I have to disagree with you here, because I do not see the problem in portraying “bad people”. It’s about giving an actual baddie attention and money by working together with him and use his actual name for reach and advertisement.
I think that using a baddie is totally okay in two cases: Either, he does not get anything positive from this - extreme example, kill Hitler in Sniper Elite. Yes, it is THE man, real name and looks, but obviously this is not a cooperation that benefits him. Or, use his real story to create a close retelling with a fictional character, because art imitates life and some stories that actually happened just fit into entertainment media perfectly. And given that Hitman has obvious bad people, all murderers¹ and terrorists and blah, I do not see it as a controversy that some characters are based on real people or events. “Based” as in “alluded to someone”, not actually recreating him explicitly.
Just my 2 cents
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¹Fun Fact: For me as a German, “murderer” is such a stupid word. If you kill someone, it’s “Mord” (“murd”), and the guy commiting it is the “Mörder” (“murder”). Like “a kill” and “a killer”, or “a shot” and “a shooter”. But why should the kill itself already be the murd-er, just so that the guy has to get that ridiculous double ending murd-er-er?! It’s like “the killerer” or “the shooterer”, jeez
Honestly Vegas made more sense to me that McGregor (I never heard of him before the Disruptor, and MMA fans seems like an extremely niche audience to me), he’s quite popular in Europe and did some video game voice acting before.
(Vegas is not actually his real name though, it’s just a pseudonym. And he’s called “Laskaridis” in the game :x )
The UFC, as the world’s premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, boasts over 625 million fans and 155 million social media followers globally, broadcasting to approximately 900 million TV households across more than 175 countries.
Please don’t delete “The Splitter” from World of Assassination! Instead just replace Jean-Claude Van Damme with someone else. Temuera Morrison would be very fitting.
Maybe I overlook something, but why is it even necessary, to delete anything? I mean, you don’t kill Jean-Claude van Damme in this game. You kill Max Valliant and his clones. He is playing a role. Like he did in hundreds of movies. They don’t cut him out of those movies or replace him, so why here? What is the difference? Don’t use him for marketing, of course, but other than that, I don’t really see the reason to cut anyone out.
There’s an entire thread about Connor McGregors removal if you want to hear all the arguments for (and even a few against) the removal of a celebrity ET who has fallen from grace.
But McGregor more or less portrayed himself in the game, just under another name. JCVD doesn’t really do that. McGregor is/was an MMA-Fighter with a bad reputation, but JCVD isn’t a hitman who has a army of clones in real life. That is my point. The role is far away enough from the real van Damme, in my opinion. But as I said: Maybe I overlook something.
Your points are taken, but it’s still very clearly Claude. He was also used in the marketing. So while he’s not playing himself in the game, he’s sorta playing a mash up of all his movie characters.
Also unlike a film modern video games can easily be changed due to the game as a service model. If we were in 2002 we would all own a disc and that’s it. No taking him out.
In the end it’s about fan relations. IO trying to do the right thing to keep fans and prospective buyers happy b/c their end goal is to make money. They can’t do that if no one will buy the game.
With all that said I hope JCVD turns out to be innocent and I’ll be following any news.
I get that, but the marketing is done. He is in the game now and that is it. Don’t use him for marketing, just leave the DLC in and don’t mention him anywhere.
What means, they didn’t take anything away, you already paid for. But different times …
Of course, but if you don’t mention him, why would anyone not buying the game? He isn’t even in it, unless you got the DLC. There is no mention of him anywhere aside from that.
Me too. And of course IOI can do, whatever they feel is necessary. I just don’t see the problem, if you don’t mention the person and just leave it, as it is.
To my knowledge anyone who paid for disruptor still has it. It’s just moved to the back of their list and they won’t be doing anymore free for everyone to play events nor can anyone new purchase it. I imagine that if they had to remove another they would follow the same process.