Smite Dev Removes "Offensive" Goddess From Website

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Just goes to show you the danger of mass marketing. Could you imagine if these organizations got wind of how their religious figures are represented in the Persona series?

Wow, impressive ninja skills.

 

[Tamrin]

Hindu statesman and President of Universal Society of Hinduism Rajan Zed called this a "step in the right direction," thanking Hi-Rez Studios for being so understanding. However, Zed still wants to see the developer "show some responsibility, respect, and maturity" and remove Kali from Smite entirely, along with fellow Hindu gods Vamana and Agni.

A step in the right direction? For whom? These people aren't even the type to play WoW or LoL. I find this to be counter-intuitive to the defending games as art arguement. At least with ME:3 the reason for protest was because of plotholes. I don't see any respect or maturity in this protest against having a religious figure with a known violent past against evil forces do battle in a video game simply because it "trivializes" spiritual figures.

Or maybe the Hindus could lighten up and not take their religion so seriously. Besides, nobody's forcing them to buy and/or play the game anyway. They should take a que from Jesus' brother Bob:

I prefer his other brother, Craig.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Fuckin' pussies. We have to stop listening to the whining of people who believe in fuckin' nonsense.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Oh, hi there, I'm a Catholic Christian, one who keeps his religious views to himself most of the time, but guess what I think of this: STUPID!

Ugh, this is why we can't have nice things. Literally. It was crap like this that took the Shin Megami Tensei series 18 years to hit Europe. That's right, it wasn't until Lucifer's Call in 2005 that we finally got our hands on a Megaten game.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

I'm glad they haven't seen the Persona games yet. They think this is offensive, Persona has a bunch of teenagers actively controlling these gods.

Just goes to show you the danger of mass marketing. Could you imagine if these organizations got wind of how their religious figures are represented in the Persona series?

Wow, impressive ninja skills.

Probably should have quoted these two before I made my post...

Oh well.

Just wanted to say: they know. Trust me. Why do you think you never got the first Megaten games? Why do you think that the first games that did get a U.S. release were censored? Why do you think it wasn't until 2005 that the first Megaten game hit Europe? The series is as old as 1987 - and getting it to Western audiences wasn't something that happened overnight.

 

[Azex]

All Gods and goddesses are fictional open source creations of man. They shouldn't cave to this and they should add Christian gods too, to show fairness.

Jesus has 4 passives and his ulti resserects him and heals the team if his team manages to get a team kill

 

[Tanis]

Don't let the anti-freedom camp win:
FIGHT THIS BATTLE AGAINST RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS!

We can NOT allow religious groups, of any sort, to win battles when it comes to freedom of speech.
This leads us down a dark road of burning books, Shari Law, and female genital mutilation.


Also, Shiva was sexier in FF8 anyways:

 

[Vivid Kazumi]

yet these people are ok with having sheeva in mortal kombat?

 

[TheScientificIssole]

Oh yes. Lets give them a finger, and then watch as they ask for the hand next. Religious people will never be satisfied and why the Smite devs even bothered to try and cater to these people I dont even want to know.

This kind of deserves a darwin award on its own.

RELIGIOUS PEOPLE? What a broad term! Are you saying that all people with any sort of spirituality have this negative trait?
I'm glad for their decision. If I say or do something that offends somebody, I attempt to say sorry. Especially religion!

 

[Madmanonfire]

Zed still wants to see the developer "show some... ...maturity"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! What a hypocrite! Holy crap.
I really hope Hi-rez puts the character back up. Maybe in a way that'll anger the delusional nuts even more. Then they would be close enough in maturity levels for Zed to have grounds for his dumb demands.

 

[saintdane05]

Don't let the anti-freedom camp win:
FIGHT THIS BATTLE AGAINST RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS!

We can NOT allow religious groups, of any sort, to win battles when it comes to freedom of speech.
This leads us down a dark road of burning books, Shari Law, and female genital mutilation.


Also, Shiva was sexier in FF8 anyways:

Yeah! How dare people be mad when someone takes a fundamental part of their lifestyle and reduce it to cheap theatrics for a game that is due to fail!

Seriously, what you are suggesting is that religion does anything, then we will all be reduced to morons. To quote a very nice man:

Heck, do religious people not have the right to a peaceful protest? Should they not ever talk about their religions? If that is true, then aren't THEY having their rights oppressed.

Also, what about freedom of religion? Does that not exist?

 

[Lunar Templar]

what.
fucking.
BULLSHIT!

i don't even have the words for how much this is bullshit

I'm glad they haven't seen the Persona games yet. They think this is offensive, Persona has a bunch of teenagers actively controlling these gods.

also, this

 

[Erttheking]

...you know that this isn't going to destroy the freedom of speech right? Maybe you can all calm down a little?
Removing a single image =/= the destruction of freedom of speech.

 

[Tanis]

Yeah! How dare people be mad when someone takes a fundamental part of their lifestyle and reduce it to cheap theatrics for a game that is due to fail! Seriously, what you are suggesting is that religion does anything, then we will all be reduced to morons. To quote a very nice man:
Heck, do religious people not have the right to a peaceful protest? Should they not ever talk about their religions? If that is true, then aren't THEY having their rights oppressed.
Also, what about freedom of religion? Does that not exist?

You're free to piss and moan but the moment you try and force your BS on someone because 'it offends you', you've crossed a line.
-But, hey, at least these guys aren't firebombing McDonald's over a cartoon, right?

Freedom of speech means tolerating the BAD stuff with the good.
Not JUST to protect your right to be stupid.

FURTHERMORE:
Religious groups have SHOWN that if you give them an inch they'll try taking a mile.

 

[saintdane05]

Yeah! How dare people be mad when someone takes a fundamental part of their lifestyle and reduce it to cheap theatrics for a game that is due to fail! Seriously, what you are suggesting is that religion does anything, then we will all be reduced to morons. To quote a very nice man:
Heck, do religious people not have the right to a peaceful protest? Should they not ever talk about their religions? If that is true, then aren't THEY having their rights oppressed.
Also, what about freedom of religion? Does that not exist?

You're free to piss and moan but the moment you try and force your BS on someone because 'it offends you', you've crossed a line.
-But, hey, at least these guys aren't firebombing McDonald's over a cartoon, right?

Freedom of speech means tolerating the BAD stuff with the good.
Not JUST to protect your right to be stupid.

FURTHERMORE:
Religious groups have SHOWN that if you give them an inch they'll try taking a mile.

Right now, aren't you shoving your doctrine of non religion down my throat?

 

[IronMit]

1. Hinduism is an active mainstream religion, all the other character's are not from any of the major religions.

2. The Hindu's wouldn't have a leg to stand on if Jesus, Moses and Muhammed were also included. Then Hinduism would not be degraded to a 'lesser religion' status.

3. Oh no, the poor hard work the dev team had to go through, plagiarising established God's and their back story. The most creative thing they came up with was probably the special moves.

4. Sheeva from Mortal Kombat is female. The Hindu God is Shiva and is male. Drawing inspiration is fine.

5. Southpark can use Jesus because it is made in a country where Christianity is the mainstream. Just like Indian cartoons can judge how Hindu deities are handled tactfully.

There was a southpark episode where the God's united to fight David Blane...they had Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Mohammed and Krishna. Parodying all the religions. Done in such a way you are not singling out one religion but just having some fun with religion's as a whole.


In the episode where they were going to show Mohammed, they were planning just to show him at a lemonade stand or something. Nothing ridiculous or degrading, like fighting cartman. So this is not the same thing as that specific free speech issue.

7?. Indiana Jones Temple of Doom dealt with a very specific real cult around Kali. Sure a few idiot's will complain but the vast majority did not and a high profile indian actor was part of the cast and parts of the film were filmed in Sri Lanka. So not the same thing here either.


Basically the point is....either cut Kali, or do it properly and add all the other God's. There is no artistic integrity or freedom of free speech here, they are not including Christian, Jewish and Muslim figures because they know they can't get away with it.politically and sales wise. It's simple opportunism - they know they can probably get away with it.

For all of you that don't understand well...i hope they put your dead Grandma in the game and i can claim artistic integrity and free speech as I unleash my super special flurry knife attack on her.

edit. I am not saying they should be made to change their game, or the law should be changed. They should just know better. Crap clueless company.

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

Why are they catering to an audience that will never play the game?

 

[cidbahamut]

People need to get the fuck over themselves. Bad move caving in to people with sticks up their ass.

 

[Erttheking]

Yeah! How dare people be mad when someone takes a fundamental part of their lifestyle and reduce it to cheap theatrics for a game that is due to fail! Seriously, what you are suggesting is that religion does anything, then we will all be reduced to morons. To quote a very nice man:
Heck, do religious people not have the right to a peaceful protest? Should they not ever talk about their religions? If that is true, then aren't THEY having their rights oppressed.
Also, what about freedom of religion? Does that not exist?

You're free to piss and moan but the moment you try and force your BS on someone because 'it offends you', you've crossed a line.
-But, hey, at least these guys aren't firebombing McDonald's over a cartoon, right?

Freedom of speech means tolerating the BAD stuff with the good.
Not JUST to protect your right to be stupid.

FURTHERMORE:
Religious groups have SHOWN that if you give them an inch they'll try taking a mile.

I don't think "can you please have a more respectful version of my god" equals "forcing BS down people's throats". Also since the developer used the Hindu god isn't it kind of hypocritical to accuse them of shoving BS down their throats when they basically jumped in the pile of BS in the first place?

 

[Evil Smurf]

I see where the Hindus are coming from and as unfair as we see it, we need to respect other people. As a Christian I would not be upset if Jesus was a character but some would. In short we need to respect others because being a jerk is no fun.

*hides behind flame shield*