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Mordau devs official response after PC Gamer interview
- Thread starter CountAntonio
- Start date
Yeah no.
Though they've now stated that this will not be an option because it would undermine the hard work people put into character customization; they thought, and apparently still think, that realism is a valid reason for letting players disable female characters in their fiction-based shouting simulator where bards play bad solos on the lute as swords cut through plate armor. They consider it a difficult problem.
Don't know why they wouldn't think similarly about race.
They left that racist thread up because they say they don't think it's racist.
Etc.
Though they've now stated that this will not be an option because it would undermine the hard work people put into character customization; they thought, and apparently still think, that realism is a valid reason for letting players disable female characters in their fiction-based shouting simulator where bards play bad solos on the lute as swords cut through plate armor. They consider it a difficult problem.
Don't know why they wouldn't think similarly about race.
They left that racist thread up because they say they don't think it's racist.
Etc.
User banned (1 Month): excusing racism + history of severe infractions
I thought the reply was quite reasonable.
Some of you have a bit unrealistic expectations for small Slovenian develops and their knowledge of the ins and outs of modern day American identity politics.
Some of you have a bit unrealistic expectations for small Slovenian develops and their knowledge of the ins and outs of modern day American identity politics.
I think saying "Huh, apparently calling people gay as an insult and all these guys screaming about white purity is bad. Maybe we should at least change the name of our oldest thread that people have already told us is a racial slur, we have countless reports of it being a racial slur, and the article we are responding to pointed out is a racial slur." would be a pretty realistic expectation
All of those other posts too, fucking shit. It's not hard to see what community the game attracts and the total lack of moderation is allowing this shit to fester.The controversial thread is still live and active with its original title
But they're a small Slovenian team?? How would they know being racist and homophobic is bad?
You're just asking way too much!! STOP IT!
who do you think is using the word on this forums.
And who do you think is using the word on their forums.
Stop and think about this for a few seconds and you might discover the answer as to what the difference is.
Edit: Hell, just think about "how" it's used on top of who is generally using it. There's context to this that you seem to just be glossing over.
They could have remembered that Ethiopian mercenaries where a thing in Byzantium ;)
Unless it's not taught (anymore?) in history classes, of course.
I doubt the people using it on this forum share a lot of similarities with the people using it on that forum.
Clearly the world wide identity politics in play here isn't the slider to protect sensitive nazi's from having to see PoC or women.
lol. You fucking dimwit, at least be slightly more clever with your bullshit.
A bunch of low-tier alt-right fuckboys using a play on a racial slur for a joke and getting tacit support from developers is somehow the same as some of the Afro-American posters on this site saying nigga?
Get the fuck outta here
Yeah I see zero reason to believe this isn't blatant backpedaling after seeing that people rightly thought their plans were shit, especially considering their dismissal of the discussion forum racism.
I hope this post was made for its ironic value.
It took them how many years to start removing Nazi groups in its communities? And they still sell a game made by Nazis.
"That was just a couple of guys who said that" seems like a bad excuse when the whole team is only eleven people. Rampant sexism and racism is still the norm on the official forums, so I don't think PC Gamer has been at all unfair here. Seems like a toxic community that spiraled way out of control because the devs couldn't or didn't want to step in and stop it.
They're probably worried about alienating their fanbase by using more specific terms.
They're probably worried about alienating their fanbase by using more specific terms.
Lol it's definitely not the biggest new IP if the year. Apex Legends has definitely done SO much better.
User Warned: Port-begging
That is a good apology. However changes have to be made.
And bring this game to PS4. E: Lmao, warning for this?
And bring this game to PS4. E: Lmao, warning for this?
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They might make the avenger angry though...
it's risky...
Disclaimer: this is an attempt at humor, if not funny please just tell me nicely :(
I am new here, and still adjusting and not trying to offend. Toxicity sucks big time, the Toxic Avenger is cool -in a certain way-.
tbf i totally forgot about Apex, so fair point there. It's the biggest new IP launch on Steam then. Either way it's huge and not just some unknown game as some people thought.
Though i'd personally not consider apex a new IP since it's a Titan Fall spin off, but if Tom Clancy's The Division counts then I guess Apex should as well.
On the one hand, I think there's a lot that sounds reasonable in this explanation, and their outright declaration that there won't be any gender/race filters is encouraging (if not the lowest-of-the-low bars). I'm happy to see that.
Except things start to sag when they go on to talk about how their overt bigotry issues are out of their hands. Their borderline petulant response to the suggestion of moderating things like "Post your kniggas" alone takes the wind out of the idea that they're simply too overwhelmed by all this; They've put in extra energy defending a lot of this stuff, including outright legitimizing the "historical" idea that any playable women in the game would be wrong. I'll also point out that highlighting how few staffers they have is odd to juxtapose with the idea that there wasn't communication with the people sent out to do interviews. It feels a whole lot less believable with so few people, compared to a larger company. And with previous discussion right in official statements on their own boards, this idea that it was just a misunderstanding is rubbish.
It's impossible not to note the bigger picture, particularly if you've seen the standard for hate speech in-game and on their official message boards. Again, very simple things could have been implemented day-0 in terms of basic chat filters (a known necessity in the year fucking 2000 for other multiplayer titles) to moderatet tells me that this team wants slurs in their game. There's no other way to interpret it that I find believable.
Except things start to sag when they go on to talk about how their overt bigotry issues are out of their hands. Their borderline petulant response to the suggestion of moderating things like "Post your kniggas" alone takes the wind out of the idea that they're simply too overwhelmed by all this; They've put in extra energy defending a lot of this stuff, including outright legitimizing the "historical" idea that any playable women in the game would be wrong. I'll also point out that highlighting how few staffers they have is odd to juxtapose with the idea that there wasn't communication with the people sent out to do interviews. It feels a whole lot less believable with so few people, compared to a larger company. And with previous discussion right in official statements on their own boards, this idea that it was just a misunderstanding is rubbish.
It's impossible not to note the bigger picture, particularly if you've seen the standard for hate speech in-game and on their official message boards. Again, very simple things could have been implemented day-0 in terms of basic chat filters (a known necessity in the year fucking 2000 for other multiplayer titles) to moderatet tells me that this team wants slurs in their game. There's no other way to interpret it that I find believable.
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Nothing they've said even comes close to passing the smell test. It DOES NOT take a large team at all to knock down the most obvious and blatant forms of toxicity in a community. As said the main thread in question is one of their oldest.
I see two things here.
1. They have is a very toxic and racist community that they fear might leave them if they impose any kind of moderation assuming they even want to introduce it. That's their player base or a good size of it and they know it. That's where the money comes from.
2. They've said nothing at all from what I've seen that suggest they themselves are not racist, etc and completely disavow these beliefs and comments.
What they're falling back on is "lack of censorship", etc which is always a red flag when it comes to allowing racist language and behavior to continue to exist on your platform.
I see two things here.
1. They have is a very toxic and racist community that they fear might leave them if they impose any kind of moderation assuming they even want to introduce it. That's their player base or a good size of it and they know it. That's where the money comes from.
2. They've said nothing at all from what I've seen that suggest they themselves are not racist, etc and completely disavow these beliefs and comments.
What they're falling back on is "lack of censorship", etc which is always a red flag when it comes to allowing racist language and behavior to continue to exist on your platform.
I don't know if painting themselves as overstrained is better than them being openly racist. On top of this that excuse won't last them forever.
Definitely not a racist community:
Same place where devs are active in discussing other points of the game. They seem to just prefer to ignore things.
Also several threads on the steam forums asking why there is so much "toxicity" (bigotry in general) in the game are being closed.
Like, it sold a million copies. It's not HUGE. it has 10k players on steam right now, it's #47 in the charts.
It's great for a 10 person team but important to put into context, I don't think it's even close to being as successful as you think (biggest IP of the year, even on steam).
Maybe I'm wrong, I'm at work right now and can't really check all the numbers so feel free to correct me.
Still, it's big enough that they should be able to hire a dedicated community person to fix this mess.
Yeah this game is legitimately rock solid. I can understand that they are stretched thin, remotely working on a game, and having some people not in the loop is completely understandable. These people are probably in different time-zones.
Tho they should probably invest in an office, and moving everyone into a central location so this doesn't become a long standing issue which it seems it really has been. Shouldn't be a dent in their profit to be fair. They've made roughly 20 mill and getting a office shouldn't even dent their resources.
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Would love if someone with an alt account can burn it on explaining this to us.
Never understood the logic of tha specific claim.
My biggest gripe with this whole thing is the devs continually trying to cry about how, "oh, we're just a small team of 11 people. How could you possibly ask little ole us to manage our game's racist community so well?" But your game blew up. It had a great launch (500k I think). You've probably made plenty of money off of that and have continued to do so, yet you're trying to say that you didn't think to invest any of that money into more staff or community managers? As well as the suggestion that they need to pay someone to tell them that racism is bad and will drive players away.
It makes it seem like they didnt hire anyone else either because:
-they're incredibly incompetent and think that 11 people is enough to manage a game of this size or
-thye could hire other people, but dont want to risk them being unwilling to work with people who have "different opinions" than them (about PoCs being treated equally)
Or
-both.
None are very appealing and just drive me away from the game altogether.
It makes it seem like they didnt hire anyone else either because:
-they're incredibly incompetent and think that 11 people is enough to manage a game of this size or
-thye could hire other people, but dont want to risk them being unwilling to work with people who have "different opinions" than them (about PoCs being treated equally)
Or
-both.
None are very appealing and just drive me away from the game altogether.
Zero mention of racism and nazi ideology being spread. Just boil it all down to "toxicity", that'll solve it!
It's pretty simple: many people over here on the european continent like to pretend like racism doesn't exist. Those same people are voting nazi parties back into government because they fear middle eastern refugees. Racism uh... solved!
It's pretty simple: many people over here on the european continent like to pretend like racism doesn't exist. Those same people are voting nazi parties back into government because they fear middle eastern refugees. Racism uh... solved!
