Portal 2 Controversy?

[ProfessorLayton]

That news report is pretty much exactly why I no longer watch local news... it was a mixture of hilarious and depressing to find all of the errors in that report.

It's always nice to see people not getting completely obvious jokes. Glados was overly mean and Wheatley was trying to be Glados. But the thing is... the game markets itself much more as a game filled with dark humor than one that's educational... in fact, one good look at the trailer could tell you that much. There were plenty of jokes about murder, but I guess that just got a bit too personal for him.

Now, it's perfectly fine for him to cut off the game if he thinks that his daughter might get the wrong idea from it... good on him. He is actually one of the parents who care about what their kids play. But taking this to the news was a bit too far.

 

[Gamer_152]

I understand that the father was insulted, but this is not the game's fault. If you're saying that anything that could ever possibly taken as offensive should be stripped out of any entertainment then we'd be looking at a massive restriction on freedom of speech.

In fact as far as poking fun at someone for being adopted goes Portal 2 is pretty light on it. GLaDOS is talking to Chell, not the player, and even then the adoption angle is played in a way to make it seem like a slight act of desperation to get back at Chell and eventually becomes part of the overarching joke that GLaDOS isn't good at understanding human behaviour.

Who I'm most angry at though are the people behind this news program who took one man's obviously misplaced anger towards a video game and turned it into "video game adoption controversy".

 

[Kimarous]

What can I say? The game got things right, as it did in a previous line:

"It's not out of the question that you might have a very minor case... of serious brain damage."

In short, yes, the man overreacted.

 

[fdbluth]

To the people who say it's only a joke: a lot of insensitive things are said and meant as a joke. It doesn't stop them from being insensitive. Not to mention that a joke's insensitivity depends on how it is received by the audience, rather than the person saying the joke. Remember when Gottfried said all those "jokes" on Twitter after the tsunami on Japan? He said it as a joke; I don't remember a lot of people defending that.

With that said, it's a bit much on the dad's part. In context, it was meant to be something that WAS insensitive, said to hurt the main character's feelings. Because the player, in the context, is simply an active observer who has no ties with the main character in question, we only see it as something funny, and that's how anyone should be taking it as.

It almost feels like the dad's projecting his own worries onto the lines, because he's so worried that his daughter's going to turn out resenting her adopted state. It's kinda heartwarming in an odd way.

 

[WorldCritic]

He's overreacting, I know people who have said far worse things about adoption than anything Glados of Wheatley can say.

 

[Gnoekeos]

He was mad about WHEATLY? Its even more obvious when he does it that its a joke.

 

[Mikeyfell]

well they obviously didn't get very far in the game because Glados says there's nothing wrong with being adopted and some of Wheatley's best friends are adopted. So I don't see the big problem.

I can't wait for the fat people of the world to unite against Valve for their "offensive" dialog. Or all the people who look bad in orange.

 

[EllEzDee]

EDIT 2: Also, it's not a fucking kids' game, people. And it was never marketed as educational.

Yes it is. It's E for Everyone.

 

[MaxwellEdison]

Yup. Gabe Newell's group should stop making all those jokes about fat people, too! They might offend...wait...

Seriously, guys. Sometimes a joke is just a joke, let's learn to laugh at ourselves.

 

[JET1971]

Yeah Valve didnt have a comment... they couldnt get to the keyboard to write it because they were laughing so hard.

poor girl looked embarassed in the interview and almost ashamed hes acting like that on camera, but then again she and her little brother who is obviously under the age of 10 are having too much fun in Portal 2 to give the camera even the slightest looks.. wait... her father does the right thing for caring what the kids are playing and its a 10+ game and his 8 year old son plays it too? he deserves no praise.

*edit

Infact I have less than praise for him. I think he is a pile of shit pulling a "look at me, i adopted a chineses kid" praise crap, and to put the poor girl under the soon to come insults from classmates. did he think about how here classmates would react? oh hell no he didnt! insults are going to range from yer adobted father is an idiot and her real parents dont love her, to them quoting glados and wheatly at her. fuck him, and i realy pity the poor girl, not for being adopted but for being adopted by that assmunch.

 

[Hyperactiveman]

EDIT 2: Also, it's not a fucking kids' game, people. And it was never marketed as educational.

Yes it is. It's E for Everyone.

Umm the "E" rating doesn't mean "kids' game"... He means Portal 2 isn't aimed at kids exclusively, thinking about it that would actually make the "joke" of adoption bucketloads more sadistic and innapropriate if it were...

... just Saying. :/

 

[LobsterFeng]

I don't really see it as a joke, well yeah it's a joke, but it did make you feel bad for Chell, and make it easier to relate to her.

 

[distortedreality]

Let me guess, an American father.....*reads article*.......yep.

They'll sue over anything they're not smart enough to laugh at.

 

[redisforever]

Hell, this was a joke from the first game. I did however think that this could piss someone off, glad to see the kid gets it though. It's supposed to be an insult from a machine who really has no idea about how to create a proper insult.

EDIT: read the article, said he stopped playing on the game on his PS3. Think he could give it to me? I assume he didn't register the Steam version yet, what with PSN being down.

 

[Hyperactiveman]

I don't really see it as a joke, well yeah it's a joke, but it did make you feel bad for Chell, and make it easier to relate to her.

tbh I did fell bad for Chell... I mean look at her life story so far... I know she's a character and I know it's supposed to be dark humour but I didn't laugh at all throughout the time in which Glados mentioned adoption through to when she ended up "joking" about it.

Don't get me wrong the other shit was funny as like the times she tried to kill Chell with Neurotoxin and so forth... Especially the jokes in Portal 1.

EDIT: I would have found the joke much more witty if I wasn't playing as Chell in Portal 2 but another test subject... Because you'know it would be like a whole new introduction with different circumstances plus you wouldn't be going through the same rooms you had been in before thinking... here we go again -> I do tests -> Glados says something supposedly funny -> i escape death -> I deactivate her -> yadda yadda yadda.

 

[FalloutJack]

Pffft, of course he's overreacting.

{1} IT'S A GAME!

{2} Glados is referring to the character.

{3} Glados is also INSANE.

The same goes for Wheatley at these times, as he has GONE insane.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

YOU KILLED GLADDOS(understandably)! I think she's entitled to insult you whichever way she wants. Wheatly is just an idiot.

 

[angry_flashlight]

So one of the game's characters says something mean to the protagonist during the game? What is this madness? I thought they'd sit around having high-brow discussions on 19th century politics while sipping tea in top hats while the women-folk sat in the garden wondering how to manage the family estate after the children move out./sarcasm

Nice of the news team to just jump on the story without even researching anything. First, the comment is out of context. Second, they contacted Sony, the makers of a system for a game that runs on Xbox, PS3, and PC. If you know how the video-game industry works at all, you'd know just to contact VALVe first, idiots. Third, WTF? Anyone who played the game (obviously no one in the news room or studio) would know about Wheatley's *ahem* position in the character chart at that point in the game.

 

[Tdc2182]

Hense Glados being the "bad guy".

I see where he's coming from, I just don't think he really thought it out. Like, at all.

 

[Atsumi_Warrior]

the father doesn't know how to explain it to his daughter? i'll take a swing at it, ahem. "the big eyeball machine is being is just being mean, he's wrong, don't listen to him"
GAZE MORTALS AT MY INCOMPREHENSABLE POWER TO EXPLAIN THE UNEXPLAINABLE!!

That has to be the most funniest thing... of all time. You Deserve a medal.
Also
We Kill people in games.
OH NO! Whats worse? KILLING PEOPLE <---- HINT HINT!
Or A few Snide Remarks against a Mute Lady from a Voltorb?
no. Sorry The dad just wants to look like a hero. LOOK AT ME IN NOT RACIST BECAUSE I ADOPTED A ASIAN BABY!

Do Reporters Find it Fun to do this? hey look a 40y old man is crying about a video game. THATS GREAT AIRTIME LETS GET EVERYONE TO SEE HOW STUPID WE ARE!

Father should have the girl taken away from them. if the dad is going to make that big of a deal over something that small then we might as well feel sorry for the turrets in the game.