[Serious - TW: Sexual Assault] Conor McGregor (The Disruptor) verdict and presence in the game

Hitman: World of Assassination
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Conor McGregor has been found guilty a few days ago of sexual assault by a jury in Ireland.

He is also a highlight of the ongoing celebrity Elusive Target program in Hitman, as the Disruptor.
IOI honoured him, in exchange of exposure, reach of new demographics, and selling a pack made around him.

He is presented as an added value to the game and the franchise.

The Elusive Target voiced by and modelled after him is currently live ingame, and forward in the main menu.
He is the theme of a paid DLC.

@Combatglue may I ask what is IOI position going forward?

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For a blunt opinion:
His presence is detestable, and I wish for him to be recast, or removed.

I believe that members of IOI will understand that this stabilizes, collapses, and unless responded to freezes my perception of the studio and its decisions.
It was open since the announcment of this celebratory partership. McGregor behaviour was alleged but well known.
Today it is legally backed.

So I hope they will understand my sincere hope that IOI will actively adress and work the situation and what caused it.

As to general players: if you are one of those ā€œbut you can kill him in game, making it fineā€. I perceive you as unempathic ghouls.

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Remove The Disrupter from Elusive Targets, Confiscate all unlocks from The Disrupter Pack, lock up/delete the The Ostentatious contract in Arcades, deduct the XP scored from playing The Disrupter, etc. Of course to get their point across, IOI could add a new complication to The Ostentatious stating ā€œIf you start up this contract, you will immediately failā€ just to get their point across.

As for replacing Conor McGregor, I think a perfect candidate would be Dwayne Johnson aka ā€œThe Rockā€. Change the in-game name as well maybe even call him well ā€œThe Rockā€. Oh and give the DLC out for free and send the bill to McGregor.

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I think this can get nasty if IO removes content you could explicitly pay for. So theyā€™d at least need to recast him, removing might be no option.

If they remove him, I am sure this will bring all the anti-cancel-culture warriors up onto the feeds even if hardly anyone of them played the game. I am not sure IO would want to endure that plus some extra investment to fix that.

I donā€™t think something will happen here. It was a bad idea from the beginning and now IO will have to pay the price, publicity wise. The effect now is more predictable than what will happen if they attempt to replace him.

No matter how they decide, part of the 250k$ payment will be from IOā€™s and indirectly our pockets.

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Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock would make a perfect recast wouldnā€™t you agree?

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My preference would be to swap his model and have one the usual voice actor to re-record the lines.
Making the disruptor a general target.
And the pack a general Irish fighter pack.

This, I think, is in the realm of possible.

I donā€™t think they will.
But I would appreciate if IOI would recognize that it was a rotten idea, and show that they took the steps to actively avoid a repeat.

I also canā€™t shake the idea that IOI knew and accepted what the partnership meant.
The choice is either incompetent vetting, or good old boy club attitude.

Didnā€™t buy the pack for a reason.

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For what itā€™s worth, McGregorā€™s presence in the game is so distasteful that The Disruptor is the only elusive target I havenā€™t played and the DLC pack is the only piece of Hitman 3 content I didnā€™t buy as soon as it was available.

I, too, would very much like to hear IOIā€™s comments regarding the verdict.

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Oh good this thread has finally appeared.

So, this puts IOI in an awkward spot. I think the thing theyā€™ll do is just continue to play silent. Itā€™s worked well so far, and, letā€™s be honest here, IOI are not a large studio whose name invites constant thoughts into any outsiders heads. Theyā€™re not EA or Ubisoft who are constantly in the news, theyā€™re a Danish studio known for a relatively obscure game in the gaming space. Even going by the Hitman subreddit, this whole controversy has not even been mentioned on there, which really says it all honestly about the apathy among a large group of players.

EDIT: Turns out the subreddit did talk about it.

I warned IOI from the beginning, as I think many of us did, that this DLC/ promotion of Conor was a bad idea. It invited controversy from a person notorious for getting into trouble and constantly being in the courtroom. It was a questionable casting choice then, and still is now, except now there has been recent action in reality that has put a fire up the arse of the developers.

The idea of using Conor should not have even left the board room of IOI Copenhagen as ideas go as far as Iā€™m concerned.

And to those who see a replacement of The Disruptor as unnecessary censorship, consider that being in the middle of the spotlight when it comes to featuring a known abuser is simply not a good look. Thereā€™s a very good reason companies ā€œovercorrectā€ when something like this happens; itā€™s good for business to distance yourself from the guilty party, and generally pretty mindful of the victims as said people either get blacklisted or shamed out of their profession.

Iā€™m reminded of the recent fiasco of Jonathan Majors, who was in both Loki and Ant Man: Quantomania, and was set to be this massive multiversal villainspanning many more works. And then news came to light about him assaulting his ex-girlfriend in December 2023, and they had to essentially backpedal and work around him while he got fired and blacklisted from the industry.

They could offer refunds of the DLC, though I get the feeling this might be problematic on certain platforms like consoles.

ā€“
As I said, my money is on IO staying silent for now, weathering the storm and making a profit off of the controversy. I really hope this silence doesnā€™t last forever. Just sayinā€™. Itā€™s already too quiet, even without the controversy.

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I donā€™t think IOI will modify the Disruptor in any way. Itā€™s not the first time people taking part in video game content have been accused of sexual assault - I can remember Alec Holowka and Jeremy Soule were, and AFAIK none of their tracks were removed from any game they worked on following the accusations.

Still.

I agree with both of those statements, and I honestly canā€™t fathom what IOI was thinking when they considered going for McGregor.

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They could delist the DLC so they stop generating income from him.

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At the very least, they never call him McGregor in-game - heā€™s only known as ā€œThe Disruptor.ā€

Thereā€™s likely contracts tied to this and removing him right now could violate what they agreed upon and get them in legal trouble. Itā€™s a bit of an awkward position for IOI and I still donā€™t know why they cast him of all people.

The best we could expect from them at this time is probably to not spotlight his elusive target and instead feature another old one.

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That opens up another can of worms of DLC unable to be legitimately purchased again. Dave the Diver recently delisted the Godzilla DLC and it hasnā€™t exactly gone over well either. That feels more like taking a hammer to the problem where a scalpel is needed.

Oh absolutely. 20 characters

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I doubt they would recast/replace Conor in The Disruptor - they didnā€™t do it a few years back when Travis floated the idea to the powers that be to be able to bring back The Undying without having to create a new deal with Sean Bean.

At best, the DLC will be delisted and the Arcade contract hidden from those that donā€™t own it and the mission wonā€™t be reactivated in the original ET format again. At worst, they do nothing. And Iā€™m the the camp of expecting them to do nothing.

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Itā€™s not really the same situation though. The recasting in that situation was to make it cheap enough to re-release. This is to avoid controversy, both currently ongoing and past. I think thereā€™s a much bigger incentive there.

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Maybe IOI could offer vouchers to the next celebrity ET for anyone who already bought The Disrupter.

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Controversial opinion here: Leave the game as it is.

  1. The game is set in a fictional world.
  2. His character is fictional and he is a villain. We donĀ“t play as him, he is not the hero. The game does not glorify him, he is a dumb fool in the game.
  3. You can kill him - it is satisfying. What other real life a-hole or predator can you kill in a video game? Think of it as ā€œpoetic justiceā€. Shoot him in the crotch 100 times, make him vomit, throw a machete at his head.

The game developers should just remove the stupid ā€œpost credit sceneā€ with him coming back to life and everything would be fine.

If Hitler can be in the Sniper Elite series, McGregor can be here.

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Hitler isnā€™t being paid to appear in Sniper Elite nor is the money going towards a nazi trust fund. Mcgreggor being cast and lending his likeness to the game is a validation of his accomplishments. The two can not in any way be compared.

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Maybe donate $ from the sales of DLC of him to a Rape crisis charity and phase him out never to return like they did with Gary Busey since he also didā€¦ :man_shrugging: things of a less than noble nature (brain damage withstanding).

Edit: And if a contract is involved stipulating they have to ā€˜run himā€™ for x number of seasonsā€¦ Whelpā€¦ I guess it sucks to be IOI right about now. :confused:
Edit2: But if that still keeps the DLC in stores - then donate the $.

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The game is set in a fictional world.

ā€¦which has the likeness of a celebrity; in fact it even has Conorā€™s real life tattoo and voice work, and is clearly based on his UFC persona and job. It being in a fictional world is irrelevant when it is informed by reality. In fact, quite a lot of Hitman is like this.

His character is fictional and he is a villain. We donĀ“t play as him, he is not the hero. The game does not glorify him, he is a dumb fool in the game.

Again, irrelevant. He has the voice and likeness of a real person, which was officially sanctioned by IOI. Dumb fool or not, Conor collaborated on the game with IOI. Real life is clashing with fiction, and iā€™m sorry to say, but these weaksauce arguments are not enough to cover that fact up.

You can kill him - it is satisfying. What other real life a-hole or predator can you kill in a video game? Think of it as ā€œpoetic justiceā€. Shoot him in the crotch 100 times, make him vomit, throw a machete at his head.

Not particularly. First off, the deal was specifically made with McGregor knowing he was being assassinated in this fictional world. You shooting him in the head is unspoken approval. He wants you to do it.

Second, the mission is set up to be very linear. Production-wise itā€™s quite good, but the actual mission has a ton of railroading with not many other options to kill him silently. The poison approach comes off as an obligation.

If Hitler can be in the Sniper Elite series, McGregor can be here.

Hitler is the butt of many jokes because heā€™s a significantly more evil man, responsible for Holocaust and many other war crimes too depressing to mention here. This is not even remotely comparable of a situation, and the fact this is even brought up speaks to the selfish trails of logic people will think up in wanting to not change anything because it might ruin the game for them.

Also, Sniper Elite is period-accurate, and is being played from a modern viewersā€™ perspective where history has already happened. This ET with Conor is 21st century with a modern day controversy on top.

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I wouldnā€™t be against that. Hell, make it ironic as to which charity they choose (I.E, a charity helping victims of sexual abuse).

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