@smokeyd123 said:

@SethPhotopoulos said:

@smokeyd123 said:

@Demoskinos said:

@Tsai

I can only imagine what marketing they have for Tomb Raider next year :/

Boob Mouse Pads ahoy!

Sure, I'd buy that. Definitely.

But I need one with Lara on it. OTHERWISE IT WON'T WORK.

A head shot and some tape man.

I'm pretty sure the problem is that there isn't a chain of approval in Square/Enix, just a bunch of Japanese college kids who really REALLY like boob mousepads and sexy nun costumes

People are so nice

Wow, I had forgotten what complete garbage Rock Paper Shotgun was, but one (1) minute of clicking around the site did SO much to remind me.

Hah, oh man, I really wonder what marketing company has been handling the Hitman stuff. As much as I don't think the sexy nun thing is worth of MASS HYSTERIA, they've certainly managed to come across as juvenile and baffling as possible.

@Link43130 said:

So lame this got pulled. You win again over sensitive PC kids!

This is really really bad. You don't need to be very sensitive at all to see that this is in poor taste.

Insulting, Facebook, Global-Warming, the bywords of the 2000's this far. Then again, marketing is boring already, so a big fuck off to whoever tried to shock with this death-threat bullshit. Wow, a double yawn, and many cheers to Bill Hicks.

I can identify only one reaction this article/news elicits from me: bewildered and disgusted confusion. Perhaps best summed up with the exclamatory "OH GOD, WHY?!"

Surely the point of marketing for a game is to sell more copies? How does this push anyone to run out and buy Hitman?

I'm not surprised, I have to say I found absolution straight up sexist and derogatory to woman at times, and not in an edgy satirical way, but an old fashioned ignorant manner that might play well with 14 year old boys.

god people love to complain. it's a damn shame.

Can someone who actually saw this thing or knows more about it explain something to me. Did Square come up with the "target identification" options? Or were those things that the user or users either got to put down or vote on or something?

Amazed that any group of "professionals" can get together, create this from nothing, and agree that it is a good promotional tool to release to the public.

@avantegardener said:

I'm not surprised, I have to say I found absolution straight up sexist and derogatory to woman at times, and not in an edgy satirical way, but an old fashioned ignorant manner that might play well with 14 year old boys.

Kind of unrelated, but I had a very similar reaction to Sleeping Dogs at times. I wonder if there's just something about Eidos.

This is why you can't let users have any freedom on the internet! Whats next to be taken down, the ability to draw on the WiiU because there are so many penises floating around?

How did this app get approved in the first place.

I think this short-lived PR stunt is superficial, dumb, pandering, lacking any substance and - insult to injury - it does a huge disservice to the thing being "advertised". In other words it's a perfect fucking fit for Facebook.

@iAmJohn said:

@avantegardener said:

I'm not surprised, I have to say I found absolution straight up sexist and derogatory to woman at times, and not in an edgy satirical way, but an old fashioned ignorant manner that might play well with 14 year old boys.

Kind of unrelated, but I had a very similar reaction to Sleeping Dogs at times. I wonder if there's just something about Eidos.

That one mission where you have to stalk a girlfriend who's cheating on you even though you're cheating on her was weird. Though I did like when she pointed it out and left for good.

@ProfessorK said:

This is why you can't let users have any freedom on the internet! Whats next to be taken down, the ability to draw on the WiiU because there are so many penises floating around?

@Bishop113 said:

Can someone who actually saw this thing or knows more about it explain something to me. Did Square come up with the "target identification" options? Or were those things that the user or users either got to put down or vote on or something?

There is a drop down menu for the choices. Whoever made the ap is the one who came up with the responses not the users. And with that there isn't a penis drawing option on the WIIU.

@iAmJohn said:

@avantegardener said:

I'm not surprised, I have to say I found absolution straight up sexist and derogatory to woman at times, and not in an edgy satirical way, but an old fashioned ignorant manner that might play well with 14 year old boys.

Kind of unrelated, but I had a very similar reaction to Sleeping Dogs at times. I wonder if there's just something about Eidos.

Yeah to an extent in Sleepy dawgs, not nearly as much mind, and at least you could argue that it was the sleazy world of underworld crime and slightly more genre appropriate. In Hitman, it's more the art direction choices they make, why does the girl have to be in a short school uniform for example, and the uncomfortable bed fellows of sex and violence, that said, Hitman exists in a wierd hyper real universe, and the games have been goofy since the beginning. Perhaps just a missed opportunity to tell an actual mature story, and not mature in T&A sort of way. Interesting to know what input Square Enix had.

"Hitman Absolution-related snafu fails to make us love Hitman Absolution than we already love Hitman Absolution."

Perhaps I'm paraphrasing... a teensy bit, but while I don't believe that any publicity is good publicity, I can certainly see the temptation if every outlet covering this story chooses to lavish this much praise on the related product, GB.

@SethPhotopoulos said:

@iAmJohn said:

@avantegardener said:

I'm not surprised, I have to say I found absolution straight up sexist and derogatory to woman at times, and not in an edgy satirical way, but an old fashioned ignorant manner that might play well with 14 year old boys.

Kind of unrelated, but I had a very similar reaction to Sleeping Dogs at times. I wonder if there's just something about Eidos.

That one mission where you have to stalk a girlfriend who's cheating on you even though you're cheating on her was weird. Though I did like when she pointed it out and left for good.

The ending was kind of nice, but I could never really get over the incongruity of the fact that you've been on two dates with this woman at the hostess club where she works, and somehow she's now exclusively yours and you need to stalk her to make sure she isn't seeing another man (especially when, like you said, you're sleeping with other people, too). The fact that the "love interests" are more or less never mentioned again after you see them once doesn't help matters either.

everything is insulting always forever and needs to be addressed yesterday

It's unfortunate that they had to remove it.

@iAmJohn said:

@SethPhotopoulos said:

@iAmJohn said:

@avantegardener said:

I'm not surprised, I have to say I found absolution straight up sexist and derogatory to woman at times, and not in an edgy satirical way, but an old fashioned ignorant manner that might play well with 14 year old boys.

Kind of unrelated, but I had a very similar reaction to Sleeping Dogs at times. I wonder if there's just something about Eidos.

That one mission where you have to stalk a girlfriend who's cheating on you even though you're cheating on her was weird. Though I did like when she pointed it out and left for good.

The ending was kind of nice, but I could never really get over the incongruity of the fact that you've been on two dates with this woman at the hostess club where she works, and somehow she's now exclusively yours and you need to stalk her to make sure she isn't seeing another man (especially when, like you said, you're sleeping with other people, too). The fact that the "love interests" are more or less never mentioned again after you see them once doesn't help matters either.

Yeah I agree with you. I just thought the ending to that could have been worse. And I really do wish that you had more time with the women. It all seemed like it stopped halfway through their stories.

This GIF seems appropriate:

I....I don't really see this as "horribly insulting". Stupid? Yes Unnecessary? Maybe.

Insulting? To whom? Your facebook friends? If a friend of mine ordered a hit on me and describes me as "has a tiny penis" I would shrug (at worst), probably shake my fist, scream his name and plan my revenge. Not flip out and feel insulted by facebook....

Unsubscribed.

Tired of this new wave PC "everyone gets offended by everything" bullshit that has infected this site like Kotaku and many others.

Wow.

It's funny to think that no one apparently thought for a moment about how bad of an idea this was.

@TomCostello: I hate forced PC like everyone else, and this article does have quite a bit more of it that i would like. But it's calling out more how stupid and dumb the idea is more than how "wrong" it is.

Correction : Square did a stupid thing, not an offensive thing. It was the users that made it offensive. Either way, hilarious.

That is kinda awesome and utterly asinine. I'm glad they took it down; there is way too much potential for abuse.

@TomCostello said:

Unsubscribed.

Tired of this new wave "PC" everyone gets offended by everyone bullshit that has infected this site like Kotaku and many others.

You'll be missed, certainly. But more to the point, if these things are out there representing what "gamers" like, then "gamers" look like a bunch of fuckwits. This isn't about being offended that someone said or did something stupid, no website is big enough to cover that spectrum, but that it represents our hobby in the worst possible way. This facebook thing in particular was made by some (Emmy-winning) ad agency, not by people who make, play, or love games. THIS is what this ad agency thinks appeals to our demographic. If they're right, we have a lot to be ashamed of. If they're wrong, then we fucking well better say something.

More overreacting to things that don't matter. Just lovely.

@Abendlaender said:

I....I don't really see this as "horribly insulting". Stupid? Yes Unnecessary? Maybe.

Insulting? To whom? Your facebook friends? If a friend of mine ordered a hit on me and describes me as "has a tiny penis" I would shrug (at worst), probably shake my fist, scream his name and plan my revenge. Not flip out and feel insulted by facebook....

How many of your friends actually know if you have a tiny penis? It's not really the same thing.

This is more on the same level as "taking a hit out on someone" because "they have black skin" and how many of you would be saying "no big deal!" if that was the case? Yeah, I know the amount of political correctness we have these days is ridiculous, but this sort of thing can be very easily abused and the way women are treated by the general gaming community is straight up appalling. Maybe one day it'll all be shits and giggles to joke about this sort of thing, but try playing one match of CoD as a girl and you'll see why we're not quite there yet.

@TomCostello said:

Unsubscribed.

Tired of this new wave PC "everyone gets offended by everything" bullshit that has infected this site like Kotaku and many others.

Yes, let's bring back the days without PC! I wish I was allowed to yell out the "N word" across a crowded space, it's THEIR fault for being offended!

I guess they'd thought this would be a good way to define how they got the title "Blood Money".

Are people losing their jobs over this? Because people should be losing their jobs over this.

People are too sensitive. You have a small penis...get over it.

@WinterSnowblind said:

@Abendlaender said:

I....I don't really see this as "horribly insulting". Stupid? Yes Unnecessary? Maybe.

Insulting? To whom? Your facebook friends? If a friend of mine ordered a hit on me and describes me as "has a tiny penis" I would shrug (at worst), probably shake my fist, scream his name and plan my revenge. Not flip out and feel insulted by facebook....

How many of your friends actually know if you have a tiny penis? It's not really the same thing.

This is more on the same level as "taking a hit out on someone" because "they have black skin" and how many of you would be saying "no big deal!" if that was the case? Yeah, I know the amount of political correctness we have these days is ridiculous, but this sort of thing can be very easily abused and the way women are treated by the general gaming community is straight up appalling. Maybe one day it'll all be shits and giggles to joke about this sort of thing, but try playing one match of CoD as a girl and you'll see why we're not quite there yet.

But it's not the same thing. As I understand it you can only order hits on people who are on your friendlist (Edit: Wrong). So, as a girl for example, why would you have an misogynistic asshole on your friendlist? And I don't really get the first sentence...none of my friends know, what does that matter?

Edit: Okay, so apparently you can order a hit on anybody, not just your friends. That is extremly stupid.

@Jumbs said:

@TomCostello said:

Unsubscribed.

Tired of this new wave PC "everyone gets offended by everything" bullshit that has infected this site like Kotaku and many others.

Yes, let's bring back the days without PC! I wish I was allowed to yell out the "N word" across a crowded space, it's THEIR fault for being offended!

I think there's a lot more grey area in between not being able to get offended by every little thing people say and being able to yell the n word.

That's not to say that this particular incident wasn't tottally uncalled for and offensive, because it was. But you're taking his words way, way out of context. I thought I should just clarify a little.

@TomCostello said:

Unsubscribed.

Tired of this new wave PC "everyone gets offended by everything" bullshit that has infected this site like Kotaku and many others.

If you aren't offended by how absolutely awful this was handled on any level, it's probably for the best.

@Yadilie said:

More overreacting to things that don't matter. Just lovely.

One could argue your comment is overreacting to a simple news story about Square Enix doing something offensive.

@jsnyder82 said:

@Jumbs said:

@TomCostello said:

Unsubscribed.

Tired of this new wave PC "everyone gets offended by everything" bullshit that has infected this site like Kotaku and many others.

Yes, let's bring back the days without PC! I wish I was allowed to yell out the "N word" across a crowded space, it's THEIR fault for being offended!

I think there's a lot more grey area in between not being able to get offended by every little thing people say and being able to yell the n word.

That's not to say that this particular incident wasn't tottally uncalled for and offensive, because it was. But you're taking his words way, way out of context. I thought I should just clarify a little.

There is, but not in this instance. Whenever people start blathering on about "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD!!" it's usually over something completely reasonable, such as this incident.

If you think this publicity stunt WASN'T offensive, I'm hoping you're not breeding.

@Jumbs said:

@jsnyder82 said:

@Jumbs said:

@TomCostello said:

Unsubscribed.

Tired of this new wave PC "everyone gets offended by everything" bullshit that has infected this site like Kotaku and many others.

Yes, let's bring back the days without PC! I wish I was allowed to yell out the "N word" across a crowded space, it's THEIR fault for being offended!

I think there's a lot more grey area in between not being able to get offended by every little thing people say and being able to yell the n word.

That's not to say that this particular incident wasn't tottally uncalled for and offensive, because it was. But you're taking his words way, way out of context. I thought I should just clarify a little.

There is, but not in this instance. Whenever people start blathering on about "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD!!" it's usually over something completely reasonable, such as this incident.

If you think this publicity stunt WASN'T offensive, I'm hoping you're not breeding.

Why are you insulting me? It says right in my comment that I thought it WAS offensive. Take a chill pill.

Why is games marketing so terrible sometimes? Do PR/marketing folks have such a skewed perception of their audience that they think this is appealing or funny to us in any way? Even divorced of that, this is a straight up terrible idea.

So part of me totally believes that dick jokes are A-OK. Am I a bad person? Then again, jokingly making comments about a lady's body can get you in a lot of trouble, so it's probably for the best that this thing got taken down.

Far be it from me to shy away from the sentiment that Political Correctness and overly sensitive culture is a bad thing- it's an awful thing I could write pages about but won't- but anyone saying that it's silly for this subject to be reported on needs to have their brain checked. What Squeenix did WAS wrong and it WAS stupid, and it SHOULD be brought to attention. There are limitations to jokes, that's it. I will be the first to agree that people need to just get over shit, but this campaign was retarded, and I'm glad I know about it so I can think even less of the marketing industry (who would have thought that possible?)

Apparently the marketers for this game have never seen a Lifetime TV movie. I'm pretty sure there's more than one "Facebook killed my daughter" flick in rotation there.