A few days ago, quotes from Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red started appearing around the internet. On the topic of religion in the upcoming role-playing game, quest director Meteusz Tomaskiewicz was asked whether the inclusion of real world religions, like Christianity, would open the floodgates for controversy. According to the quotes -- translated from Polish -- Tomaskiewicz basically said that the studio wasn't going to avoid realistic depictions of religion, even if those depictions were deemed offensive. This became quite the talking point over on Reddit and other gaming forums. The quotes were also picked up by numerous news websites, which inevitably caused a stir.
Except Tomaskiewicz didn't really say that. As it turns out, the quotes were mistranslated, and now CD Projekt Red has given IGN an official English translation. When asked if players could, in theory, walk into a church in Cyberpunk 2077 and cause havoc, Tomaskiewicz replies: "We do not want to avoid religion as a topic, authenticity of the world is what counts for us. Technically, the situation you mentioned is possible, but this is all about the choices made by the player. We won’t encourage the player to do so. In our quests, which involve religious themes, we make sure there’s no disrespect."
So there you have it. CD Projekt Red isn't going to sidestep mature themes and potentially sensitive issues -- as you'd expect -- but it's looking to keep things respectful at the same time. Still, we doubt this will be the last "controversy" that the developer has to deal with before Cyberpunk 2077 is even out. When a game's got this much hype behind it, it seems all but impossible to avoid the headlines, even if it's because of mistranslated quotes.
[source uk.ign.com]
Comments 18
It seems to me like quite a few other media outlets are keen on intentionally drumming up controversy and/or outrage for this game.
It's a lot of publicity, but it sure is interesting.
@Constable_What people with a certain viewpoint have tried to destroy this games reputation ever since the gender joke on twitter. It’s good that CD projekt RED is above all those “controversies” and stays calm.
First the Pokemon interview SNAFU, now this. Even if a big part of "numerous news websites" may likely be fansites or tabloids, this is getting embarrassing even by those domains' standards.
A case of lost in translation!!
Its not going to be easy for anyone who doesn't speak English as their native tongue and translation can change the sentiment entirely.
Regardless, it won't stop me playing - pre-ordered months ago...
Sites that try to bury a game for not fitting their political views make me sick.
@darkswabber It's all good publicity in the end; it only shows more of what the game is actually going for and how appealing it is.
While also showing the ineptitude of these ragsites and how and why their slanted coverage isn't to be trusted, or at the very least, to be taken with a bag of salt.
It makes me appreciate the considerate and careful websites, like Pushsquare for instance, and CDPR a lot more.
"Technically, the situation you mentioned is possible, but this is all about the choices made by the player."
Complain about yourselves and pretend to be journalists somewhere else.
Hahaha, more like deliberatey tossed out the window aggressively in translation by the politically-obsessed folk on lesser "gaming" sites! Good to see CDPR debunking the latest false claims with their usual dignity.
That's nothing to do with mistranslation but more to do with misinformation and outrage baiting. The usual on the internet.
Edit: Everywhere
Outrage culture for clicks. I'll leave this here, please don't use to avoid them getting more clicks. I hope you all think about the state of the oceans when swimming underwater in video games! Outrage!
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjvydx/underwater-video-games-ignore-the-perilous-state-of-our-collapsing-oceans
They should make the game they want to make, tell the story they want to tell without the twitter mob trying to force them to bend the knee to their agenda. Someone, somewhere will always be offended regardless. Who cares if someone is offended by the story you're telling? What's the problem? Your feelings are hurt? And?
It amazes me that a generation that grew up with shows like Family Guy and South Park are so quick to find everything offensive. Games shouldn’t have to shy away from certain topics and ideas just to keep the social justice warriors of the internet happy. Grow up, and understand the context of the themes and ideas of certain things that developers are trying to convey and quit jumping to conclusions. There’s a difference between blatantly being disrespectful and simply addressing a topic, learn them. End rant I suppose.
Instead of visiting the Vice link @Lyonjak posted (as they requested you don't), read the article in archive form to avoid giving them traffic: http://archive.fo/BZvGo
Avoid sites like Vice, Vox, The Verge, etc. at all costs. Rage/hate-bait headlines and articles by "urinalists" (a phrase from The Quartering which I love). The jerks who write for them are mostly activists with agendas to push, who are "outraged" by anything which goes against their group mentality.
None of them can seem to grasp the concept that many (most?) of us play games for the escapism they provide, and the ability to do/try things which - for whatever reason - we can't do in the real world... and that we don't actually want our games to reflect the real world in that much detail.
I only hope they avoid the strawman trope of religions being a front for some kinda evil scheme by a crazed leader or some ploy to keep the masses in check.
Lmao. At the media is the Boogeyman.
@Paranoimia I know we have had this talk before, but you seriously need to watch your language. Given that you made a thread about language I know you know what's tolerated here so I will not warn you again.
Thanks for understanding
Surprise surprise, using google translate might not be the best form of translation...
Good thing CDPR knows that in the end, us gamer will buy the game and not those mentally challenged group. It's also worth noting that believer from those religion aren't even as triggered as those 'urinalist'. These sort of people only sparks hatred to get people outraged, do not fell victim to their article. Only view or read your source from unbiased article such as this website or on a site that is more related to the topic such as gaming news site.
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