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

[thrison]

What you are proposing is absolutely ridiculous.

What you are saying is that IO should have used the fact that Conor McGregor sexually assaulted someone as a marketing tactic to push people into buying the DLC before it was gone forever that otherwise wouldn’t have purchased it at that time.

This would have sparked quite a backlash for IO as this wouldn’t have been perceived as giving players one last chance to get the content - it would have been taken as IO using it to make a quick buck out of someone else’s traumatic experience.

[2004_Olds_Alero]

Reading my comment again, yes, I now realize you’re right, it would have been seen as an absolutely ridiculous move by some people. My sincere apologies if I offended you. But I still believe the removal of contents this way is less than ideal, if not wrong for the customers, I hope for its contents to return at some point in the future.

[Tetrafish_21]

With so many suits available in the game, there are a few that, IMO, suck. The plaid pants and fur coat also suck. And not because they’re associated with McGregor. Even if he was a squeaky clean choir boy I still wouldn’t like 'em. I do have the green MMA trunks, but I’d only wear it if I planned to d. around and cause mischief. They’re in the same league as the clown suit and flamingo outfit. But I wouldn’t care if the trunks also went missing. Just because something exists in the game doesn’t mean I (personally) need it. If you ordered food at a restaurant… Let’s say you wanted to splurge and order everything on the menu (like wanting all the suits)… But later the chef comes out and says we’ll need to take back the shepherd’s pie since it appears to have some tainted meat in it. So they deem it best to take it back. Who in their right mind would demand to keep the shepherd’s pie? So if IOI deems it best to take back the items associated with McGregor then that should be their choice. If you paid for it… Well, you do have a right to have it if you’d still like. I can imagine there are a number of people that will not want to have it and will want refunds or credit towards another upcoming DLC.

I don’t even care for the items associated with ‘The Drop’. The only decorative/theme DLC I’ve bought is the makeshift pack (since H3).

[2004_Olds_Alero]

I believe there’s a genuine distinction between complaining about how the court ruling affected the game and complaining about the outcome of the court case itself.

[Guillermo_Murillo]

This is a lose-lose situation that IO could’ve easily avoided, that veredict was a long time coming. However, the damage is already done and what IO should do is find a compromise between NOT endorsing Mcgregor and NOT banishing the content to the shadow realm, which I don’t think is the right call either. Players should not be punished for the missdeeds of a celeb they might not even know about.

I bought the DLC when it came out because I liked the mission and the cosmetics, but that doesn’t change the fact that a bunch content that probably took several months to make is now being locked from a good chunk of the players. I’m pretty sure there is a way of disassociating with the guy without removing the content permanently. As some people have said above, maybe recast the actor and change his appearance, but removal is just an extreme measure that sets a very dangerous precedent and raises a lot of concerns about the future of not just Hitman, but any upcoming games of the company aswell.

[Dribbleondo]

@BRYN

I’ve said this elsewhere, but just put all the effort from these ETs into ONE bonus mission and I think more will be happy

Except doing that only caters to the current hitman fanbase, which is not what they want to do, and I don’t entirely blame IO. The company wants to expand their audience, and celebrity cameos give a chance to do that, and I don’t see that as a bad thing. More eyes from different parts of the gaming sphere is nothing but good. Well, almost.

As for the bonus missions, I’m getting the sense people are either not aware, or are wilfully ignorant, of Bonus Missions’ iffy reputation:

Landslide is really good (usually referenced when Bonus Missions come up), while The Icon is too small and okay at best (I appreciate the animatronics and set-building at least), while AHBOS is just boring. It’s probably my least played mission out of all of WOA. Even DGS is limited due to the functional play space you have and limited “real” NPC’s to choose from. And the less said about the special assignments the better, which, outside of The Snow Festival, weren’t all that good as they come off as repurposed ET missions (which they clearly are!).

So all this talk of doing one bonus mission ignores the reality of the situation; it’d be a massive undertaking to begin with, and might not even be that good, if history is anything to go by. Which could’ve been better spent doing other things, like, say, making the offline mode better or making ETs permanent, or even just fixing freelancers flaws. Those won’t help gain much of a new audience either, but they’ll certainly raise the games’ life potential or quality of it.

We’re in a part of the games’ lifecycle now where the game should be getting changes to fix outstanding problems, not a bonus mission that doesn’t actually help the game all that much. The smaller pieces of content they’re releasing are already having an effect on how many bugfixes we have in each patch, so imagine what’ll happen when that workload increases ten-fold to make a bonus mission, with all the AI pathing, character creation and story crafting that entails.

Also, something that just came to mind, I don’t think anyone’s outright disliking the concept of CelebrET’s either, so I’m question your claim that “more will like it”, other than to use this incident as if it’s an all-encompassing problem with all of them, which it obviously isn’t.

[BRYN]

You’re right that I can’t outright claim that more will like one content release over another. I’m just speaking out of frustration. Both for the situation in this topic and the stalemate the franchise is in until they announce a game in too many years from now.

If they’re adamant in continuing to add piecemeal content, I just want stuff that’s a little meatier than dipping in for a few minutes here-and-there to (re)beat an ET (or unlock an outfit). Bonus Missions do range in scale from basically fully fledged missions to the not-originally-an-ET-we-swear Special Assignment tier stuff, but at least they’re available all the time.

[Dribbleondo]

Bonus Missions do range in scale from basically fully fledged missions to the not-originally-an-ET-we-swear Special Assignment tier stuff, but at least they’re available all the time

They also differ wildly in quality, which was more the point I was making, not the scale of them. Those are two different aspects of a mission.

@BRYN

but at least they’re available all the time

Hence Elusive Target Arcade and the paid DLCs that come with them. Hell, IO are kind enough to make the ETA mission free for that month, which they certainly don’t need to do. They are available all the time.

@BRYN

I just want stuff that’s a little meatier than dipping in for a few minutes here-and-there

While I won’t deny ET’s are meant to be faster affairs, painting with a broad brush seems a little unfair here, and I could reasonably argue that with any main mission were I more proficient at the game (Heck, I can argue that for Landslide if I take the Durian; you start directly facing Marco!).

The ET’s, especially The Drop, is one of the more comprehensively changed maps when it comes to ET’s, has several Mission Story-esque kills, unique dialog for supporting NPC’s, unique music for the club and much more. There is plenty of meat on many of the ET mission, just not as much as a bonus mission, and that’s fine.

I can sympathise with the content stagnation at least, but they have found a system that works; new DLC, new ET mission with more time put into it, celebrity playing the target to draw in new players. Is it predictable now? Yes, very. Is that bad? No, no I don’t think so.

[Quinn]

I don’t think they should have done any deals with Conor McGregor in the first place. He already had assault convictions, had made racist statements and generally been an all around piece of garbage when they would have signed any sort of contract with him.

The whole situation is embarrassing.

[Lewisnic1]

@Heisenberg

If you have to ask why this happened, then you haven’t paid attention to the rest of this thread. It is too damaging to IOI’s long-term reputation to continue to be associated with someone with a reputation as a sex offender.

And the content is not gone if you already bought it. If you hadn’t bought it by now, that’s on you.

^^^^^ 100% THIS!! ^^^^^

[Axwage]

Oh, hello!

What he said

[PatteDeFruit]

Now that the damage has been done, i think a good compromise would be to make another public announcement regarding the affair and the contents removal, then propose to all the remaining players who haven’t bought the content yet (for the sake of completion like me or other reasons) a limited time purchase, and reverse a part of the profits to something related to women’s violence or something

All of that with maybe another announcement regarding the editing of the DLC items, etc?

That could satisfy both parties i think

[Bardachenko]

I’d make a New Disruptor Season, simply changing his face and his tatoos. They should change the intro cinematic, because there is his face, but it’s not necessary changing the lines, because the name “Conor McGregor” is never mentioned. I don’t know if it’s a hard work to do, but I think that is a good solution for who never could play this content and for who would like to replay it

[Swangtheugly]

I mean, the issue with a rework isn’t the rework itself, but rather the legacy of it.

Yea you can remove McGregor, but then you got people covering the rework and mentioning what it was prior.

Ideally I understand people want one to happen so the content isn’t effectively lost for general consumption, but personally and this is just me.

I vet for IO to bury anything and everything pertaining to the Disruptor and McGregor so that hopefully people forget about it and not continue putting the man on a pedestal.

[lukefsje]

Reworking is a much better option. Yes people will talk about why they changed it, but it’s better than actually leaving the POS’s likeness in the game for everyone to see down the road.

[2004_Olds_Alero]

@Swangtheugly

Yea you can remove McGregor, but then you got people covering the rework and mentioning what it was prior.

Ideally I understand people want one to happen so the content isn’t effectively lost for general consumption, but personally and this is just me.

I vet for IO to bury anything and everything pertaining to the Disruptor and McGregor so that hopefully people forget about it and not continue putting the man on a pedestal.

IOI can easily change the man on pedestal by reworking one single model and one set of voicelines, and just burying the whole thing altogether is not going to stop the drama from being discussed. He is still present in the game for everyone, in the files, and The Ostentatious arcade is still visible for everyone, it’s just that who doesn’t own the pack can’t play it. And because of the game’s challenge-based nature, it is safe to assume a lot of players will search for videos of content creators to seek guidance. And creators’ videos about the The Disturptor and The Ostentatious, is all still there. Hitman Wiki also has a page on it, and all the gaming focused medias wrote their articles about the content removal. They either should remove the entire thing(which they can’t, since people paid real money for the pack) or rework the target.

[Dribbleondo]

Hitman 3 - The Disruptor Dissolution

Finally made a video on this whole situation.

Don’t expect any fancy visuals this time around (I did do some freecam flyby’s though); treat it like an 8 minute podcast.

[LandirtHome]

And if IOI doesn’t just rerecord the lines, but rewrite them.
They would have the chance to do the funniest things.

[Melusca]

Yeah as they are now McGregor’s lines are just generic dumb bruiser taunts. If they’re rewritten with puns and a bit of dark humour that ET could get the personality McGregor failed to give it.

[Axwage]

Seriously. It’s the worst voice acting in the entire game.