WHAT did you say?!

So, I just bought a new game for Steam. For those of you who are unsure what Steam is, it's a program to buy PC games and use it to play them with your friends, etc. [Steam] I bought Dead Island. It's an RPG/FPS zombie game, and it's trailer really got me, plucked at my heartstrings. [See devastating trailer HERE.] And on the release day, last Monday, I bought it.

Fastforward. The game has had some issues in it's Steam PC release. First, the company, Deep Silver, hasn't really had any big name games, and was ill-prepared for the amount of interest the game generated. No online cooperative play until today, Sept 9th. The servers couldn't handle it. No problem. It happens.

But, in addition to the limited server capacity, Deep Silver released the wrong version of Dead Island, and in doing so, released a test version of the game. You could fly and do all sorts of crazy stuff. It was not the intended release.

In the spirit of RPG, the game allows characters to take skill points much like Borderlands, or other RPG games. Cool. However, a savvy computer gamer found a hidden bit of code, and the code he found was in reference to a female character and her skill point. The engineer who coded the game labelled the skill point "Feminist Whore."

EXCUSE ME?!

This is what Deep Silver had to say in regards to the incident:

"It has come to our attention that one of Dead Island's leftover debug files contains a highly inappropriate internal script name of one of the character skills. This has been inexcusably overlooked and released with the game," Blazej Krakowiak, Techland International Brand Manager, said via email. "The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturally has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was also changed. What is left is a part of an obscure debug function. This is merely an explanation but by no means an excuse. In the end that code was made a part of the product and signed with our company name. We deeply regret that fact and we apologize to all our customers or anyone who might have been offended by that inappropriate expression.

"The person responsible for this unfortunate situation will face professional consequences for violating the professional standards and beliefs Techland stands for."

Publisher Deep Silver also responded with a prepared statement:

"These unfortunate actions were of one individual at developer company Techland and do not in any way represent the views of publishing company Deep Silver."

 I understand that the code was never supposed to be seen by public eye. I know that it was inwardly "a joke" and probably just some guys sitting around laughing about how the Feminist Whore should make them a Sammich. The problem is in the culture itself, about how men, for this instance,  in gaming, view women as inferior, or as a threat to them. I'm sure that these geeky men, these intelligent, gaming, nerdy men, did not get as much attention from women back in their day as did the jocks and so on. Ask any girl who games, and any guy whose ever seriously played with a girl. One of two things happen. The girl either flirts relentlessly, and doesn't give a shit about the game, or they are a real gamer who hides behind her screenname, and possibly pretends to be a male. So she can enjoy the game without the male prejudice of being a female gamer.

We all know that nerds and gamers are the social outcasts, but that doesn't justify the Feminist Whore label. I understand that some jokes are not for mixed company. But, what I'm most upset about is that the culture dictates that this is okay, in some way. More men than not in the forums actually say "It wasn't supposed to be seen," or "It was a joke, don't take it so seriously." 

So, now it's okay to tell jokes that should offend half of the gaming community? If the slip of code had been something like "BadDrivingAsian" or any other offensive reference to race in the game, people would be up in arms, calling for the heads of the programmers. Instead, the large majority of people are saying "No big fucking deal." And the large majority of gamers are male. 

See the problem?


Edit: 


As an aside from the feminist aspect, another point has been made. It was also pointed out to me, when discussing this with a computer engineer, that while it wasn't supposed to be seen, it goes to speak for the level of professionalism at Deep Silver. It's disappointing to see such a nosedive for a company which produced a game, that, while not perfect, has promise.