“We think that it’s better complete for nobody to consider it as a negative attribute .”
State Of Decay 2 programmer Undead Labs has apologised into Steam Marines 2 programmer James Seow, following an automatic blocking system attempted to silence their worries within a questionable in-game attribute.
At least, before this week, when he found that among his lands had the attribute”hit Nazis”, which despite including a damage bonus, forced them irritable towards additional personalities .
The idea, apparently, is that ardently held beliefs create characters more combative since they say their own beliefs. But since the traits system has been developed and compact, the machine started erasing a lot of the nuance. Arguments of forms were tied together under a single negative bannerad, penalising any sort of strongly-held belief.
Since this article, Undead Labs has come out with a justification and a apology led at Seow (which allegedly echoes what he had been told hours before through DMs). Apparently, the cube has been implemented through an automatic system, setup by the programmer to conceal offensive speech during Black History Month. The attribute itself also predates State Of Decay two by a while, and was not supposed to be anything aside from positive.
“We made the infrequent’Punched Nazis’ attribute long until SoD2’s launch,” Undead Labs writes. “One designer really told us stories about punching Nazis from the underground music scene. We loved it and flourish, the attribute has been born.
“It was created as a general positive attribute using a skill bonus — it educates four celebrities of Fighting expertise, and made the character more inclined to argue passionately for their faith (we figured somebody punching Nazis at a mosh pit will get some strong feelings).”
It is a sad end to a single enthusiast’s playthrough, and also a frustrating reminder of just how even simple mechanisms can locate themselves politicised throughout circumstance.
“I woulda recognized the layout excuse and’we will correct this’ 8 times past, seems really corporate damage control for me today. Glad it took a week and other folks yelling.”
