-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Dead Island developer Techland "disturbed" by Feminist Whore skill
- Thread starter crimsonheadGCN
- Start date
The problem isn't the phrase itself - as far as insults and snide comments go, it's fairly benign in the grand scheme of things. I think we've all been called worse out there on the internet.
The problem is that is belies a level of sexism inherent in game development and production. It reflects poorly upon Techland, who have already suffered innumerable blows in the past week or so, but more to the point it reflect poorly on game developers, and by extension the medium of games in general. Games already objectify and demean women, but ostensibly the argument has been that it's what the 'market' wants; that every woman in Dead Island is a bikini clad playboy model because that's what sells. This incident, though, reveals that there's more to it than that - a latent misogyny that is more than a crass marketing move.
This whole incident is actually an apt metaphor. The misogyny that runs through this industry is so deeply rooted that it is nestled in the very source code of how we operate. And all we can attempt to do is mask it from the public by giving it a different name - games aren't sexist, they simply have 'target demographic' that excludes females; or that women are an 'elusive and underserved market.'
The fact that the response here has been so vehemently in favor of Techland's blunder speaks to that idea. Instead of addressing core problems with how we make games, discuss games, play games, and buy games we bury our heads - or, worse, cheer these conflicts on when they appear.
The problem is that is belies a level of sexism inherent in game development and production. It reflects poorly upon Techland, who have already suffered innumerable blows in the past week or so, but more to the point it reflect poorly on game developers, and by extension the medium of games in general. Games already objectify and demean women, but ostensibly the argument has been that it's what the 'market' wants; that every woman in Dead Island is a bikini clad playboy model because that's what sells. This incident, though, reveals that there's more to it than that - a latent misogyny that is more than a crass marketing move.
This whole incident is actually an apt metaphor. The misogyny that runs through this industry is so deeply rooted that it is nestled in the very source code of how we operate. And all we can attempt to do is mask it from the public by giving it a different name - games aren't sexist, they simply have 'target demographic' that excludes females; or that women are an 'elusive and underserved market.'
The fact that the response here has been so vehemently in favor of Techland's blunder speaks to that idea. Instead of addressing core problems with how we make games, discuss games, play games, and buy games we bury our heads - or, worse, cheer these conflicts on when they appear.
GotEmRunnin
Member
vocab said:
I read this as I glance at the overabundance of side boob in your avy.....
Mechanized
Member
Oh no, offensive language in a file name nobody is supposed to see/ever want to see, whatever will we do.
I'm just fighting back the tears as best I can right now. I'll get over this though. Some day.
I'm just fighting back the tears as best I can right now. I'll get over this though. Some day.
Neuromancer
Member
In Poland, "FeministWhore" probably doesn't have the same negative connotation it does here.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Princess Skittles said:
Mm... well that's definitely true.
Seriously though, feminist whore is a pretty hilarious name. It would've added a bit of comedic flavor to an otherwise utterly bland game.
Metalmurphy
Member
So this was somewhere in the middle of the source code that someone was able to find?
Back in college my source codes were full of stuff like this. It was easier for me to remember and no one's supposed to see that.
Back in college my source codes were full of stuff like this. It was easier for me to remember and no one's supposed to see that.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Believe it or not, most major game devs and publishers scrub through their code before RTM to make sure tidbits like this don't slip through, no matter how possibly innocuous even if there's less than a 1% chance anyone is going to see it. Noone wants to risk any potential legal liability.Mechanized said:
ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
The name isn't a big deal, the handling of the launch of the game is the problem. Based on what the Giantbomb guys talked about and what I've seen on the net, the launch is an embarrassment.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
duffyside said:
ZZZZZZZZZZZZINNNNGGG
Techland really should not have mentioned this publicly just because it was found and discussed in online Steam message boards. I highly doubt the 'story' would have gained much traction but now they've gone and thrown it out there for us all to read. Huge PR blunder by a clearly unprofessional company.
HammerOfThor
Member
crimsonheadGCN said:
I'm kinda behind, why has it been bad? I was planning on picking it up because it got some good reviews.
Also, its in the source, why is this such a big deal???? I put weird stuff in my source all the time....
crimsonheadGCN
Banned
HammerOfThor said:
The quality of the PC build is pretty horrible. And they supposedly had the developer's build of the PC version shipped to retailers and uploaded to Steam.
BattleMonkey
Member
Billychu said:
They fixed this all in a couple hours though. Yea mistake was made by they have at least been fixing issues it seems.
Zoramon089
Banned
If there was a skill called "male chauvinist asshole" no one would care but "feminist whore"?! Stop the presses!
Wolfgunblood Garopa
Member
SuperAngelo64 said:
Momo said:
It's called 'tact', a useful trait when participating in a civilized society that doesn't value callously treating each other like pricks.
Black_Stride
do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
I havent played the game, but whats wrong with having feminist whores in the game/source code?
If shes a feminist and a whore, i dont see a problem.
If shes a feminist and a whore, i dont see a problem.
Zoramon089 said:
Again, it's not so much the words themselves, it's what they represent.
Games, as a medium, are terribly, terribly sexist. This is mostly a result of the feedback loop we got ourselves in very early on - computer science is largely the domain of men for a whole host of sociological reasons, and as a result men made most of the games. Which, naturally, attracted men to buy them. Which grew the industry, and then pushed more men into development. And so the cycle of games made by men for men repeats.
As the industry has grown we've certainly welcomed more and more women into the industry, but it's still undeniably a boy's club - the games with the biggest budgets and biggest marketing pushes are aimed at men, the overall portrayal of women is that of sex objects, men are the heroes who act and women are passive prizes and damsels in distress. And even with all of the great, hard-working, super-talented women in the industry, very few of them are in positions of serious power, pushing for genuinely alternative viewpoints from the medium.
Sneaking phrases like 'feminist whore' into the code unveils that whole ugly, passive, systemic misogyny for the world to see. Unfortuantely, since the gaming community is largely a collection of men who feel threatened by the notion of recognizing how screwed up their hobby really is, you get threads like this - full of people cheering on this blight, and not condemning it. The gaming community is notoriously awful in its treatment to women - just ask any lady who has ever tried to sit down and play COD over voice chat. Hell, we casually use phrases like 'raped!' in order to describe excessive victory. It's an endemic problem to the whole of games, and I am aghast that so many would rather encourage than fight it.