Valve Responds to Racism Accusations

[Artlover]

The Confederate flag is not a symbol of racism, dammit!
Sure, there are some idiots, like klansmen, who misuse it, but they also misuse the crusifix, too!
The Confederacy itself wasn't about white supremacy, either! A lot of states wanted to keep slavery, but the essence of the war was about a different governmental mindset: The North wanted the states wanted a federal government with all the power while the Confederacy wanted the states to be independent, almost to the point of being their own individual countries.
Irk! Exaggerating morons!

Exactly. The Confederate Flag was and is it's own legitimate symbol with a valid purpose and meaning. It's not the flag's fault some idiots misused it as a symbol of their own repulsive agenda. To that end, instead of pointing fingers at the flag, they should be pointing fingers at those same said idiots abusing it. With that said, history is history. Back in the time frame of the game, people lived & armies traveled under that flag. Sorry if that upsets anyone, but them is the facts so get over it. History should not be rewritten just on account a few people can't deal with it.

You already mentioned the misuse of the crucifix, which I was going to mention. So instead let me mention another one, the Swastika. Everyone always throws a hissy fit about it being a Nazi thing. Sorry, nope. It's an ancient symbol over 3,000 years old that means positive things like life, strength, good luck. It's been used by China, India, England, Greece, America, Finland, even the native American Indians, just to name a few. Some military forces of both America and Finland had this symbol on their shoulder patches through WWII. Sorry a crazy madman used it for a short time too, doesn't change it's meaning or history. I'm even more sorry so many people are unwilling/incapable of recognizing that and would rather throw the baby out with the bathwater. If we want to use this odd "logic", then why not say that since the Americans used the symbol too during WWII, and they were the ones that ultimately defeated Hitler, that it was a symbol of liberation and vindication?

It really is pathetically sad how many wish to impose censorship and a re-writing of history. What's really disturbingly and vilely repugnant about it is that it's not some higher power trying to force this on the people, but the people themselves requesting it. Jeez, have people learned nothing from history? For those who haven't, it's exactly that kind of idiotic stupidity that creates oppression and dictatorships. Though now that I think about it, if it's one thing history shows is that people never learn from history and always happily and blindly go off repeating it. Sometimes I sware human's have got to be the dumbest creatures on the planet. Seriously.

 

[Nerdfury]

I should create a company that does every form of media possible - movies, books, paintings, music, TV, everything - and dedicate it to making the most controversially racist media ever conceived by man. The kind of work that would make the most racist redneck blush and cough nervously. I should attain a level of financial, political and media power that regardless of how bad I get, no one of any power would ever consider shutting me down because the financial or political fallout would devastate the world as we know it.

And all for one reason - so when someone makes a game where you kill a few zombies of non-Caucasian race, they think it's nothing by comparison.

 

[Evil the White]

Well, if there is a zombie apocalypse, I highly doubt that it would ignore racial minorities.

In fact, if it were, it would have to ignore white Americans, because they are actually fairly close to losing their 'vast majority' status.

 

[Hellenion]

The world is PC mad.

You can't say or do anything these days without being accused of racism or offence. You can't win; No blacks, you're undermining them, put them in, you're making them out to be evil. Usually I don't care about this PC nonsence but in a situation like this, where no offense is actually meant (as opposed to some of my blogs...) this really annyos me.

Hellenion.

(By complaining that there are blacks, these people claiming racism are actually being racist themselves by claiming that blacks are different in some way to whites.)

 

[Triple AD]

Yeah, cause there's totally no African Americans in New Orleans, so the fact that there are black zombies is like totally racist...

"with several of them who appear to be African-Americans."

...
*eyetwitch*
"The racial makeup of the city was 67.25% African American, 28.05% White, 0.20% Native American, 2.26% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.93% from other races, and 1.28% from two or more races. 3.06% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race." - Wikipedia, on New Orleans.

The fucking majority is black.
How does including them make it racist?
If anything, the opposite should be true!

I honestly cannot fathom the stupidity that goes on in the mind of this man.
Jesus Christ. Seriously.

I keep re-reading the article to make sure I didn't make some sort of reading comprehension error.

This pretty much nails it.

Seconded

Seriously I think he's like one of those kids who puts a cat in the dishwasher for attention so everybody just ignore this 'buffoon' and carry on with our lives

Now where was I oh yes now I remember... Mmmm... Cheese

 

[Phenakist]

So when an all Japanese team makes a game killing purely white zombies that isn't racist?

But when an American likely mixed race team tries to make a game with a single African American character model in it, they are instantly racist? that makes no sense to me.

If we are supposed to (to put it bluntly) kill the most populated race in video games not to be racist shouldn't all the enemies be Asian?

 

[Sparrow]

No commercially sold game in existance is racist. What dick of a producer would even think about risking that?

And about that blogger: He's a dick. He's obviously just trying to get attention. I suggest we don't give him it.

 

[Echo_419]

F.f.s. What the hell is everyones problem. If you put a black Zombie in a game, your racist. If you dont, your racist. I say there are too many white zombies in the game. Valve are racist toward white people. (and fattys)

 

[Nils]

The only people Valve is racist against is Zombies. But then who the fuck isn't?

 

[jonnopon3000]

Wow..."utter insanity" isn't the word. Oh. My. God.

That is all.

 

[jthm]

So wait. It's not racist if all the zombies are white? Why don't we just rename the game "Kill Whitey: Zombie edition" and have done with it then. That wouldn't be as racist as an accurate portrayal of the racial makeup of New Orleans I suppose.

As for the confederate flag in Call of Juarez, let's review a little history here. A great many former confederate soldiers who were disfranchised after losing the civil war (further reading, wiki carpet baggers) moved west in an attempt to either start again, or just keep fighting or look for gold or rob those who found it. It's not racist to accurately recreate history so long as you aren't glorifying the racists from those era. Now if the game featured your character taking part in a lynching or something, then I suppose we can call that racism.

 

[Strider_07]

People who claim the Confederate flag is racist make me want to punch babies. The confederate flag, as mentioned earlier, stood for the rights of states independent of the Federal government, and is completely necessary to make an immersive experience in Call of Juarez.

Left 4 Dead 2 is set in a predominately black city. I personally like New Orleans, and am glad that VALVe decided to portray it more accurately than "here is a city full of dead guys, oh yeah it's kinda swampy and wet and stuff and there are some buildings that look slightly french. also voodoo graveyard". I applaud VALVe for sticking to their convictions and keeping a mixed race set of zombies, being someone who feels that will make the game more immersive and a better, more real experience. I'm waiting for this guy to call out 28 Days Later because of

Spoiler

the black infected soldier chained to the wall in the courtyard at the army base.

If anything, you could argue that that's far more racist than VALVe's mixed race zombies.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I just want to be sure... Does anyone else notice that the Infected are freaking gray? I don't stop to make sure if I killed a Brother or a white guy or a freaking albino. I make sure that they are the proud new recipients of my hot, spent ammo and are suitably really dead because of it.

If I ever hear this racism thing again I'll go nuts. I could bet that if the zombies in Resident Evil 5 were white no one would give a shit. Hell, all of the enemies in Resident Evil 4 were white and I havent heard one single accusation of racism. And Bound in Blood was an amazing FPS, who gives a fuck about the flags appearing in the game?

Actually, I heard a bit. Especially when the game was being developed. But more of it was social class. Privileged looking white youth commits gentrification with bullets to get into underaged President's Daughter's pants.

 

[Are.Oh.Why]

Ugh, I'm black and I must say of there were no black zombies all the white ones would run slow hahaha. Seriously get off the race kick with video games, it pisses me off.

 

[Knonsense]

Okay, well I read the original thing and he seems to say that they should have just stayed away from New Orleans after Katrina, which makes some level of sense compared to what the quote indicated here. I could understand if he called it insensitive, but it's a hell of a stretch to say that the racial composition of the city makes it racist.

 

[CrashTestZombie]

Oh, so shooting a white zombie is okay but shooting a black isn't? Now that's racism.

I completely agree. If people think having a few African American characters in a videogame is racist, they're just doing this to themselves. If they're complaining that there are African American Infected in Left 4 Dead 2, it's not racist. It's a fact. It CAN be possible that African Americans live in the United States, hence the term African American .

The fucking majority is black.

^ What he said.

 

[ejb626]

Is this about to become a zombie game curse I'm not being racist here I have nothing against skin color but I don't see why its perfectly fine to kill hoardes of white enemies in games but as soon as a single black/other minority person dies its accused of being racist. I mean I think we're being a bit too politcally correct here. Like I said before I'm not racist because I'm sure I'll be accused. Not everyone on Earth is white by having black zombies RE5 and L4D2 we're trying to be realistic.

 

[reipsadeus]

This isn't helping Texas' image.

Utter insanity indeed.

Since I make my residence here in Texas, and once in Houston, this is a sheer outrage. Just some reporter attempting to forge a name for himself by lashing out at...forget it, I cannot bring my self to bear the weight of the shame that this person has put upon us Texas gamers.

 

[Srkkl]

[/quo

meh,I see no racism.unlike RE5,they are just mixing races for a more realistic zombie based experience,they can't help it it's set in new orleans.

How was RE5 not like what you described? If the setting is Africa wouldn't you be shooting Africans?

OT: This is stupid, I don't get how it can be called rasist.

 

[ExaltedK9]

"with several of them who appear to be African-Americans."

...
*eyetwitch*
"The racial makeup of the city was 67.25% African American, 28.05% White, 0.20% Native American, 2.26% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.93% from other races, and 1.28% from two or more races. 3.06% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race." - Wikipedia, on New Orleans.

The fucking majority is black.
How does including them make it racist?
If anything, the opposite should be true!

I honestly cannot fathom the stupidity that goes on in the mind of this man.
Jesus Christ. Seriously.

I keep re-reading the article to make sure I didn't make some sort of reading comprehension error.

Damned if you do, and damned if you don't. People are too sensetive, the ethnicity of a zombie doesn't matter anyways.