• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Don't Starve removes character from Early Access for being culturally inappropriate.

CenturionNami

CenturionNami

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Nov 2, 2017
5,230
The character in question is Warbucks.
latest

Apparently he's been removed (but can be readded by a mod) The dev's response to it. It should be noted whilst the devs state it was also for gameplay reasons, the character is very popular (he can handle stress alot better then most)
https://www.reddit.com/r/dontstarve/comments/aonk93/why_is_warbucks_gone/
Hr8EA7m.jpg


https://www.reddit.com/r/dontstarve/comments/aonk93/why_is_warbucks_gone/
https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/102600-game-update-307715/

Alot of people are upset lol. But it's an Early Access title, so there was obviously going to be some omissions.
 
angelgrievous

angelgrievous

Middle fingers up
Member
Nov 8, 2017
9,134
Ohio
I assume he's culturally problematic because of him being a rich white dude that goes off to other countries and trophy hunts their indigenous animals.

I don't know as I've never played the game but that's what I get when I look at him.
 
Servbot24

Servbot24

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
43,064
angelgrievous said:
I assume he's culturally problematic because of him being a rich white dude that goes off to other countries and trophy hunts their indigenous animals.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's a person that would actually exist in real life - problematic as a person yeah but it should be allowed to be a character.

Doesn't quite make sense to me. Almost seems like a fake reason to remove the character in an effort to stir up shit or something.
 
Eumi

Eumi

Member
Nov 3, 2017
3,518
Servbot24 said:
That's a person that would actually exist in real life - problematic as a person yeah but it should be allowed to be a character.

Doesn't quite make sense to me. Almost seems like a fake reason to remove the character in an effort to stir up shit or something.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You're talking like the character has been banned by the government or any sort of outside force.

No one is disallowing the character. The devs have just decided they don't want him in their game and removed him, as they're free to do.
 
kpaadet

kpaadet

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
1,741
That statement rings very hollow when the devs own avatar looks so much like Warbucks.
 
udivision

udivision

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,031
CenturionNami said:
There's an expansion coming out, Don't Starve Hamlet. Should have been more clear.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So I missed something indeed.
Sign My Guestbook! said:
You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
But I have to sign your guestbook each time though?


kpaadet said:
That statement ring very hollow when the devs own avatar looks so much like Warbucks.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's... kinda funny actually.
 
angelgrievous

angelgrievous

Middle fingers up
Member
Nov 8, 2017
9,134
Ohio
Servbot24 said:
That's a person that would actually exist in real life - problematic as a person yeah but it should be allowed to be a character.

Doesn't quite make sense to me. Almost seems like a fake reason to remove the character in an effort to stir up shit or something.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh I agree, I think being a character should be fine as long as it doesn't cross any lines. It's the only thing I can think of though as the dev post doesn't actually go into any detail as to why they think the character is culturally problematic.
 
Gay Bowser

Gay Bowser

Member
Oct 30, 2017
17,658
There's a world of difference between "there's a massive outrage about this" and "on second thought, we're not comfortable having this in our game."

More power to them for wanting to make a game that their whole team could be proud of.
 
QuixoticNeutral

QuixoticNeutral

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,644
Good move of theirs to let players mod in the work they've done if they really want it in. I see nothing problematic about the character (and happen to like the visual design a lot), but we shouldn't overlook the key part of their statement that they had second thoughts about this character for other reasons besides. It's not an ungraceful way of handling a bad situation where content they want to cut made it further into the public eye than usual, though they probably invited more trouble than it's worth to call it problematic at all and spawn headlines like the one in the title of this thread.

It's also worth remembering that Klei is from Vancouver, and in British Columbian politics (where urban Vancouver is very much on the left), postcolonial reconciliation with the First Nations has risen to the top of the public agenda as a highly visible and contentious issue. I think to call an explorer's caricature like this one problematic is excessively skittish, and if that were the extent of Klei's statement I would take serious issue with it, but it's not hard to see where their discomfort is coming from.
 
sredgrin

sredgrin

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,276
Guys lets make sure to get angry about this even though none of us were actually playing it and barely even knew the game was still getting expansions.
 
Dr. Caroll

Dr. Caroll

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,111
I always assumed Warbucks was a fictional name introduced by Annie.

We all remember Daddy Warbucks, the man who faked a terminal illness and his own death for years to own the libs.
 
Gundam

Gundam

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,801
Good for them! I don't see how it's hard to understand how this could be a bit inappropriate.
 
Bhonar

Bhonar

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
6,066
Gundam said:
Good for them! I don't see how it's hard to understand how this could be a bit inappropriate.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Maybe not everyone thinks like you?

I'm going to guess that roughly half of America would not have a problem with this character (if they were to see and given a description of it).
 
QuixoticNeutral

QuixoticNeutral

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,644
jaggies said:
There's a world of difference between "there's a massive outrage about this" and "on second thought, we're not comfortable having this in our game."

More power to them for wanting to make a game that their whole team could be proud of.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You know what this reminds me of: the whole flap over Tracer's arse a few years ago when Blizzard pulled one of her victory poses. Everybody made a loud fuss over a developer dissatisfaction that was blown way out of proportion, then promptly shut up when they were simply given a better design, after which we could all finally, honestly admit the developers were right to think they could do better.

sredgrin said:
Guys lets make sure to get angry about this even though none of us were actually playing it and barely even knew the game was still getting expansions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Speaking as someone who actually does follow Klei very closely and plays a lot of their products in Early Access (though not Hamlet, as I haven't had time), this is definitely a problem I see time and again on this board. You often see more discussion around controversial headlines about the pettiest things than about the games or developers themselves, and in some cases, it eventually becomes impossible to talk about the content. There is a certain subset of users here who only ever jump in on the political threads, from any angle, and carry that baggage with them to every subsequent thread about the game or developers involved.

Imitation Of Life said:
So with this reasoning is Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt from Borderlands 2 inappropriate?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is important to keep in mind. All of these highly caricatured designs are satirical, and the one removed from Don't Starve is far more obviously a lampooning of colonial romanticism than any kind of glorification. It's very much in keeping with the mad-scientist funhouse tone of the game, just as Hammerlock was with the tone of Borderlands. But again, there is the intent and there is the execution, and my impression is that the developers didn't think the gameplay didn't sell the concept well enough, like a joke that should be funny in theory but just didn't land.

GarthLordOfTheSith said:
Wait a second. How is this game still in early access? Didn't it come out in 2013? Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The third expansion, Hamlet, began its Early Access period in November.
 
Gay Bowser

Gay Bowser

Member
Oct 30, 2017
17,658
Imitation Of Life said:
So with this reasoning is Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt from Borderlands 2 inappropriate?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Honestly, can we just skip the "whatabout X, are you saying that's inappropriate?" stage of this sort of thread? It's tiresome and it goes nowhere and it's honestly irrelevant.

What Gundam says or what I say or what you say doesn't matter. The devs weren't comfortable having a joke that might not age well in their game. That's their right. They're the people who have to put it out into the world and put their name on the thing and live with it for years.
 
Imitation Of Life

Imitation Of Life

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,205
jaggies said:
Honestly, can we just skip the "whatabout X, are you saying that's inappropriate?" stage of this sort of thread? It's tiresome and it goes nowhere and it's honestly irrelevant.

What Gundam says or what I say or what you say doesn't matter. The devs weren't comfortable having a joke that might not age well in their game. That's their right. They're the people who have to put it out into the world and put their name on the thing and live with it for years.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's their game and they can do what they want. It just seems like something that would not be anything if they didn't make it a story.
 
Hailinel

Hailinel

Shamed a mod for a tag
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,527
I'm mostly confused that there was anything about Don't Starve still in Early Access.
 
Mechanized

Mechanized

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,442
People literally die from starvation every day, are they going to change the name of their game next? This is silly.
 
QuixoticNeutral

QuixoticNeutral

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,644
Imitation Of Life said:
It's their game and they can do what they want. It just seems like something that would not be anything if they didn't make it a story.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I agree. Like I said above, I think their approach to this (pulling content that was already out in public, which nobody ever likes doing, but leaving the assets for modders) is sane and well handled, and I appreciate the candidness of their statement if cultural sensitivity was a real concern for the development team. They're in a tough spot, like anyone who has to cut something from an open beta. But a word like "problematic" lights all kinds of fires among people who evidently don't even follow or care about their games, and just want something new to fight over, including right here.
 
Keldroc

Keldroc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,978
jediyoshi said:
Genuine question, what's the cultural point of reference everyone would have to inform them of that?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Warbucks is an example of the Great White Hunter character archetype, which has been out of favor for so long that Spielberg even struggled to figure out what to do with his Great White Hunter, Roland, in The Lost World 22 years ago. This kind of character was a staple of early 20th century pulp adventure, but in the latter half of the century became much less sympathetic with the rise of awareness of colonialism's harmful effects and the realization that hey maybe people who go to other countries and steal their cultural artifacts and kill their animals for sport aren't really heroic figures.

It's not too surprising the devs had second thoughts on this one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.