Deep Silver Apologizes for Mutilated Dead Island Torso

[Milanezi]

At least they were fast in their response, I hope they change the collectible now (if they still have the time even), it could be a zombie head, or a miniaturized part of the alien with, I dunno, bathing clothes all around the bloody sands...

 

[rbstewart7263]

Is anyone seriously offended? Seriously like doesnt anyone ever look at themeselves after letting something like this bother them and think about what they let get to them and wonder" Did I seriously just let a little statue of a dismembered woman offend me because of TEH SEXISTZ"

 

[rbstewart7263]

Ok, I shouldn't have said "can't", rather "don't". It's not the point of the game, any more than filling a room with cheese is the point of Skyrim, although you can do that if you want. Spinning this as "oh, hey, this how people play Dead Island" is a transparent attempt to deflect this clearly bad decision. If they want to apologize, then apologize. And if they don't, then don't. This mewling middle ground is just gross.

I agree with you. It does stink of them trying to shift the blame for something they had the full intent of selling to people as they'd rather not shoulder it themselves for the frankly terrible decision they made. Though I doubt a proper apology for their statement as well as the model won't be quite as forthcoming.

On a separate note, filling rooms with cheese in Skyrim is 10x more fun than playing five minutes of Dead Island. I fully understand why the original wasn't successful after playing it for a couple of days at the beginning of the year. I doubt I've got those brain cells back yet...

You know, I think that's why I'm as upset as I am. I really, really enjoyed the first Dead Island. I'm quite looking forward to the second one. But between this and the "feminist whore" business from the last game...I'm just really wondering how I'm supposed to feel about the folks making these games.

Wait, that stupid file-name game was Dead Island?

Well that puts the whole woman's torso model in a slightly more disturbing light.

I agree Id rather they be sincere or tell people to "deal with it" We have alot of mewling submissive apologies from our devs and pubs and Its actually embarrassing.

 

[PirateRose]

Does anyone know how undead women keep their breasts so plump, perfectly shaped, and intact? Why would they even care? They don't want a man for sex, they want a man for his tasty brains.

 

[Quadocky]

*sits firmly upon his moral high horse*
*the horse judges you with a look of bald contempt*

I'd pity those who do not understand why this thing is awful.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Except they're not sorry in the slightest since this was a conscious thought out decision. Way to be spineless Deep Silver, don't stand behind your product at all.

 

[Quadocky]

If it was a hacked-up torso of a man we would've seen maybe 1/10th of the current "outrage" over this.

Oh come off it. You know very well it would have NEVER BEEN a hacked up torso of a man.

 

[Panorama]

I think it's pretty stupid and gross, would not buy.
Also, the tits look terrible!

Still, they probably just did this to get attention for the game.

Yeah, very simple this was a publicity stunt, plain and simple.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

Oh come off it. You know very well it would have NEVER BEEN a hacked up torso of a man.

I don't see why not...? I hack n' slash through heaps of torso's of my fellow man all the time in games.

Shock value aside, the product was aimed at the overwhelmingly male playerbase (like every hardcore title) and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[Sansha]

I don't see how this has warranted the amount of uproar that it has. In fact I hope they still ship with it because I'd like one.

 

[MetalMagpie]

"For the limited run of the Zombie Bait Edition for Europe and Australia, a decision was made to include a gruesome statue of a zombie torso, which was cut up like many of our fans had done to the undead enemies in the original Dead Island."

Except you can't actually do that in Dead Island, you sleazy hack. Don't try and spin this like it was some kind of playful homage to the gameplay.

It's a horror game, so they're shipping a horrific stature with it. I'm not really sure what the controversy here is. Are people just upset because it has boobs? The fact that it's a dismembered torso can't possibly be enough to earn it an eyebrow raise on its own. Not when you can buy any number of model corpses and limbs from costume and horror memorabilia shops.

I actually quite like it as a design. It's a fun mix of cheesecake and B-movie horror. It reminds me a lot of the poster for Pirana 3D [http://www.entertainmentfilms.co.uk/files/images/Piranha%203D%20-%20FINAL.jpg].

I still wouldn't want one in my house, because catching a glimpse of it late at night after a few drinks does not seem like fun!

 

[Dollabillyall]

Instant collectors item.

 

[MetalMagpie]

And yes, some zombies were in bikinis and cargo shorts and other vacation gear, but they still looked like decaying corpses. This is the healthiest looking zombie ever...well, except for being, you know, headless.

And 2 ribs that you can visibly see on the torso's right side. This took me about a day to notice btw(looks at first glance as part of the bikini).

Oh. Was that the reason it took you a day to notice the ribs?

I think it's pretty stupid and gross, would not buy.
Also, the tits look terrible!

Still, they probably just did this to get attention for the game.

They absolutely did this to get attention for the game. I'm assuming people still remember the cinematic trailer for the first Dead Island.

And for what it's worth, I have absolutely no problem with those tits. They look very fake, but hey, it's the modern age.

 

[D Moness]

Oh. Was that the reason it took you a day to notice the ribs?

Silly enough lack of glasses when looking at the picture. When not really focussing on it it just looks like some bit of the top is hanging loose.
Also it wasn't the boobs, i prefer them looking less big and fake.

edit : lost the ability to quote correctly

 

[MetalMagpie]

Oh. Was that the reason it took you a day to notice the ribs?

Silly enough lack of glasses when looking at the picture. When not really focussing on it it just looks like some bit of the top is hanging loose.
Also it wasn't the boobs, i prefer them looking less big and fake.

I kid, I kid. I actually made the same mistake on first glance.

1st thought: Is that a dismembered torso in a bikini?
2nd thought: They've really painted in the shadows around her boobs.
3rd thought: Wait, are those her ribs?

I swear there's a joke to be made here about women not being attractive if you can see their ribs.

 

[Flippincrazy]

Ok, I have a question for you folks:

Would you buy this? And if so, would you still buy it if it were a male torso?

I'm not judging anyone, I'm genuinely curious.

Personally, I don't find the issue of gender an issue here. In fact, I'd probably be more inclined to buy it if it was a male zombie torso - I somehow imagine it'd take less explaining to anyone who stumbles across it, and people would probably judge me slightly less gravely, as indicated by the outrage the female model has caused.

That said, as someone who put an unhealthy amount of time into this game, and enjoyed it hugely, the model being female and dismembered probably provides a more accurate representation of the game itself. The whole being mauled by bikini-clad and arguably sexualised female zombies was a dominant feature of the gameplay, and the accuracy of dismemberment was one of the key features of the game that they emphasized on their website during the build-up to the game's release.

What matters to me is what was going through the developer's head when they created this.

The cynical part of me thinks this is some sort of advertising ploy, as anyone intelligent enough to be trusted with the creation and release of this Collector's Edition would have some understanding of the outcry it would create. The hopeful, perhaps naive, part of me thinks this could just be a deliberate and self-aware joke about the game and its core content. I simply do not think they would be silly enough to follow the reasoning 'Hur hur, zombie tits will totally sell to our target audience'.

Overall however, I think that this model was just a lighthearted representation of their game with slight ulterior motives of drawing attention to their game that got out-of-hand.

When it comes down to it, Dead Island was a ridiculous game that shouldn't be taken seriously at all, it takes all the B-Movie zombie flick cliches and builds an enjoyable game out of them depending on your tastes - the model should be looked at it in the same light.

...Evidently, this won't happen.

 

[Daft Ghosty]

The issue isn't purely for gory reasons.

I know that, and that has already been covered in one other post in this thread. Please feel free to look them up, as I wont be reiterating something I already covered.

The fact that they decided to put the torso in a bikini sexualizes the gratuitous violence it represents.

The game takes place on a high dollar resort island. If you remember the start of your game you will remember that this all went down the night before, and even at night most of the woman were in their bikinis. The torso isn't out of place in respect to the zombies you face in the game. If you haven't played the game then your commentary on the torsos garb is a bit out of place, and misguided from lack of knowledge of them game.

Also, since The Walking Dead's collector's edition was of a HEAD, that is to say something that can be humanized and sympathized with, a bikini-clad corpse does not show humanity.

I think at this point you are reaching a bit far, and trying to spin the situation into something more than it is. The walking dead box set was an example of another gore based items being sold with a horror based media. That may be how you feel about the head, but I myself see it for what it is. A piece of plastic meant to be a interesting item for the horror media fan. Same goes for the torso. The game is a hell of allot more gory than that statue.

And don't try to claim there wasn't an attempt to sexualize it. I could understand the reasoning if there was a head attached, but they chose solely to draw attention to boobs and violence.

I think you really are a bit to hung up on all of this. Makes me think you never played the game at all. See I have no idea if it is an attempt to sexualize the statue. I can tell you that it isn't out of place from the content in the game. See I don't know the mind of the people behind the game. And I'm not going to try to make claims based on opinion, and state them as facts, like you have done. I can tell you though from my prospective that if they are attempting to sexualize the torso some how, it has failed. I like my woman with all their limbs, and head attached. =)

If it had clothes, but no head and gore, it'd be fine. That would represent pure gore.
If it had a head, but was still bikini clad and mutilated, it'd be fine. We could say it was just a representation of one of the zombies from the game.
If it was just a bikini-clad torso, but no gore or head, it'd be fine. Then it'd just be adding a sexual twist to Venus de Milo.

It's a serious clusterfuck of all three of those aspects that make it so utterly wrong.

And if it had a blue ribbon around its neck, and whistled children songs, then it could be Little Bo Peep. I get it. You don't like the statue. No one is forcing you to buy the torso of gory goodness.

You may not think it is art as it stands because of the gore, but to that I say this. You only have to look back in history at the artists from hundreds of years ago, and see far worse. And those artists are celebrated today for their works. Even the gory paintings, and in some cases especially the gory ones. And the really messed up part about those paintings In many cases they depict real events. Not fake ones from a video game.

Is this torso some great art piece for our day? No not likely. Is it to be damned because it is a female form, in a bikini and is mutilated? Not by me, again it is a game. What would disgust me isn't a chopped up torso of a man or woman from a game. It's fake. It is meant for the gore lover, who love movies like the Evil Dead, Videodrome, Scanners, and games like Dead Island, Dead Space, and Postal.

In the end it isn't real. So if you don't like the torso ignore the collectors edition. No one is being forced to buy this, and no one is being killed to make the statue. All the butt hurt over the statue really is the lowest thing on my list to be concerned about in this world. Maybe because I'm an adult with a two year old child, and I have bills to pay, with real life worries, and a statue for a game doesn't make my list of things to be concerned about.

 

[Do4600]

And what seems to be the issue?
The dismembered zombie corpse, that it is female, or that it is British?

It is an M rated game, is it not? In a closed box. If you are 7 years old, or a 92 year old granny, you have no business buying this, or Hustler, or downloading porn off the internet.

It's not necessarily a zombie corpse, it's just a corpse with "perfect tits". The point is that it was supposed to be based off of Greek statuary and they didn't reference a particular statue so that point was totally lost because of the stupidly abbreviated sculpt. It's a statue of tits with everything else violently torn off or mutilated as if it didn't matter that it existed in the first place, that's the problem, it's a statue of tits as if only tits mattered.

All they had to do to make this "alright" was to base the mold off of the Venus de Milo and give it a zombie head.

I'm more annoyed at how bad the sculpt looks honestly, get a professional damn it.

 

[idodo35]

who the fuck thought that was a good idea?!