Deep Silver Apologizes for Mutilated Dead Island Torso

[sethisjimmy]

Let me just say that I think it's a pretty cool prop and it obviously has niche horror appeal, but ignoring that, they are honestly at the height of stupidity if they couldn't foresee any problems with this. Seriously, how does a team of people get together, and nobody bothers to think "oh maybe this isn't the best idea for the collectors edition" or "maybe most people don't like blending brutal violence with sex appeal *cough cough Hitman *cough cough Tomb Raider"

It's hilarious when you go back and look at how confident they were that people would love it not one day ago, and now this.

Just a tad hypocritical to get upset over this though considering the content of the first game.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

Well firstly I think the bust is stupid, and this whole thing was a stupid idea to begin with.

I also feel that the level of outrage over the bust is likewise, stupid.

 

[Tanis]

So if it was a DUDE, folks wouldn't be up in arms?

Damn sexists!

 

[roushutsu]

Regardless of how sexist, disgusting, or stupid it was, it got everyone talking, didn't it? So mission accomplished for Deep Silver. All eyes are on them now.

 

[subtlefuge]

Even if this wasn't in the worst possible bad taste, who did they think would want this? It's not attractive, funny, or cool. I can't imagine having a novelty statue of a dismembered torso (male or female) just sitting in my room.

It doesn't bother me that this makes the industry look like the bunch of disconnected, sadistic, misogynistic, maladjusted misanthropes catering to future generations of serial rapists and school shooters that the media portrays it as. Well I suppose that actually does bother me quite a bit.

Still, what makes me more disappointed is that this thing actually went from a concept, to a fully realized idea, to a prototype, to a product, to a marketing campaign, and all the way to the public before anyone raised concerns. We are talking at least dozens of people with input who all could have mentioned something about how this was a bad idea.

 

[Susan Arendt]

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.

Ya! Filling rooms with cheese isn't the point...of..the game..I'm ah...I'm a gonna go clean up my Skyrim home now.

Take a screen shot first.

 

[PirateRose]

As I think the part that it is a female body adds to the controversy (lol, it's the only important part of a woman's body, hahaha, right guys hahahaha, so funny, so incredibly, funny funny funny funny), I think the controversy is mostly focused on the fact it is a mutilated torso.

Male or female, zombie or not, it's a mutilated torso of a human. That's pretty morbid to a lot of people. There are a lot of fans who loved the first one, who want to get a special edition, and do not want to have a mutilated torso on their shelf with all their other collectables. I know some people that would love this, but they collect shit like this and that's their business.

For this collectors edition, I think they could have gotten away with a full body zombie 7in statue, still female and mocking how people pose female statues. Have a boob missing or something. This thing is just tits and ultragore. It's disgustingly juvenile.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

To be perfectly honest, the statuette seems very reminiscent of a replica or prop from one of those B-grade horror movies that collectors of such memorabilia would have sitting on their shelves. The type of thing you would see in like a horror fan's shrine to Tom Savini or something of the like. Playing devil's advocate here, I would have liked say it's closer to an homage of that sort of genre which much of the zombie sub-culture today finds roots in, including zombie based video games. At least, that's how I would have viewed it, had Deep Silver not released a statement saying that assumption is completely wrong.

That said, upon first seeing the photo of it accompanied with the news article, I felt extremely uncomfortable and disturbed just looking at it. This... is not something I would be excited to receive with my game like most other video game collector's editions. Even now, I have an aversion to even have it on my computer screen.

I honestly can't say why I find this statuette more disturbing compared to, say, the fake severed hand that a friend of mine owns or maybe a severed head prop that I would see on a movie set.

 

[TilMorrow]

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...

Well firstly I think the bust is stupid, and this whole thing was a stupid idea to begin with.

I also feel that the level of outrage over the bust is likewise, stupid.

I doubt people were not going to get angry over the idea of being offered a severed torso as an extra.

So if it was a DUDE, folks wouldn't be up in arms?

Damn sexists!

Umm... I'm pretty sure people would have been up in arms no matter what gender of severed torso with missing appendages was being advertised/offered. I mean the idea of it is pretty gross and sickening after all.

 

[The Lunatic]

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.

"Dead Island Collectors Edition: Contains poorly articulated action figure to represent third person animations."

 

[Susan Arendt]

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.

 

[Susan Arendt]

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.

"Dead Island Collectors Edition: Contains poorly articulated action figure to represent third person animations."

You know, if it included a figure that had a whopping great tropical plant halfway through it to represent some of the clipping issues (or a character half through stairs, whatever), I'd think that was hilarious and get a big kick out of it.

 

[WanderingFool]

Obvious question is obvious, but seriously... Who the Fuck thought this was a good idea!?

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Honestly, this would have been a bad idea even if it had been a male torso. The North American collectors edition looks fine [http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/10/dead-island-riptides-rigor-mortis-edition-has-a-case-of-zomb/] - why did they even bother having a different collectors editions for different regions?

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

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.

No clue what the problem is.
It's pretty ugly and mediocre, for sure.
But why the outrage?

Sexist? Pretty sure most zombie games let you re-kill massive hordes of undead people regardless of sex.
Gore? You see this stuff in the Walking Dead and every zombie movie made ever...

both of these.

i wouldn't have bought it in the first place, male or female torso provided, it just doesn't tickle my fancy, but really, to get your knickers in a twist that hard over a collectors edition statue?

Meh, I guess I just don't care enough these days about "being offended", but with it being a mature game and zombie tits flinging everywhere in movies anyways, i didn't think this would receive such an uplash. (I really hope there is a bunch of zombies that have that torso in the game now, would be hilarious to see the rages after the game was bought on such a simple thing.)

 

[Undomesticated Equine]

It does say a lot about what the people in charge of that studio think about their customers.

 

[mgirl]

No it just means that you are one of the few rational people out there. There is nothing wrong with this at all.

Nothing apart from the sexualisation of a dismembered corpse, and how selling something like that with a game, with all the fire gaming is currently getting from the media about how it warps the minds of children, might not be the best idea. I am amazed that whoever decided that they were gonna do this didn't see this coming, and didn't see how phenomenally stupid they were being.

 

[BoogieManFL]

Heh, and they think gamers are desensitized. I've taken out trillions as a gamer, but that thing really disturbs me.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'm surprised the thought even entered their mind. What the fuck were they thinking? Could it be that they just wanted some controversy as free publicity?

 

[VanQ]

both of these.

i wouldn't have bought it in the first place, male or female torso provided, it just doesn't tickle my fancy, but really, to get your knickers in a twist that hard over a collectors edition statue?

Meh, I guess I just don't care enough these days about "being offended", but with it being a mature game and zombie tits flinging everywhere in movies anyways, i didn't think this would receive such an uplash. (I really hope there is a bunch of zombies that have that torso in the game now, would be hilarious to see the rages after the game was bought on such a simple thing.)

Being offended is the in thing to do in the gaming community these days. It really shows how young we are as a community and a medium. You know that one teenager on the playground that acts all pretentious and mature hoping the big boys and girls, the books and movies and TV will think we're part of the cool kids group?

We're that pretentious kid. While books, movies, TV and other forms of art have already accepted themselves as human, the good and the bad, we as a community refuse to accept that there may be some bad within us and try to sugar coat everything about ourselves as dandy and mature.

Books and movies willingly tackle heavy themes like life, death, gender, sex, rape, murder, philosophy, suicide, grief and so on, what do we tackle? The most effective way to mow down a dozen enemies with your chainsaw bayonet before running on to the next set piece. We are the equivalent of Saturday morning action cartoons because of it and we will stay that way until we as a community can do some growing up and stop considering ourselves moral guardians.