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Only a few people were hurt by the original Dickwolves comic, and I think a realistic apology for triggering bad feelings in sexual assault survivors would have

Only a few people were hurt by the original Dickwolves comic, and I think a realistic apology for triggering bad feelings in sexual assault survivors would have made this a non-event. Like, "A number of people have written to express that they felt hurt or threatened by yesterday's strip. Please know that we had no intention of that. We wanted to express how incredulous it is that a game can use the threat of violence, death, enslavement, and implied rape as a motivation for a quest then cast aside those people you have ostensibly just been charged with helping. It was not our intention to hurt people in the real world by discussing this incongruity in games and we sincerely apologize to those of you who were hurt." Boom, done, wouldn't have been an issue. NOW, what happened after that was THIS strip: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/08/13 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/08/13 An incredibly insincere apology which makes anyone reading question whether they have their heads screwed on straight. On top of that, they make a t-shirt for Team Dickwolves. Then Mike NEVER FUCKING LETS IT GO, for damn near three years. Only extremely recently has he even expressed that he might have been handling these sorts of situations incorrectly and considers that he may be hurting people. Well, great buddy, but you've already screwed a lot of things up. It's gonna take a lot of work to undo the damage you've done and a bunch of people will never trust you regardless.

mpyne 13y ago
Even the second comic I can understand. The fact that they have to go out of their way to explain that no, they don't actually think raping people is OK is pretty distressing as it should have been plainly obvious from the first comic IMHO. What I don't understand is why you'd then go and make a shirt, and bring it up again and again. What good could possibly have come of that?
- DannoHung 13y ago
  Sorry, but I think the second comic is completely tone deaf and deeply unfunny. I remember reading it and thinking, "Jesus christ guys, way to not get it." The shirts are just... fucking hell. Y'know, the crazy thing is that there were like 10 people in their office at that point. And I am pretty sure that about half of them could have, at some point said, "What the fuck are we doing here?"
- wonderzombie 13y ago
  I doubt very many people thought the first joke was an exhortation or endorsement of rape. They were using it as an extreme, to skewer MMO morality. And I see what they were trying to do, but not long after that point it should've been obvious it didn't work. So the second comic comes out and it's a straw man. "so you're saying we are pro-rape? that's absurd. look at how absurd you are." If you're trying to make people understand something, can you imagine how frustrating it must be to hear that for the eleventy-billionth time? It's fair to call people on making light of rape. I also think it's fair to disagree, though I have a caveat: IMHO, given the quality of dialogue around the issue, most of the disagreement is reflexive and rooted around the perception of this as a niche issue, mostly germane to women (Patton Oswalt had a good bit about this). In trying to evoke sympathy, people ask if you think it'd be OK to say such and such about your mother, sister, or daughter. An addendum which may (sadly) work better for some people could be: ask yourself if it would change your perception about, say, prison rape jokes if it happened to your father, brother, or son. Then imagine if someone's response to your feelings was to say "hey dummy I'm not pro-rape I just think rape jokes are funny." And so on.
- glenra 13y ago
  THey made the shirt because they didn't see the first comic as offensive. They thought a "dickwolf" was a funny idea. Raping is not (to them) an essential/defining characteristic of a dickwolf any more than "mauling" is an essential/defining characteristic of a bear. Having invented this absurd (and mildly offensive) dangerous animal, they thought it was a funny idea that some sports team would choose it as a mascot. Yes, they may have made the shirts partly to annoy their detractors, but they also just thought it was funny for reasons having nothing to do with rape. And they want the freedom to sell funny stuff to other people who like that stuff - being forced to censor themselves was difficult. On the other side, people who think raping is an essential characteristic of dickwolves can't see any humor in the shirt and think it was just created to spite them. There is no way to resolve this conflict because dickwolves don't exist and will never appear in another strip and the detractors have already discounted the opinions of the people who came up with the idea.

mpyne 13y ago

Even the second comic I can understand. The fact that they have to go out of their way to explain that no, they don't actually think raping people is OK is pretty distressing as it should have been plainly obvious from the first comic IMHO. What I don't understand is why you'd then go and make a shirt, and bring it up again and again. What good could possibly have come of that?

DannoHung 13y ago
Sorry, but I think the second comic is completely tone deaf and deeply unfunny. I remember reading it and thinking, "Jesus christ guys, way to not get it." The shirts are just... fucking hell. Y'know, the crazy thing is that there were like 10 people in their office at that point. And I am pretty sure that about half of them could have, at some point said, "What the fuck are we doing here?"
wonderzombie 13y ago
I doubt very many people thought the first joke was an exhortation or endorsement of rape. They were using it as an extreme, to skewer MMO morality. And I see what they were trying to do, but not long after that point it should've been obvious it didn't work. So the second comic comes out and it's a straw man. "so you're saying we are pro-rape? that's absurd. look at how absurd you are." If you're trying to make people understand something, can you imagine how frustrating it must be to hear that for the eleventy-billionth time? It's fair to call people on making light of rape. I also think it's fair to disagree, though I have a caveat: IMHO, given the quality of dialogue around the issue, most of the disagreement is reflexive and rooted around the perception of this as a niche issue, mostly germane to women (Patton Oswalt had a good bit about this). In trying to evoke sympathy, people ask if you think it'd be OK to say such and such about your mother, sister, or daughter. An addendum which may (sadly) work better for some people could be: ask yourself if it would change your perception about, say, prison rape jokes if it happened to your father, brother, or son. Then imagine if someone's response to your feelings was to say "hey dummy I'm not pro-rape I just think rape jokes are funny." And so on.
glenra 13y ago
THey made the shirt because they didn't see the first comic as offensive. They thought a "dickwolf" was a funny idea. Raping is not (to them) an essential/defining characteristic of a dickwolf any more than "mauling" is an essential/defining characteristic of a bear. Having invented this absurd (and mildly offensive) dangerous animal, they thought it was a funny idea that some sports team would choose it as a mascot. Yes, they may have made the shirts partly to annoy their detractors, but they also just thought it was funny for reasons having nothing to do with rape. And they want the freedom to sell funny stuff to other people who like that stuff - being forced to censor themselves was difficult. On the other side, people who think raping is an essential characteristic of dickwolves can't see any humor in the shirt and think it was just created to spite them. There is no way to resolve this conflict because dickwolves don't exist and will never appear in another strip and the detractors have already discounted the opinions of the people who came up with the idea.