Adoptive Parents Call Portal 2 Jokes Offensive to Orphans

[loodmoney]

What?! Someone got offended when a character in a game I like said something that could be interpreted as implying that orphans were bad?! How dare they! I'm going to judge them on the internet!

Seriously though, when people get offended, there is no reason to be counter-offended. Is it really so hard to imagine that someone could feel hurt when, apropos of nothing, a game starts taking digs at orphans (or fat people, for that matter)? Is it really that wrong of them to think it is a big deal? Keep in mind that they are not calling for the game to be banned, or suing Valve, or anything extreme along those lines.

In fact, the large part of their complaint seems to be that it did come from nowhere. This would make going to the media a rather sensible thing to do--giving others a heads-up &c. I really don't see why there should be this much outrage.

 

[IOneShotOneKill]

Oh no. They used the word adopted.
If anything the only word in that quote that are directly offensive is fatty.
God forbid you learn anything about the main protagonist that might be relative to other people on the planet.
DUN DUN DUN.
By this logic everyone who's overweight should also be offended by this comment.

 

[Denamic]

I'll just ignore the severe stupidity of that man for now...
If he'd played more of the game, he'd know that glados later rescinds the thing about being adopted.

 

[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!"

You yourself must have been rendered deaf by the shock of her caring because it's closely followed by "You are adopted and it's terrible, but play along"

touché, sir. I concede my point.

[sub] I still think this is being blown out of proportion, though. [/sub]

 

[Kingpopadopalus]

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.

I doubt that's the point at hand. The politically correct society we live in today has caused us to worry about the one person offended versus the masses of those not offended which is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog. The part that enrages us is the simple fact that it is just a game and he's got his pantys in a knot over it, the proper response would have been to sit down and explain the context of the game, saying that the main bad guy is just being mean to the main character cause the main character is so awsome and that the main character is trying to beat the bad guy. Not to complain to a newspaper which will lead to nothing but 15 minutes of fame.

tl;dr? Political correctness is killing quality parenting and society as we know it.

 

[Hungry Donner]

Wheatly's awkward attempt at an insult doesn't seem nearly as bad as GLaDOS' much earlier comment about how being a "horrible person" shows that her parents were right to abandon her. Even the comments at the end of Portal seem worse.

I can see how this hit a nerve and I don't think the parents are wrong to be sensitive about this, but I also don't see why they had to take this issue to the newsmedia.

 

[Senaro]

They probably didn't wait two seconds after that joke for Glados to say "And just what exactly is wrong with being adopted?"

I'm also curious to know how they're going to avoid it. "Daddy, I'm at the orphan joke part again, can you mute the tv for me?"

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Anyone over the age of 10 would shrug it off but I could still see a small child taking it personally. I don't think it's nessassarily enough to give it a T but it still feels like it shouldn't be for Everyone.

You are aware it was rated E10+, right?

Honestly have no idea. Completely different rating system over here. Just took a look at mine and it says 12 on it.

 

[GasparNolasco]

You can find something offensive in pretty much any game.
There are clearly people in this world that haven't got enough problems and search diligently for stuff to complain about.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Did they even play 2 seconds later where GLaDOS answers "There is nothing wrong with being adopted.", or did they just wanted their 15 minutes of fame?

Second, do they really thing their daughter is retarded?
Both are white, she is Chinese? For f*cks shake, she's 10 years old, not retarded. She knows she's adopted.

 

[Senaro]

Wheatly's awkward attempt at an insult doesn't seem nearly as bad as GLaDOS' much earlier comment about how being a "horrible person" shows that her parents were right to abandon her. Even the comments at the end of Portal seem worse.

I can see how this hit a nerve and I don't think the parents are wrong to be sensitive about this, but I also don't see why they had to take this issue to the newsmedia.

That's the part that gets me. People consider this news-worthy. I've had people offended that the grocery store I work it ran out of paper bags to put their fruit in. People try very hard to be offended by anything they can.

 

[sergnb]

Goddamnit soccer moms, goddamnit

 

[Hungry Donner]

I've had people offended that the grocery store I work it ran out of paper bags to put their fruit in.

You monster.

 

[Shadowphrin]

...It kind of bothers me that the offending line came a) from Wheatley, and b) kind of late on in the game, after that whole faux-parental-setup by GLaDOS earlier on. Tbh, I'd probably find that scene more traumatic if I were adopted.

Also, I'm not adopted, but as a lady of chunkier stature I was the butt of some of the Portal jokes - but because my parents raised me level-headed and well-rounded (har har, sorry, no pun intended), it didn't even occur to me to find it offensive.

Lighten up, everyone, jeez.

 

[Kingpopadopalus]

I've had people offended that I handed them their sandwich way too early and have them throw it back at me, I work at Jimmy Johns btw. I've also had people upset that they have to pay extra for a combo, that hey have to pay extra for more meat, chesse and avocado spread. Oh and my personal favorite, "It wasen't as good as it was last time I came here." What do you want us to do? make you an entirely new sandwich, i think not.

 

[BrEnNo1023]

Oh no. They used the word adopted.
If anything the only word in that quote that are directly offensive is fatty.
God forbid you learn anything about the main protagonist that might be relative to other people on the planet.
DUN DUN DUN.
By this logic everyone who's overweight should also be offended by this comment.

But they aren't, because they probably aren't stupid enough to think that the game is insulting its audience.

The character is a bumbling moron of a robot trying to hurt the feelings of an infinitely determined Aperture Science tester by the name of Chell. The child, if she was even aware of the dialog in the game, was probably just as amused as I was at Wheatley's and Glados' attempts to insult Chell (Glados was infinitely more creative and brilliant in her wisecracks than The Tumor himself).

We cannot use humor in games anymore. Someone with half a brain and a loud mouth is bound to complain. We can't have that can we? D:

 

[Mrsoupcup]

I'm not exactly a giant fan of Portal 2, but the game was fairly silly as a whole... Hard to believe anyone would take it seriously between all the "SPAAACE" jokes and whatnot.

Though I can see why adopting jokes may be touchy for them, but I don't think the media outcry is necessary.

 

[Deadpool062]

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.

Sorry if you didn't realize, but this isn't a TLC forum, the majority of us ARE gamers and therefore WILL defend video games. Further more, it's obvious the man was going to ease the reality of his adopted child in, and this just rocked his boat a bit. Oh, and saying "I Don't even need to click the comments anymore to know what responses are going to be like." is complete and utter bullshit, I'm almost disgusted by this display of small-mindedness.

 

[FranckN]

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?

I hear once about humor: "If you?re not offending someone, you?re doing something wrong"
and it seems to be true

 

[Alcarohtare]

Does slightly make me chuckle that if this happened in a book, film or song then there would be no issue because thats ok, but as games are clearly the work of satan then anything they say must be evil incarnate.

I wonder if they played dead space 2 or dante's inferno?

Also why are we getting so rage filled at one guy's opinion on one moment in a great game, he entitled to his opinion and we entitiled to ours. Media forcing rage to explode should be laughed at then ignored while we try and killed GlaDos again....