Your login information returned multiple users. Please select the user you would like to log in as and re-type in your password.
Those who come to 4Player regularly are used to a certain level of crassness. It's an atmosphere we happily provide simply because it's hard to talk about the game industry, and the games that we love, without throwing in the occasional F-bomb or sexual reference. So it might be a surprise for some of you to learn that the world was set turned upside down with shock when David Jaffe referred to new hardware as "new pu**y" in one of his tweets.
davidscottjaffe: New hardware is like new pussy. It's exciting at first but after you've experienced enough fresh vagina over the years- while there's still always a bit of excitement when something new comes along- you learn that sooner than later, the new and exciting becomes the standard and dependable and so it's best to just stay focused and greatful on what you've got at the moment...
On it's face, the statement couldn't be more true but that didn't stop the world from be SHOCKED by its admittedly crass nature nonetheless. Jaffe was accused of being sexist by certain thin-skinned individual around the internet and the entire thing snowballed beyond all sense of reason. Honestly, I'm surprised it became news at all, but this could partially be because often times our "journalistic integrity" as video game writers is hovering only a few millimeters above supermarket checkout line trash magazine level. Or we just pay way too much attention to video game forums and comment sections.
The very fact that anyone would even have time in the day to get offended by this surprises me, but maybe it shouldn't. There is a reason that mainstream entertainment, including mainstream media websites, have become increasingly void of any personality. They look more like soulless lists now, where going to a big mainstream video game or entertainment website feels like I'm ordering from a McDonalds menu. Words matter, but only because we make them matter. We imbue words with intrinsic meaning beyond their prescribed elementary classification. What Jaffee said is not offensive at all...people simply found the word pu**y offensive. I can prove it. Replace the word pu**y with the word "relationship."
New hardware is like a new relationship. It's exciting at first but after you've experienced enough new relationships over the years- while there's still always a bit of excitement when something new comes along- you learn that sooner than later, the new and exciting becomes the standard and dependable and so it's best to just stay focused and greatful on what you've got at the moment...
See? No problem. And, in fact, he probably would have been commended for proposing that staying in a long term, invested, relationship is much more enjoyable and rewarding in the long run than trolloping around town. But the world couldn't possibly be that easy, and people couldn't possibly be expected to use temporal self analysis to discover that perhaps they have a certain bias to an individual word which is keeping them from understanding, and even appreciating, the subtext of the message. I hate to be the prophet of doom here, and even be accoused of employing a slippery slope argument, but I do feel that this is how we even begin to get into the conversation of banning certain words from books. "Why the book simply cannot be good with that foul and ugly word in it!"
But this is the world we live in, and unfortunately we have to be especially careful around people we work with in a professional situation. Especially when you're in the middle of making the next big Twisted Metal game.
@davidscottjaffe said:
It was brought to my attention today that perhaps my NGP comment potentially offended members of the Twisted Metal team. As I said earlier, the moment that happens, it no longer makes sense to be tasteless and vulgar just for the fun of it. I assume many/most know that I run my mouth and say crazy stuff simply because it's fun to do and I do like to push the buttons of people that I find way too uptight for their own good and too uptight for society's good. HOWEVER the reality is, the moment it actually offends people that I work with and the moment those people make it clear that they find my language to be uncomfortable is the moment I stop. And that moment has arrived.
And while I continue to stand behind the fact that nothing I said was sexist, there is no doubt and no denying it was lewd and crude. Again, no law against that. I like lewd and crude. But talented members of our team do not and now that I know that, I am done going down that road.
To my team mates and colleagues at Eat Sleep Play, Sony Santa Monica, Sony, and the game business in general, I hope the majority of you took the comments as they were meant to be taken (childish and crass but harmless). To those that took offense, I really am sorry.
Unless you're a person who is too tightly wound. In that case, you probably deserved to be offended. I mean, let's be honest.
BUT for the rest of you, yes, truly, I did not mean to offend. That was not the intent and it won't happen again.
David
I especially like the little qualifier at the end. Hopefully this will put the entire issue at rest and we can all focus on what's really important. Pretending you're a clown in an ice cream truck that's loaded with guns and blowing up everything around you.
[source: twitter]
Comments
13 years, 10 months ago
Its aways a bit irking to see the members of the video game put up to be made look bad because of a little play on words. I like his comparison, it does make a lot of sense, but people just seem to get up in arms if it isnt constantly pillow talk. Hopefully people will learn to lighten up and just take things for what they are and not search for meanings that arent there.
13 years, 10 months ago
Joseph, this was a fantastic article that really hit home on how censored the world is getting. Phenomenal article.
13 years, 10 months ago
So people are okay with games about murderers, whack jobs, and drag queens but as soon as Jaffe makes a comment referring to sex they draw the line. I really shouldn't act like I am surprised.
13 years, 10 months ago
You can't say anything nowadays without it being perceived as offensive its just getting beyond a joke. I think it i just people who are tightly wound and have a need to piss people off by making everything politically correct.
Those people need to fuck off . . . . wait, they need to immediately evacuate the area i am currently in as they are an annoyance to me.
13 years, 10 months ago
All it takes is one idiot.
Also, "greatful." If losers want to bitch about something, at least they should do it in under the guise of promoting literacy/improving tired columnists' error detection rates. Now <i>that</i> would help society.
13 years, 10 months ago
Awesome ending to this post Joseph, I was in full agreement and then in tears of laughter at the end.
13 years, 10 months ago
lmao I should try and send this to David Jaffe: I'm sure he'll love it
13 years, 10 months ago
Looks like those guys over at Sony...*puts on glasses*...were the real pussies. YEEAAAAAH!
13 years, 10 months ago
When someone says they're offended, there's only one thing they're trying to do: get you to shut up. They are exerting a form of dominance because they think they are better than you.
When we are kids we are told the sticks and stones trick.. Since when did that stop becoming good policy as we got older?
13 years, 10 months ago
Dude is a P*ssy for apoligizing
13 years, 10 months ago
Being offended by crassness is something for school kids, not the real world.
13 years, 10 months ago
Nice to see he is willing to apologize, even if it was kind of unnecessary.
13 years, 10 months ago
This stuff and the Penny Arcade "dickwolves" stuff really makes me hate the mainstream video games culture right now, like seriously. Am I thin skinned because I also don't like when someone uses language that I find hateful? Guess what? There is a HUGE difference the word "pussy" and "relationship", so yes, of course that will change the meaning of what he said.
Jaffe and along with the Penny Arcade dude this week have both essentially said, "Hey, I see that you are offend and I'm sorry but stop being a tightwad, oh and fuck you I'm not sorry in the least." Jaffe actually said it and PA did it through their actions.
And there is plenty of crass, hateful language spread throughout video game culture. We especially don't need the people who have a soap box to encourage it. And it upsets me to no end when I read video game forums and responses like this where the overwhelming sentiment is in agreement with the continuation of this type of language or in someway people who don't like this language are trying to "censor" it. You can say whatever you want and I can say whatever I want in response. I can't possibly understand why people are actively encouraging others to continue on with speech that is clearly offending more than just one individual with a blog.
13 years, 10 months ago
I'm not the type to get easily offended, but I have to admit Jaffe's analogy did make me roll my eyes. To be honest, I didn't find it sexist as much as I found it stupid. Joseph is right, words matter because we make them matter but essentially behind every word is a history of context and meaning. And for an industry that is mostly geared towards men and alienating to women, I can see why his choice of the word pussy was seen as low-brow. As a woman, I'm not offended by the word. I am however irritated that we would need to resort to using words that obviously offend others just to make a point that gets lost in the controversy. It seems immature, which unfortunately dominates mainstream video game culture and slows the advancement of this medium as a whole.
13 years, 10 months ago
Very well written Joseph, I enjoyed your aspect very much. I especially liked you changing p*ssy with relationship, brilliant.
13 years, 10 months ago
Like someone said, whatever happend to the "sticks and stones" saying? If people get offended by mere slang, you deserve to cussed out for being so weak-minded.
Remember the "boy who cried wolf?" I figured foul language wouldn't phase anyone these days, because we speak these words so often. Guess not, but c'mon... "Pussy"?
We shouldn't say these words because they're meaningless and immature. Not because they're sinful and unholy, that's rhetoric. You're not a better person just because you don't say "fuck" or "pussy."
13 years, 10 months ago
You know - someone might think that this Twitter thing is a lot like pussy too. It's awkward and intimidating at first until you get the used to what makes it work. Treated properly it serves a purpose that can produce strong, lasting relationships, but when men (and women) lose respect for it and stop treating it properly - they're quickly reminded that it can also ruin their day with little more than a few words.
13 years, 10 months ago
How is this a news story? This is just Jaffe being Jaffe.
If you're offended by what he says then you need to reconsider why you should even have a strong opinion about it to begin with. "Vulgar", "Sexist", "Offensive". Is this to say that it's only ok for him to make games with these undertones, but it's taboo for him not to act that way in person?
He makes mostly Mature rated games targeted at adults, this isn't pre-school, and we aren't 4. Act like an adult if your offended or uncomfortable, just move on to something else and ignore the comment. He apologized because he offended some of his dev team & fans, not because high-strung anti-sexism activists John/Jane Doe were offended.