Portal 2 Controversy?

[Ghengis John]

Being adopted is not demeaning. Being black is not demeaning. Being jewish is not demeaning.

All three can be used as an insult. All three can be used as not an insult, but as a fact. It depends on context.

Way to ignore half my post though.

There was only one relevant nugget. Besides, you didn't acknowledge when I said we could both agree he didn't have to go to the media. And I'll give you this bags, if the intent was to show that Glados is something of a child in her vindictive personality then they succeeded.

 

[Bags159]

Being adopted is not demeaning. Being black is not demeaning. Being jewish is not demeaning.

All three can be used as an insult. All three can be used as not an insult, but as a fact. It depends on context.

Way to ignore half my post though.

There was only one relevant nugget. Besides, you didn't acknowledge when I said we could both agree he didn't have to go to the media. And I'll give you this bags, if the intent was to show that Glados is something of a child then they succeeded.

Their intent was to show GLados is a robot; as a robot she does not understand the complexities of insults. Hence, the best things she can come up with are your slow test times, your weight, and adoption. She does not realize that someone as fit as Chell will not be offended by weight jokes; she believes simply because Chell is a woman, she will be offended by them. Same thing with adoption; no sane person is going to be offended when accused of being adopted. Being adopted says nothing about your character. However, Glados is a computer and does not understand this. She believes that calling you a fat, adopted kid is demeaning.

I'm frankly surprised that Portal 2 has an E rating though. I never thought about it, but I assumed it would be at least T.

 

[DenSomKastade]

I loled, some just can't take a joke nad for the record neither wheatley och GLaDOS are "the good guys".

 

[Ghengis John]

Their intent was to show GLados as a robot; as a robot she does not understand the complexities of insults. Hence, the best things she can come up with are your slow test times, your weight, and adoption. She does not realize that someone as fit as Chell will not be offended by weight jokes; she believes simply because Chell is a woman, she will be offended by them. Same thing with adoption; no sane person is going to be overly offended of being accused of being adopted. Being adopted says nothing about your character. However, Glados is a computer and does not understand this. She believes that calling you a fat, adopted kid is demeaning.

Glados: You are adopted and that's terrible, but work with me.

Can you comprehend how that would be offensive to somebody? Are you adopted? I'm not saying you don't make a valid point btw. What I am saying is, it's not like I can't understand why the man's up in arms.

 

[Bags159]

Their intent was to show GLados as a robot; as a robot she does not understand the complexities of insults. Hence, the best things she can come up with are your slow test times, your weight, and adoption. She does not realize that someone as fit as Chell will not be offended by weight jokes; she believes simply because Chell is a woman, she will be offended by them. Same thing with adoption; no sane person is going to be overly offended of being accused of being adopted. Being adopted says nothing about your character. However, Glados is a computer and does not understand this. She believes that calling you a fat, adopted kid is demeaning.

Glados: You are adopted and that's terrible, but work with me.

Can you comprehend how that would be offensive to somebody? Are you adopted? I'm not saying you don't make a valid point btw. What I am saying is, it's not like I can't understand why the man's up in arms.

Of course it looks bad when you take one line out of context. That's my whole argument. Glados admits there is nothing wrong with being adopted in that same test chamber.

Well, I must be off; midterms tomorrow.

 

[Ghengis John]

Well, I must be off; midterms tomorrow. My final statement is whining parents gonna whine.

GG, sir. And GL on your midterms.

 

[JET1971]

Did anyone notice something in the video? like her being Chinese and the rest of the family all being blonde hair and blue eyed? I should think after 10 years she has realized that she was adopted. And the dad stating that she never brought the subject up, and her actions and the way she looked in the video says to me that her being 10 years old, she knows and is comfortable with being adopted and doesnt have anything to say about it.

hell she was playing the game still with the camera there and wasnt all "im ready to cry". as i said before her dad is the problem and is a pile of shit.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

why didn't they play the quote 2 seconds later, where GLaDOS says there is nothing wrong with chell for being adopted and that if over-sensitive parents want to complain about it they may direct their complaints to the back end of a push-me-pull-you. I'm pretty sure that second part happened

 

[Tanis]

Heh...not sure if 'dad' is stupid or troll.

But, hey, free publicity for a game that's not about killing cops and hookers?

Win!

 

[gideonkain]

When I read the title of the thread I thought for sure this was gonna be about the Cave Johnson line about firing a man in a wheelchair because ramps are expensive...that one actually did seem a shade offensive to me

 

[Direwolf750]

It's a bit absurd to be angry at the game for this. The characters are trying to hurt the character, and they are trying to be cruel. IT IS THEIR FREAKING JOB. It is practically impossible to make a game where no on is offended by an insult, but this is one of the more silly ones. You don't see fat people rising up against the fat insults do you? well maybe you do, and if so then they are being just as ridiculous.

It is a game for fun. The characters attempt to insult the protagonist, and do it in a very comical way that still provides plot to the story. We didn't know her origins before it was mentioned here (at least not for certain) and even if you do take them seriously, THE CHARACTERS ARE EVIL. I'm terribly sorry if you are offended by villians being villians, but in that case you should be exposing your kid to games anyways, or movies, or TV, or books, or comics, or music, or the ENTIRE WORLD.

Seriously, the jests are made in a game that is as lighthearted as it is dark in the most brilliant way since the first. Stop trying to be offended.

 

[JemothSkarii]

Portal 2 should be T for teen perhaps?

Add 'Cruel Humor' to the label.

Problem solved, eh?

This is a good complaint. If I only knew of Portal as being a puzzle game, this might change my mind if I would let my really young God child play it. -In Theory-

It's rated PG in Australia, which is effectively Teen.

OT: Yeah, major over-reaction here, certainly nothing to cry over, even if he is passionate about 'protecting' his daughter. It CAN be sad to see someone adopted, but it is generally a good thing. I'd hate to see what would happen if Fox picked this up (I'm not American so I don't know)

 

[Helios_(DEL)]

Its a joke.. from memory galdios also teases chell that she is over weight as well, but shes not, so its a joke!

 

[karloss01]

Potential Portal 2 spoilers, if you haven't played yet.

http://kotaku.com/5802908/portal-2-finds-a-way-to-offend

Basically, a father of an adopted kid is angry with Portal 2 for the insults from GLaDOS and Wheatley towards Chell about being adopted. He'd been playing the game with his adopted daughter. Note the daughter doesn't seem to care at all. What are your thoughts? Is the dad overreacting, or does he have a legitimate complaint?

I think he's overreacting. It's just one line clearly meant as a joke, and his daughter doesn't even seem to care about it.

I don't think i could survive in America, i would've given my self blunt force trauma from the amount of face palms i would perform each time i saw one of these "news" stories.

seriously the guy needs to lighten up, should i be offended everytime someone cracks a dyslexia joke?

by the way did you hear about the dyslexic pimp who bought a warehouse...

 

[player3141]

I believe that the biggest problem about this story is that they spoil the story for people who still watch the news.

In all seriousness, if the father doesn't like that part about the game because he can't take a joke, then he shouldn't play it.

That and the news team is stupid. First, they called the game educational. Portal is a puzzle game, puzzle games are not all educational. Second, why would they contact Sony? Sony owns the console, valve only makes the game and distribute it. Third, just because you have a REALLY slow news day, doesn't mean you can insult valve like that, valve is too awesome to do that to.

 

[Sinisterspider]

Been said already but yeh, at least he notices what his kids playing. Other than that though he's still caring too much about a couple of lines of dialogue that the i-expect-to-be-offended party doesn't care about.

 

[LordSaai]

It's a joke. Deal with it. If it's up to some folk you can't make jokes about anything.

 

[Jewrean]

I found the video in the link more offensive then the actual comment. I seriously had to stop the video because I couldn't understand how people who get paid that much could be so mentally retarded (by which I mean the newscasters and whoever told them to put the story on).

Keep in mind yes I realize a news stations whole purpose is to sensationalize everything into a bigger deal than it is for the sake of ratings but this is just stupid as hell.

 

[RaNDM G]

Storywise, Aperture Science encouraged orphans and adopted children in their programs to do better at certain tasks by insulting them.

Gameplay wise, it's funny. Get over your morale boundaries and laugh.

 

[bpm195]

Glados does do some serious bullying on the adoption issue, and if I had an adopted child (or any child for that matter) and somebody were to say to her I'd have a serious problem with it. In context it's a psychotic robot that's trying to kill you and hurt your feelings and while any grown up who's offended by it is probably dimwitted. However, I could imagine a reasonable 12 year old crying because of a few insults that landed right on the sweet spot. It's fair for him to be pissed, though it's probably one of those cases where sweeping it under a rug would be much better than dwelling on it. I don't think anything Glados said is as bad as having your parent on TV talking about you being adopted.

Though I have to say the journalism really impresses me. I love how the father says (or it's at least implied) he turned it off as soon as the game starts making fun of you for being adopted, which would be sometime in chapter 2 or 3, but the video uses footage from the final chapters. They had the courtesy to play past the parts where she's talking about why your parents decided to abandon you so they can get to "fatty fatty no parents." Impressive.