Dark Souls Originally Named With Juvenile, Racist Slang

[Veloxe]

I just get the feeling they were all sitting around talking about names and when they came up with "Dark Race" the marketing guy interrupted them and said "Yaaa...I don't think that will fly." I had never heard of Dark Ring as anything other then to signify a ring of darkness. But I guess they just wanted to avoid some rather artistic photoshops that would surely pop up.

I think Dark Souls flows nicely with Demon's Souls though so it all turned out for the better I guess.

 

[archabaddon]

Better than "Dark of the Moon", whatever the hell that's supposed to mean

 

[acidfwd]

It's rim, not ring, obviously.

 

[Falseprophet]

This made my head hurt, so childish, and a tad hypersensitive, dark race has been used before to described evil races in fantasy, it just wasn't the title of the game. Reasonable people don't get offended as easily as they seem to believe. He says while listening to spasticus autisticus, how approproiate.

If you bury the term "dark race" in the text of a novel or some cutscene dialogue, no one will bat an eye, because the context will clearly indicate it's not a racial slur aimed at real-world people. But if you emblazon a cover or box in a retail outlet with "DARK RACE" in big bold letters, people who would never read/play it will see it and complain.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I didn't know about the Dark-Ring slang! I need to spread that info as far across the US as possible in hopes that it will catch on!

As well as Dark Souls fits as the title of Demons Soul's sequel's title, I really don't see anything wrong with Dark Race. Then again, I am a white boy so my view on that matter may be a bit skewed.

 

[Baresark]

This is ridiculous. I hate when they putts around because of language. Language is how people communicate (one of many). Political correctness inhibits the ability of language to communicate. Language by nature is amorphis, and changes by social meanings, whether it is derogatory in a nature or complimentary in nature. But when we give in to political correctness, it stops the word from evolving and the word then can never have a positive meaning or connotation.

On the other hand, the title they settled on is the best of the three titles, no matter how uninspired it is. The other one's are equally uninspired and don't grab anyone's attention either. You can see how ineffective titles can be, as a few examples we have Dark Sector (what now?) and The Darkness (a game few people seem to realize is based off a pretty good comic book). Titles like this could never sell a game, thank god for magazines and websites that focus on the medium.

I think it's lame they needed that kind of connection to the first game (even though it's not an official sequel), when the game is clearly going to be a great game, as Demon's Souls was.

 

[Angron]

im english and i dont hear people use dark ring...ring yes...dark ring no

unless maybe your on about a comedy that used it once, but then comedies have used every possible innuendo here...

even pimhole

 

[VichusSmith]

I'm sorry, but I don't see the controversy in the name, or the racism in it. I just think it's not a good name for a video game.

This is not like Resident Evil 5, where there is a familiar depiction of humanity that may be construed as racist. This is Demon's Souls, which takes place in a sword and sorcery setting.

I don't think "Dark Race" would have gone down in history as one of those racially insensitive moments in gaming history if that name was OKed.

 

[Danish rage]

Now dark is a no no word?

Well, i don´t like the word pink, cause im pink as a pig, so please stop use it.

I don´t like jam either, so red is gone.

Btw all of you owe me a sandwich.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

I don't think I've ever heard the phrase 'dark ring' used in that way...

Seconded, only really sad people would call it that.

But couldn't it have been a slight over reaction?

 

[Tom Goldman]

in England "dark ring" is also slang for "anus,"

uhh....no it's not. Honest. I've been here all my life. "Brown Eye" possibly. "Juvenile, Racist Slang" is going a bit far as well.

You know, I looked it up too and couldn't find it! I took the translation's word for it. Maybe From was given bad information, or they came up with the association themselves?

 

[RatRace123]

Damn, trying to come up with a title that doesn't offend anyone, what a pain in the dark ring.
That isn't something we really give much thought to, how many games went through different titles before deciding on what we now know them as?

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

I would have had no problem with dark race. It seems to have involved the main char being a member of a haunted, persecuted race, not black, but dark in the same sense that an investigator in the Lovecraft mythos is on a dark path.

We can't make a name about a character of a persecuted, troubled people pushing through dark and terrible adversity? We need to take a breath and step back.

See A Shadow Over Innsmouth or The Festival for what I mean. You don't get from a more ruined, tainted and 'dark' race than that.

 

[Silvver]

Maybe Ring piece,,if it had any connections it would be with penis not the Anus.


I dont think any of those titles are catchy or imaginative, lost in translation perhaps.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

in England "dark ring" is also slang for "anus,"

uhh....no it's not. Honest. I've been here all my life. "Brown Eye" possibly. "Juvenile, Racist Slang" is going a bit far as well.

You know, I looked it up too and couldn't find it! I took the translation's word for it. Maybe From was given bad information, or they came up with the association themselves?

The word "Ring" often is used, as a derivation of "ringpiece" (The Anus), but it's used as a quite neutral tone. ("Ring of Fire" is often used as an euphemism for a burning sensation after eating hot foods)

If you use it in racial context though, it's usually something that could be a ring - and Dark is hardly ever used in racial language. It'd be far more likely to be "Black (ring-shaped)"