternity leave. That is a fact.

really?
2 of the 3 managers on my team are female, and they are on the same pay scale as eachother.
the women the same grade as me are on the same pay scale.
Also, here in the UK, it is illegal to not hire due to race, gender, beliefs, sexual orientation, disability unless its for inpraticible reasons.

 

[mikeysnakes]

I bet if it said something against men on a male character, like "pig", nobody would say a thing about it being bad.

But wait really, "Pig" is equivalent to "feminist whore"?

No, it isn't, I just couldn't think of anything worse than pig that was used as a bad term towards men...

ah okay, well I mean my point anyway is that I think the issue people are taking is that it's offensive towards a certain group of rights activists more than against women as a whole. So it's like if some movement you agreed with was called fascist or something like that. I think the outrage is more so like people who are self-defined feminists or supporters of it, being offended because the hate of such people is either from misogyny or misunderstanding and thinking that all feminists are just opportunists hoping to make life easier for women than it is for men.

Also it just smacks a bit of hate speech.

That aside I'm sometimes disturbed about the attitudes towards womens rights. It's very clear that a lot of people have no idea how things are for women atm. We still get paid less than men for example and are less likely to be hired becuase of maternity leave. That is a fact.

really?
2 of the 3 managers on my team are female, and they are on the same pay scale as eachother.
the women the same grade as me are on the same pay scale.
Also, here in the UK, it is illegal to not hire due to race, gender, beliefs, sexual orientation, disability unless its for inpraticible reasons.

In Japan it seems to be pretty bad, I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to discriminate, but my girlfriend's student (a man) told her about how at the end of college it's really stressful for students because they basically apply to be promised a job once they get out (must be really nice), but that it's far more stressful for women because jobs are afraid that if they hire women, they'll get married and pregnant and then quit. Which is odd considering the normal age for marriage in Japan is like 28 or so.

 

[Sunrider]

One thing people forget about freedom of speech, that despite being free to say what you want, people still have the right to be offended by it, and are therefore free to choose how they react. If you're manufacturing cups for a fast food company, and secretly write hateful passages under the cups, the company will be held accountable for it. Further, that company will then react to their vendor / employee and make decisions that will cost someone money.

The right to freedom of speech also means the right to be offended. Further, it means the right to be corrected.

Which is what I meant by it. I meant that by the logic previously used in that discussion, freedom of speech means "call anyone anything and get away with it", which it isn't. I never defended it. It was implied that I believed this, simply because I thought this whole thing has been blown out of proportion, and I think people should not try so hard to be offended and annoyed.