The Stanley Parable Maker Promises to Change "Racist" Image

[yundex]

You know what the beauty of PC gaming is? That censorship can be reversed in a heart beat.

Being German, I've had to deal with censored games my entire childhood. Back in those days, I applied something called "blood patch" to every second PC game I bought. Usually a small file that modifies or replaces the bit of game code that's responsible for the disturbing lack of blood and gore.

So yeah, when they do censor that scene, we can count the hours until somebody releases a patch that restores it to all its former glory.

Well afaik, you can just not update the game.

No, I checked you can not just not update it. Unless you want to leave Steam offline every time you play it. The only option in Steam is 'Do not automatically update games. It'll still update when you run it.

Really? I never knew they still did that. I always get rid of steam for my single player games because of something similar many years ago.

 

[DirgeNovak]

This is fucking stupid. The picture would be exactly as horrible with a white child.
I swear, it seriously looks like the mere presence of a black character in a story will spawn accusations of racism every single time.
"Oooh, that black character died, that means the writer personally wants to murder every black person on the planet. RACIST! RACIST!"
"Oooh, that black character did something naughty, that means the writer thinks every black person is a criminal. RACIST! RACIST!"
"Oooh, that black character speaks with an accent, that means the writer thinks all black people talk funny. RACIST! RACIST!"
And my personal favorite, "Oooh, that black character acts and speaks exactly like a white person! The writer wants to suppress black culture! RACIST! RACIST!"

 

[Ihateregistering1]

This is fucking stupid. The picture would be exactly as horrible with a white child.
I swear, it seriously looks like the mere presence of a black character in a story will spawn accusations of racism every single time.
"Oooh, that black character died, that means the writer personally wants to murder every black person on the planet. RACIST! RACIST!"
"Oooh, that black character did something naughty, that means the writer thinks every black person is a criminal. RACIST! RACIST!"
"Oooh, that black character speaks with an accent, that means the writer thinks all black people talk funny. RACIST! RACIST!"
And my personal favorite, "Oooh, that black character acts and speaks exactly like a white person! The writer wants to suppress black culture! RACIST! RACIST!"

Thank you. The best part is then people get angry because there aren't enough black characters in video games. Hmmm, I wonder why developers avoid putting in black characters?

 

[Mersadeon]

Come on guys. Most of Africa is considered "third world". Most people in Africa are black. This isn't racism.
This is like back with Resident Evil 5 where people cried about shooting black people, but they never cry about all the spanish people in RE4 or all the white people in every videogame ever. Black people live in Africa. If your game has Africa as the setting and you shoot anything except white mercenaries, the people shot are going to be black. You don't shoot them because they are black. This isn't racism, this is the easily offended being easily offended.

EDIT: Not to mention that Tiny Tina idiocy. Really? A white character talking like what is in popular media depicted as a typically black way of talking is racist? Also, making a black character talk like that is racist. And including black characters, but make them speak "normal" english is also racist, and those characters sold out to the white people. Oh my god, make it stop. I live in a country where racism is a super touchy and sensitive topic and even I think this is stupidsauce.

EDIT EDIT: Now, if you want to have something actually being borderline racist, watch a bit of Call of Juarez: The Cartel. That stuff actually feels racist.

 

[Hat Man]

Bunch of thin skinned maggots crying over nothing.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Who is honestly offended by this picture? And explain to me why?

Given that you're from Canada you might be unfamiliar with the actions of racists in the US.

When it says that he could spend his life "helping" it show him giving a kid a Cigarette. Yea, giving kids cigarettes in 3rd world counties is "helping" improve their lives. That kind of "help" sounds a bit like Margaret Sanger.

The second option is a non sequitur, and is unrelated to the first since the first dealt with the 3rd world and the second deals with people within 30 miles of him. It's also far too close to what the KKK has actually done, and are still [http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/23/14646977-louisiana-woman-set-on-fire-kkk-smeared-on-her-car-police-say] doing.

It is little more than a tasteless, racist, joke. I can see how someone who thinks cigarettes are good, and has little to no knowledge of racism in america, but you have to live a fairly insular life not to see how this is offensive.

Now throw in the fact that this picture is not to be taken seriously and what do you have?

Something not to be taken seriously.

People seem to like finding things that offend them. Like I said before, there have been more offensive things posted on 9Gag on an hourly basis. Hell, there are more offensive things in other video games. Video games that, like the Stantley Parable, are not hypervoilent.

People saying that they are offended by this are really just saying "I personally was offended and as such no one else should see this picture." Yes the picture is offensive, but is it so bad that the game's creator has to remove it from the game? I'm going to say not. I wasn't even aware that people were offended by this picture enough to complain about it.

 

[LifelessArt]

I have not played The Stanley Parable, but I have been watching much of the game being played by members of the Youtube community, and I just so happened to find someone who was playing the game who came across such a scene. Here was the first thought that came to my mind after encountering said image.

"Oh dear merciful Lord in heaven, no!!! Why, why did you do this, creators of The Stanley Parable, why?! Don't you know how stupid and sensitive journalists and people on the internet are? Ugh, great, now all I'm going to see and hear about for the next fifty freakin' years are articles and discussions on racism in the media...Thanks,you brilliantly ignorant creators of The Stanley Parable!"

I truly believed that we had another feminism/Anita Sarkeesian style debate on our hands, so the fact that such complaining is so minimal is a surprise to me. Now, I can understand why the creator would want to change such an image, I truly do, as many people can find it to be offensive. Even I will admit that, upon initial encounter, that I felt it to be slightly racist, but I was more focused, and subsequently offended, on the grounds that it was a child, a CHILD, being burned, period. If anything, I feel more offended by the fact that Oliver Campbell was upset by the "implied" racism rather than the fact that there was a satirical image of a child being burned alive. On that note, the image is a satire, a play-on joke used to convey the thinking process of Caucasians in early 50's American, of which you can quickly grasp based upon the style the film containing the image portrayed. Let me say that again. IT'S-A-JOKE!

I wonder if we will ever move past such debates, and after writing such a statement I realize that we will not, because there will always be someone out in the world who will try to make connections when there are none. For example,Resident Evil 5 received a slew of criticism for its debacle on the extensive murdering of Africans...counterpoint, THEY WERE ZOMBIES! I mean, holy Christ on a cracker, how stupid do you have to be to make such a claim?! I mean, in a series that has a long standing history of zombie killing, why is it suddenly racist when all of the zombies are black? Heck, even Bioshock Infinite used forms of racism, and while debates started cropping up over that it seemed to have died rather quickly. Better question, did Oliver Campbell complain about either of those games? I have a feeling that he did but hadn't been recognized by a AAA company, or his e-mail was lost in the slew of others claiming such games to be racist and bigoted in nature, but such analysis and questioning will come another time...back to the previous argument.

I do not mind the creator of the game altering the content so long as it does not impede upon the integrity of the game. For example, if the creator changed the image to a puppy but kept the dialogue exactly the same then the joke would fall extremely short and make absolutely zero sense, but I'm sure someone so talented wouldn't make such a critical error due to how well the game itself performs. That's all that really matters, that the game remains as golden as it has been since it's release, and if the creator wants to alter content to make it more "family-friendly" then, by all means, do so, but it is something which does not seem feasible seeing as so many of the endings end with horrific or depressing connotations (see the "madness" or "bomb" ending).

Anyway, that's my two cents. Now I am off to watch more playthroughs of The Stanley Parable!

 

[purplemonkey555]

We should just make everybody white, that would fix all the problems.

Kidding of course, but seriously, why does everything have to be about race nowadays?

 

[Therumancer]

I'm not sure the joke will work with a white kid. Or without the immolation. I just can't see a way to change the joke without lessening its effectiveness.

Well they could make the doctor darker skinned as well.

Honestly though I think Wreden shouldn't change it at all. Bowing to out of control political correctness just makes problems worse. Indeed his willingness to change things based on this kind of complaint actually lowers my opinion of him.

As far as the game making one uncomfortable, that's exactly an argument for keeping it. Let's be blunt here, that's like 90% of the point of playing something as surreal as "The Stanly Parable".

What's more when you get down to it, being accurate isn't racist. To be blunt, most of the first world is white, huge amounts of the third world are non-white. Africa in particular sees a lot of effort from the left wing to provide charity and improve conditions. Thus, having white aid workers and doctors, assisting black children, represents the reality of the situation, not some politically incorrect horror. Indeed this is an image promoted by the various beg-a-thon commercials run on TV, trying to get people to donate to the third world, or donate time in the third world.

 

[ChristopherT]

For example,Resident Evil 5 received a slew of criticism for its debacle on the extensive murdering of Africans...counterpoint, THEY WERE ZOMBIES! I mean, holy Christ on a cracker, how stupid do you have to be to make such a claim?! I mean, in a series that has a long standing history of zombie killing, why is it suddenly racist when all of the zombies are black?

This is not strictly directed at you, just that this is the second time (third?) someone in this thread has brought up Resident Evil 5. There's a slight problem with this, because the actual problem was buried, as it gets, by the internet outrage. As a people we take problems, boil them down to the most simple base, and then discuss/rant about that. Now, it's been a while, and when the claims of racism in Resident Evil 5 first popped up it seemed very much so that the complaints could have been about the fact that there were black people(taken over be evil parasites) being shot by a white guy. As the game came out, and discussion carried on there was either a new development in the discussion or the original complaint became clear, and while the large collective continued to argue about killing African infected vs Spanish infected, there was a point pretty much lost to most.

At a point in the game, these otherwise sensible people (before being infected with parasites) had a degrade in which they were putting on tribal gear, and throwing spears. It's a fairly strange thing to add to the game and the equation. The depiction of an African black man sporting tribal gear, gnashing at the teeth, and 'chucking' spears, is something based in a more racial negative profile. And I can see that being a problem with some, it's off putting. Then compared to Resident Evil 4 the villagers there dressed as monks? Unless I'm missing something, monks and the Spanish do not have a large connection to negative remarks or persecution. Where as the 'savage' African has strong connections to racial tensions and racism.

 

[Doopliss64]

I'm not sure the joke will work with a white kid. Or without the immolation. I just can't see a way to change the joke without lessening its effectiveness.

Well they could make the doctor darker skinned as well.

Honestly though I think Wreden shouldn't change it at all. Bowing to out of control political correctness just makes problems worse. Indeed his willingness to change things based on this kind of complaint actually lowers my opinion of him.

As far as the game making one uncomfortable, that's exactly an argument for keeping it. Let's be blunt here, that's like 90% of the point of playing something as surreal as "The Stanly Parable".

What's more when you get down to it, being accurate isn't racist. To be blunt, most of the first world is white, huge amounts of the third world are non-white. Africa in particular sees a lot of effort from the left wing to provide charity and improve conditions. Thus, having white aid workers and doctors, assisting black children, represents the reality of the situation, not some politically incorrect horror. Indeed this is an image promoted by the various beg-a-thon commercials run on TV, trying to get people to donate to the third world, or donate time in the third world.

I agree. Whether or not the image is even racist is somewhat irrelevant to me; I think that using an update to slightly change the nature of a joke (and, by extension, the artistic intent of the work) is comparable to the kind of crap George Lucas pulls all the time. It's artistic revisionism. Unless there's a good, and I mean DAMN GOOD, reason to change something, you need to stand up for the artistic integrity of the work. And sometimes, that means not changing something even when there is a better alternative available.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

Oliver Campbell needs be be taught some very, very basic skills in critical thinking.

 

[Signa]

Person A makes a story which includes a joke person B finds offensive. Person B contacts person A and explains why, person A finds that he can alter the content without changing the message. Person A and B are both happy. How can anyone possibly be pissed at this?

Because persons C through Z liked it the way it was.

OT: I actually emailed him about it, and he actually took the time to respond. Basically, he feels he's not compromising the joke with the modifications to the image. That remains to be seen for me, but I can't tell him he's wrong if he's happy with the direction this is going. I still think that bowing to internet mob justice (no matter how small that mob is) is bad policy, but I can't argue him.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Why is there controversy here.

Artist makes joke, someone feels uncomfortable, artist takes this into account, thinks that joke should be changed and as a completely independent decision of artistic expression changes joke without changing the idea behind it to avoid making more people uncomfortable.

Believe it or not artistic freedom works both ways, if he felt like he should change the joke then (AUDIBLE GASP) HE SHOULD CHANGE IT.

I thought this was an excellent example of gaming growing more mature but apparently taking consumer opinions into account means you've sold your soul.

Let's be clear here, the maker didn't change the joke to appease this one person, he changed it because after hearing this person offer criticism his opinion of his own work was changed, he thought that the work didn't need to be offensive and that he could change it without trouble so he should.

This is the definition of feedback

 

[Daveman]

Oh, so we're allowed to burn only white kids? Now THAT's racist.

 

[AusGamer44]

Because black kids AREN'T poor and "expendable" in modern society? Oh wait...

maybe he should have used an impoverished silvester stallone...?

jason statham works too. he is already in every 3rd grade action flick of this generation.

Oh, no, such a horrible transgression of free speech! The artistic integrity is ruined! Ruined!

Surely, he must have been forced to take the decision to change it, no doubt by a feminist death squad.

Jesus,dude,what has feminism got to do with this? A guy felt a part of a game could be seen as racially offensive. The game-maker kindly modified because he's an agreeable human being. What is the problem? If more issues were settled with ease and grace like this was,we'd all be better off.It wasn't the main part of the game,so it's not like he's compromising his artistic vision or anything. I do worry that you think those of us who merely want equal rights for the sexes are somehow trouble-makers who look for offense-even in an issue unrelated to gender. I'm guessing you're one of those guys who sent Anita Sarkesian unpleasant comminiques. This is about race,not gender. Don't drag us into this.