Adoptive Parents Call Portal 2 Jokes Offensive to Orphans

[Catalyst6]

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.

The game isn't actually saying that being adopted is a horrible thing. Taken in context, it's just showing what an ass GlaDOS is and can be safely discounted. You don't see obese people getting up in arms about the fat jokes, do you? That's because it's all about context. The father doesn't understand this, mostly because he's apparently not very bright, and thus the controversy.

And besides, it's not like it's saying that SHE is adopted either. Gabe N. doesn't show up at her house and go "Hey, you. Asian girl with the white family. You're adopted, sucka fool"! The girl would have probably completely overlooked it if the family wasn't trying to get their fifteen minutes and went to every place imaginable to tell their "story".

 

[Dora]

Probably not something a little kid wants to hear, sure, but if you're a good parent and taking an interest in the things he or she is playing, it's probably the sort of thing you'd catch and talk with him or her about, right?

Might as well get offended on behalf of fatties everywhere for the use of the word fatty. I'm not saying the kid doesn't have a right to be upset if she was, but... she's a kid. "You know that's a mean bully character and YOU have two parents who love you very much, right?" should be the discussion that followed and ended it.

 

[Belbe]

I am offended by Portal, because people shouldn't ever lie about cake.
Hahaa...sigh.

I'd be more worried about the possibility of someone dropping their only friend into an incinerator to open a door.

Hell, no one runs to the defense of kids being bullied in the school yard, what's all the fuss here anyways?

 

[TelHybrid]

Wow. Do they home school their kid? I'm sure school has worse taunts than that to offer!

Some people really just complain for the sake of complaining. They need a hobby.

 

[LogicNProportion]

WHY!?

Why is it always MY state that harbors the deeply idiotic?

 

[senorcromas]

Really?

That's the part that offended them?

Not the "If it makes you feel any better, the results have validated your birth parents' decision to abandon you on a doorstep" line?

Really?

 

[dbmountain]

I heard Gabe Newell absolutely condemns the game Portal 2 because it called him a fatty

 

[Olorune]

I feel for the man and his daughter, but that's just plain funny. That should be part of their Portal 2 commercial.

 

[TelHybrid]

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?

 

[gphjr14]

There's really not much else going on here in NC so they have to report on something.

 

[AetherWolf]

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+.

 

[AetherWolf]

I feel for the man and his daughter, but that's just plain funny. That should be part of their Portal 2 commercial.

It actually appeared on Steam news and Valve had a good laugh.

 

[MrA]

I think it's a bit of an over reaction but I understand where they're coming from. That quote sounds bad out of context as well. I know how much things like this can hurt adopted kids. Girl in my class was adopted, she insulted my friend and he yelled at her as an insult (didn't know she was adopted) "Shut up you're adopted" she burst into tears and runs out of the room crying. So yeah, I can understand why this hurts or at least i can empathise, but it's just a game and not too bad.

 

[WorldCritic]

Wonder how this guy feels when playing a T rated game. As long as Valve just ignores him then he'll calm down eventually.

 

[Quantom Quak]

If you happen to play further, GLaDOS actually apologizes for what she said, and even calls Wheatley out on it.

 

[RoseBridge]

Wait how is she an orphan if she has a family, and second who cares!? There is a game where you kill a bunch of people at an airport, its called Call of Duty.

 

[GGZeta]

This isn't a matter of defending games because we're all biased in their favor. This is a matter of reality and narrative context. How can any of us be expected to create anything if we have to live in fear of insulting or offending every single variation of the human experience? Why did this father go to the news with this? I thought he said, "it throws the question, the most ultimate question that that child is ever gonna have for you and it just throws it right in your living room" when he's just done just that ON THE NEWS. Apparently its worse for a bunch of psychotic AIs to throw around insults up and down the board and then try to KILL YOU in a videogame (which isn't real and isn't about your daughter) than going on the news and telling the world that your 10 year old daughter is adopted and you never bothered to tell her until it came up in a videogame. Because clearly the issue of adoption had NEVER come up before that.

 

[Formica Archonis]

that this was "literally the worst thing I could have probably heard."

Aaaaand that's a D- in English. Also, if that's your idea of the worst thing you could ever maybe possibly mayhaps sorta kinda hypothetically hear, then good lord I hope your precious snowflake never works in a call center doing tech support. You haven't heard the worst thing until you've heard someone threaten to rape your mother to death because his inkjet printer isn't printing yellow.

And then the next call will be worse.

 

[Togs]

Dear American Culture

Please change so folk can take a joke

Thank You

The Rest of the World

 

[BrunDeign]

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!

And I'm sick of people who can't have a civilized conversation about a man who could be honestly offended by a statement in a game.

And to the people who think it's silly to be offended by something said in a game I have to ask, why is it silly? Why can we be offended by thing in other forms of media but not in a game?

Dear American Culture

Please change so folk can take a joke

Thank You

The Rest of the World

You realize the people telling the joke are from the U.S. too right? Not to be rude, just wondering.