Dead Island Riptide Collector's Edition [NSFW]

ShaneU

This is disgusting

humanji

I saw that on RPS and after reading many of the comments, am I the only one to think "So what?"

Asmodean

ShaneU wrote: »

This is disgusting

Damn right, where's the tricolour bikini!:D

F1ngers

Huh?
How is this NSFW?

spankmaster2000

Meh. If the publisher thinks it'll sell for them, let them at it.

I don't know if I'd say "disgusting", but rather a bit pointless, in so far as, who do you think looks at that and says; "that'll look great on my mantelpiece!"

Each to their own I suppose...

Headshot

That will start the youngsters into serial killers early lol

ShaneU

F1ngers wrote: »

Huh?
How is this NSFW?

Would you like your boss seeing you looking at decapitated torsos?

super_furry

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/kngs7f

They've already been forced into a pretty grovelling apology.

"A statement on the Zombie Bait Edition:

We deeply apologize for any offense caused by the Dead Island Riptide “Zombie Bait Edition”, the collector’s edition announced for Europe and Australia. Like many gaming companies, Deep Silver has many offices in different countries, which is why sometimes different versions of Collector’s Editions come into being for North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

For the limited run of the Zombie Bait Edition for Europe and Australia, a decision was made to include a gruesome statue of a zombie torso, which was cut up like many of our fans had done to the undead enemies in the original Dead Island.

We sincerely regret this choice. We are collecting feedback continuously from the Dead Island community, as well as the international gaming community at large, for ongoing internal meetings with Deep Silver's entire international team today. For now, we want to reiterate to the community, fans and industry how deeply sorry we are, and that we are committed to making sure this will never happen again."

DjFlin

After the announcement trailer for this game. I have to say, this looks a little more tame than I would have guessed.

Link for those that dont remember.

TerrorFirmer

I don't see an issue at all. People will happily play a game in which you dismember, bludgeon, maim, shoot, run over, decapitate; and god knows what else; zombies, but get their knickers in a twist over this? I don't get it.

Would you like your boss seeing you looking at decapitated torsos?

Your boss would probably be more concerned with you browsing gaming websites at work. Labeling the thread as 'NSFW' is a bit Daily Mail sensationalist. You'd swear the game came with an actual torso, not some gaudy, tacky, painted piece of crap statue that features in your original post.

Jesus, some people just love to be offended.

Reekwind

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I don't see an issue at all. People will happily play a game in which you dismember, bludgeon, maim, shoot, run over, decapitate; and god knows what else; zombies, but get their knickers in a twist over this?

Because it's not about violence; it's about the convergence of sex and violence to sell computer games to puerile teenagers, and those that think like them

No one would ever consider throwing in a model of a bloodied yet bulging male crotch to sell games but some people don't give a damn about a cut up female torso with (something that looks like) breasts attached? That's a problem

super_furry

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Jesus, some people just love to be offended.

Really? They're literally trying to sell a pair of breasts.

humanji

super_furry wrote: »

Really? They're literally trying to sell a pair of breasts.

No, they're not. They're selling a statue that represents the game. It's the torso of a young person, dressed in beach attire. This is to give the impression that they were somewhere hot, on a beach, having fun, living life to it's fullest. But they've turned it on it's head. The person is dead, literally torn apart. It's an ironic twist.

Just because there's a pair of tits on it, doesn't mean it should be banned in case it upsets some overly sensitive people or excites some overly puerile people. Google "Zombie Memorabilia" and you'll find loads of this sort of stuff and it's really popular.

I don't remember too much of a hubbub about being able to recreate that torso in-game.

TerrorFirmer

Exactly. It's at least relevant to the game; 80% of female characters in the first game were dressed in Bikini's, not too surprisingly considering the context of it being set in a tropical paradise; and while I think it's stupid, I don't understand the criticism.

I don't see it too differently than the very fact that 12 year girls can walk into a calender shop and buy calenders of their favorite boybands half naked and covered in oil, but no one seems too up in arms over that. Surely that falls into a worse bracket of using sex as a medium to sell unrelated merchandise?

The breasts maybe was a decision pandering to the fact that the demograph is largely male; a bulging crotch and aforementioned use of scantily clad men is certainly used however to shift a huge amount of material to women of all ages in other mediums aside gaming, including teenage girls.

super_furry

You can shoot middle-Eastern terrorists in the face in Call of Duty. Doesn't mean it'd be OK for Activision to suddenly bundle Taliban corpse models with their game.

In this case it's not even a zombie, it's a dismembered torso with a pair of pneumatic breasts front and centre. The head's ripped off, the arms have been torn away, there are ribs jutting out but the breasts are perfectly perky. It's reducing a women to 'just a pair of tits'.

Reekwind

humanji wrote: »

No, they're not. They're selling a statue that represents the game. It's the torso of a young person, dressed in beach attire

Of course - it's just a complete coincidence that it's a female torso with breast-like objects to the forefront. I'm sure that it could just as easily have been a male torso or crotch, right?

TerrorFirmer wrote:

The breasts maybe was a decision pandering to the fact that the demograph is largely male; a bulging crotch and aforementioned use of scantily clad men is certainly used however to shift a huge amount of material to women of all ages in other mediums aside gaming, including teenage girls

Out of curiosity, what goods are advertised to teenage girls using a massively bulging and barely restrained cock?

But it's the first part of the statement that's really relevant: the assumption that the male demographic somehow requires or excuses a top-heavy dismembered female torso. That's no doubt the exact mindset of the people who created this embarrassment and it's entirely false. Stick a pair of breasts on something and men will buy it? Right

This is exactly why people believe that computer games are for spotty teenagers whose closest contact to a woman comes from FHM - because the industry itself so regularly treats its customers as puerile adolescents. And, it has to be said, some vocal gamers live up to the worst stereotypes

humanji

super_furry wrote: »

You can shoot middle-Eastern terrorists in the face in Call of Duty. Doesn't mean it'd be OK for Activision to suddenly bundle Taliban corpse models with their game.

There's a difference between what is bad taste and what is sexist. A Taliban corpse would be relevant and about as tasteless as the torso.

In this case it's not even a zombie, it's a dismembered torso with a pair of pneumatic breasts front and centre. The head's ripped off, the arms have been torn away, there are ribs jutting out but the breasts are perfectly perky. It's reducing a women to 'just a pair of tits'.

Pneumatic breasts? Anyway, it's not reducing a woman to anything that you don't do in-game. Where's the indignation in that? You can do the exact same to a male zombie. Is that also sexist, reducing a man down to a pair of pecs?

Reekwind wrote: »

Of course - it's just a complete coincidence that it's a female torso with breast-like objects to the forefront. I'm sure that it could just as easily have been a male torso or crotch, right?

Out of curiosity, what goods are advertised to teenage girls using a massively bulging and barely restrained cock?

Penis =/= Breasts. But there are plenty of products advertised with topless men.

Reekwind wrote: »

But it's the first part of the statement that's really relevant: the assumption that the male demographic somehow requires or excuses a top-heavy dismembered female torso. That's no doubt the exact mindset of the people who created this embarrassment and it's entirely false. Stick a pair of breasts on something and men will buy it? Right

This is exactly why people believe that computer games are for spotty teenagers whose closest contact to a woman comes from FHM - because the industry itself so regularly treats its customers as puerile adolescents. And, it has to be said, some vocal gamers live up to the worst stereotypes

If people get the wrong impression about you because of a bit of memorabilia that few will buy, then they're hardly worth your time worrying about, are they?

pixelburp

Am I offended? Not really no, I see worse on TV - just finished watching an episode of Dexter for example - and given zombie games are all about cathartic interaction & violence, it's hard to get too incensed.

Am I slightly embarrassed though that one of my favourite hobbies once more shows itself as a crass, tasteless, juvenile industry, always trying to find new depths to sink, while insulting the emotional intelligence of many of its consumers? Oh hell yeah.

It reminds me of a similar marketing campaign ... somebody did (which says a lot really about its success) ... where they left replica body parts in bins around London city, as part of a grotesque treasure-hunt & runup to a game. You can imagine how well it went & how quickly it got shut down.

But to use that classic of parents everywhere - I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. This kind of adolescent nonsense is just the sort of thing I expect of gaming these days. Or their marketing departments I should really say.

CastorTroy

So why exactly are people complaining? It's not like people are being forced to buy this. Pretty good chance people who do buy this would look at similar or worse stuff online.
And who is complaining? Is it the Daily Mail brigade who are only aware of this because 1 of them noticed it while looking for something to complain about then got the rest of them on the bandwagon?

Potential-Monke

Not this argument again. :rolleyes:

Someone shows a pair of tits in a game: sexist. Someone shows women as weak in a game: sexist. A company decide to do something different with a collectors item: sexist. Who gives a flying fcuk what they do, as long as the game is good?

I'd personally buy it. It's different. It's not your usual crap that "collector" editions come with. It's relevant to the game. It's going for shock value, and tits sell goddamit! Wouldn't go on my mantelpiece though.

I'll start taking these "they're using tits and sex to sell" arguments seriously when porn doesn't exist. Would it make all the overly sensitive happier if there were two editions and the 2nd one had a dismembered male torso?

Anyway, they look fake to me (if the model was real, that is). So maybe that's another example of the company/marketing thinking a bit more about this. A lot of women who go around wearing string bikinis on beaches have fake boobies, and they would be perfect because no zombie wants a mouth full off rubber!

Zillah

Women already endure a really horrific amount of prejudice, abuse and objectification. Trying to compare how women are objectified as sexual objects in society to something as banal as a poster of a boy band shows incredible naivety or serious dishonesty. Go on, ask yourself if men suffer sexual objectification or its consequences to the same extent that women do. You don't need to post your answer, if you're honest then you know the answer is no - so quit the disingenuous comparisons.

No, this statue isn't going to kill anyone, but it is incredibly crass and lacking in taste. Yes, stuff like this happens in the game, but they're picking out this one example of a woman reduced to a pair of bulging and bloodied breasts and literally putting it on a pedestal. It's pathetic, and part of a very pathetic, lowest-common-denominator mindset. I can't believe there are people coming out to white-knight this stupid shit. Yeah I'm sure they just chose an image that they felt represented the game, that just happened to be a dismembered, busty woman wearing almost nothing. Total coincidence. Gaming culture isn't getting a bad reputation for this crap at all.

I wouldn't demand that they apologise, retract it or anything like that. They have a right to do whatever they want. But I'm going to call it out for the juvenile, misogynistic crap that it is.

Polar101

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Labeling the thread as 'NSFW' is a bit Daily Mail sensationalist.

Not at all, I'd have been annoyed if I had opened this thread on my work PC and it didn't mention 'NSFW'.

...why would anyone buy a Collector's Edition like this? Good thing the publishers woke up.

Potential-Monke

Zillah wrote: »

Go on, ask yourself if men suffer sexual objectification or its consequences to the same extent that women do. You don't need to post your answer, if you're honest then you know the answer is no - so quit the disingenuous comparisons.

Certain men do. Ginger men.

Zillah wrote: »

I wouldn't demand that they apologise, retract it or anything like that. They have a right to do whatever they want. But I'm going to call it out for the juvenile, misogynistic crap that it is.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/misogyny

I fail to see how this is "hatred, distrust or dislike of women".

pixelburp

CastorTroy wrote: »

So why exactly are people complaining? It's not like people are being forced to buy this. Pretty good chance people who do buy this would look at similar or worse stuff online.
And who is complaining? Is it the Daily Mail brigade who are only aware of this because 1 of them noticed it while looking for something to complain about then got the rest of them on the bandwagon?

What has Daily Mail got to do with anything? It's crass and infantile, just because some people are calling it for what it is doesn't make them complainers, or stuffy begrudgers of the medium. I wish gaming would grow up sometime, and realise this is the kind of dumb-ass nonsense that plays into the hands of those who'd really try to censor gaming if they had the chance.

As ever, the usual caveat applies that this publicity was probably semi-planned, and shock-value got the game front & centre for sure, but really. God. Sometimes I think the industry deserves everything it gets really, it does itself no favours.

Reekwind

humanji wrote:

Penis =/= Breasts. But there are plenty of products advertised with topless men.

And a few examples of computer games advertised using naked male torsos in sexually suggestive ways would include...?

If people get the wrong impression about you because of a bit of memorabilia that few will buy, then they're hardly worth your time worrying about, are they?

I would have said that once. Not now. There have been too many examples of the crass sexism within the games industry. This stupid, stupid Dead Island example isn't an isolated slip-up in an industry otherwise noted for its balanced and nuanced portrayal of women. Not by a long shot. The industry seems to want to live down to its stereotype, along with some sections of its customers

How on earth can we pretend that we're fans of a mature industry that treats people like adults when - and this is the real twist - such crass and puerile marketing is met by shrugs? You either accept that our hobby is run by and for juvenile men-boys, and don't complain when it's painted as such by tabloids or the mainstream media, or you at least try to see what's wrong with something like this

(And it goes without saying that anyone who buys this edition of the game especially for that figurine fully deserves any scorn heaped on, invariably, him)

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Who gives a flying fcuk what they do, as long as the game is good?

What a horrible, horrible argument. Who cares if a game is marketed in ways that are sexist/racist/bigoted/insulting/cringeworthy/whatever so long as the game is good? I don't think that sort of inane apologism needs rebutting

pixelburp

Reekwind wrote: »

[...] You either accept that our hobby is run by and for juvenile men-boys, and don't complain when it's painted as such by tabloids or the mainstream media, or you at least try to see what's wrong with something like this[...]

This is an important bit; gaming as an industry & community whine with cries of "why us?" when it gets it in the neck from the conservative media outlets, feigning innocence - oh poor us, those pesky old codgers not getting the medium - but fails to learn any lessons and acts out with ill-judged incidents like this one. It can't play the victim all the time, there has to be some gave and take in all this & the industry show it has the maturity to ... well, not act like an obnoxious arse all the time.

Plus you'd think with Sandy Hook and gaming once again getting picked on by everyone, someone would have had the sense to say "you know what? The timing on this collectors edition isn't great, let's go with something else, we're doing ourselves no favours here".

CastorTroy

pixelburp wrote: »

What has Daily Mail got to do with anything? It's crass and infantile, just because some people are calling it for what it is doesn't make them complainers, or stuffy begrudgers of the medium. I wish gaming would grow up sometime, and realise this is the kind of dumb-ass nonsense that plays into the hands of those who'd really try to censor gaming if they had the chance.

As ever, the usual caveat applies that this publicity was probably semi-planned, and shock-value got the game front & centre for sure, but really. God. Sometimes I think the industry deserves everything it gets really, it does itself no favours.

By Daily Mail, I just meant was it the usual crowd that was complaining. But seemingly not.

But as you pointed out, they may have preplanned this for the publicity. Just like things like The DaVinci Code or The Exorcist, the controversy makes people want it more or at least makes them more aware. So them apologising after the fact won't change anything. It's out there now, got them exposure and has done its job.

saiint

i want boobie statue !

Potential-Monke

Reekwind wrote: »

What a horrible, horrible argument. Who cares if a game is marketed in ways that are sexist/racist/bigoted/insulting/cringeworthy/whatever so long as the game is good? I don't think that sort of inane apologism needs rebutting

I was referring to DeepSilver, not gaming in general. It's not the most outrageous or sexist thing to happen in gaming (DNF was way more sexist and there wasn't such a furore over that). Nor is it particularly sexist. People are picking out what they want to see, not what (imo) is being portrayed. Think of a sun drenched beach. What's the most common thing there? Women in bikinis. Yes, there are loads of other groups, but the one that stands out is women in bikinis.

Would people have been happier if it was a full body lying on the ground with it's insides falling out? Or even a skinless, half decomposed body of unknown sexual orientation? Gore is ok. Just don't sexualise women. :rolleyes:

Reelwind wrote:

And a few examples of computer games advertised using naked male torsos in sexually suggestive ways would include...?

God of War has Kratos more or less naked on their covers. And have a look at the Cho Aniki series. There are more, but in a medium which was dominated by mostly a male demographic for a long time you are bound to have countless more half naked female characters than male.

Gaming, as a medium, is still pretty young. Films have (and still are) using females as sex objects and how long is that going? Gaming will follow the trend and because it is still young it will use females as sexual objects. Music has it's fair share, as literature has/does.

I seriously think people are way over-reacting to this. It was meant as a bit of fun. But the PC brigade made sure that the fun was short lived. The game is an 18's, and as adults are we not capable of deciding if you want it or not without getting our panties in a twist? You might say that it is aimed at a younger audience, but what marketing company in their right minds would think that parents would buy that for their sensitive little children?

Skerries

anyway if you actually want to buy the non controversial version it's here for €22.39

http://www.ie.wowhd.com/games/dead-island-riptide-pc/dp/32061929?affid=11195&affid=11195

danthefan

Not going to buy it but I really couldn't care less about it.


As for why male crotches aren't used to sell video games, I would imagine because the target market wouldn't really respond well to that. Seems obvious enough.

snausages

I wouldn't mind it so much but for the fact that the tits are the only thing the zombies left untouched, so it's pretty clear that it's an eroticisation. The context provided by the game's setting doesn't really help mitigate how absurdly out of touch this little marketing stunt is.

Something like this might have worked better.

Agricola

It's definitely tasteless and unnecessary. It's also very interesting how a large percentage of the people who have been shrieking about the awfulness of this statue online, are surely those who enjoyed and will enjoy slicing up female zombies in the first game and in the sequel!
Personally, I wouldnt have a major problem with them selling it, apart from the fact that it does reinforce the pervy teenage male gamer stereotype still further.

How could they not see this backlash coming though. It gives a great insight into just how out of touch marketing people are in the games industry and the knock on effect is that this lack of cop-on in a major factor why we get so much puerile, lowest common denominator rubbish being churned out every year.

Zillah

Agricola wrote: »

a large percentage of the people who have been shrieking about the awfulness of this statue online, are surely those who enjoyed and will enjoy slicing up female zombies in the first game and in the sequel!

But that is one part of a very complicated game. If the game featured nothing but naked headless torsos with their massive breasts bouncing around then we'd be making the same argument. They picked out this one excessive example to literally put on a pedestal. That's the difference.

I didn't enjoy the game though, for lots of other unrelated reasons



If one can understand why this is funny one can understand why the statuette is stupid.

hooradiation

That Dead Island statue thing pretty goddamn creepy, it's only a "conversation piece" for budding serial killers.

I think it's probably pretty sexist as well but my main complaint is that whoever made it is not in jail where a psychotic murderer ought to be.

johnny_ultimate

Surprised there's anyone willing to defend this at all.

Arguments of violent misogyny aside (and yes, having a decapitated pair of legs with a bulging, partially obscured cock wouldn't even get to the prototype stage - and if it did it'd be ****ing idiotic too), its just infantile, creepy and crass. And one wonders why the games industry have such a bad reputation. A pretty much indefensible moment of marketing idiocy, really.

ShooterSF

Hey if it sells it obviously has a market that wants it and I'm not going to tell people what they should or shouldn't want. As far as objectifying goes I know plenty of women who will oogle at guys in TV Shows or movies but that doesn't equate to them being shallow when dealing with real people and I know guys that are the same (but with genders swapped obviously).

ShadowHearth

A jaysus, look at all that. This was better marketing move then just offer a bag of weed with each copy of the game.

Like someone mentioned already: the only reason some are offended is that thing has a pair of boobies. Crap pair if you ask me, I love natural stuff, all that silicon is not my cup of tea.
Put a male torso in there and nobody would give a flying feck about it.

I personally thing it is just a crapy statue, that is all. I don't see it sexist, but it is a hot thing in gaming world these days. Violence and sexism. Yummy.

degrassinoel

ShaneU wrote: »

Would you like your boss seeing you looking at decapitated torsos?

Yes, if you work in a butchers

Also wont be buying as it's a crap game imo

Arawn

The new dead space dev edition appeals tome. This does not. Seriously couldn't give a toss about the statue itself.

Notorioux

Boobies or not, still looking forward to the game!

snausages

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Like someone mentioned already: the only reason some are offended is that thing has a pair of boobies. Crap pair if you ask me, I love natural stuff, all that silicon is not my cup of tea.
Put a male torso in there and nobody would give a flying feck about it.

I personally thing it is just a crapy statue, that is all. I don't see it sexist, but it is a hot thing in gaming world these days. Violence and sexism. Yummy.

Well no, the woman issue isn't the only problem here (although it shouldn't be ignored). It also seems to amount to a fetishisation/aestheticisation of violence, which is exactly the kind of image our hobby needs not to project right now.

ShadowHearth

snausages wrote: »

Well no, the woman issue isn't the only problem here (although it shouldn't be ignored). It also seems to amount to a fetishisation/aestheticisation of violence, which is exactly the kind of image our hobby needs not to project right now.

Right, Yahtzee once said about crapcom and resident evil 5 racism. - they are not bad people, they are just idiots.

Same here. They though its cool, so they made it. In reality it is just dumb and tasteless. It was not made to be some sexist or violence symbol. You slaughter zombies and people in game! How is this statue different? Why is it a big deal then?

In short: we should discuss how ****y collectors edition item is and how dumb developer is, not sexism and violence in games.

hooradiation

ShadowHearth wrote: »

In short: we should discuss how ****y collectors edition item is and how dumb developer is, not sexism and violence in games.

You have that backwards.

ShadowHearth

hooradiation wrote: »

You have that backwards.

You have that backwards.

danthefan

snausages wrote: »

Well no, the woman issue isn't the only problem here (although it shouldn't be ignored). It also seems to amount to a fetishisation/aestheticisation of violence, which is exactly the kind of image our hobby needs not to project right now.

Eh? Many video games are incredibly violent. I don't see how a statue or figurine is somehow more damaging to games than the content of the games themselves.

snausages

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Same here. They though its cool, so they made it. In reality it is just dumb and tasteless. It was not made to be some sexist or violence symbol. You slaughter zombies and people in game! How is this statue different? Why is it a big deal then?

It's obvious there was nothing malicious behind this promo. They wanted this as an analogue to the Venus de Milo, but whatever wit or irony this promo might have had sort of goes out the window when you remove her head and reduce her to a pair of tits. Dead Island may have technology that allows you to replicate this torso but it does not make it the focus of the game. Nor is it the same as putting that torso on a pedestal and making it a major motivating factor towards buying this version of the game. So regardless of actual intent, it's hard to not look at this as a very lazy attempt at objectifying women.

johnny_ultimate

I do have to chuckle at the suggestion that this bust (only really appropriate word) wasn't designed with an awareness of its misogyny or how it be received. They could have settled on innumerable alternatives, most of them probably rather tasteless too. This was ultimately decided on. Just look at the ****ing thing. If you cannot see the multitude of issues people have with it, then we're not going to be able to explain it to you.

Then again, this developer / publisher has shown themselves fairly untrustworthy, manipulative marketers before. Remember that really well made trailer that suggested - nay, promised - Dead Island was going to be a thoughtful, unsentimental, emotional, character-driven survival simulator? Game couldn't have been any more different if it tried - just another zombie genocide, and by many accounts one of the worst. The tried to trick more discerning gamers first time around. Now they're aiming at lowest common denominator gamers (and yes I do take issue with anyone who would proudly buy and display this). Seems appropriate.

Yes, games themselves are frequently crassly violent and misogynistic - these are regrettable traits, no doubt about it. Not to say that no games should be violent - its often at least partially justified by the gameworld, setting, narrative or play style (if Dead Island does allow you to carve up female bodies like this, it certainly shouldn't be a feature it boasts about). But its rare to see anyone emphasise gaming's meaningless obsession with mindless sexism and gore so proudly or use it as a selling tool for the game itself. We should not be proud that our hobby and the gaming industry is so deplorably backwards and restrictive. And we sure as hell have a right to complain when publishers or developers take this ignorance to a new extreme.

snausages

danthefan wrote: »

Eh? Many video games are incredibly violent. I don't see how a statue or figurine is somehow more damaging to games than the content of the games themselves.

It is an extremely violent image, but eroticized. And it is the first thing people will see and hear about if they bother to look this game up.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I do have to chuckle at the suggestion that this bust (only really appropriate word) wasn't designed with conscious misogyny. They could have settled on innumerable alternatives, most of them probably rather tasteless too. This was ultimately decided on. Just look at the ****ing thing.

I don't see it as anything more than an unfortunate bit of innocent stupidity. To me it's just incredibly tactless but not an act of conscious misogyny.

johnny_ultimate

Also here's an amusingly sardonic response to the whole thing. http://gameological.com/2013/01/it-belongs-in-a-museum/

That last item created something of a stir. And yeah, I guess I can see how this 12-inch-tall vision of raw depravity might bug folks, since it is, objectively, the worst object ever created. But I would hate to see Rotting Bikini Torso dismissed as merely another marketing-department “oops!” moment. Let’s appreciate this thing as a work of shock art—an inspired sculptural snapshot of a certain ugliness that pervades the mass-market games industry. This lump of hand-painted resin both encapsulates and indicts a few decades’ worth of game-studio testosterone. It belongs in a museum.

ShadowHearth

snausages wrote: »

It's obvious there was nothing malicious behind this promo. They wanted this as an analogue to the Venus de Milo, but whatever wit or irony this promo might have had sort of goes out the window when you remove her head and reduce her to a pair of tits. Dead Island may have technology that allows you to replicate this torso but it does not make it the focus of the game. Nor is it the same as putting that torso on a pedestal and making it a major motivating factor towards buying this version of the game. So regardless of actual intent, it's hard to not look at this as a very lazy attempt at objectifying women.

In other words: "thats right, they are DUMBASSES!"

The way i see this situation: Or they have a Genius marketing director, or developers are complete DUMBASSES!

Why Genius? Well, with minimum investment he got dead island name all over the the world. Every single gaming website and forum have dead island as a topic. Its free advertisement for them. Such bad press can very nicely work out in to their favour. Again, minimum investment and HUGE amount of advertisement.

Why DUMBASSES? They wanted to make something cool. In a way its quite cheeky and interesting view of the Classic statue, i still think its tastless, out of context and stupid. They did not took in to account that that statue is a fuel for all anti-gaming parties. Its like a holy grail for them. Specially in this sensitive time for gaming industry. Those who want to Bitch and moan about sexism and violence in video game will take this stupid statue and run away with it shouting " look at it! look at it! you see!!!! ".

I personally killed and chopped to pieces population of small country in video games. I haven't killed or attacked a single person in real life.
I played dead island and other games, I had killed countless female characters ( zombie and non zombie ) with machete or other weapons. In real life i live with misses shadowhearth together for 8 years. I love her very much, i cook dinner for her almost everyday, help with housework. Buy her flowers. I respect woman at work and outside my house too. I will always pick up heavy things out of female cooworkers hands and take it myself to needed location, then give them a warning, if they will do it again and wont ask me to do it, i will give them a "slap" ( joking way, dont take it as i really will give a slap... :rolleyes: ).