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

[DoxyGrim]

I think that it's incredibly asinine for people to be upset about this. Yeah, it's immature, and yeah, it could offend people (and god knows how much this could affect the company's reputation,) but it's stupid for anyone to get upset over this. Some things that people have posted in this thread are more offensive than "FeministWhore." So in my opinion, everyone who's bothered by this just needs to get over it.

I think that America/the media is becoming too sensitive.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

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.

Just becuase it doesn't happen where you work doesn't mean it doesn't happen...The issue of maternity leave is also cited by economic studies as being one of the key factors in a man being hired over a woman. Just becuase the legislation is there doesn't mean that it is working.

This is an interesting article on the disparity in Time Magazine; http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1847194,00.html

 

[jmarquiso]

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.

(pssst...yeah I was quoting and agreeing with ya.)

 

[jmarquiso]

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.

Just becuase it doesn't happen where you work doesn't mean it doesn't happen...The issue of maternity leave is also cited by economic studies as being one of the key factors in a man being hired over a woman. Just becuase the legislation is there doesn't mean that it is working.

This is an interesting article on the disparity in Time Magazine; http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1847194,00.html

England is a grand exception to the rule, as is Europe. Personally, I'm looking forward to Paternity leave when I move to Germany (if both parents share responsibility, maternity leave for the first 6 months or so, paternity leave for the second). Another exception.

But progress is happening. Just don't say everything is equal now, because it isn't.

Here in the States, women are lucky to get two weeks maternity (actually it's 2 weeks materninty + 2 weeks sick leave +2 weeks vacation - which means they spent their "vacation" time up in bed having contractions, and then recovering).

As for the chivalrous "men pay for the first date" social standards - they're not required by law, regulated, and they're not accepted throughout the world as social standards. My wife and I went dutch at first, then alternated who paid. I've dated women who insist on going dutch and are offended if I even try. I've met women who WANT to be on the front lines, but haven't yet. There are feminists who want equality throughout.

Every time a civil rights movement starts, people opposed complain about "special rights" for the other side, because suddenly regulation has to be put in place to make things equal. Suddenly blacks have to be considered for a job, why not whites? They fail to see that the legalese reads "regardless of race" so yes, it means all should be treated equally. Actual feminism doesn't argue for "special rights", but equal rights. And it amazes me how many people still buy into the special rights argument.

/rant

 

[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.

(pssst...yeah I was quoting and agreeing with ya.)

(pssst...sorry about that, I'm somewhat of a dunce)

 

[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.

Just becuase it doesn't happen where you work doesn't mean it doesn't happen...The issue of maternity leave is also cited by economic studies as being one of the key factors in a man being hired over a woman. Just becuase the legislation is there doesn't mean that it is working.

This is an interesting article on the disparity in Time Magazine; http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1847194,00.html

s'pose i can only speak for the uk. in previous work placesits been similar situations, some places there were many more female managers then men. any company not hiring based on gender would be crusified in a tribunal.

paternity leave has increased by law also, now i can get up to 3 weeks full pay, which is pretty damn sweet.

i'm pretty shocked how backwards America has been made to sound on this subject

 

[Deathninja19]

I like how people who say this are men and have never experienced personally misogyny and is probably bitter because women won't sleep with him. Grow up man if you acted a little nicer to women maybe, just maybe you will find someone who will not reject you.

As a rather openly irrelgious person in the American Deep South, I can personally testify that I have been discriminated against, and the victim of "hate speech". And you know what? I don't give a shit. When people seriously call me a heathen or tell me I am going to hell, or say things like "Oh, I used to think so much higher of you before I learned you were an atheist/agnostic/whatever," or "I don't know if I can be friends with you anymore," I don't fucking care. They're just words said by people who I have zero concern with. If I can get past people acting like an asshole towards me for my beliefs, then I think women can get past a few misogynistic jokes every here and there.

Are women and feminist so sensitive that a silly joke in a video game is some how deeply offensive to them? Seriously. Stop making mountains out of molehills. Either laugh at the joke, or move on. It's nothing to get so flustered about.

And just because I don't think misogyny is a problem means women won't sleep with me? What kind of fucking logic is that? Oh right. It's not logic.

No what I was saying is that people who think misogyny doesn't exist or is not a big deal often have problems with women themselves, and since you are commenting on a site that mainly deals with video games I am assuming like most of us here you have been rejected or ignored by women from a young age. That period of development can seriously affect your views on gender roles and probably think that women tend to get certain preferred treatments due to men, including you and me, lusting after them and should have no right to complain when a man commits an act of misogyny. I may be wide of the mark but I doubt it.

But what you seem to forget is that misogyny is not just words like your pathetic discrimination about being an atheist or whatever, misogyny leads to physical abuse, lower pay, intimidation and bullying. And as a so called victim of hate speech at the time I bet you thought that it was a big deal I would think that you would have some sympathy for people who have the same experience. But I guess not, it's almost like you're making up the fact you were persecuted, but why would someone do that?

But screw it I'll never change your mind because you'll never experience true discrimination for what you are or what your skin color is so this is a wasted exercise in futility.

That is pretty low...

1st off let me point a few things out to you. You do NOT get payed less. The gender gap is a myth and has been proven wrong 100 times. Yes on average women get payed less than men. But that is because women favor jobs with flexibility and are less aggressive about asking for pay rises. Also they are much more likely to forsake their career for family than men.

2nd physical abuse is a two way street. It happens to both men and women equally. What doesn't happen equally is the conviction rates for such offenses or any crime in general. Men have on average x3 harsher sentences for the same crimes than women. including men taking up 99% of death row cases. But Feminism which is supposed to be about being equal never brings any of this up.

And 3rd everyone gets bullied and intimidated saying someone elses mistreatment is somehow less than women's just because is kinda lame. Long story short no i do not think women have it worse these days. I also know that in some situations they have it worse than men. but the difference is men dont have a ridiculously active movement pushing their rights.

If you identify as a feminist I'm going to associate you with the feminist movement. Which is blatantly a women's rights movement and couldn't care less about men. If you want equality your backing the wrong boat.

source - http://www.avoiceformen.com/mission-and-values/about/

First of all I am not a feminist I believe in universal human rights and may even consider myself to be a moderate humanist. Feminist don't want more rights than men they want EQUAL rights, equal means the same rights as us. Think about what you are saying and maybe research the movement before coming out with unintentional (I hope) misogynist comments on feminism.

Second your first points are to do with the American legal system which I have no solid knowledge on so I can't argue against or with your points. But again your points about women in the workplace are inadvertently sexist attitudes about family etc are changing and more men are choosing to be househusbands and besides you're treating women as a hive mind, all doing the same thing, if that was true there would be no gender diversity in workplaces.

Third, about the bullying I was trying to make the point that bullying his form of 'bullying' was just other people's ignorance of his right to believe what he wanted to believe and that he was insinuating that misogyny was just 'hate speech' as he put it when he is ignoring institutionalised sexism and physical abuse some women suffer. Again I may have been misinterpreting what he was saying as he didn't make himself clear; I hope you understand what I was saying about bullying now.

I think you should look at your comment again, because honestly I'm not trying to be rude or insulting but there is an undercurrent of bitterness in how you phrase your arguments. Sadly women still need the feminist movement, have things changed since it started? Of course they have but there is still a need for people to make sure mistreatment doesn't go unanswered. Remember women are people too maybe you should put yourself in their shoes for once.

 

[jmarquiso]

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.

(pssst...yeah I was quoting and agreeing with ya.)

(pssst...sorry about that, I'm somewhat of a dunce)

(pssst...looking over my comment I'm a bit of an argumentative asshole, so you're forgiven)

 

[Dogstile]

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.

Q/A doesn't usually involve rooting through code. It usually involves making sure the game works while you're playing it.

 

[Flight]

First off, having an ability like that, which only works on one gender (men, in this case), is questionable to begin with, given the circumstances (especially since I'm currently playing through Dead Island as Purna, and she's quite angry a lot of the time). Second, slurs are never funny, period.

 

[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.

Q/A doesn't usually involve rooting through code. It usually involves making sure the game works while you're playing it.

I don't know where in the "code" (very broad term) the joke was located, as the Steam forum thread linked to by the OP seems to be no more, so I can't comment on which one of us is right here.

 

[Dogstile]

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.

Q/A doesn't usually involve rooting through code. It usually involves making sure the game works while you're playing it.

I don't know where in the "code" (very broad term) the joke was located, as the Steam forum thread linked to by the OP seems to be no more, so I can't comment on which one of us is right here.

Well, if my (somewhat limited) experience with programming has anything to say about it, the Q/A team wouldn't have come across it. We always had them play the game and then they'd tell us what went wrong then we'd go dig through the code.

Its not in the main game (the article say's that it's named gender wars ingame) so they wouldn't have stumbled upon it.

I hope that clears it up.

 

[Anjel]

Fucking political correctness, eh?

On a serious note, I don't mind individuals having non-PC attitudes - even if they decide to vocalise them or share them online. I'm gay and don't mind if someone says they are not cool with homosexuality, it's their opinion and they're entitled to it. Different story if it's released under a company name of course, as it can easily be read as the views of the entire company.

At work at the moment, but looking forward to getting home and booting this up for the first time... I may be saying the same thing about her if she pisses me off though

 

[oktalist]

Well, if my (somewhat limited) experience with programming has anything to say about it, the Q/A team wouldn't have come across it. We always had them play the game and then they'd tell us what went wrong then we'd go dig through the code.

Its not in the main game (the article say's that it's named gender wars ingame) so they wouldn't have stumbled upon it.

I hope that clears it up.

Not really, but thanks for trying. I'm a game programmer so I kinda know what the different roles are; I'd have thought quality assurance was more than just playtesting, but perhaps not, depending on the company. I guess you're probably right, depending on how easy the joke was to find. But the biggest goof was releasing a debug build in the first place. I wonder if there's any more embarrassing stuff to be found in the code.

 

[oktalist]

It's like putting LazyCouchFratBoy in your code as a skill.

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

No, it'd be like if a male character had a skill for doing 2x damage to women which was called ConservativePig. Or if a black character had a skill for doing 2x damage to whites which was called CivilRightsNigger*.

[small]* I decided not to censor the n-word here because it is the way words are used which makes them offensive, not the words themselves, and I didn't want to be accused of being overly politically correct.[/small]

I get that it is possible to call someone a feminist and a whore without implying that the two terms are linked, and it is acceptable to use feminist whore to describe someone who actually is a feminist and a whore. But to describe someone because they deal 2x damage to men as a feminist whore, yes there is something very repellent about that. And not just because feminism really means equality for men and women. MilitantFeminist would be borderline acceptable to me. Even MilitantDyke or FeministBitch would be better than FeministWhore. Because what has being a whore got to do with how much damage you inflict on people? Nothing. So why is it there? Answer: as a generic slur against all women in exactly the same way as the n-word is a slur against all blacks.

I'm not very upset, I'm not personally offended, I know the programmer probably didn't mean anything by it, actually I feel sorry for the guy (I think it's fair to assume he's a guy). But anyone questioning why it's a big deal has missed something substantial in my view.

I had friend who declared his variables in C++ class as M,I,L and F. Even the professor got a chuckle out of it.

Presumably he still got marked down for it, just as he should've done if he'd called them A, B, C and D. Variable names should reflect their purpose, otherwise you're creating unmaintainable code.

I'm amazed this guy was able to find that one line of code out of the millions of lines in the game!

A debug build would have a convenient table of all the variable names somewhere.

 

[BabyRaptor]

Ever wonder why there aren't more women gamers? Just look at this thread. Look at the people saying this doesn't matter, or even is funny.

There's your answer. Grow up, people.

 

[beefpelican]

I assume that this was just a joke that the programmer didn't think anyone would ever see. Nobody is PC all the time, and the things we make jokes about are rarely things we actually believe. The thing is, that sort of joke only works if told to people who know you're joking, otherwise it is quite understandably interpreted as an actual opinion.

 

[Hat Man]

Everyone who is getting upset over this is babies.

Waaah, waaaaah! Keep crying babies!

 

[ThunderCavalier]

... Except for the N-word. That honestly has way too much hate behind it to have a reason to live.

The more you try to ban a word, the more you try to control it's usage, the more afraid you are to use it, the more power you give it.

Admittedly, I suppose.

:/ Still, that word and its history just bothers me. You are right about what you say, but still...