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IGN: Stellar Blade has racist artwork which will be removed with the day one patch

CherryFalls

Banned
I edited my post. Obviously not all black people use the same words or language, etc. There are cultural/regional differences. I was referencing that specific phrase as an example of the difference in the usage of the N word pronounced ending in R and ending in A. I don't know that this applies anywhere other than where I live, here in the southern US. I would have thought in the context of the phrases that would be clear, but I perhaps not.

Again......it was just an example.
You could at least apologise for making those kind of assumptions about us
 
Great. All the journalist are gonna go back and play scavenger hunt now looking for something they can use. 'hmm is that a boat? Weren't they brought here on a boat':unsure:
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
The English language is contextual. Words and phrases have different meanings in different contexts. I've used the "hard r" phrase for decades in the context of movie ratings, where it predates the other usage. It's still a commonly used phrase in the context of movies.

jLwAtoa.png


PsjwECZ.png


jT7wt1r.png


cfMNszr.png


(lol at me saying that the overreliance on CG will date Wanted badly, 16 years ago. Yep! Still fun though, anorexic Angelina aside)

It can also be a reference to how the n-word is used, yes. It can also just be some Engrish a Korean developer thought sounded cool. The least likely explanation is that they were being intentionally racist.

Bad actors on the internet tend to strip the context away from the usage of language precisely to create artificial gotcha moments where they get to decide intent.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
The English language is contextual. Words and phrases have different meanings in different contexts. I've used the "hard r" phrase for decades in the context of movie ratings, where it predates the other usage. It's still a commonly used phrase in the context of movies.

jLwAtoa.png


PsjwECZ.png


jT7wt1r.png


cfMNszr.png


(lol at me saying that the overreliance on CG will date Wanted badly, 16 years ago. Yep! Still fun though, anorexic Angelina aside)

It can also be a reference to how the n-word is used, yes. It can also just be some Engrish a Korean developer thought sounded cool. The least likely explanation is that they were being intentionally racist.

Bad actors on the internet tend to strip the context away from the usage of language precisely to create artificial gotcha moments where they get to decide intent.

Exactly this. The term hard R in relation to movie ratings must've been made countless times over the years, especially in the years before PG-13 was created and it was extremely common for movies to go for "soft" (undeserved/borderline) R ratings to match their publicity.
 

Fabieter

Member
So why not only patch it out of the US versions. We had ww2 stuff censored for decades in germany. It was offensive to us but it never had any meaning on the international version. insane that it always has to resolve to a specific country.
 

Fake

Member
The English language is contextual. Words and phrases have different meanings in different contexts. I've used the "hard r" phrase for decades in the context of movie ratings, where it predates the other usage. It's still a commonly used phrase in the context of movies.

jLwAtoa.png


PsjwECZ.png


jT7wt1r.png


cfMNszr.png


(lol at me saying that the overreliance on CG will date Wanted badly, 16 years ago. Yep! Still fun though, anorexic Angelina aside)

It can also be a reference to how the n-word is used, yes. It can also just be some Engrish a Korean developer thought sounded cool. The least likely explanation is that they were being intentionally racist.

Bad actors on the internet tend to strip the context away from the usage of language precisely to create artificial gotcha moments where they get to decide intent.

It's obvious they're targeted the game. IGN already gave a 7/10, not to mention those reviewers have so much little time to spend with the game for being so much fast to find this. At point of make this kinda of statements like 'ITS WAS INTENTIONAL'. The FBI of the internet.

If I would guess, the person in question that find this is already trying to make some likes/retweets over Twitter.

'If you hate the game sure you will talk about how bad the game is until the end'. They are making personal at this point.

I getting a deja vu when Days Gone release. All this reminds me that Simpsons episode where Flanders keep watching VHS tapes to find what to be offended.
 
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cormack12

Gold Member
This is basically reviewers making the most tenuous of links, then throwing the dev to a public shaming for a pat on the head.

I'm glad they are looking for these types of issues so carefully, else we may have situations where bugs are missed like cp 2077.
 
Hard R was surely a reference to hard r-rated movies, since Stellar Blade fits exactly into that paradigm, not the hard r n-word, which has nothing to do with the game.

Should not have been patched out, they did nothing wrong.

Well, most likely. I'd never say it's a 100% thing; we wouldn't know unless we were there at the dev studio or whatever.

Having said that, it's rather obvious certain folks who never wanted to give the game a fair chance latched onto the worst assumption right off the jump, without even considering the cultural differences at play. We definitely know where those particular types are coming from.

Which is very ironic, because a lot of those same people gave 343i the benefit of a doubt with the Bonobo armor plate stuff in Halo Infinite. They even bent over backwards for it.

Again, assuming the worst and thinking it was intentional would've been stupid. I'm just wondering why many of these Western journalists or very far-left ideologues either ignored or downplayed that, yet are quick to claim this instance was absolutely laced with malicious intent (or intentional whatsoever).

Look who came out of retirement :lollipop_tears_of_joy:



Also in the ResetERA thread (before it was locked), I noticed most of the people trying to argue this was something done with malicious intent were Xbox diehards who stanned for the ABK acquisition last year.

So there are definitely some "bad faith actors" involved in the "outrage" leveraging it for console warring and nothing more.
 
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PsyEd

Member
I oo am IGNorant and have no idea what the deal is. Well guess they she remove it as some would spill their soylent while playing or something...
 

Atrus

Gold Member
A repeated graffiti decal happens to be next to a shop sign that when combined alludes to some obscure racial context.

This is not racist.

Racism would require the fundamental message to be racially motivated. Crossing your eyes to read into something or snickering at happenstance is not racist.

It’s like freeze framing people waving and claiming it’s a Nazi salute. You need to look at the broader picture and evaluate the context.
 

Soodanim

Member
While Shift Up is Stellar Blade's developer, Sony Interactive Entertainment is serving as its publisher. IGN has asked Sony if there are any plans to remove the art from the disc as well, and PlayStation's representative repeated that it "should be removed for all users in the Day 1 update."
Just so I'm clear, IGN, you asked if Stellar Blade copies would be reprinted because two distinctly different visual elements can, if you choose to see it that way, be combined into a form which carries a number of meanings depending on context including one that references the use of a slur but in no way makes any attempt to disparage any group?

This is a textbook example of the mentality of some people. Forget anything but the worst possible context, which is to pretend this is an injustice brought upon a subset of our species because of prejudice and needed to be immediately fixed instead of considering any wider context or alternative meaning.

I'm annoyed I spent this long dignifying the article with a response. It was not worthy of any of our time. I'm usually not a fan of the low effort drive by posts that make no attempt to say anything more than "Woke", but in this case they've got it right by showing it the contempt and disrespect that it deserves.

In an ideal world the response to the report would be "I'm not wasting my team's time because of your perceived slight."

I don't even care that the decal was changed, it was presumably as simple as swapping a reference to graffiti1.jpg to graffiti2.jpg. It's IGN and anyone else involved being desperate enough to disparage Shift Up for their own benefit. It's shameless behaviour and they know no one actually gives a shit.
 
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Someone says "Hard R" around me and I immediately think of the word. Most people here do too and saying "oh they're reaching" is disingenuous.

Well I mean that's the thing: are you American? "Hard R" is internet slang from cesspools like 4chan (most likely), that just got around over time. But most of the users on places like that are American.

That said, I'm not going to say there's 0% chance this was purely accidental, either. South Korea's one of the Asian countries with a high degree of English-speaking people, and I'm sure a good chunk of their gaming community in MOBAs and whatnot interact with Western players as a result. So, there's a higher chance people in the SK gaming scene might be aware of what "Hard R" means in the Western gaming internet culture context than, say, some gamer in Indonesia or Thailand.

Again, it's stupid IMO to assume the worst right off the jump. But I'm not going to say there was a 0% chance of specific reference to "Hard R" in the Western internet culture slang context, either. It'd be impossible for any of us to say that with absolution; we aren't developers at Shift Up :/
 

Arachnid

Member
Uusually these are stupid little things that seem extremely resetera to be pissy about.

Holy lmao this one is a bit much. Probably should be removed
 

rackham

Banned
Well I mean that's the thing: are you American? "Hard R" is internet slang from cesspools like 4chan (most likely), that just got around over time. But most of the users on places like that are American.

That said, I'm not going to say there's 0% chance this was purely accidental, either. South Korea's one of the Asian countries with a high degree of English-speaking people, and I'm sure a good chunk of their gaming community in MOBAs and whatnot interact with Western players as a result. So, there's a higher chance people in the SK gaming scene might be aware of what "Hard R" means in the Western gaming internet culture context than, say, some gamer in Indonesia or Thailand.

Again, it's stupid IMO to assume the worst right off the jump. But I'm not going to say there was a 0% chance of specific reference to "Hard R" in the Western internet culture slang context, either. It'd be impossible for any of us to say that with absolution; we aren't developers at Shift Up :/
I'm not saying anything about the developers or the game. I'm talking about the posters here who are really one loud noise away from screeching "ree" at the top of their lungs
 
I'm not saying anything about the developers or the game. I'm talking about the posters here who are really one loud noise away from screeching "ree" at the top of their lungs

Eh, yeah probably fair enough on that part. I think part of that might be an overreaction because they've seen the game getting attacked by Western press for weeks for a slew of other things that have been rather questionable on the part of said Western press, influencers, and their supporters. And I can understand the desire to do that to a degree, because they want to probably shut down any avenue for people like Kotaku, IGN, Alyssa Mecante etc. from going "See!? We were right all along!" and taking control of the narrative surrounding the game before it's even launched (and further try to taint public perception while doing so).

At the same time, like a lot of these types of things, what's really needed is nuance. Unfortunately more & more people on both sides are less willing to do that, and we're the ones who get stuck in the middle as a result. Honestly, if Western media didn't have a witch hunt out for the game for multiple reasons (actual sexy female characters, it being a PS5 exclusive, certain people weaponizing it against Sweet Baby Inc., generalizing ALL supporters or people interested in the game as alt-right chuds, etc.), you'd probably get a lot more nuanced reactions to this bit of news.

But a lot of the reactions are mainly because of those disingenuous, spiteful Western games "journalists", influencers, Xbox & PC diehard fanboys/fangirls, & fake progressive keyboard warriors banding together to attack Stellar Blade well before the game even released. They set the climate; of course when something like this unfortunately ends up in the game you'd get a lot of people wanting to shut down any avenue for those same haters to confirm biases they already held against the game from a long time ago.

A repeated graffiti decal happens to be next to a shop sign that when combined alludes to some obscure racial context.

This is not racist.

Racism would require the fundamental message to be racially motivated. Crossing your eyes to read into something or snickering at happenstance is not racist.

It’s like freeze framing people waving and claiming it’s a Nazi salute. You need to look at the broader picture and evaluate the context.

I mean I agree, but it would be nice if everyone did this. You know, on both sides. The reality though is that a lot on both sides don't stop to consider wider context and project their personal interpretation as the universal intent of the work.
 
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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Well I mean that's the thing: are you American? "Hard R" is internet slang from cesspools like 4chan (most likely), that just got around over time. But most of the users on places like that are American.

That said, I'm not going to say there's 0% chance this was purely accidental, either. South Korea's one of the Asian countries with a high degree of English-speaking people, and I'm sure a good chunk of their gaming community in MOBAs and whatnot interact with Western players as a result. So, there's a higher chance people in the SK gaming scene might be aware of what "Hard R" means in the Western gaming internet culture context than, say, some gamer in Indonesia or Thailand.

Again, it's stupid IMO to assume the worst right off the jump. But I'm not going to say there was a 0% chance of specific reference to "Hard R" in the Western internet culture slang context, either. It'd be impossible for any of us to say that with absolution; we aren't developers at Shift Up :/
You haven’t been to Asia, then.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Apparently the source of the image and/or complaint was actually Lance McDonald, the guy that made his name off of modding Souls games.


I've seen him in some female Souls streams and he comes off as both creepy and desperate for attention so I'm not surprised.

Lance is a great guy. I watch his live streams.
He will laugh at that and the craziness this caused. He rarely reads his tweets and checks them out after posting. he doesn't care
 

taizuke

Member
Stellar Blade Twitter: Stellar Blade is uncensored in all regions!

People who made a ruckus about this: Hold my beer...
 
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MacReady13

Member
In the game's context, it fits:



One of the definitions.
Hard R, at least here in Australia, is defined as a movie/game that is really violent/full of sex and nudity. Has NOTHING to do with racism, but when you WANT to see racism everywhere, this is what you get.
 
You haven’t been to Asia, then.

Is that in reference to the "Hard R" contextualization or the English comment?

To the latter I know that English is an increasingly popular language in various countries, it's just like some like South Korea are at the head of the pack. But I guess places like Japan and China aren't too far behind when it comes to popularity of English as a secondary language.

But anyhow, the "controversy" itself is very contrived and mainly coming from bad faith actors & disingenuous people. Best to assume the intent isn't what people like Mecante would love to push. There's like a 5% chance at most it was intended the way places like Kotaku want to say it was.
 
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I had no idea what it was. I think someone wants to see what they want to see. I would be surprised a Korean developer has enough knowledge about English slang for that.
Article written by an American who not surprisingly thinks the world revolves around them. A Korean dev isn't going to be clued in on this, let alone the fact the HARD is generic and appears in other places. Reaching super hard here, but it's 2024 and everyone has to be offended by everything.
 

Fake

Member
Edit: Just saw this in your post..... Fake Fake .....not following you. What are you saying here?

I saying how people behave on Twitter. Is like, if you don't know what is offensive I gonna teach you 'why this is offensive' or else you are an ignorant. Nothing to do with you BTW, just a social media mentality.
 
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kikii

Member
I had no clue hard R was a slur. This was probably a nothingburger that was made into a bigger deal. Mistakes happen. Remember when Sony and/or Insomniac screwed up the Puerto Rican flag in SM2?
yeah it seems to be some U.S thing

1gUwwyY.png
 

Topher

Identifies as young
I saying how people behave on Twitter. Is like, if you don't know what is offensive I gonna teach you 'why this is offensive' or else you are an ignorant. Nothing to do with you BTW, just a social media mentality.

Ah....I follow. Yeah, gaslighting like that on twitter is very common.
 

Jetpac

Member
Western countries overflowing with professional victims. Base their whole identity around being a victim.

I’m from Atlanta Ga. We’ve heard so much racist crap it’s hilarious at this point because it just shows ignorance. What does offend me is a person of another color trying to explain what he perceives as a “norm in my culture”… “ oh black people do this” etc etc.

A jokes a joke. Ignorance is always uncool though.
 

Bernoulli

M2 slut
Can you explain? I'm in a very different information space, now obviously.
In the context of this thread title and generally on social media hard R is the N word with the R
And with shop meaning you can buy N word
That's the first thing that came to my mind, but in the context of the game it doesn't make sense
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
They could have left it in and I probably wouldn't have noticed it. Especially if it's a texture that's used a lot. I don't mind that they changed it, it's their game. It makes no difference to me what's painted on that wall. Considering the game was made by a South Korean team they probably didn't connect the dots because it's not something they regularly deal with.
 
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