Adoptive Parents Call Portal 2 Jokes Offensive to Orphans

[Arkfeller]

Sometimes I don't know why people bother...

It's a video game. It's a work of fiction. People these days, it's either one thing or another.

 

[Kapol]

First off, it mainly seems like he's the one upset about it, not his daughter. From the way it sounded, he's upset because she realized she was adopted after hearing the lines or something similar. And really, is that the fault of the game? I know that he said "we weren't hiding it from her, we were just waiting for her to be ready to talk about it." That's a BS excuse. It reminds me of the woman I knew who didn't think she was lying to her boyfriend about cheating on him because he never actually asked if she was cheating on him. I mean come on... not telling someone something IS hiding it from them!

I just see this as a way to blame an awkward situation on outside forces when the reality is that the situation was doomed to be awkward from the beginning. The fact this was even considered news is astounding. And of course, the article makes it sound like she didn't know. If she had been told already, then I really can't see what the big deal is.

 

[Torrasque]

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?

I can just see it now. The parents complain to their local news outlet about how Portal is the devil, and should be rated M, and the local news outlet laughs hysterically and posts this crap because its so sad.

And seriously, if she's 10 and you haven't talked about the fact that she is adopted, then you have a problem on your hands.
Every person I have ever known that is adopted, got sat down for "the talk" before grade three. You don't want to pop that question when a kid is dealing with adolescent hormones. THAT would fuck alot of shit up.

 

[harvz]

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?

challenge accepted
-so an irish...no (insults irish people)
-so i went to the denti...no (belittles dentists)
-so i walked into a bar, it hurt alot...no (head injury victims)


ok, on second thought, im going to play portal 2 because i cant think of one.

 

[UnravThreads]

Yeah, that kid is gonna get eaten alive in high-school. I mean seriously, if you can't put up with a VIDEO GAME insulting you on a very broad level, how are you going to deal with people?

Did the article actually say the child was offended, or was it just the dad?

 

[TheRealCJ]

I remember that quote, I also remember that a second later it got a replay "and... is there anything wrong with that?"

Followed another ten seconds by "for the record, you ARE adopted, and that's TERRIBLE"

 

[Aurgelmir]

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"

 

[spectrenihlus]

We truly are a soft people.

 

[Stevepinto3]

Wait, they're just gonna keep playing it and they like it?

So...the controversy here is...what?

I can see the point that jokes like that may not be totally appropriate for an E game where little kids may be playing, but rating it anything higher doesn't seem like an appropriate solution either. What would labels say, "Suggestive themes, Violence, Orphan References"?

 

[Kevonovitch]

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

 

[David Bray]

It's like they didn't continue playing to where the jokes were thrown in a silly light.

 

[Therumancer]

There are plenty of things to get upset about, but this isn't one of them. Seems to me like a guy that is just trying to grab his five minutes of fame... and in this case he's REALLY reaching. I hope Valve doesn't give it to him.

I'll be painfully blunt, the heroic orphan/adopted kid has been a staple of fantasy for a very long time, ever heard of "Little Orphan Annie?" well, to be honest in those stories people frequently DO say bad things about orphans and adopted kids, especially if the tale begins with the kid in a cruel orphanage. The relationship between Annie and Daddy Warbucks also has had it's ups and downs, heck even in the movie, him just wanting an orphan for a PR stunt to begin with and how that hurt her was a central theme before everything got together.

To be blunt if a kid can handle the crap going on with the Dursleys in "Harry Potter" they can handle some sneering robots. To put it bluntly "Harry Potter" involves child abuse and a constant cycle of psychological cruelty, remember this is a kid who is literally kept in a cupboard under the stairs, while his uncle's actual son (who beats on him and so on) is
given two bedrooms. Seriously, while intended to be funny, I think not many people put that into perspective, and that's children's literature.

So basically, going by other examples in the same rating catagory, this is absolutly nothing.... and I'm not saying that in a "shut up, your not a gamer" fashion, I'm speaking literally.

 

[TheRealCJ]

GROW THE FUCK UP!!!

Sorry but I'm so mother fucking sick of these mother fuckers constantly going out of their way to get offended by every little mother fucking thing.

Fuck me sideways ,running down a hill, with a dynamite dildo, with the fuse lit!

I am so damned sick of whiny butthurt idiots!

Kind of like you? The way you used all capitals and the word "fuck" every other word makes you sound pretty butthurt.

Perhaps it is you that needs to grow up.

 

[KaosuHamoni]

If I remember rightly, doesn't GLaDOS say, not 5 seconds after, "Can't you see that she's obviously not fat?", followed by "For the record, you are adopted, but that's terrible."

 

[TheRealCJ]

If I remember rightly, doesn't GLaDOS say, not 5 seconds after, "Can't you see that she's obviously not fat?", followed by "For the record, you are adopted, but that's terrible."

Close, bit she said "you are adopted, AND that's terrible."
Completely changes the meaning.

 

[Prof.Beany]

Oh god... some people need to toughen up a bit.
You'd think the fact that she's Chinese would have made her used to this.
(Not saying Chinese people deserve to be insulted, its just that I have red hair, and I know how little a detail needs to be to have it be made fun of in a schooling environment)