Devolver Digital “Apologizes Unreservedly” for Nazi Imagery in “SCUM”

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Following outcry on Steam and reddit, publisher Devolver Digital has apologized for offering a “Nazi tattoo” as downloadable content for open-world survival game SCUM. While the offensive content has been removed, Polygon suggests the racist tattoo may not be entirely out of place, being that players take on the role of convicted criminals.

The Scum Supporter Pack went on sale with the game on Aug. 29. After that time, fans uncovered that one of the pieces of downloadable content — a full-face skull tattoo — included the numbers “14” and “88,” as well as an iron cross with a skull on the back of the player character’s head. Those images are common to Nazi or neo-Nazi groups, and were front and center in the player’s view, as the game is played from the third-person perspective.
 
Meanwhile communist symbology or similar is absolutely fine and celebrated by many of the same people who would have opposed this.
I don't care either way what symbols are used in games or anywhere for that matter as long as you have free choice to do so. But when one aspect of a symbol or history is forbidden to be questioned, talked about or represented even in a damn game, it really makes one wonder that there is more to the story.
 
What do you want criminal princesses? Art requires negative imagery sometimes.

I don't think you understand. This isn't about negative imagery. MS13 tattoos are still permitted, depite the fact this is a murderous, racist latino organization responsible for thousands of people being viciously slaughtered every year
.
 
Yes, i
Meanwhile communist symbology or similar is absolutely fine and celebrated by many of the same people who would have opposed this.
I don't care either way what symbols are used in games or anywhere for that matter as long as you have free choice to do so. But when one aspect of a symbol or history is forbidden to be questioned, talked about or represented even in a damn game, it really makes one wonder that there is more to the story.

We're not supposed to talk about the Socialist/Communists who were responsible for slaughtering over 100 million people in the last century, and hundreds of millions more condemned to a life of grim servitude to the state. I'll bet the teenagers here never got an iota of what Communists have repeatedly done to people when gaining power, riding on a wave of promises about "equality". Everyone's equal all right, equally miserable, except for party members.
 
Yes, i


We're not supposed to talk about the Socialist/Communists who were responsible for slaughtering over 100 million people in the last century, and hundreds of millions more condemned to a life of grim servitude to the state. I'll bet the teenagers here never got an iota of what Communists have repeatedly done to people when gaining power, riding on a wave of promises about "equality". Everyone's equal all right, equally miserable, except for party members.

Socialism ALWAYS leads to starvation and genocide.
 
Sounds like it has more to do with fine line of perpetuation and promotion of HATE (white supremacist) vs criminal violence (gang membership).

Also the tattoos were only available for PURCHASE DLC, which you could twist around and say Devolver was profiting and promoting HATE since they were on the player character.
 
Meanwhile communist symbology or similar is absolutely fine and celebrated by many of the same people who would have opposed this.

What-about-ism much?
I don't care either way what symbols are used in games or anywhere for that matter as long as you have free choice to do so. But when one aspect of a symbol or history is forbidden to be questioned, talked about or represented even in a damn game, it really makes one wonder that there is more to the story.

While the whole kerfluffle was probably an overreaction, it really doesn't "make one wonder that [sic] there is more to the story."

Nazism is evil, full stop.
 
Oh yeah we could really hurt some feelings here. Lets be sure to put all the criminals in bras and make the bullets just nerf darts so no one gets hurt at all, we can even call it sarcastaroyale.
 
Socialism ALWAYS leads to starvation and genocide.

Quick, someone tell Finland! And Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. I'm sure that the genocide in New Zealand is going to start any minute now...

Seriously, if you think Nazis referring to themselves as "Democratic Socialists" means that socialism = Nazism, enjoy building your own roads, schools, courts, military, etc. Because all those things are (gasp!) socialist.
 
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Nazism is evil, full stop.

Yep. But IMO, the tattoo wasn’t out of place given the context of the game. Prisoners have prison tattoos, some of which do contain Nazi imagery. Their inclusion in the game doesn’t mean that the devs align with it. It’s realistic. Some just aren’t mature enough to handle it in 2018. Hope they don’t go back and play Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The swastikas in that game made complete sense too, but no one considered it to be promoting hate and evil.
 
Yep. But IMO, the tattoo wasn’t out of place given the context of the game. Prisoners have prison tattoos, some of which do contain Nazi imagery. Their inclusion in the game doesn’t mean that the devs align with it. It’s realistic. Some just aren’t mature enough to handle it in 2018. Hope they don’t go back and play Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The swastikas in that game made complete sense too, but no one considered it to be promoting hate and evil.

I get that, which is why I said the whole thing was probably blown out of proportion. It's the flirting with "maybe there's more to the story" in reference to Nazism that I find repugnant.

Then again, maybe "more to this story" was used only in reference to the news story, not the rejection of Nazism in general, in which case I apologize. But that is *not* the impression I got.

 
Quick, someone tell Finland! And Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. I'm sure that the genocide in New Zealand is going to start any minute now...

Seriously, if you think Nazis referring to themselves as "Democratic Socialists" means that socialism = Nazism, enjoy building your own roads, schools, courts, military, etc. Because all those things are (gasp!) socialist.

Yeah, some people believe that the "National Socialist" in the Nazi name meant they were socialists. They weren't. They were facists who absorbed a labor party to gain traction even though they had a completely different agenda. Common in politics.

The most successful countries have operated under hybrid systems. A little bit of socialism, a little bit of capitalism, a little of this, a little of that. Those "socialist" countries you listed are routinely found at the top on the good indexes for education, healthcare, and quality of life.
 
considering how widespread nazi inspired tattoos are in the population of incarcerated individuals, it would be censorship to otherwise try to rewrite this societal fact. I can see how using it as a customizable tool would be offensive, meanwhile graphically murdering and torturing other humans is A-OK right? puleeeeze.
 
Quick, someone tell Finland! And Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. I'm sure that the genocide in New Zealand is going to start any minute now...

Seriously, if you think Nazis referring to themselves as "Democratic Socialists" means that socialism = Nazism, enjoy building your own roads, schools, courts, military, etc. Because all those things are (gasp!) socialist.

Gawd you must be fun at parties...
 
Quick, someone tell Finland! And Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. I'm sure that the genocide in New Zealand is going to start any minute now...

Seriously, if you think Nazis referring to themselves as "Democratic Socialists" means that socialism = Nazism, enjoy building your own roads, schools, courts, military, etc. Because all those things are (gasp!) socialist.

honestly dislike when someone is disingenuous and acts like they know what they are talking about
(kinds like I'm doing right now)

Not ONE of those countries are "Socialism" they have some Social policies but still rely on Free Market capitalism, but so does the U.S.

Most of them use - The Nordic model (also called Nordic capitalism or Nordic social democracy refers to the economic and social policies common to the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Sweden). This includes a comprehensive welfare state and collective bargaining at the national level with a high percentage of the workforce unionized, while being based on the economic foundations of free market capitalism The Nordic model began to earn attention after World War II.
 
Meanwhile communist symbology or similar is absolutely fine and celebrated by many of the same people who would have opposed this.
I don't care either way what symbols are used in games or anywhere for that matter as long as you have free choice to do so. But when one aspect of a symbol or history is forbidden to be questioned, talked about or represented even in a damn game, it really makes one wonder that there is more to the story.

Boo hoo. Stop using whataboutism to try to make it seem like this is an ok thing

Whataboutism is a variant of the tu quoque logical fallacy that attempts to discredit an opponent's position by charging them with hypocrisy without directly refuting or disproving their argument, which is particularly associated with Soviet and Russian propaganda.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
 
I don't get it, were players mad that the game was a bit too realistic or were they outraged because their DLC tattoos did not support ray tracing?
 
How silly. It's a game about convicts. Gang tattoos are to be expected. Make no mistake, in the context of this game, swastikas and other Nazi symbols, are gang tattoos. Their presence is not out of place.
As always, if it bothers you don't buy it.
 
am I missing something? I dont see whats Nazi here...



Quick, someone tell Finland! And Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. I'm sure that the genocide in New Zealand is going to start any minute now...

Seriously, if you think Nazis referring to themselves as "Democratic Socialists" means that socialism = Nazism, enjoy building your own roads, schools, courts, military, etc. Because all those things are (gasp!) socialist.
ummm... pretty sure we're(can) not socialist. Quebec is but not the country. we have some socialist stuff like basic health care. but we are far from an actual socialist country, we are capitalist at the heart of it.
although, there are some ignorant American lefties starting to try and say it is...
 
Meanwhile communist symbology or similar is absolutely fine and celebrated by many of the same people who would have opposed this.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...whoa...whoa...whoa. Are you suggesting that more Russians were killed in the interwar period under Stalin's regime than during WWII? That's crazy talk! Next you'll be saying more people were displaced following the war than during it! We must fight this new, fascist wave with everything we got, lest we fall back to such times.
 
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honestly dislike when someone is disingenuous and acts like they know what they are talking about
(kinds like I'm doing right now)

Not ONE of those countries are "Socialism" they have some Social policies but still rely on Free Market capitalism, but so does the U.S.

Most of them use - The Nordic model (also called Nordic capitalism or Nordic social democracy refers to the economic and social policies common to the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Sweden). This includes a comprehensive welfare state and collective bargaining at the national level with a high percentage of the workforce unionized, while being based on the economic foundations of free market capitalism The Nordic model began to earn attention after World War II.
am I missing something? I dont see whats Nazi here...




ummm... pretty sure we're(can) not socialist. Quebec is but not the country. we have some socialist stuff like basic health care. but we are far from an actual socialist country, we are capitalist at the heart of it.
although, there are some ignorant American lefties starting to try and say it is...

Almost like socialism and capitalism aren't binary and mutually exclusive...
 
am I missing something? I dont see whats Nazi here...
Me neither, seems 1488 was coined by some American white supremacist born in '38, so in other words no possibility of being a Nazi (Neo at best).
ACAB = all cops are bastards
And an iron cross with a skull?
 
Yes, i


We're not supposed to talk about the Socialist/Communists who were responsible for slaughtering over 100 million people in the last century, and hundreds of millions more condemned to a life of grim servitude to the state. I'll bet the teenagers here never got an iota of what Communists have repeatedly done to people when gaining power, riding on a wave of promises about "equality". Everyone's equal all right, equally miserable, except for party members.
Oh yes, capitalism though hasn't killed a single person.

 
I really don't see the issue of it, considering the content of the game. The only thing I'm against with these kinds of things is if they're used out of place... If a game is based in gritty reality where you or the computer are portraying morally low or morally absent roles, then it's perfectly in place to have recognizable evil symbols.

As far as the argument about Nazism/Communism/Capitalism killing people, they all have and do. It comes down to rigidity and the repugnant side of human nature.. We have to get beyond -isms and stringent ideology if we're ever going to make it better. We need a "lets just stop being dicks-ism".
 
Almost like socialism and capitalism aren't binary and mutually exclusive...

While they may not be binary, they are mutually exclusive with capitalism being at one end of a scale and socialism at the other. When talking about communism, it is usually referring to countries at the extreme ends of the socialism side, not countries sitting somewhere in the middle.
 
What do you want criminal princesses? Art requires negative imagery sometimes.

If you want to put Nazi and white supremacist symbols on ENEMIES, that is fine. When you allow players to SELF IDENTIFY with neo-Nazi tattoos, that crosses the line. It shouldn't have to be explained to you.
 
While they may not be binary, they are mutually exclusive with capitalism being at one end of a scale and socialism at the other. When talking about communism, it is usually referring to countries at the extreme ends of the socialism side, not countries sitting somewhere in the middle.

Wrong. Communism is the polar opposite of Capitalism, not socialism. Quit buying into Fox News propaganda and pick up a history book...or two. Maybe one on economics while you are at it. Or just go back to college and buy yourself a clue.
 
Wrong. Communism is the polar opposite of Capitalism, not socialism. Quit buying into Fox News propaganda and pick up a history book...or two. Maybe one on economics while you are at it. Or just go back to college and buy yourself a clue.

Marxist theory has socialism as the end result of communism. Why don't you buy yourself a clue and stop buying socialist propaganda.
 
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