The publisher of the survival game Scum has found itself in hot water over the inclusion of Nazi tattoo options in-game. Following the outcry from its player base, the team removed the body art with an apology following the initial curt response to concerns.
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When the revelation of this tattoo option was first unveiled, players took to the Scum subreddit to air out their grievances. The publisher, Devolver Digital, had made the initial decision to include an iron cross with a skull in the center of it marked with the numbers 88 and 14 – a known symbol for white supremacy.
According to Wikipedia, the term originated from a statement in Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf:
“What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe. Every thought and every idea, every doctrine and all knowledge, must serve this purpose. And everything must be examined from this point of view and used or rejected according to its utility.”
Though the imagery has since been removed, it wasn’t a simple transition out. One of the Scum developers took to the criticism in a less than professional way.
“If you are offended by some textures in the game, please don’t play the game,” proclaimed the game’s community manager on Steam.”Because if we start removing things that hurt someone’s feelings, it will be an empty game, with no people, no weapons, no blood, no humor, no [expletive] pooping, killing others, eating human flesh, killing animals.”
He added, “We are not right wing, we are not Nazi supporters, we are not even Germans, and [the] only offending thing here, in my opinion, is calling us Nazi supporters for no reason.”
Since then, Devolver Digital themselves stepped in to address the issue head-on and override the community manager’s initial response:
“The use of the tattoo was intended to assist in portraying a realistic element of prison culture and the horrid elements within it. This content has been patched out as of this morning, and Devolver Digital are currently conducting a full review of all assets and content in the game with Gamepires. We strongly condemn any and all use of hateful symbology in our games and agree it should have never been in the game regardless of creative intent or realism. Devolver Digital apologizes unreservedly.”
Following the publisher’s addendum, Gamespire – the developer – added on an additional apology and plan for the future:
“Our intention was to create an atmosphere of the worst of the worst criminals in SCUM, and to portray the horrible type of people who would find themselves in a ‘fight to the death’ situation for a futuristic reality show where the worst criminals are pitted against one another,” the press statement mentioned.
“Since our initial response on our forums [referring to the Steam post from Croteam, according to a Devolver rep] we’ve discussed this as a team and with our publisher and agree wholeheartedly that this content was unnecessary, should not have been included, and have removed it. We apologize for this misstep and promise to our fans that we will take more caution in our approach moving forward.”
