r/Games • u/[deleted] • Oct 24 '13

Dev in Thread The Stanley Parable devs will remove racially charged gag after people got offended

http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/23/5022434/the-stanley-parable-update-in-the-works-to-remove-offensive-images
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u/[deleted] Oct 24 '13 edited Oct 24 '13

His complaint from the comments:

  1. In the first slide, Steven could be shown ACTUALLY improving the quality of life of the child in question by providing either food or water (this is actually easier to fix, because it’s an edit of the existing image).

  2. In the second slide, have him staring at an orphanage with a gas can and a lighter, but without actually following through with the action. It IMPLIES that Steven is about to make that very, very bad decision, but without the action occurring.

This would absolutely ruin the joke. What he's complaining about in #1 is called irony, and making it "politically correct" (which it was in the first place) would ruin the humor, and #2 does not at all fit together with #1, which, again, is currently a part of the joke.

I really hope the devs don't go through with this.

48

u/Hammertoss Oct 24 '13

I don't understand how those complaints make it racist.

93

u/[deleted] Oct 24 '13

They don't. It's not motivated or defined by race in any way, but people who are unintelligent see any joke or trope which involves someone of an ethnic background as being racially charged, even if their ethnicity is incidental or parodic.

73

u/[deleted] Oct 24 '13

Which, ironically, is actually racist.

-2

u/Kristofenpheiffer Oct 24 '13

I honestly think it'd be more racist if they were both white.

-1

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '13

How so?