Skullgirls got review-bombed on Steam after some art changes

Quoteremoving Nazi-like depictions including armbands and symbols, adjusting some character artwork to remove sexualization of younger characters and racial stereotype issues

Good. To hell with nazis. Although I wouldn't say they did good job to remove sexualization of any characters.

I guess people see what they want to see. I was in the Navy in the '90s and for a long time I wore a dark-blue uniform with a red armband carrying the big white letters "SSC". Those cartoons are kinda remind me of that, rather than anything Nazi.

Quoting: dubigrasuI guess people see what they want to see. I was in the Navy in the '90s and for a long time I wore a dark-blue uniform with a red armband carrying the big white letters "SSC". Those cartoons are kinda remind me of that, rather than anything Nazi.

I ensure that people online are way more gullible and way more mean-spirited than you.


Last edited by hardpenguin on 4 July 2023 at 12:16 pm UTC

It sucks when they edit a game after been out, and took people money even people agree or disagree with the change.

if you see the reviews there isnt just people giving negative scores, but also people being ironically positive, i found at least one comment like that:

"Thanks for removing a few of the character colors I didn't like, Hopefully you can remove the rest of the game in the next update. "
^yet the person recomend it lol

Quoting: hardpenguin

Quoteremoving Nazi-like depictions including armbands and symbols, adjusting some character artwork to remove sexualization of younger characters and racial stereotype issues

Good. To hell with nazis. Although I wouldn't say they did good job to remove sexualization of any characters.

imagine having bad people being portrayed as bad people...
that was a stupid move too.

You have my respect for remaining neutral and just reporting on the facts Liam. The ironic thing is that had something like this happened 10 years ago, I wouldn't have cared. But after watching franchise after franchise be destroyed by absolutely incompetent morons who fundamentally don't understand the appeal of the art and want to make a few changes to meet "modern" sensibilities, I can no longer stand by while it happens. I don't have a stake in this game. I've owned it for years, barely played it tbh. But for the people that do care, I stand with you. It doesn't matter if it's just small changes, "blink and you'll miss it", any change that is made for the purpose of appealing to people who don't actually love the art for what it is should be pushed against as much as possible. Because it won't stop. They never learn. They will "fix" something you actually care about eventually.

Quoting: elmapulimagine having bad people being portrayed as bad people...
that was a stupid move too.

It is where it's a hard part to judge, I mean I fully agree it's obviously a huge difference to make bad guys nazi's vs having nazi's that aren't immediately vilified. Though I suppose I also see the reason is the difference in timeline context. IE when people viewed Nazi's as a distant past evil, versus possibly triggering PTSD in people who are still alive and have been harrased by present day Nazi's.


I never will diss someone for just including nazi's as a bad guy, but it is worth noting there's a completely different result when a game uses fictional big bad organizations, versus using ones that are actually real and may in fact be a large part of the current players lives.

Quoting: chuzzle44You have my respect for remaining neutral and just reporting on the facts Liam. The ironic thing is that had something like this happened 10 years ago, I wouldn't have cared. But after watching franchise after franchise be destroyed by absolutely incompetent morons who fundamentally don't understand the appeal of the art and want to make a few changes to meet "modern" sensibilities, I can no longer stand by while it happens. I don't have a stake in this game. I've owned it for years, barely played it tbh. But for the people that do care, I stand with you. It doesn't matter if it's just small changes, "blink and you'll miss it", any change that is made for the purpose of appealing to people who don't actually love the art for what it is should be pushed against as much as possible. Because it won't stop. They never learn. They will "fix" something you actually care about eventually.

Yeah, if this isn't a thing already in Steam, the best compromise would be having a version select menu for games where you can choose which version you want, would satisfy all parties as I doubt a 10 year old game would get many updates and if it did, I guess they could make community patches for updates moving forward

Quoting: PatrickHogan

Quoting: elmapulimagine having bad people being portrayed as bad people...
that was a stupid move too.

It is where it's a hard part to judge, I mean I fully agree it's obviously a huge difference to make bad guys nazi's vs having nazi's that aren't immediately vilified. Though I suppose I also see the reason is the difference in timeline context. IE when people viewed Nazi's as a distant past evil, versus possibly triggering PTSD in people who are still alive and have been harrased by present day Nazi's.


I never will diss someone for just including nazi's as a bad guy, but it is worth noting there's a completely different result when a game uses fictional big bad organizations, versus using ones that are actually real and may in fact be a large part of the current players lives.

can't we simply put an "tigger warning" and an OPTION to not display such simbols? then we have both versions of the game avaliable, local multiplayer will prioritize the most sensitive person playing, online multiplayer each player see they own settings.
comeptitions like EVO might simply use the "safe version" the only issue would be streamers, but still there are countless hours of school girls content already uploaded over the internet so changing that now wont do much about it.

the same goes for people who dont like to see sexy outfits, instead of completely removing then, why not add an option to turn off fanservice?
even better, if the game feature sexual "fanservice" for both male and female characters, we might give the player the option to enable/disable this for each gender.
so straight man can have their sexy woman, gay man their sexy man, straight woman their sexy man, lesbians their sexy woman, bisexual or people who dont bother both.
hell there are a lot of straight woman who like to play with sexy female characters.

Quoting: elmapul

Quoting: hardpenguin

Quoteremoving Nazi-like depictions including armbands and symbols, adjusting some character artwork to remove sexualization of younger characters and racial stereotype issues

Good. To hell with nazis. Although I wouldn't say they did good job to remove sexualization of any characters.

imagine having bad people being portrayed as bad people...
that was a stupid move too.

Except the people in question were kind of good guys. They are the "good guys with questionable methods" trope.

So I will disagree with both of you; the devs did good on taking the Nazi references from them, AND on taking sexualization of minors out of the game, and I don't think it should be a polemic move at all.

The reality is that people who are actually upset enough about this to actually review bomb are likely white supremacists themselves, even if they're too cowardly to admit it.

Also, it's telling that they'd get upset over the removal of sexual exploitation of young characters. It's not like they removed all sexy outfits or anything, only predatory depictions of young characters. Why would that bother someone unless they get off on exploiting young girls?

Lastly, there really is no justification for hating the removal of racist imagery unless you're racist yourself. People these days are really good at telling on themselves.

I watched most of that video . . . people on the internet will get worked up about the most trivial things. Half the altered pictures I literally could not tell there was a difference, at least with a brief look. They got all that energy they should go join a demonstration or a strike or something--try to get Julian Assange freed or whatever.

The removal of armbands seems exceptionally pointless considering they kept the soldiers pointy helmets (WWI German Soldier).

The de-sexualisation also appears utterly pointless as the sexualised ethos is still firmly in place. It's like putting socks on while being bare butt naked.

Quoting: kit89The removal of armbands seems exceptionally pointless considering they kept the soldiers pointy helmets (WWI German Soldier).

WWI there were no Nazis though yeah. So, what's your point? Nobody is suggesting representation of Germans is a bad thing.

Quoting: melkemindLastly, there really is no justification for hating the removal of racist imagery unless you're racist yourself. People these days are really good at telling on themselves.

There's really no justification for hating the removal of violence unless you're violent yourself.

If we start with that attitude, we can continue until nothing is left.

Quoting: melkemindThe reality is that people who are actually upset enough about this to actually review bomb are likely white supremacists themselves, even if they're too cowardly to admit it.

Also, it's telling that they'd get upset over the removal of sexual exploitation of young characters. It's not like they removed all sexy outfits or anything, only predatory depictions of young characters. Why would that bother someone unless they get off on exploiting young girls?

Lastly, there really is no justification for hating the removal of racist imagery unless you're racist yourself. People these days are really good at telling on themselves.

I always got this little hope that some people will scream at anything taken away, because, you know, free speech/art (without realizing that these rights absolutely include the right of the developers to change their art). But, yes, probably it's culture wars again.

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: melkemindThe reality is that people who are actually upset enough about this to actually review bomb are likely white supremacists themselves, even if they're too cowardly to admit it.

Also, it's telling that they'd get upset over the removal of sexual exploitation of young characters. It's not like they removed all sexy outfits or anything, only predatory depictions of young characters. Why would that bother someone unless they get off on exploiting young girls?

Lastly, there really is no justification for hating the removal of racist imagery unless you're racist yourself. People these days are really good at telling on themselves.

I always got this little hope that some people will scream at anything taken away, because, you know, free speech/art (without realizing that these rights absolutely include the right of the developers to change their art). But, yes, probably it's culture wars again.

if you paid for a piece of art, you want that piece of art, not something else.
whats next? you will purchase halo and microsoft will give you forza instead but you cant complain?

the artist can do whatever he want with new pieces of art, its his art afterall, but for things you already purchased?
what if companies start makting their games pay to win? oh wait, they are already doing it, and we should acept because its their art according to your logic.

what if an company decide to change an story you like into something else you dont, and you cant access the original anymore?
or an music? movie?


Last edited by elmapul on 4 July 2023 at 3:52 pm UTC

Quoting: elmapul

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: melkemindThe reality is that people who are actually upset enough about this to actually review bomb are likely white supremacists themselves, even if they're too cowardly to admit it.

Also, it's telling that they'd get upset over the removal of sexual exploitation of young characters. It's not like they removed all sexy outfits or anything, only predatory depictions of young characters. Why would that bother someone unless they get off on exploiting young girls?

Lastly, there really is no justification for hating the removal of racist imagery unless you're racist yourself. People these days are really good at telling on themselves.

I always got this little hope that some people will scream at anything taken away, because, you know, free speech/art (without realizing that these rights absolutely include the right of the developers to change their art). But, yes, probably it's culture wars again.

if you paid for a piece of art, you want that piece of art, not something else.
whats next? you will purchase halo and microsoft will give you forza instead but you cant complain?

the artist can do whatever he want with new pieces of art, its his art afterall, but for things you already purchased?
what if companies start makting their games pay to win? oh wait, they are already doing it, and we should acept because its their art according to your logic.

what if an company decide to change an story you like into something else you dont, and you cant access the original anymore?
or an music? movie?

Yeah, people who bought Cyberpunk 2077 at release should just keep that version without a single patch, and if they want a new version they should just buy again, amirite?

So they removed the one clear and instantly noticeable indicator of group membership for some of these characters - that does not seem like a smart move somehow. The Bigband changes seem also counterproductive. And, skipping through the video, most of the other just makes one wonder how someone managed to get their panties in a twist over them and on top of that paid for altering them. An impressive feat!