So by now I’m sure everyone has heard that Deep Silver had a special edition of Dead Island: Riptide that was only for sale in Europe and Australia. So that means unless you seek it out to import, this is only intended for a select audience. I find this funny for a reason that should be obvious to a lot of you, who like me, watch a lot of old horror films or have been around video gaming awhile. You always hear about games and movies being censored especially in Europe and Australia. So what seems to be confined to a very small fan base who would buy this, be in that region and want it on Xbox 360 blows up into this huge debate. Grab some popcorn and let’s look at how everyone screwed up.
Let’s overlook the fact this is a statue for an M rated game right now and see who posted what, what was said and if they play it up for the clicks. First up Kotaku’s Jason Schreier calls anyone liking the statue a “severed torso fetishist or serial killer”, THANKS JASON, way to generalize everyone. Let’s not hide the fact that you posted a giant picture of the artwork with a giant warning label that says “WARNING Includes Content That may Cause Offense”. So by your logic, everyone who likes the Helghast Helmet that came with the Killzone 3 Collector’s Edition should be sympathetic to the SS Troops from World War 2 because it clearly takes inspiration from the uniforms they wore. Or hey what about the article for “This Super Sonic Statue Is Truly Enormous” who exactly would own an 1/2 scale replica of a very busty young female, a pedophile maybe or how about lonely nerds or sexual deviants, I mean who else in their right mind would want to own that, right?
Next we have Joystiq where JC Fletcher says that if you are “thrilled about the contents of the North American Dead Island: Riptide “Rigor Mortis” Edition, know that it could be worse. In fact, it is worse in the UK”. I want to know how is it worse, is the quality bad? Why is having a severed hand bottle opener/fridge magnet in the US versions better than a torso statue? When you see a special edition for a game you either buy it for the tchotchkes or you don’t. Since they always cost more, the company needs to entice you. How do you entice people who love zombie games? Something like this statue seems to look like the right move to me. The Walking Dead Season 2 TV Show had a zombie head with an ice pick in it’s eye, so this Dead Island: Riptide Collector’s Edition torso does not seem that far off in concept to me. Once again Joystiq posts the giant photo with no regard to the warning, got to get those clicks, however bonus points for mentioning UK in the story title.
We move over to Rock, Paper, Shotgun and John Walker finds the statue appalling. Interesting. They say it is appalling, because it’s a “vile misogynistic campaign.” Really? So does this statue champion a hate for woman or maybe Deep Silver hates women, so they are using this statue to slowly corrupt male gamer’s? John feels this because it is “A textbook example of the most extreme ends of misogynist fantasy, a woman reduced to nothing but her tits, her wounds hideously depicted in gore, jutting bones, and of course barely a mark covering her globular breasts.” Ok point taken, her breasts are not touched, so maybe we’re making the sexual objectification of women kind of misogyny but then look at most busts, Sideshow Collectibles Emma Frost Bust has only giant breasts, a head, and no arms. Or hell what about this statue of Mary Jane from Spiderman in a very provocative pose washing Spidey’s outfit? No one washes clothes like that, her back must be a wreck and even the minority of women who would fulfill the proportions of the statue could probably only hold that pose for a few seconds without agony. I would say that the act of the washing clothes in an almost pornographic situation as the statue implies would be more inline with misogyny, but then you could say that about most depictions or woman and men in comics, movies and games. They are all taken to their logical extreme of beauty, brawn, and clothing to accentuate their body parts. Rock, Paper, Shotgun gets double the bonus points for both mentioning that this is European bound and not having the image plastered on their front page.
Last up, we have Robert Purchese from Eurogamer who only lists the stats of what is included in the Special Edition, no social commentary, no generalizations and no hype. The only hype they do use is mentioning that the statue is gory which I would say is a fair assessment of what you are getting so it’s hardly hype, but more descriptive. They did however use the title image but they are Eurogamer so while they did not specifically mention this is for Europe only they have Euro in their name so I would say this is only a slight misstep in their case. Incidentally, this is how I would have posted the story except I would have covered the statue for the header. I just never had time and by then this was all over the internet so I decided to sit back, watch, and wait and write this instead.
What’s interesting is that there is much worse things you can buy on the internet related to entertainment yet because this comes with a video game, a mature rated one at that, people freak out. Except this same video game has you dismembering hundreds of zombies, hundreds if not thousands. So it’s ok to play the game and it’s ok to put the player in control of someone with the ability to do said act, but the minute you pull it out of the game and make it a plastic object it’s all of a sudden wrong and conjures up all these negative feelings? Where were these high morals before this? Where was everyone calling out anyone who liked Hitman: Absolution a wanna be assassin or psychopath. I mean in the game you basically go around and have the ability to kill anyone and everyone along with hiding their body so obviously you must lack remorse or guilt and be a cold blooded killer in waiting. What about people who bought the Special Edition of Catherine with the pillow case or all the statues from that game or any other game with a female title character all done up and sexuallized. Where was the outrage then? Hell any fantasy game where the female armor makes no damn sense at all and protects as little as possible besides the erogenous zones and also accentuates them as well, armored corsets, ass cheek revealing briefs, etc.
And that is why I think it is absurd that Deep Silver should have to apologize for releasing the Dead Island: Riptide Special Edition. Either take the high ground all the time, call out every flaw, bias, and every possible connection to hate and sexism in every game, or don’t. Picking and choosing only makes the video game industry at large look like buffoons. Don’t take a collectors item out of context, this plus the game equals a mock-up of something in-game nothing more. This does not mean Deep Silver has some deeply heated hatred toward women. The funny part is I still visit all the websites and more in question, but they could be so much better and help with the stereotypes gamer’s are subjected to every day if they bucked up and started acting professional. Stop with the sensational, click bait headlines, present fair and balanced arguments, and then stick to them. Finally, realize that just like how gamer’s themselves come from all walks of life games are made for all walks of life, from E to AO and the content and marketing should dictate that, if it doesn’t call it out. If it does, either celebrate it or just state the facts and stop with the garbage knee-jerk reactions. Be sure to leave us a comment below with your feelings and thoughts, even if its to tell us we’re crazy.
Source Link: This Game’s Special Edition Comes With A Statue Of A Bikini-Clad, Severed Female Torso – Kotaku | Killzone 3 Collector’s Edition (PS3) with Helghast Helmet On Amazon | Schutzstaffel On Wikipedia | This Super Sonico Statue Is Truly Enormous – Kotaku | The Walking Dead Season 2 Special Edition Zombie Head On Amazon | Deep Silver Promote Dead Island With Appalling Statue – Rock, Paper, Shotgun | Sideshow Collectibles Emma Frost Bust | Mary Jane Polystone Statue Sideshow Collectibles | Dead Island: Riptide Zombie Bait edition has headless, armless bloody bikini torso figurine – Eurogamer | A Peek Inside Catherine’s Deluxe Love is Over Box – Kotaku | This Year’s Sexiest Game Gets One Sexy Statue – Kotaku | Catherine Returns in Figure Form, But Cannot Out-Sexy Her Former Self – Kotaku | http://deadisland.deepsilver.com/agegate.php
*Updated Jan 24th 2013, added official Dead Island: Riptide website link
