Ion Fury to retain homophobic content after all

[TheCongressman]

Is it just the sprite or is it built into the context of the game? If it's just a hidden sprite I'm surprised they wouldn't just play the rouge developer card and say it got snuck in while no one was looking.

Such an odd stance for a joke that doesn't really seem to make any sense.

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Because the audience that matters most to them are the babies that called censorship, that says removing them would remove the game's "charm", and said that they were caving to 'sjws'. Those are the people they want to assure, message is loud and clear.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

It must be very well hidden in Sonic if there is. o,o

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Spoiler: it's not hidden at all.
Sonic 1 is about a madman destroying the land and enslaving the populace for personal gain. Then a hero from the enslaved populace rises up and manages to stop him and save everyone. It's a story as old as time.

 

[Deleted member 1849]

I knew that previous 3drealms statement was too good to be true.

It must be very well hidden in Sonic if there is. o,o

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Are you seriously that blind?

 

[Ravio-li]

So in short, they made clear that mass review bombing works on them and/or the apology was dishonest... stupid.

 

[Couscous]

3D Realms came up with the apology, these are the devs, which I doubt ever wanted to apologize at all. If anything, they're sorry people were offended, not for the content or their comments.

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You're right. Terminx is one big homophobic piece of shit.

 

[Derachi]

I don't exactly believe that games should always be mature or serious. Games were originally created for entertainment. Since then they have had tons of crude and improper jokes etc. Of course every one is allowed to call those out if they don't like them. It's up to the creator to choose how they react and consumers will counter-react accordingly.

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So are you trying to equate homophobia with "lightheartedness?" Are you saying homophobia is "entertainment?" Like it's just some "crude and improper joke" and not a serious fucking problem?

Stop justifying homophobia.

 

[Gestault]

It must be very well hidden in Sonic if there is. o,o

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Anti-industrial environmentalism.

 

[Daniel Westlake]

I'm new.. Sorry. But hey.. I guess that doesn't matter.

Also.. Censorship isn't exclusive towards politics. Censorship doesn't belong in video games. Games can have as much politics in them as possible, but because video games are generally fictional products, issues and politics also should be fictional and not reflections of the creators. Simple.

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Hey. First off a company removing or altering a product due to consumer backlash isn't censorship, second your statement about media betrays a total ignorance about, well, the history and influence of media on human society. I'd suggest you go and make an effort to educate yourself on the topic by, hell, even just reading through the Wikipedia pages of some Shakespeare plays.
But you won't since you're just another disingenuous scumlord.

 

[Serpens007]

What a dumb statement. So now no one will really care about the game

 

[Deleted member 5596]

*Sonic 1 directly starts on a very natural landscape, with plenty of nature and last stage is basically ends on a industrial dystopia and in each level you free up captured animals*

"Man, where are the politics in Sonic? I can't see them!"

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

Well, we all know what to do now if we want them to walk-back walking-back their walk-back. Let the review bombing begin.

 

[entrydenied]

Man this is some flip flopping. They still made a donation so at least some good came out of it. And yes they're welcome to not censor their titles, they made their point on what audience they seek to have, and it's not an audience I seek to be a part of so I'll keep away from their titles in the future.

I guess that's that.

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Removing the Ogay bottle was the bare minimum they could do, even though it was never just about the bottle. The fact that they can't even perform such a simple symbolic gesture means that they cannot be trusted to have actually donated anything, neither can we assume that the staff has been disciplined or sent for the training they were supposed to. It voids the whole apology.

#VoidVoidpoint

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

Fuck 'em, then. I was looking forward to checking this out. But, not a fucking chance I would financially support these pieces of shit who think homophobia is funny.

 

[Deleted member 54292]

Perfume bottle that had ogay written on it, and a secret room that had f*g*t written in it.

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Imagine spending all that time making such a cool looking game and being unable to help yourself from inserting bullshit like that into it. Speaks volumes about the devs who are responsible.

 

[garion333]

Censorship is the government limiting what you can say and see. Censorship is not an entity facing pressure about content in one of their products. That's the free market working as intended.

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Isn't that a bit limited of a definition?

Make no mistake, the way censorship gets thrown around in gaming circles is absurd, but I don't believe censorship is strictly limited to government mandate.

 

[moonsofvenus_]

I said this before and i'll say it again: this is why the whole "the team will go through sensitivity training!" means nothing. At best, sensitivity training just causes bigots to learn what not to say outloud. at worst, it just riles them up more and they go even further off the deep end. Sensitivity training isn't meant to change their views, its to make them stop spouting those views in a way that can hurt the company publicly.

Honestly, what a joke this has all been. Killed any interest I had in the game because as a trans person, it feels pretty bad to support people who joke about my suicide rate and call being trans a "mental illness"! I was really excited about a new buildengine game but it wasn't worth this, man.

 

[Deleted member 7130]

The triple down. They went for it, the shit bricks.

 

[DoubleTake]

*Sonic 1 directly starts on a very natural landscape, with plenty of nature and last stage is basically ends on a industrial dystopia and in each level you free up captured animals*

"Man, where are the politics in Sonic? I can't see them!"

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I'm becoming more and more convinced this is the average level of intelligence people who use the "censorship/sjw" defense are operating on.

 

[M1chl]

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I mean, this is like 12 years old edgy....or maybe even less. Create a game is not an easy feet, so how is possible, to have these kinds of people on board. And besides, how long would this take to get this fixed, like 2 minutes? What a trainwreck....

 

[iamaustrian]

"Ogay"

seriously? Are you a fucking 5 year old kid from the 90s?

fuck em and fuck their game. pathetic assholes

 

[Rayne]

Welp, when they did do the right thing they didn't get much support for it. Their forums and discord got flooded with a certain kind of menace, they lost a lot of money / sales because their community is toxic. Didn't see any videogame journalists covering *that* part. Really, really disappointed right now in their leadership, or lack thereof, but kind of not surprised.

Also, so long as they keep their end up over the donation to charity (which, by the way, I now want receipts for) and removal of the f*gbag room, we'll call it even.

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Yep not surprised at all honestly.

 

[Sinatar]

So what happens if Era review bombs them for being shit heads

Do they walk back the walk back to their walkback

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Era and the people who were initially upset by this are by far the minority. They've chosen to back to majority, the ones with the money.

 

[Deleted member 1656]

I'm okay with the game and games in general retaining content like this. If I had fucked up and inserted something offensive in my game, I might want it to stay there for the record. I think works are more honest about themselves and their authors that way. The technology we have in our age is amazing and I use it liberally to edit and delete my foibles, but I don't like how we can also bury our bigger mistakes.

That said, I don't think this double walk-back is the right move.

 

[secretanchitman]

So, I usually request refunds well within the 2-hours/2-weeks limit. Anyone familiar with trying to get refunds on things that go past that? I bought Ion Fury in EA, hit 3 hours played, and stopped playing after the controversy started. Wondering if anyone knows how to maximize my chances of getting Steam to refund me. Seems like a long shot, but at this point, I want to take back every cent Voidpoint saw from me.

Fuck, this whole situation is so miserable.



That's a good choice. Amid Evil is amazing.

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I tried to request a refund (only played for 20 minutes) on Steam but they denied me because I bought it last month.

 

[Brazil]

 

[Stuart Gipp]

What a complete set of worthless shitgoblins. Really fucking stupid response.

 

[Zipzoom]

Era and the people who were initially upset by this are by far the minority. They've chosen to back to majority, the ones with the money.

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Yep. There aren't that many progressive gamers unfortunately.

 

[Gestault]

I mean, this is like 12 years old edgy....or maybe even less. Create a game is not an easy feet, so how is possible, to have these kinds of people on board. And besides, how long would this take to get this fixed, like 2 minutes? What a trainwreck....

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What's frustrating about this is that it's now very clearly aggressive bigotry; as in, this contempt for a group of people is central enough that it would be a deal-breaker to alter it. Especially with it being basically background art, it gives the impression they originally tried to "sneak" it in, but now it's clear how important that hatred is to them.

 

[moonsofvenus_]

Yep. There aren't that many progressive gamers unfortunately.

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"gamers" and "progressive" is like fire and water, lol

 

[Phellps]

I'm with you on the censorship bit, but that's the proper word usage when trying to cater to the review bombers. However, I don't think there was any evidence that the transphobia on their Discord was rampant. That's quite a stretch of the definition.

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Ok, I see how the word choice isn't accurate. But the transphobia wasn't really tame either, with some wild claims left completely unfettered.

 

[JigglesBunny]

Statement from JigglesBunny:

You've caused a recent controversy considering Ion Fury game content was needlessly offensive and hateful.

I will absolutely NOT be purchasing Ion Fury or any of your other games, now or in the future, for reasons including but not limited to the fact that your development team refuse to remove "gags" such as gaming's most recent alt-right dog whistle.

I do not support homophobia, transphobia or sexism in creative works of any kind and regret my initial decision to ever consider spending a penny on this tactless game instead of trusting my instincts. 3D Realms and Voidpoint stand together on being pricks.

Last but not least, please respect my right to keep posting threads and posts on forums about just how toxic and miserable you must be to need to pander to a hateful and fair-weather alt-right audience. Recognize your mistake and receive this message loud and clear - fuck the lot of you!

 

[Vandal Deca]

I am stunned at how bad this looks for 3DR. Not only did they just admit they value being divisive asshats over being decent and inclusive people, how the hell can you actually walk back an apology? Even the regressives they appear to be placating here can't possibly trust them after a turnaround like this.

Given that they now claim to value their right to be as controversial and bigoted as they want in their games to the exclusion of all else, what does this say about the zero-tolerance policy for said bigotry that they claimed to be instituting in their apology statement? Those look like mutually exclusive acts.

Unreal what a dumpster fire this game turned into.

 

[Dio]

Imagine spending all that time making such a cool looking game and being unable to help yourself from inserting bullshit like that into it. Speaks volumes about the devs who are responsible.

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the game itself is really really good. screw these hateful devs.

 

[Zacmortar]

God, why. Things were finally starting to settle down.



It isn't, though. That's part of why this sucks.



f*gbag, actually. A reference to the Duke 3D theme tune, "grabbag", allegedly.

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Its a weird world today where Duke Nukem is a supporter of gays and Bombshell isnt

 

[gogojira]

So, in the end

--They managed to get some negative attention for being morons
-- Then again for being morons who hide shitty jokes in their games
-- Then called cowards by their own kind for saying they'll take out the dumbass "jokes"
-- Then got review bombed to hell by the seething rage of the angry gamer squad
-- Now they went crawling back to the people who review bombed them

The cowardice has been pretty fucking hilarious, to be honest.

 

[XL Hoodie]

I tried to request a refund (only played for 20 minutes) on Steam but they denied me because I bought it last month.

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:(

Mine went through. I had 11 minutes over.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

So are they leaving in the slur text in the hidden area too?

 

[Pankratous]

"Ogay"

seriously? Are you a fucking 5 year old kid from the 90s?

fuck em and fuck their game. pathetic assholes

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I don't really get this one. What's the joke in the first place?

Is Ogay taking the mick out of another product? Is it a reference? Or is the joke literally just having the word gay present?

 

[Deleted member 3010]

The alt-right, gamergaters harassment review bombing worked. Fucking bunch of frustrated incels snowflakes. :lol

What an embarassing cesspool of wastes of flesh the gaming community is overall.

 

[Deleted member 4494]

So are they leaving in the slur text in the hidden area too?

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Nobody really knows. I suspect not, because it's indefensible, whereas people can make a case for the soap being 'neutral (even if that case sucks). 3DR / VP ought to at least remove that portion.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

What I find baffling is that right wing people still support the devs when that walk back clearly shows it's not about politics, censorships or whatever they claim but just plain ass greedy pandering to the crowd that they think gives them the most money. Someone that bends just as the wind blows should get no respect from anyone.

 

[Biestmann]

Nobody really knows. I suspect not, because it's indefensible, whereas people can make a case for the soap being 'neutral (even if that case sucks). 3DR / VP ought to at least remove that portion.

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I am not sure we have reason to insinuate they have even a slither of decency or common sense at this point.

 

[Arkanim94]

I don't really get this one. What's the joke in the first place?

Is Ogay taking the mick out of another product? Is it a reference? Or is the joke literally just having the word gay present?

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Gay is the joke, isn't it hilarious?

 

[metalslimer]

They totally aren't donating a cent to the Trevor Project.

 

[Deleted member 5596]

Yep. There aren't that many progressive gamers unfortunately.

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I think there are more that we give credit, but I guess there aren't many progressive ppl that were interested in a spiritual sequel of a 90's edgy shooter full of hypermacho toxic masculinity and sexism in the first place.

 

[Kirroyal88]

removing hateful slurs is considered censorship now? holy shit..... I guess the donation will be cancelled as well?

oh well.... never again i would touch anything these morons make in the future. Cowards.

 

[Deleted member 28461]

When accused of bending the knee, Terminx opts to bend both knees.

 

[Psychotron]

Wow, yeah that's not ok at all. It's not a "gag", it's homophobic bullshit. Censorship is one thing, but trying to disguise spreading hateful bullshit as fighting against censorship....nah.

 

[Xater]

That is certainly a hill to die on.

I would hope someone at 3D Realms is like "WTF are you doing?"

 

[Danzflor]

Welp, extremely disappointed about this whole situation, but they are just serving the main demographic of the game I guess.

Is things like this that make me happy to be distancing myself more and more of the internet and videogames. I know they are just a fraction and small portion of all videogamers but fuck man, I hate that social media and websites give this pricks so many useful tools to make them so loud and vocal. Shouldn't have to be this way.