'Skullgirls' Update Removes Some Of The Games Edgier Elements, Sparking Controversy In The Fandom
Indie fighting game Skullgirls, an internet darling with a dedicated fandom, has returned to headlines after developers Hidden Variable, Future Club and Autumn Games released a design update that altered some of the video game's perceivably problematic elements in order to "reflect the values and broad vision for Skullgirls moving forward."
The announcement was made in the game's forums by director Charley Price, aka Mighty Zug.
Among notable changes, the Skullgirls development team has removed controversial imagery from Renoir family and the Black Egrets and de-emphasized the sexualization of some characters, particularly younger characters, citing the opening of Filia's story mode as a place where they de-emphasized its sexual nature.
The change led to a flood of review bombing of the game on Steam, as the game's "Very Positive" review rating is now tempered by a "Mostly Negative" rating for reviews submitted in the past 30 days. Many of the negative reviews complain about "censorship" and devs catering to woke Twitter fans by making the changes, and have little to do with the gameplay (Price made no reference to fan complaints in his explanation of the changes).
Skullgirls discourse is heatedly raging on social media, as some deride the changes while others think that those complaining aren't actually invested in the game but rather the culture war currently surrounding it. Some posters suggested that people complaining haven't actually spent time playing the game or are overreacting to what amounts mostly to minor design tweaks.
Others have expressed ethical concerns about the removal of some suggestive images from the game's digital art book, which was paid, extra content. In sum, the changes make it so players no longer have access to the artwork they paid for.
Time will tell if this is a momentary controversy surrounding Skullgirls or if it will snowball into something bigger. For the time being, it seems many of the game's dedicated fans are unbothered by the design tweaks — browsing the game's recent reviews, those leaving positive reviews tend to have logged hundreds of hours into the game, while those leaving negative reviews also have single or double-digit hours logged.
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JoeyLobonzo
This kind of reminds me of what happened with SUPERHOT VR a while back.
iou1
This whole scenario also shows just how embarrassing gaming journalism is, once again. Every single news outlet seems to choose carefully structured words and sentences to make the fans of this game seem like outraged lunatics who are defending pedophilia and nazi imagery. I hate journalists so goddamn much…
SSmotzer
They really should just make a Bayonetta style "Angel" mode, which makes the game PG-13 for tournament play.
Draconzis
-Claim the only people upset about the censorship don't play the game.
-Fans that play the game are upset about censorship.
-Fans aren't upset about censorship because if you're upset about it, then you're not a fan.
Things like this is why we can't have nice things.
L Boy
>some fans think the outrage is mostly coming from people outside the fandom.
It should've been realized years earlier and not just with Skullgirls? Why now?
draeroz
Must I bring this up again?
Pikazilla
I know that censorship can be done to avoid controversy and to attract younger audiences…
but this backfired specularly.
There was no point in updating or censoring a game that is relatively old and probably would benefit more from having a sequel.
If there was a genuine need to have censorship because it was uncomfortable for some people, then what you do is you post a disclaimer in the game warning players about the ecchi elements of the game and have an on/off switch where a player can decide to view the censored version.
Skullgirls was always known for its cute and sexy characters and adult themes. To censor that when the audience is already aware of what they are getting into makes little sense.
AnnoyedGuy
Holy shit.
As a Guilty Gear fan who got his fandom invaded and basically destroyed by Bridget fans which tend not to be avid enjoyers of playing the game, is it absolutely appalling to see the same argument I used in, but now in favor of censorship. I suffered this. I don't want more of it. Nobody who doesn't use Twitter 24/7 wants more of having the original spirits of their favorite games drowned out by virtue signaling. Enough.
Moby The Duck
Hm, yes.
Let's remove the more edgy bits of our game that was created and funded around said edges, while keeping stuff like a former slave kid that smokes cigars, handles multiple guns, had her eyes, arms and legs ripped off, went insane, turned into a bioweapon and forced to kill her best friend.
Or that other kid that was kidnapped, brainwashed, injected with rusty nails, had her entire spine replaced, forced to become a killing machine, only to be shunned away from her own parents because of her now monstrous appearance.
This is the third time the censor stuff on this game. They even replaced one of the NPCs with fucking SonixFox.
KZN02
SonicFox did not replace Mrs. Victoria permanently in the training stage, it’s on rotation.
KozaChain
When I read stuff like "better reflecting our values and our broad vision" my first thought is "OK, which senior and/or executive level individual messed up now?"
"ALLUSIONS TO REAL-WORLD HATE GROUPS" – Well, yeah, no shit. They weren't supposed to be good guys. Much of the game's motifs are around incredibly dark grey morality at best.
"CHARACTER SEXUALIZATION & AGENCY" – Again, no shit. A lot of that was a reflection of the crapsack world depicted by the game. Like the real world in the 1920s and 1930s. The model was clearly inspired by a lot of the pulp fiction novels from the era. It's made pretty clear that these situations aren't a good thing. Further, the choice example with Filia ends with a right bastard getting his comeuppance.
"RACIAL SENSITIVITY" – I repeat: no shit. The entire game world made all kinds of allusions to this, not just with Big Band.
I always saw Skullgirls as a much more niche fighting game that was tackling on sensitive subjects in a way that a mainstream game really couldn't. I don't even like fighting games, but I still got it because I found the world, characters, and stories interesting. I ended up buying a special controller just to play the game better and sank a lot of time into it for a couple years. I haven't sat down to play Skullgirls in a hot minute, but they better not have messed with Squigly + Leviathan.
KZN02
Nothing significant in the notes regarding Squigly or Leviathan, primarily it’s Filia, Parasoul and her Black Egrets for gameplay, along some story cutscenes updated for certain characters like Big Band as you said.