I need to apologize for a joke I made. I told a bad joke. It may have had potential but I don't think it came out quite right. Thankfully the bad joke I made actually wasn't done anywhere near the main distribution channels. Most of you should be totally unaffected. But all the same I can forsee the situation isn't guaranteed to stay that simple for everyone. Others may weaponize my joke-flop to potentially spread offense here causing drama. I'm literally responsible for everything related to the game so I have to do the PR my self. I will definitely be censoring attempts to create drama. However I cannot hide from larger social issues I may have wandered into. We are in a very confused world by my estimation but i'm not going to pretend i'm I know everything. I'm making this apology bigger than it has to be, and as a result risking a new sort of flop. But I need to clear my conscious after spending years defending my game with no end, and then telling one shitty joke to top it off. Actually the joke is vaguely funny but still has no place in gamedev-o-sphere, so I should have some shame that I told it at all in someone elses' gamedev forum/chat. Before I begin I want to say most people know how to make all sorts of jokes with no issue. That's not guarantee you're a funny person however. I don't see myself as a funnyguy, but I've had to learn to laugh at my own trauma. E.g. being a failure of a gamedev. I try not to complain when others make fun of my game or dismiss it out of hand. Though I do reguarly challenge assertions. We humans share a common humanity or common spoonfed sensibilites from mainstream/popular culture. So called political correctness stomps out the rest of our creativity. But we're suppose to believe we are all equally open canvases since birth except for those things we will stand divided on because identity is so important in our age. Jokes are not all created the same way. That's not an equity issue, it's a if you're going to live in this world expect differences issue. Though I wouldn't be so shallowed minded to say you must cherish all differences. Occasionally you may find your specific in-group and you hang out with them. This necessarily has some import of a special sensibility or forces you develop a special way of communication that they are ok with. That means you have a limited way to work with a limited group. Really though, sometimes we just f*ck up and it doesn't matter who we know or don't know. We can't all be professional comedians. Like WTF. And even among comedians they have an audience they care more for than others. That doesn't come from a place of hate, though it does usually have something to do with taste. FYI your taste probably isn't that good to save you from making a fool of yourself at some point. But once again sometimes we just f*ck up. Sometimes we end all consideration at "is this vaguely funny to us right now", and decide then good, time to share it because it seems relevant. I think I may have f*cked up. Mostly because I don't like the joke I told. It's kind of gross to spend this much time explaining myself to people who likely don't really care, but i'm not entirely worried about numbskulls who want their next scalp. I can say now before speaking out about other people's colored flags, pay attention to your red ones. Was that funny? No? Right because some poor bastard thinks they are the red color on the innocent flag they believe in. They don't want to be equated with a negative thing like "red flag" at the same time. I'm also no war hero but i'm sure there are those who see red on flags in a different way, identify with it slightly different regardless what they are told it should mean. Blood of saints, or blood of shame, etc. What's all funny to you really isn't funny to most others, because what's real to you isn't what's real to others. It actually takes work to give people your own view on things. And some will never let go of theirs for better or worse. Our culture in my opinion is degenerate and fictious. We stand united in our foolishness to pretend virtue signaling means getting along, and shutting down bad people is the best way to show how we're right. Our lives should be more interesting than what we seem to demand in public. We are individuals we can really take a stand on our own and are even expected to in hard times. Some may not realize this but getting a laugh or teaching a lesson does not require an accurate historical understanding. Mythologizing the past can be quite useful, you just have to understand the point of it. But all this over a joke is pretty silly anyway. Whatever is the case, so called comedians have to adapt their material over and over until someone appreciates it and they can cash in on diverse audiences. Everyone knows, though they may forget it, there are also certain jokes that must be carefully constructed or else it just serves to offend people. If a joke is trying to be edgy, good chance it has some double-edged nature to it. Language is also this way and I will likely be taken not just out of context but given alternative context by others who want to say they know me better or other's reactions better. In reality they think they know what something means, only because it's what they would intend something to mean. And that's being quite generous to people who might purposely take things out of context. I have not used my public platform(s) to push any edgy or discriminatory jokes. Though I cannot say i've been flawless in my entire online presence. However the game does feature a few alternative culture takes. For current year some of my memes are not very entertaining even to those who agree with them. Though some games shine because they are trying to be trapped in their own historical or cultural framing. For some reason people call these alternative culture embraces "shizo takes". If something you say doesn't mesh with all of what society is comfortable admitting in the open, somehow you are wrong, not just technically wrong, but morally wrong. Some takes are trying to be prophetic. In that sense maybe they should be judged less rigidly. A game may feature a claim about the future of society that doesn't seem to be on the horizon. Is this a conspiracy by the gamedev to be the problem rather than the solution? No. But I can't read minds and neither can you. Look this post is about one joke and I won't quote exactly the original form of it. But you'll get the full idea of what it was. Here we go. [JOKE] Certain people may as well take the next step and put themselves on display literally since they insist on reminding us all the time of their existence. It can be like the good old days! [/JOKE] *In my defense the original joke form I noted they would be hung by undergarments. This is ofcourse rude because who wants to be forced to be their own decoration in some humiliating way? Frankly no one wants to do anything against their own will. Though some people do decide to self-humiliate. But that's for them to do. Consent is important. Though I wouldn't say it is the end of all moral consideration of personal choices. Yet some activists have been known to use their literal body to share their message. Usually with disruptive non-consent. A small preview of what I mean: Jumping in front of vehicles, gluing themselves to the ground, stripping half-naked, setting themselves on fire (not recommended!), cuffing themselves to office buildings, using their body as part of an artistic display (occassionaly nude), marching in public with exposed genitals regardless if children are near them, dressing up as things they don't identify as just too confuse or piss people off, desecrating exhibits using paints or fingerpaints or foodstuffs, setting fire to property (albeit with no one usually inside), hacking into people's devices to own them for wrongthink, but also fairly mundane things such as being wrong on the internet so you can claim a certain group reacted to you is the real problem. Context ofcourse matters for acts of activism. And for everyone you love there's a good chance some are weirdly silent when one or more actions go too far. Why? Courage issue? What if your buddy has strange support for what is clear to you as wrong or misinformed action? Well you have your priorties, or are worried about chilling effects of even trying to approach them. Being forced to speak out also is lame. The truth is i'm not an activist. "Activist" doesn't have to even mean a bad thing for anyone. But I guess in a world of self-identification anyone can be pissed of at some activism. In this case my joke more or less was targeting activists who are obssessed with self-promotion. But that's not how people will view it because they attach their identity to anything that agrees with them on something. My joke arguably struggle with this very point. Realistically we can only celebrate what we like about others. And unless you like someone for just existing, weird tbh, it's pretty hard to never find them annoying. I have no choice becuase I think I will be asked this anyway... If you personally need a flag to celebrate simply existing well that's sad and interesting. You must have real problems! But there's a line with self-promotion where you annoy everyone, and if you start to bend laws to your will to do it unchecked.. expect others to want to critisize. If you want the world to critisize you in a way that only empowers you because you have some identity.. ..that might make for a fun video game idea, a great fantasy! However not sure this dynamic in real life won't bait some people into having insenstive jokes to poke fun at you. IF enough people agree with you, then we call those who backward or behind on the times. I'm just a gamedev, can't we just like what we like, and dislike what we dislike? Well no because I foolishly told a bad joke. Everything I said doesn't matter in this case. That's what i'm suppose to believe. Because a joke is mostly taken on its own merit. That brevity is what makes it so perfect. But merit is assessed from context you think you get. But also the consequences you think you understand. Sob stories aren't an excuse for bad jokes. You don't need that sort of context. But victims are special and we should tread carefully. I can appreciate that sentiment. Joke tellers must always conduct ourselves as if we might accidentally be the cause of a horrorfying social revolution or simply hurt one person's feelings. Whichever it is, try to be mindful. But is this situation, that? IDK. In truth i'm one who is upset my joke isn't very good. Getting banned is nothing new to me. Humans are very utilitarian and rarely the snowflakes nor the open-minded folks they present as. We want things easy. Deep down I am worried some of the people who enjoyed or played my game, might have been upset by my joke if they saw it. To you guys: i'm sorry. Leaning into "Good old days" framing of the joke didn't help. Sure it added more punch but it can give the wrong message. I think it's time to address the issue of PRIDE. I probably took too much pride in writing this post, but imagine if I spent anymore in making it shorter, can't be bothered. It's not hard to turn a good thing into a bad thing. I may have done so here. PRIDE can do this easy. But it also is what makes some developers or modders do great work. But when does self-promotion and self-reverence become an out of control invasive force in other people's lives? Technically speaking almost immediately if it's there at all, but "by out of control" we usually mean beyond the tolerable limit. Tolerance is a good thing ofcourse. Self-promotion also a good thing, unless you're bad at it. I've been prideful about what I accomplished. I've indulged in talking about my game a bit too much especially where I ended up telling the bad joke. Perhaps it's my own jealousy when I hear about people who can make it a felony for others to put a single blemish on their art which they lay down in prime territory for easily marking it up. Yes by law we can make all sorts of distinctions in how we go about breaking the law, but maybe ask if it really makes sense in this case. I don't know, context doesn't really matter imo. My joke was still bad. So without further ado, yes I apologize. My joke was overly general and insensitive, and it hurts my own pride that I can't really stand by. p.s: you can comment on this if you like but i'm not really interested in discussing the broader social issues. Remember keep things ontopic about the game if you're going to post on the steam forum.