Adoptive Parents Call Portal 2 Jokes Offensive to Orphans

[Jonabob87]

The next time a game character uses the word "bastard" I'm going to write to my local newspaper how offensive that is to people like me who were conceived out of wedlock.

These people are really really pathetic...

Do names of swords count? Wild Arms & Demon's Souls fit the bill then.

Unreal Tournament GOTY too! Damn Epic and their bastard hating ways!

 

[Sun Flash]

Clearly the shock of that statement rendered him temporarily deaf, seeing as GLaDOS immediately calls Wheatley out on it. That was actually one of my favourite parts, it made me go "She does care!"

Eh. Whatever. I'm surprised he's not complaining about it giving the girl a complex about her weight.

 

[Woodsey]

What?

The whole point of it is poking fun at Glados, not Chell, and certainly not adopted children.

Responses here are so typical, you're all gamers that aggressively defend video games to the death. I don't even need to click the comments anymore to know what responses are going to be like.

While it's true that there's nothing really offensive in it save for a few people, I understand that the dad was shocked to hear the remark out of the blue. He didn't say he was hiding it from his daughter, he said it just never came up. He was waiting for an opportune time to sit down and have a talk about her being adopted.

That's why it probably came to such an offensive shock, because now they're going to have to tackle the issue right away since shes heard that, rather than wait for whatever time they might have felt appropriate.

Even so, that's still not the game's fault.

 

[Harbinger_]

Sorry to hear that your adopted child had a problem with that joke but I'm fairly certain that Valve doesn't harbor any sort of ill-will to orphans or people that are adopted.

Btw if you don't like that don't play 99% of video games online.

 

[xdiesp]

What if americans sue valve en masse because of the fat jokes?

 

[Tharwen]

Every joke will offend someone.

I think an offended-ness rate of 1 family out of thousands is pretty good. At least for everyone except that family.

Also, I agree with this. It's ironic when a lot of the arguments heard around here are about how narrow-minded the target is.

Responses here are so typical, you're all gamers that aggressively defend video games to the death. I don't even need to click the comments anymore to know what responses are going to be like.

While it's true that there's nothing really offensive in it save for a few people, I understand that the dad was shocked to hear the remark out of the blue. He didn't say he was hiding it from his daughter, he said it just never came up. He was waiting for an opportune time to sit down and have a talk about her being adopted.

That's why it probably came to such an offensive shock, because now they're going to have to tackle the issue right away since shes heard that, rather than wait for whatever time they might have felt appropriate.

Plus newsflash mate if your white your wife is white and your daughter is Chinese? Yeah she knows shes adopted shes ten, not an idiot.

He said he hadn't hidden it from her. Presumably that means she already knew.

 

[V8 Ninja]

As I said on the thread about this, I'm more surprised that the parents didn't realize the adopted jokes sooner. Within 2-3 hours of the game GLaDOS starts taunting Chell with her adopted status, and those comments are FAR worse than whatever Wheatley could muster up.

 

[Zac Smith]

The actual joke that upset the family was a moment in the game when a character tells the protagonist, "Alright, fatty. Adopted fatty. Fatty, fatty no parents." Taken out of context, the joke could seem offensive to both the obese and the parentally-challenged, but against the backdrop of an insane and childish robot actively trying to make the main character feel bad, you would think that some of the sting would be taken out of the remark. Especially when the character who slung the insult says seconds later that there really isn't anything wrong with being adopted.

To be fair, they then say "for the record, you are adopted and that's terrible".

Spoiler

It's just GLaDOS trying to confuse Wheatley and all that. Also just to poke fun at him.

But as I said on the earlier thread, there will always be someone who is offended by comedy.
"I'm outraged, I'm gonna write a shit letter to a bad newspaper." - Tim Minchin
I feel like those two have a lot of experience dealing with this.

THIS GUY IS NO COMEDIAN, HE SIMPLY SPEAKS THE TRUTH

In all seriousness he is right, nothing really happens if you get a little offended

 

[FightThePower]

I wish people could take jokes close to home without being offended, but hey, all humour's going to offend someone. Even when you make the joke as light-hearted as this one.

 

[snave]

Actually, I don't reckon the gripe is inappropriate. They don't seem to be knocking the game, but rather the rating system for not providing a provisional rating with this in the fine print. Which isn't a mistake of ignorance but oversight. Awareness as opposed to sanitisation. That seems fair to me, if hard to predict. I guess now we all know.

(Then again, if there was fine print, would parents actually read it?)

 

[Thetwistedendgame]

Are you kidding me? You shouldn't make this such a big deal. Are schools a problem? There are many places where you can get teased for being adopted. Children are evil. If they want to complain about the game not being E for all, just look at the friggen world. Discrimination happens everywhere, LIVE WITH IT.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Hmmm...it would appear that his complaint wasn't that it was offensive, rather that it was too offensive for a game rated "E". That's fair enough, I guess, and not the same as simply chanting "think of the children".

I can agree with that. The amount of insults Wheatley and GLaDOS throw your way I don't think the game should be E for Everyone. I imagine small children would lightly be more hurt by it than most.

FYI I don't like this thing amoungst gamers where they must defend any game that does anything other people don't like to the death. It's especially irritaiting with articals like this where the family clearly likes the game and even what to continue playing, they're just put off that the game hadn't warned them of jokes like this. For a small child for which this is a sensitive subject it should be on there.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Wheatley's rebuttal to what is actually wrong with being adopted: "Oh, uh... well... nothing, really. Actually, some of my best friends are adopted."

Also, if the Portal 2 comic is anything to go by, Chell actually is adopted. She is a vat-grown clone, raised by an incubator. i.e., she has no parents because she was never "born". So that's one problem solved.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

I'm an adopted child watch now as I build an enormous mountain out of this molehill. this is taken completely out of context and this man should be ashamed.

Plus newsflash mate if your white your wife is white and your daughter is Chinese? Yeah she knows shes adopted shes ten, not an idiot.

Ahem

Stapel said that while he and his wife had never hidden from his Chinese daughter Zoey the fact that she was adopted

The fact wasn't being concealed from her, the parent just doesn't like it being used in this context (note: the parent, not the actual adopted child). Which is kind of over-sensitive of him

 

[flaming_ninja]

I can't see how this works, they bought the game, it's not like they gift wrapped and sent it to every orphan and adopted child's home with a note on it saying "we hope you like the bit where Wheatley insults your character".

 

[Malrock]

Most offensive thing they could have heard? I shudder to think what would happen if this person watched an episode of Family Guy.

I can understand it being awkward for him but seriously...this is a non issue.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Hmmm...it would appear that his complaint wasn't that it was offensive, rather that it was too offensive for a game rated "E". That's fair enough, I guess, and not the same as simply chanting "think of the children".

I can agree with that. The amount of insults Wheatley and GLaDOS throw your way I don't think the game should be E for Everyone. I imagine small children would lightly be more hurt by it than most.

If I recall, Valve said they were surprised that the game got an "E" rating at at all, obviously assuming it would get a "T" like the original did. But, then again, do you think anyone at the ESRB is adopted or knows anyone adopted? Do you think any of them even heard the joke, their job being to go through every single part of a game's content and objectively create consumer advice based on it? ...the answer should be obvious, I hope.

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

well the odd thing is glados was insulting her about it WAYYY earlier, like hours. So its clearly not that big of a deal to the kid.

Hell, there's a set-piece! She arranges a meeting with your parents, and of course they don't show up because you're "adopted," and then she also fakes a phone call - "hello, we are Chell's parents. We do not love you. Please hang up. *dial tone*"

"Oh, well that's fin- OH MY GOD A CHARACTER WELL-ESTABLISHED AS A COMPLETE MORON JUST SAID I WAS ADOPTED. AND THEN PROFUSELY APOLOGIZED FOR IT! THE NERVE OF SOME PEOPLE!!"

 

[Wicky_42]

Why is everyone under the erroneous impression that the United States of America invented stupidity?

Lets be honest, it does seem to be you number 1 export Closely followed by soldiers, fast-food chains and television.

OT, I honestly don't know why this should get any media attention - I guess it's OK to insult fat people, but god forbid a 10 year old hears a reference to adoption!