After apologising final week for together with two small, puerile homosexual jokes in Ion Fury, the throwback FPS’s makers and publishers have now declared that their voluntary determination to chop a type of would really represent “censorship” and so they can’t abide that. A bottle of cleaning soap branded “Ogay” (like “Olay” however “gay” haha do you get it?) will stay in a toilet of their off-brand Duke Nukem 3D tribute. This daring and significant manifestation of political speech, this courageous bottle of cleaning soap, will stand proud to inform future generations the place they drew a line within the sand in opposition to the merciless forces of tolerance.
Voidpoint apologised last week for some shitty anti-trans guff from builders on the game’s official Discord chat server in addition to two silly homosexual jokes that they had put in Ion Fury. Along with the aforementioned Ogay bottle that’s out within the open, gamers discovered the key message “Aeeress SECRET Fagbag LAAWRAAH!! Unholy Fanfare” in a hidden space accessible solely with a noclip cheat.
Voidpoint’s public response to this publicity was dramatic. They mentioned that a few of their quantity “have made sexist and transphobic comments, and included homophobic language in Ion Fury” and that this was “insensitive, unacceptable, and counterproductive to causes of equality.” They apologised for “both for these comments and language as well as for any pain they have caused the gaming community, particularly women and members of the LGBTQ community.”
Moving ahead, Voidpoint vowed to “institute a zero-tolerance policy for this type of language”, have “mandatory sensitivity training” for all workers and contractors, and donate $10,000 from Ion Fury’s gross sales to The Trevor Project (an American nonprofit geared toward serving to suicidal younger LBGTQ folks).
The response final week from publishers 3D Realms (who’re really Interceptor Entertainment carrying the flayed and sold skin of 3D Realms) mentioned that Voidpoint “included homophobic language in the game which was not approved by us” and that the game would “be patched ASAP to remove all unacceptable language.”
The “fagbag” message was eliminated final week, and 3D Realms mentioned on Monday that they “once again apologise for this text as it does not reflect the values of 3D Realms or Voidpoint.”
I take into account the Ogay and secret “Fagbag” message to be tiny, unfunny jokes of the kind discovered hilarious on a mid-90s highschool playground. They fee an eye-rolling ‘uh huh’ on the size of recent tradition, and I’m not remotely shocked to see them coming from folks making a Duke Nukem 3D fan game. The detrimental remarks about trans individuals are extra disagreeable, although sadly typical of society’s ongoing disingenuous ethical panic. We solely gave this entire stink a short point out in a news roundup final week as a result of it appeared minor amongst gaming’s deep-seated issues.
Following the general public contrition and self-flagellation, Ion Fury was review-bombed on Steam with the same old complaints about ‘censorship’ and ‘SJWs’. Those voices have been heeded.
3DR announced yesterday that the Ogay will keep. They mentioned that “a portion of our community made it loud and clear they felt removing ‘Ogay’ was censorship and should be protected by free speech. Voidpoint wanted to listen and we respected this decision.”
Let’s pause to admire how they relay the declare that “removing ‘Ogay’ was censorship and should be protected by free speech.” Remarkable.
The Ogay bottle is likely to be “protected by free speech” if a authorities have been insisting that Ion Fury take away it, however none have. 3DR and Voidpoint made a voluntary determination to take away it. Evidently they didn’t notably need to change the bottle however felt pressured to after they have been referred to as out for being kinda shitty. That’s self-censorship, which isn’t the identical.
Crowing about “censorship” makes clear that they stand with the same old dickheads who shout about free speech when folks level out they’re performing like an arsehole.
“We do not support censorship of creative works of any kind and regret our initial decision to alter a sprite in the game instead of trusting our instincts,” 3D Realms and Voidpoint added yesterday in a joint assertion boldly titled “Ion Fury Game Content Will Not Be Censored”.
Voidpoint have mentioned they’ll nonetheless donate money to The Trevor Project, which is nice. They do nonetheless plan to implement obligatory sensitivity coaching too, although I don’t know why they’re bothering when evidently they don’t actually care.
3D Realms additionally insisted on Monday that “Jokes at the expense of marginalised communities will not be present in future games published by 3D Realms” however they’re content material to grandfather on this joke on the expense of a marginalised group. It’s most likely for the perfect: such a gross violation of the First Amendment would probably have sparked a authorized battle working as much as the very best courtroom within the land, and people get costly.
