[Purna, is your outfit reflecting a dark past?]
Techland, the developer behind Dead Island, is really trying to clean up the mess they kind of swept under the rug after the aforementioned game’s release. Not only did they release a reportedly unfinished game onto Steam at first, but they also have to deal with the unfortunate side effects of programmers exercising an interesting sense of humor. What am I talking about?
This Tuesday, a Steam user with too much time on their hands was looking through the files for Dead Island when they stumbled upon a gem of hilarious proportions. Somewhere in the lines of code was a skill attainable by the playable character Purna. The code was discovered in the file Data0.pak\Data\default_player_setup.scr by this Steam user, and the skill was named “FeministWhorePurna.” The skill itself is not named as such in the final version of the game, and is not visible to players unless they take the time to look through lines of code in the installation files. The skill is thought to have become “Gender Wars” in the final game; one that gives players an extra 15% damage against men.
While many people were undoubtedly offended by the terminology, I will admit that I “lol-ed” a little when I read about it. It’s not that I am not sensitive to such matters, it’s just that it was humorous. I consider it a little Easter egg in the game, and probably would have laughed if such a skill had popped up on my screen. This is, however, one female (with an inappropriate sense of humor) gamer’s thoughts on the matter. Techland was not amused by the code and all of the backlash it generated.
“It obviously violates professional and ethical standards at Techland and should never have happened,” Blazej Krakowiak, International Brand Manager for the company, told our source. “We’re investigating this right now and we’ll issue a statement later. “For now, I can only express my sincerest apologies for this incident and assure you that whoever acted so irresponsibly did not represent the views and opinions of Techland. “I’m equally sure that aside from the author of that unfortunate line of code, everyone at the office is as disturbed by this as you are.”
It’s okay, Techland. Just know, somewhere out there, one female gamer is “lol-ing” despite the fact that it’s probably not funny. For all we know, maybe Purna is a “feminist whore.” The game is created by a group of people who created whole stories behind the characters they imagined. Who’s to say that Purna didn’t have a dark past?
*Disclaimer: This MTB writer is not opposed to or in support of either feminists or whores. She remains neutral on both matters, but still thinks the hiccup made by Techland is hilarious.*
[Source: Eurogamer]
[Image via GamePro]
