Adoptive Parents Call Portal 2 Jokes Offensive to Orphans

[rsvp42]

It seems a good number of my fellow escapist members either didn't fully read the article or they just fucking read it wrong. Someone mentioning that they were offended or bothered by something and wanting to talk to the developers about it it is not the same thign as calling for censorship and bannings, which seems pretty obvious to me but has obviously flown over some individuals heads.

I think it's the triviality of the matter compared to how the father is dealing with it. He could easily just send an e-mail to Valve (hell, Gabe Newell himself invites e-mails and he says he reads every one) or just discuss the matter with his child. Bringing the media into it is unnecessary. It would be like running a story on some guy offended by a comedian, which is not news.

 

[beema]

This guy sounds like a fat stupid adopted loser.

Seriously, people take offense at goddamned everything these days. Get a sense of humor and grow a thicker skin you tool.

 

[cross_breed]

People continue to amaze me... In a bad way. It's like people are just trying their best to be offended by something.

 

[eharriett]

Oh for pete's sake.....

 

[NitehawkFury]

Political Correctness is ruining the world. Heaven forbid someone makes fun of her at school, or on the bus, or what if she watches a TV show where a kid loses his parents...! Oh no! Learn to laugh a little, sheesh. This could have been a great opportunity for the parents to discuss the topic with their child, and let the kid realize that being adopted isn't really a big deal.

But instead, they MADE it a big deal, and so the kid's going to think that she's "different" just because she was adopted. It's not supposed to be serious, and even if it was, you don't need to take personal offense to it. That's what personal choice is all about. Parents have to teach their kids how to take these kinds of insults at some point without breaking down into a sobbing mess, so why not in the safety of their own home?

Parenting opportunity missed just for the sake of some free publicity. We can make a scene, so let's do that instead of just helping our child. Idiots.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

(SIGH) I new something like this would come up sooner or later

 

[MrHero17]

I think it's the triviality of the matter compared to how the father is dealing with it. He could easily just send an e-mail to Valve (hell, Gabe Newell himself invites e-mails and he says he reads every one) or just discuss the matter with his child. Bringing the media into it is unnecessary. It would be like running a story on some guy offended by a comedian, which is not news.

I think that critiqueing his being public about it rather than being private is a fair thing to do. It's worth asking why anyone on the escapist should actually care that this happened(I still don't know why we ever have news post about anonymous).But if the father overreacted a little by going public with this than the people in this thread have been over acting a lot. This guy did not earn himself any sort of vitrol or hate or rage because he did this.

The guy bought Portal 2 for his 10 yeard old daughter, sits down to play it with her and people here at the escapist are shitting on him for it. What the hell guys!?!? Aren't fathers like him more or less what we like to see in regards to our hobby?

 

[Kernalgohd]

see, these people, whether they know it or not, are trollin' they feed off this reaction and thats why they do it, if we just ignore these oversensitive morons, they'll go away 'till they find a new way to get attention. And yes, school will kill the kid... no... the kids father will kill himslef before the kid. I call it, lemme know when it happens, cuz it will.

I dont call the newspaper and let them know I stubbed my toe in the morning, these are family matters that are being released to the public... and for what reason?? Griefing Valve because they have nothing better to do.

 

[bram961]

Good lord the sensitivity on some people.

I mean this is a work of fiction, besides the computer is trying to mess with the characters brain using quite poor insults.

And as for the guy raving about how the game shouldn't have such "insults" in the first place since it was an E game... well the developers dont RATE the games, the rating comes afterwards.

If he was offended he should contact ESBR and have them become even more "sensitive"

hes not over reacting or being sensitive he just says somthing he didnt like off a game like i said before feedback people its important

second who is sensitive here
the guy who said somthing in a game was inapropriate or
about 216 people replieing saying hes bad because of saying somthing is inapropriate in a game
guys what do we stand for these days
we should stand for human rights of free speech but now we are standing here defending a game/a bunch of 0's and 1's

good the game makers had the right of free speech to say somthing about orphans but the people taking it offensive have the same rights and thus they can tell their feelings on the news if they wish

now stop bragging about him being bad PLZ and make this thread somthing we should care about

secondly why you guys should stop bragging about him there are 200 people before you you made your point ok

Christ... I'm not usually one to be a grammar nazi but your post was actually painful to read. Please learn how to use grammar at least a little bit if you're going to be arguing about free speech.

How is contributing to creating a negative media campaign against the game in any way the same as simply providing feedback?

He is being overly sensitive. The joke was relevant to the plot, and his argument is ridiculous. He implies that it meant he had to tackle the subject of adoption before they were ready. I didn't realise it's possible to sidestep topics when dealing with kids and just simply get them interested in something else. My word...

Your argument is fundamentally flawed from the start, as you're complaining about people complaining about something, and bringing in freedom of speech. Surely all of the 200 people who posted in this thread have a right to their freedom of speech, don't they?

to make thing's clear
1. i got dyslexia so i can't help it making mistakes in foreigin langueges
2. he isnt being overly sensitive an over sensitive reaction would be sueing valve for this
3. feedback is always good because it makes game developers having thought of thing's they wouldn't have thought about whilst making the game and his so called negative media campaign wasn't really that negative.
i recall hearing the game was good so that would mean that the man is just trying to point somthing out he didn't like.

4.what i mean with the free speech thing is that we are complaining here about a man using a right he has and can use at all times, and that complaining about the fact he said a thing like this would 1. not make the game worse in any way for anyone here 2. doesnt have any effect on valve or assosiates because he isnt going to sue them and 3. wouldn't make a diference in this at all

what is said has bein said and won't be untold if i got that right

P.S. i tried using the best grammar i know in this one hope it works i wish i could depend on a checker for it but the ones i use always seem to go to the silly side of grammar checking in which they 1 track where i live 2 use the languege (dutch) from where i live and then continueing on that go try to translate evrything into dutch

i dont want to offend people or make their heads hurt with bad grammar i'm just trying to say that this man has done nothing wrong or bad and even helped valve with his commenting on their game

all i heard about portal 2 was that it was such a good game it surpressed all other games like they were made from butter it is good to get some comments that complain about things in a game all developers can learn from what people dont or do like on games and maybe in the future make a game that has jokes that offend nobody ( it is possible example who got offended by all the jokes about cake in portal 1 i think nobody and dont go on the silly side of people that bake cake) and make the perfect game for all of us

 

[Sarah Frazier]

This just goes to show just how eager some people are to find offense in anything.

Really? A whiny coward of an AI in a video game poking at adoption is so horrible? Imagine how bad things will be with real children who are much more imaginative and a bit less aware, or remorseful, that what they say and do are hurtful.

Life is tough, and if the parents want to shelter her from a game that she can simply not watch or play then they are setting her up for far worse falls when things get real.

*This message was approved by somebody who is adopted and couldn't care less about it being brought up in a game*

 

[Chris646]

Who cares if it's offensive to this small group of people? If the number of people who aren't offended by it outnumbers the amount of people who are offended by it, then you really shouldn't go screaming into the stars and heavens "I'm offended!" Because nobody cares. People should only really care about it when the number of people who are offended by it outnumbers the number of people who aren't. Portal 2 was a great game, the guy saying this even admits that.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

So what's the party line? Slamming the parents for being offended?
For once I'm here to defend something. I can see how the parents might be worried that their child could get upset by this comment. But I don't think the child would be offended by that.

To be honest, some of the comments on this thread are just stupid. Saying that these parents are... let me find one to quote.

and guys like HIM are raising the up-and-coming generations....well fuck if an apocolypse DOSEN'T happen, someone kill me, please -_-

Really? Imagine for a moment that you were married, you and your wife couldn't have children so you had to adopt. You'd have to devote your life to making your new child feel welcome, like a part of your family. And then a video game this child is playing starts making fun of orphans.
Can you not understand why a foster parent might be terrified by that? But the guy's clearly a good father, the girl's just turned around and said it's just a joke and I like the game.

Of course, on balance the game is actually complimentary of orphans in the end. And should the guy have gone to the media? No. But I can see where he's coming from.

 

[Chibz]

What's next? "Fat kid hears protagonist being insulted as fat. Takes offense."

"Stupid person hears protagonist being insulted as stupid. Hits head repeatedly with phone while laughing. Parents take offense and sue."

It's almost laughable what humanity is like now. And sad.

The real joke here is how easyily offended they were.

 

[faspxina]

So villains have to be morally correct now?

 

[janos16]

I cannot believe this. Can you actually make humour - proper humour - that does not, somewhere, offend somebody? And why is it that one family, and one orphan, are upset over a few lines of dialogue in a freaking video game? What on earth is going to happen if he sends her to school?

Oh, so I guess Pokemon is 'E' for everybody except people who think that putting animals in cages is cruel. And Minecraft is 'E' for everybody except people who are easily reminded of the suicide bomber that killed their friend/relative/etc. Mario Kart is 'E' for everybody except people who became paraplegics in go-karting accidents.

Come to think of this, how did it even make the news?

well... local news

 

[janos16]

I cannot believe this. Can you actually make humour - proper humour - that does not, somewhere, offend somebody? And why is it that one family, and one orphan, are upset over a few lines of dialogue in a freaking video game? What on earth is going to happen if he sends her to school?

Oh, so I guess Pokemon is 'E' for everybody except people who think that putting animals in cages is cruel. And Minecraft is 'E' for everybody except people who are easily reminded of the suicide bomber that killed their friend/relative/etc. Mario Kart is 'E' for everybody except people who became paraplegics in go-karting accidents.

Come to think of this, how did it even make the news?

well... local news

 

[janos16]

I cannot believe this. Can you actually make humour - proper humour - that does not, somewhere, offend somebody? And why is it that one family, and one orphan, are upset over a few lines of dialogue in a freaking video game? What on earth is going to happen if he sends her to school?

Oh, so I guess Pokemon is 'E' for everybody except people who think that putting animals in cages is cruel. And Minecraft is 'E' for everybody except people who are easily reminded of the suicide bomber that killed their friend/relative/etc. Mario Kart is 'E' for everybody except people who became paraplegics in go-karting accidents.

Come to think of this, how did it even make the news?

well... local news

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

GlaDOS defends you right after Wheatley says that. <.<
"...And? What's wrong with being adopted?"


That said, with all the dark themes in the game I'm surprised it got an E instead of E10+.

That's the thing that really grinds my gears in this article. Portal 2 IS rated E10+

The fact that this isn't mentioned for 4 pages on the comments section of this site proves that this was pretty successful misinformation. All that aside it's pretty well understood that parents need to do more than rely on ratings for their kids entertainment, especially if they live with hot button situations like this family. Blaming valve for the kids personal issues is just ignorant.

 

[PixelKing]

But...Portal 2 is rated a 12 in the UK and this guy says E for Everyone?

Confused.

 

[Aptspire]

They only picked up on Wheatley's insults.
for the record, "It'd be funny
If it weren't so sad"
because they missed on everything GLaDOS said beforehand :/