While being interviewed by MTV’s Multiplayer blog last week, Mafia 2 Senior Producer Denby Grace was asked what he felt was the biggest problem current games suffer from. His answer was, “An obsession with gay space marines.”
This comment did nothing to endear Grace or 2K Games to a GayGamer columnist, operating under the moniker Wootini, who wrote about the comment:
I wasn't planning on buying Mafia 2, mostly because I'm over that whole sandbox crime drama genre, and also because I was more than underwhelmed when I demoed it at Pax East back in March. But now I wouldn't play it if you gave me a free copy. Why do people think talking like this is okay? What is wrong with people?
The writer eventually received a statement from Grace via 2K Games (thanks The Escapist), in which the producer apologized for the comment, which he called “thoughtless.” Grace stated:
I was attempting to end the discussion in a jocular fashion by commenting on the hyper-macho ‘bromance’ featured in a lot of military shooters that I play. Regrettably, I did so in a manner that was insensitive. I can assure you that was not my intent and for that, I apologize unreservedly.
That was enough to make the GayGamer feel a little better, who wrote that “… maybe next time he’ll [Grace] think twice before making such comments.”
The apology was not enough to change Wootini’s opinion of the producer’s game however, as he added, “Still not sold on Mafia 2, though!”
Comments
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
I don't see this being a big deal. What I don't get is if someone chooses to be gay & someone out there says "that's gay!" or "you're gay", that gay person should not get mad b/c they chose to be gay. UGH! I don't get it, it is confusing.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
I don't think all gay people are uptight bitches, but this Wootini guy most certainly is.
I can understand his dislike for the use of gay in a derogatory way, but there are plenty of gay people out there who use the word gay to describe something that is stupid or someone who did something lame. Would Wootini have condoned a gay producer if he made that same statement?
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
And black people can say the N-word! What's the deal with THAT?
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
We end it with a "ga." They end it with a "ger." Don't ask me why, but that makes all the difference in the world.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
I was infuriated by these comments too. How dare he make offhanded comments about Space Marines.
Still not sold on Mafia 2 though.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
This controversy is gay.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Army of Two is not a gayme about gay space marines. It's a gayme about two gay buddies man-sandwich-parachuting into hot spots on a mission for bling! LOVVVED IT!
Gayrs of War on the other hand... well okay, that one IS about gay space marines. Hey, in the latest version, the chicks get to play with one another too. Finally they've made gay space marines interesting.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Hey, one of my best friends is a space marine!
Wait, I keed I keed! But really, I totally understood what the original guy was saying, and I'm getting sick of people jumping to call down anyone who says anything about them. Look, they have a right to be homosexual, and I do have a gay friend, but the reason he's my friend is he doesn't treat it like a religion. We are totally allowed to make gay jokes in front of him, and he doesn't take offense (actually, he either joins in or starts it). I was going to share one of the jokes that was made at a LAN party, but then realized that even though it was a gay guy making the joke, someone might take offense and such, so NO JOKE FOR YOU!
People coming in and saying you can't make these kinds of jokes, or taking offence at any comment, makes them no fun to be around. Then they just wind up hanging around other people that take offense at everything, which then is self perpetuating in a feedback loop. I think the original person had a right to say what he was saying, it had no offensive content to the homosexual community. I think the other person had a right to be offended, he could be offended at whatever he wanted, even someone wearing clashing colors, that's his perogative. However, I don't think an apology was the best response. That only dignified the second persons rediculous objections.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
"I do have a gay friend"
Picturing Stephen Colbert's photo with his arm around his one black friend.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Totally agree. By giving into this political correctness BS, all we're doing is enabling the "I'M OFFENDED" crowd. Seriously, shut the hell up, grow up, and stop taking things so personally.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Oh noes, someone was offended! The end of the world is nigh.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
I agree with the Mafia 2 guy.
I mean, with the Gay Space Marine fixation.
Not that I have anything against gays, I have gay friends, or space marines... no, I don't have space marine friends.
---
Maurício Gomes
twitter.com/agfgames
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
I have space marine friends. They're kind of boring, surprisingly.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
The first amendment is the first amendment is the first amendment. "Gay," in any connotation whatsoever, is speech and shouldn't be retracted just because some uptight bitch gets even more uptight.
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With the first link, the chain is forged.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Jedi, have you ever actually READ the First Amendment? This isn't the first time you've tried to apply it to someone suggesting maybe childish insults aren't the highest form of discourse.
Nobody, anywhere, is saying that people don't have the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to hurl childish insults. You, for example, have every right to call gay people "uptight bitches". But I have every right to say that when you do, you come across as immature and ignorant, and if you don't want to come across that way then you should find a different way of expressing yourself.
And for God's sake try actually READING the Constitution instead of just citing it on completely unrelated subjects.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
You should have heard him when he tried to wax philosophical on -- of all things -- antitrust law. I recommended the "Law in a Nutshell" series to him then as a cheap and easy means of quickly getting up to speed on areas of law in which he may be interested. I suspect he hasn't yet taken me up on the advice.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Ah yes, that OTHER favorite dead horse of self-styled Libertarians.
Going to go out on a limb and guess that he hasn't read The Wealth of Nations, either.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
You two can be quite gay sometimes.
Just saying.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Speaking for myself, I'm rarely gay. Most all of the time, I'm jolly. But your misapprehension's understandable. The two are easily confused . . . particularly by those with shit for brains.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
What on Earth does the First Amendment have to do with this? The First Amendment only applies to government's restriction of speech.
And, contrary to your misguided assertion, to call someone "gay" can, in some circumstances, be lawfully restricted by the government under the First Amendment's "fighting words" doctrine. See Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (upholding arrest of individual who called another individual a "facist").
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
As tactless, crude, and even childish his wording was, it pisses me off that the comment had to be retracted and all this hoopla drug up over it. People are getting too damn sensitive about everything.
Still, I wonder about his meaning in using the word "gay". I'm all for the elimination of the term as an insult (which kids these days seem to use it exclusively as), but damn- Marcus & Dom from Gears are totally homosexual, as are a number of tough-guy game characters...not that there's anything wrong with that :)
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
His meaning is the second quote in this article:
I was attempting to end the discussion in a jocular fashion by commenting on the hyper-macho ‘bromance’ featured in a lot of military shooters that I play.
Which is exactly the situation you described above.
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Mafia 2 producer: "An obsession with gay space marines [is the biggest problem current games suffer from]."
Gamer: "I wasn't planning on buying Mafia 2... But now I wouldn't play it if you gave me a free copy."
Really? Good gravey, it was just a joke. Not a very good one but obviously an attempt at humor. Lighten up.
"Why do people think talking like this is okay?"
Because it is. Granted, it's perhaps not the best business sense to make such a comment but in and of itself, there's nothing wrong with doing so.
"What is wrong with people?"
A lot of things. Some aren't as good at making jokes as others. Some are too easily offended by harmless comments. Some can't make a cheese sandwich to save their lives.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
And if it had been about blacks or Jews, there would have been a much bigger furor over it.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
And it would have been just as silly.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
So in your view, at precisely what point are minorities allowed to be offended when somebody mocks them?
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Anyone can feel offended about anything at any point in time. However, this does not necessarily mean they have a legitimate reason to be offended, all it means is they took whatever was said personally.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
Minorities, just like majorities, are free to feel offended at any time they like.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
That's about the only thing the Black man in America's free to do.
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
ZING
Re: Mafia 2 Producer Apologies for Gay Space Marine Comment
And had it been a Black Jew (e.g., Sammy Davis, Jr.), the furor and silliness would be doubled.