Obsidian Entertainment Removes Transmisogynistic Joke From Pillars of Eternity at Gamers’ Urging

The transmisogynistic joke is deleted from #PillarsofEternity now. Thank you @Obsidian @jesawyer for listening to us. pic.twitter.com/MxSSbHalQ1

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

Last Sunday, Twitter user Erika Victorious spoke up after finding a transmisogynistic “joke” in some of Pillars of Eternity‘s backer-submitted content. (Although a Brianna Wu tweet originally alerted us to the issue, after being contacted by readers over Twitter we updated our original article to say the joke was discovered by a trans woman who had been harassed since speaking up and had consequently locked her account.)

In a statement to us last Tuesday, Obsidian explained “we are going to be talking with our backers about this issue in our next backer update. They are the ones that made Eternity possible, so we feel it is our duty to discuss it with them first.” According to Erika Victorious’ updates, the joke was removed as of this afternoon:

Rumour has it the transmisogynistic joke is removed from Pillars of Eternity with today’s patch. Confirming for myself.

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

Aaa! I did it! I spoke up and I made change! I changed things! I did a good thing! I’m a good person! Yaaaaay @Quinnae_Moon

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

@evilsagan @transgamerthink the joke is gone. There is a new memorial in its place, in a different location.

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

@transgamerthink @evilsagan if you look at the dev notice it was moved as a side effect of changing it apparently https://t.co/heAuCF0Q9T

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

Here’s a look at the relocated and edited text, which appears to be referencing the controversy:

Here’s the text:

Here lies Firedorn, a bard, a poet/ He was also a card, but most didn’t know it / A poem he wrote in jest was misread / They asked for blood, so now he’s just dead

@MallowyGoodness it’s not great but a dig at me is not going to retransmit transmisogyny in our culture so I’ll leave it

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

Erika Victorious also detailed some of the harassment she experienced after speaking up about the joke:

One more thing. #Gamergate kept saying I was just an SJW who’d never played the game and was just looking for things to complain about.

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

#GamerGate, you’re wrong. I’ve played all the Infinity Engine games to completion. I have a Steam library of hundreds of games.

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

I’ve been playing video games for 20 years, #gamergate. I spoke up because seeing hate against you in a game you enjoy hurts.

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

I spoke up because I wanted to enjoy the successor to some of my favourite games of all time, like Baldur’s Gate II and Planescape: Torment

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

I put eighteen hours into #PillarsofEternity before I stopped when I saw that joke, #gamergate. That joke stopped me from playing.

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

But now? With it gone I have a week’s worth of play to catch up on, #gamergate. And your shit can’t take that away. pic.twitter.com/nduFtzovux

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

And I’m going to recommend #PillarsofEternity to all my friends, #GamerGate. That it’s a great game made by people who care about me

— Erika Victorious (@icequeenerika) April 3, 2015

In a statement posted this afternoon and later emailed to us, Obsidian explained:

It’s come to our attention that a piece of backer-created content has made it into Pillars of Eternity that was not vetted. Once it was brought to our attention, it followed the same vetting process as all of our other content. Prior to release, we worked with many of our backers to iterate on content they asked to be put into the game that didn’t strike the right tone.

In the case of this specific content, we checked with the backer who wrote it and asked them about changing it. We respect our backers greatly, and felt it was our duty to include them in the process. They gave us new content which we have used to replace what is in the game. To be clear, we followed the process we would have followed had this content been vetted prior to the release of the product.

We appreciate the faith you have all given us into making Pillars of Eternity the great game that it has become, and we appreciate the strength of conviction all of you bring to every conversation we have together.

(via Not Your Mama’s Gamer)

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