Smite Dev Removes "Offensive" Goddess From Website

[FantomOmega]

(most not all) Religious people are in fact "avatars" of their respective gods and have been causing wars in the REAL WORLD for centuries over who's "god" is Superior, why the fuck is it a problem because it's in a NON-REAL video-game setting?

It's because they don't want anyone beating up their God isn't it? People can be so childish... believing in something that probably doesn't exist that seem to appear ALL the time to people in legends but don't do so now in the present, like a imaginary friend.... What am I on to something!?

I bet I can find some form of defilement of ANY religion by merely using Google

 

[TheTygre]

No, there are not-so-peaceful people that stand out for the specific reason their violence. The contrast is noted because of its extremity to desynchronize an otherwise functioning society and ideology. The Hindus want respect? Well we all want respect. It shouldn't be a monumental task to pay a little lip service to the common human condition known as existence.

Do you really want me to start digging up quotes from the actual BOOKS that folks base their religion on?
Cause, a lot of them have some pretty nasty stuff in there.
From rape, to one-on-one murder, to genocide, to women as property, to slavery...and you get my point.

The 'not-so-peaceful people' stand out, NOWADAYS because secularism has (thankfully) neutered most of the major groups of nutters, at least in 'The West'.

Hinduism itself is FULL of violence.
If you'd bothered to ever READ the Vishas (and other books related to) it's like some (sometimes) kickass, and trippy, sci-fi with wars and flying battle things and lots and lots of BOOM! HEAD-SHOT! type of fun.

Hindus getting mad at a game company using a WAR GOD for, well, war type stuff, is just FUNNY.

Yes, and the fact is, those are books. And that's all ever be. Books. They were made by people not simply and solely as religious guides, but as histories, as chronicles of culture and art. You cannot separate the social from the spiritual in such texts because they are remnants of a time when the two were indistinguishable. It falls to the reader to separate what is relevant as spiritual guidance and what is re-countenance of a time and place long past. If those people fail, they fail because they are purely human beings, with all their wants and needs and prejudice and ignorance firmly ingrained in them not from a solitary source, but from every source.

 

[Rutskarn]

I don't get why these guys are complaining. It's not like they're going to play the game after all... It's not like they were interested in the videogame industry at any point during the last 40 years...

Keep
Calm
and
Walk
Away

Look at it from this perspective: Hindus already put up with Westerners not knowing jack shit about their religion. That's not a problem in itself, but the application of misinformation can be problematic.

They don't want peoples' knowledge about their gods and way of life to come from a video game that twists all of it for the sake of violence and titillation.

 

[Spinhorse]

They have a right to complain I guess...

I just want Jesus Christ to be in this game, that would be awesome

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

So far, I'd hardly say Rajan Zed has tread on any rights. He's declared that he and the organization he represents find the inclusion of the Hindu gods in a computer game offensive. His demand is really little more than a fervent request (probably involving strongly-worded correspondence). He'll need to actually take legal action before there are grounds of treading on free speech.

So no. This is no more a stink than the Million Mom March taking offense at one of the gazillions in the Green Lantern Corps being gay.

What surprises me is that the Universal Society of Hinduism would make such a demand assuming that the organization wants itself (and Hinduism as a religion) to be taken seriously. Religions are utilized, drawn from for inspiration, stereotyped and parodied all the time, which is the price of being a integrated into human culture. In fact, when this happens, and when the name of your god is expletorated out of habit, that means your religion has made it into the big leagues. So complaining about your faith being demeaned by fair-use is a strong indication of insecurity. That was the whole point of Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons free speech experiment [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ].[footnote]Hint: The Vatican had little to say about Piss Christ though here in the states many sects were outraged. And the cartoonists involved in the Jyllands-Posten experiment still have to fear for their lives like Salman Rushdie, which speaks poorly of the world's followers of Islam.[/footnote]

On the other hand the Universal Society of Hinduism does not seem like it is regarded as a significant institution, given it acknowledges the Smite controversy at all [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=Universal+Society+of+Hinduism&title=Special%3ASearch], let alone has an opinion on it.

238U

 

[FoolKiller]

Yes... here goes logic.

You want us to take your fictitious character out of our fictitious game. Okay there...

Maybe they would have more luck if they try suing for infringement.

Hmm... maybe I should copyright all of the gods....

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

No, there are not-so-peaceful people that stand out for the specific reason their violence. The contrast is noted because of its extremity to desynchronize an otherwise functioning society and ideology. The Hindus want respect? Well we all want respect. It shouldn't be a monumental task to pay a little lip service to the common human condition known as existence.

I understand the words you've used, but I have no idea how any of that was supposed to make sense. Are you really from the United States? You speak like someone who is highly educated in a language other than English and suck at translating. Like, your argument was run through Google Translate...

 

[Notsomuch]

Step in the right direction. Translated roughly from easily offended watchdog means: "We're going to keep demanding you cannibalize you work until there is nothing left because you gave into a petty demand."

I personally think they should have doubled down, made it incredibly offensive and re-named the game Spite.

 

[justnotcricket]

Well...they made a game that trivializes gods (of necessity, wouldn't be much of a 'game' otherwise, unless it was maybe one of those creepy edu-indoctrination things). It's no surprise that someone objected to that, and I support the studio's decision to try and appease people a little. Naturally they'll have to stop making the game if they want to appease everyone, but that's true of basically everything. I just think it's nice that people can do something other than say 'screw you' to anyone who raises a legitimate (if inconvenient) objection.

 

[TheTygre]

Step in the right direction. Translated roughly from easily offended watchdog means: "We're going to keep demanding you cannibalize you work until there is nothing left because you gave into a petty demand."

I personally think they should have doubled down, made it incredibly offensive and re-named the game Spite.

No, that's not what I'm saying. If anything, I'm looking forward to Smite and wouldn't have minded if they had kept Kali in the first place. Nay, I'd go so far as to say it's appropriate. But what I am saying is that Hinduism deserves respect. That shouldn't be difficult.

 

[Something Amyss]

Keep
Calm
and
Walk
Away

Sounds like 80% of this thread could use the same advice.

Anyway, I don't think they should drop it, but I'm not horribly bothered if they do. Dropping a website image, however, is BEYOND trivial.

 

[jmarquiso]

My view -

It's an F2P game and they don't want to segregate the audience. You don't think that an Indian audience doesn't want to play the game? Or Asian (Buddhist)? More specifically Chinese, Korean, and Japanese at least - all of which have successful and competitive F2P markets? As a business decision I completely understand.

On the "we shouldn't worry about offending religion bit" well imagine if a few of the champions were Yahweh, Jesus, and Muhammad? At least two of those already have religious restrictions on portraying their image.

Unlike ancient Greek and Norse pagan pantheons - most of which are not largely worshipped today and already have tons of pop culture representation. There is an audience you're unlikely to offend. If you're trying to sell something to the world, sometimes the teeth have to be sacrificed.

All that said, the Baghavad'Gita is an awesome, interesting film.

(as a qualifier, I should say I'm an Atheist so you know where I'm coming from)

 

[jmarquiso]

Sure, they have a right to protest. Just as much as I have the right to tell them to piss off. I hope the developer does the same thing.

Are you asking them for money?

 

[jmarquiso]

Well...they made a game that trivializes gods (of necessity, wouldn't be much of a 'game' otherwise, unless it was maybe one of those creepy edu-indoctrination things). It's no surprise that someone objected to that, and I support the studio's decision to try and appease people a little. Naturally they'll have to stop making the game if they want to appease everyone, but that's true of basically everything. I just think it's nice that people can do something other than say 'screw you' to anyone who raises a legitimate (if inconvenient) objection.

Exactly. The thing with Hinduisum is that it's alive and widespread today, and is an audience that they want to market to. The rest of the gods are Norse, Egyptian, Greek, which are largely not practiced today and already have pop culture representation. It sends a message that they don't care about the potential asian audience (a large, competitive F2P audience) that A) the company doesn't care, and B) your religion is dead.

 

[jmarquiso]

I'm pretty sure Hi-Rez knew exactly what kind of publicity they would get for using current religious figures. Their reasons for not using Christian figures are simple - most were human and peaceful in nature. Is Jesus ever depicted anywhere wielding a sword in one hand and a person's head in another? (I mean legitimately, not on some NRA redneck website) The answer - no. This would make his combat abilities limited to healing the sick and turning the other cheek, maybe raining fish upon his enemies. Kali is an ideal character to build a violent videogame around. Weapons? check. Fiery wrath? check. Holding the head of one foe while trampling the other under foot? Check and check. Body of female olympic boxing contender? check. if nothing else, maybe Hi-Rez should give her a more manly figure since most of her paintings depict her as being more massive than shapely.

They use Norse, Greek, and Egyption gods otherwise - gods that are barely worshipped today (I'm being inclusive of some neo-pagans). The more likely reason is that those aren't widespread, largely considered dead, and had a lot of representation in pop culture so far.

It sends a message that Hinduism is a dead faith, which is obviously untrue.

One only needs to look at the Crusades and watch Gangs of New York to see Christ seen as a sort of warrior God over the modern Christian "turn the other cheek" model.

Oh, and I'll just leave this here. [http://www.cracked.com/article_19947_the-11-most-unintentionally-hilarious-religious-paintings.html]

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I have only one objection to this meme:

The last line, "And PLEASE don't try to shove it down my childern's throat." should be corrected in accordance with the current sexual trends of religions "And PLEASE don't try to shove it up my children's ass."

Just my opinion, though.

OT: If the Hindu's are pissed about Agni, I hope they don't play Breath of Fire 1. Ever. Also, I find it slightly hypocritical that religious people are pissed about anything when all of them, collectively, share the statistic of "leading cause of human death". When something else supercedes religion in this endeavor, I might start give a flying fuck about what religious people have to say.

 

[Guilherme Zoldan]

Just trowing in my two cents.
Its quite clear that Hi-Rez has the right to keep the champions there and just tell whatever religious people who take offense to piss off.
But being a company who wants to have a broad audience, maybe they shouldnt. Then again its possible the people pissed are only a minority and there are plenty of hindu's who are okay with it and wont take it as more then a silly joke.

Personally I would not like it if they outright removed champions from the game by this stage just because a few people are offended, it would seem lacking in artistic integrity, also might piss off people who bought the champions.

Also personaly I dont give a fuck about it being offensive cause I think most religions are stupid and deserve to be offended.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

oh come on now.

this is just stupid

I HEREBY OFFICIALLY CALL FOR A GAME DESIGNER/TEAM
2d fighting game of religious figures.
preliminary lineup:
throw in jesus, abraham, Shiva, Kali, Horus, Set, thor, odin, ares, athena, Papa Legba and Baron Samedi.
Should also have special "mohammed mode" that turns the fighters invisible, have to fight blind using only the hit effects

I will pay literally HUNDREDS of cents for this to happen. get at me

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

I have only one objection to this meme:

The last line, "And PLEASE don't try to shove it down my childern's throat." should be corrected in accordance with the current sexual trends of religions "And PLEASE don't try to shove it up my children's ass."

Just my opinion, though.

OT: If the Hindu's are pissed about Agni, I hope they don't play Breath of Fire 1. Ever. Also, I find it slightly hypocritical that religious people are pissed about anything when all of them, collectively, share the statistic of "leading cause of human death". When something else supercedes religion in this endeavor, I might start give a flying fuck about what religious people have to say.

except that "up [your] ass" is not a phrase used to describe pressuring someone with unwanted information... its just a phrase describing buttrape.

 

[flames09]

When people cave into things like this, especially to the religious, I cringe and become sad.

Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Religion

This is on par of not publishing pictures of Mohammed and letting Islamic fanatics bully you around.