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

[internetzealot1]

"which grants her a bonus to the damage she deals to male zombies"

That's fucking stupid. Why aren't we talking about that?
I assume that no characters have skills that let them do extra damage to female zombies, unless "Gender Wars" is a skill all characters can get.

 

[oktalist]

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.

P.S. I suppose I was thinking more about code review, which can be called a QA process even though it is usually carried out by a programmer (a different programmer from the one who wrote the code in question), and which could've caught this embarrassment. Of course they never knew that an internal name for a character skill would ever be seen by the public, but it could easily have been seen by other employees, and by the publishers and other corporate partners. I can't imagine that no-one else on the development team even noticed it. So it's not only one person to blame.

And I guess what I was curious about was, was the "joke" hard-coded in the actual game executable, in which case it's come from a programmer, or was it in a game data file, in which case it's more likely to have been a designer what done it.

 

[Dogstile]

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.

P.S. I suppose I was thinking more about code review, which can be called a QA process even though it is usually carried out by a programmer (a different programmer from the one who wrote the code in question), and which could've caught this embarrassment. Of course they never knew that an internal name for a character skill would ever be seen by the public, but it could easily have been seen by other employees, and by the publishers and other corporate partners. I can't imagine that no-one else on the development team even noticed it. So it's not only one person to blame.

And I guess what I was curious about was, was the "joke" hard-coded in the actual game executable, in which case it's come from a programmer, or was it in a game data file, in which case it's more likely to have been a designer what done it.

Ah yeah, code review, I never thought about that.

You've asked all my internal questions anyway. It is a bit odd that they didn't notice it at all. I know some companies like to program things in separate stages for different people but this is ridiculous.

Then again, the game bug's like crazy apparently, so i wouldn't be surprised if they didn't even bother with a code review :L

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

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.

Oh it's quite worse than that, if a Japanese woman doesn't get married by the age of 25 she'll already be considered less attractive or at the least a potentially troublesome wife (after all, she must not be easy to live with if she's still unmarried by 25) and after 30 it gets completely hopeless and they'll generally be considered spinsters by society. So the pressure for women to get married early in Japan is still quite existent.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

I worked in construction for a while, and do you know what we did when we had a blank space that we were confident nobody but us was going to scrutinize? We drew dicks on it. Or some equivalent, because that's what bored people do to lighten up the monotony of doing the same goddamn thing every day in order to eat. If a blank space, idle time, and marking tools were present in the same vicinity, shit was gonna get marked. While the crude Sharpie mural of Harry Potter and Voldemort dueling with ejaculating dildo-shaped wands was certainly vulgar and objectionable, it wasn't a personal belief or a symptom of society, it was just the stupid shit I ejected from the same part of my brain that resents the fact that I'm not at home playing video games and getting a blowjob, as a means of catharsis so that I may continue to function on an otherwise professional level.

It's a sublimation of the much less-savory impulses that are inevitably conjured by labors of obligation, like the little stick figures you drew battling to the death in the margins of your school notebook. Those doodles were not a statement endorsing murder or a warning sign that you were a deeply disturbed individual preoccupied with violence (although I've met a distressing amount of state employees whose only job is to make those connections anyway); they were just a buildup of piss and vinegar leaping onto the nearest surface and saying "I'M OUT OF YOUR HEAD NOW, YOU CAN GET SHIT DONE AGAIN", and in the case of this story, the nearest surface was be a blank box with a blinking vertical line waiting for a label. So, when I see a big shit-slinging uproar about the state of society and the political climate between genders, springing forth from the split-second brain-purge of some code monkey working in a cubicle farm, all I can do is wonder if you all don't have better things to be doing.

 

[cobra_ky]

I worked in construction for a while, and do you know what we did when we had a blank space that we were confident nobody but us was going to scrutinize? We drew dicks on it. Or some equivalent, because that's what bored people do to lighten up the monotony of doing the same goddamn thing every day in order to eat. If a blank space, idle time, and marking tools were present in the same vicinity, shit was gonna get marked. While the crude Sharpie mural of Harry Potter and Voldemort dueling with ejaculating dildo-shaped wands was certainly vulgar and objectionable, it wasn't a personal belief or a symptom of society, it was just the stupid shit I ejected from the same part of my brain that resents the fact that I'm not at home playing video games and getting a blowjob, as a means of catharsis so that I may continue to function on an otherwise professional level.

It's a sublimation of the much less-savory impulses that are inevitably conjured by labors of obligation, like the little stick figures you drew battling to the death in the margins of your school notebook. Those doodles were not a statement endorsing murder or a warning sign that you were a deeply disturbed individual preoccupied with violence (although I've met a distressing amount of state employees whose only job is to make those connections anyway); they were just a buildup of piss and vinegar leaping onto the nearest surface and saying "I'M OUT OF YOUR HEAD NOW, YOU CAN GET SHIT DONE AGAIN", and in the case of this story, the nearest surface was be a blank box with a blinking vertical line waiting for a label. So, when I see a big shit-slinging uproar about the state of society and the political climate between genders, springing forth from the split-second brain-purge of some code monkey working in a cubicle farm, all I can do is wonder if you all don't have better things to be doing.

If a customer came on site and caught you drawing dicks on his building, chances are he'd be pretty pissed, and justifiably so. He's making a significant investment into this project, and he probably doesn't want to pay workers who aren't going to take the job seriously. The key word here is professionalism. Shit like that happens all the time, but that doesn't make it justifiable.

Of course, once you cover it up, it's fine. Nobody's going to tear the building apart looking for dongs. But a video game is a mass-produced piece of software; whatever little cracks or in-jokes you slip into the code are going to be distributed to hundreds of thousands of end-users, a significant minority of whom are going to try to get a look at the code just to see what they can find. you can hide a dick drawn on an i-beam fairly easily; you can't hide them when they're embossed on every girder rolling out of the factory.

The individual programmer here isn't important. People have mental lapses and do stupid shit. The issue is that Techland, as a company, allowed it to go public. It makes them look sloppy and unprofessional, and it pissed off customers, which is something no business ever wants to do.

 

[mikeysnakes]

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.

Oh it's quite worse than that, if a Japanese woman doesn't get married by the age of 25 she'll already be considered less attractive or at the least a potentially troublesome wife (after all, she must not be easy to live with if she's still unmarried by 25) and after 30 it gets completely hopeless and they'll generally be considered spinsters by society. So the pressure for women to get married early in Japan is still quite existent.

I don't think that's the case with the younger generation, in fact most of my female friends here in Japan are 23-25 and the older ones haven't mentioned a single thing about boyfriends, marriage or any of that. I am also in the Kanto area, so it's not exactly "the sticks". Though I could definitely imagine that for the older generations since most of the older people don't seem to understand when I say "no I wont be getting married this decade".

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

Well, I would sure hope that ideal is fast getting outdated! The whole "Yamato Nadeshiko" idea is a bit silly anyway...

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Just the first page of this thread makes me wish being stupid was a bannable offense not just a suspendable one. The only thing funny about this is imagining the reaction of their PR department when they found out about this and the emails sent to the programmer shortly after, it's not a joke it's just somebody calling someone a "feminist whore". Even ignoring how offensive that is it's incredibly unprofessional.

This. I want to think that gamers aren't generally against women, but topics like these really show me our true colors as a group. It is disgraceful. Yeah, if it was a joke at men then this wouldn't be a dig deal. That doesn't matter. Last I checked, men haven't been second class citizens in a majority of cultures throughout history.

 

[HandsomeJack]

When the character is a female with an ability to do more damage to male targets I think sexist jokes are almost obligated to alleviate the implications.

 

[Retardinator]

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.

Not really, since it was a short program with four input variables. You could've called them Number1, Number2, etc. since there was nothing remarkable about them to have them specially named in the first place.
If you ask me, FeministWhore is fairly readable since it's easy to remember and also remarkably descriptive.

 

[znix]

Who gives a crap about what the code says. Only people who are obviously useless on this Earth have the time to go through every single line of code in a game. Time to stop breathing and give up the precious oxygen to the rest of us, idiot.

 

[jpoon]

This is hilarious and I love it, wish they woulda' left that shit in! I can't believe anyone would even give a flying fuck about this but I guess I just see a good joke here.

 

[longboardfan]

Wait, what was the misogynistic joke? I don't get it. Was the joke referring to the fact that she does more damage to male zombies?

 

[Svenparty]

Would they like some cheese with their whine?

It's hardly that important especially considering I doubt most people are going to scroll endlessly through code just so they have something to complain about.

As a male I respect women equally but it's silly when stuff like this is given massive attention and any advertisement can imply all men are idiots "So simple a MAN could do it"

 

[Suicidejim]

Being a devil's advocate, I'm forced to be on the fence on this one, since both sides have kind of raised valid points on why / why not this 'joke' was a big deal. Whether or not you find this offensive is really a personal thing. I'm a little concerned by those people who are using this as a chance to go an an anti-feminism / sexual equality crusade, because this was evidently just one or two programmers putting in a private joke deep in the code, not really a representation of the entire gaming industry.

Hell, maybe this guy was just cheated on by his ultra-controlling, radical feminist girlfriend, for all we know. I know that's unlikely, but my point is that one phrase doesn't give us enough information to make a concrete decision on what happened. It's hard to tell whether this was just misjudged humour or genuine hate given shape in the code, but either way, this was an isolated incident and I'd hate to see people in the gaming industry as a whole, especially men, be judged on the basis on one guy's mistake.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

I don't see what the big deal is.

Plenty of games and their devs are very laid back about this kind of stuff.

I'm more concerned that the person resposble will be punished for somthing that reall isn't a big deal.

 

[TheBoulder]

Wow! That's actually too stupid and sad to be offended by.

This means a programmer actually sat there thinking about the most clear identifier he could use and he came up with "FeministWhore"...

Ah well, just means there is/was a programmer working there with the mental maturity of a pubescent. But there's likely plenty of them around the world, just a shame this had to end up in publicity. Stupidity is generally best reserved for drunken bar trips and anonymous internet rants.

Yep, let's insult someone by calling them immature, irony is always fun.
...Wait a second, I remember you! You're the feminist who can't see that feminism isn't making things equal at this point, but making many men suffer.

 

[cobra_ky]

I don't see what the big deal is.

Plenty of games and their devs are very laid back about this kind of stuff.

I'm more concerned that the person resposble will be punished for somthing that reall isn't a big deal.

It's a big deal because it pissed off potential customers, and the primary responsibility of any business is serving their customers. Devs aren't supposed to be laid back about this stuff, because a lot of their customers aren't.

The programmer responsible deserves to be punished, because he embarrassed the entire company, damaged its reputation, and probably cost it sales.