The digital game retailer has not clearly explained how the hate symbols made it into an email, but apologized for the "unfortunate visual association."
Co-opting a hashtag that was used for trans solidarity:
“Classic PC Games #WontBeErased on our watch. Yeah, how’s that for some use of hashtags.”
Suggestive in-game ad:
The female figure in one of those advertisements very clearly has a penis. The ad is for a soft drink called ChroManticore that tastes of “16 flavours you’d love to mix.” The copy encourages you to “mix it up,” an apparent reference to the trans model in the poster.
Assume gender ‘joke’:
“Did you just assume their gender,” the tweet said. The account was responding to a fan saying that they wanted more from the “guys” at Gamescom.
To me these seem much tamer than sending nazi symbols via email tbh
It’s not the intent of your post and I know I’m on a bit of a tangent, but the middle article about the oversexualization in the ad doesn’t feel transphobic to me as a trans person. Or like, it does, but it does in a way that it makes perfect sense for the world that the game takes place in.
There are lots of examples of commodification of people’s bodies in game, so leaning into that with a trans person feels like a very real version of what a company might do in that universe.
Not trying to nitpick or anything, I just heard about this controversy waaaaaay after the fact and never got a chance to chime in anywhere with anyone.
The point is, the game portraits a terrible world. The game contains people killing each other, that doesn’t mean the developers condone people killing each other in real life. The game contains megacorporations misusing images of trans people for advertising, that doesn’t mean the developers condone that either.
I think it’s usually well understood that something being in a work of media doesn’t mean it’s representative of the views of the authors, in fact it’s very common for media to contain themes like violence and abuse, not because the author is condoning it, but because the author is building a dark world for their piece of fiction.
How many layers of people did this go through? Between their history of transphobia and now this, they are painting a pretty bad picture of themselves
I’m not aware of their history of transphobia, could you share an article talking about it?
Of course! https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/23/18015434/gog-twitter-wontbeerased-hashtag/
https://www.polygon.com/e3/2019/6/12/18662443/cyberpunk-2077-trans-advertisement-cd-projekt-red-e3-2019/
https://kotaku.com/cyberpunk-2077-tweets-transphobic-joke-studio-apologiz-1828502562
I included CD Projekt in there since GoG is owned by them
To me these seem much tamer than sending nazi symbols via email tbh
The second one is the opposite of transphobic
It’s not the intent of your post and I know I’m on a bit of a tangent, but the middle article about the oversexualization in the ad doesn’t feel transphobic to me as a trans person. Or like, it does, but it does in a way that it makes perfect sense for the world that the game takes place in.
There are lots of examples of commodification of people’s bodies in game, so leaning into that with a trans person feels like a very real version of what a company might do in that universe.
Not trying to nitpick or anything, I just heard about this controversy waaaaaay after the fact and never got a chance to chime in anywhere with anyone.
No worries at all. To me it felt more like fetishization but that is a totally fair take.
The point is, the game portraits a terrible world. The game contains people killing each other, that doesn’t mean the developers condone people killing each other in real life. The game contains megacorporations misusing images of trans people for advertising, that doesn’t mean the developers condone that either.
I think it’s usually well understood that something being in a work of media doesn’t mean it’s representative of the views of the authors, in fact it’s very common for media to contain themes like violence and abuse, not because the author is condoning it, but because the author is building a dark world for their piece of fiction.
Apologia much? 🤷🏽