Developer Playtonic Removes Jontron from Yooka-Laylee Cast

Foxi4 · Mar 23, 2017

JinTrigger said:
So based on the majority of the people here due to the 1st amendment I can say whatever I like without any consequences?

So if I sat up here and said white people are shithead red neck crackers and homosexuals are an abomination and Muslims are all crazy suicide bombers and women are nothing more than my cum dumpster....yall cant do anything because i have my right to free speech which frees me from any consequences.

You can do that in the middle of the street and you shouldn't be harassed by the police in any way unless you are acting in a threatening manner. Your opinion represents you and you only. The government does not and should not have the authority to infringe upon your freedom of speech and expression as long as you're not violating the law. You have a right to say what's on your mind and others have the choice to not listen to you if they don't like what you're saying.

GerbilSoft said:
How about this example: Let's suppose some Internet user who's notorious for harassing people he doesn't like tries to submit a patch for a project I'm working on, and for exaggeration purposes, the patch is lined with rants about certain individuals he doesn't like. Would it be a "FREE SPEACH VIOLATION!!1!" if I rejected the patch because I didn't approve of his behavior, or would I be forced to accept it in order to satisfy the "anti-SJWs" (who, incidentally, become the very thing they hate)?

The difference here is that said opinion would be within the product of a larger body, the company. Jontron didn't make his comments within Yooka-Laylee against Playtonic's will, he did it privately. Playtonic is policing what he can and can't say on his own private platform that's unrelated to the product, which makes a huge difference. They are allowed to do so as Jon's right to freedom of speech does not invalidate their right to freedom of association, once again, that's not the topic. We know they can do it, unless it violates the contract they signed with Jon, the question posed is whether they should.

TotalInsanity4 · Mar 23, 2017

SonicMC said:
I don't mind that playtonic is removing it for brand sake; I just find it stupid for them to say:

"Playtonic is a studio that celebrates diversity in all forms and strives to make games that everyone can enjoy. "

For a company that celebrates diversity in all forms... They sure get upset when someone truly is diverse or different.

diversity means "showing a great deal of variety; very different." Which means they should be celebrating Jon Tron for having a different radical opinion...

Ah yes. The straight white American male showing hostile opinions towards other races adds so much variety to this bland [insert establishment here]

dimmidice · Mar 23, 2017

People in this thread really don't get what free speech means.

chartube12 · Mar 23, 2017

Foxi4 said:
You can do that in the middle of the street and you shouldn't be harassed by the police in any way unless you are expressing your opinion in a threatening manner. Your opinion represents you and you only.
The difference here is that said opinion would be within the product of a larger body, the company. Jontron didn't make his comments within Yooka-Laylee against Playtonic's will, he did it privately. Playtonic is policing what he can and can't say on his own private platform that's unrelated to the product, which makes a huge difference. They are allowed to do so as Jon's right to freedom of speech does not invalidate their right to freedom of association, once again, that's not the topic. We know they can do it, unless it violates the contract they signed with Jon, the question posed is whether they should.

The company i work for would disagree with you and me. They somehow found a comment i made against hollywood and comic books on a comic book site. I am totally against changing well established characters race, gender, sex and sexuall choice for the lolz and p-correctiness. And they force me to remove my comments or else be fired...and i work in automotive plant. Completely unrelated to what i was posting

endoverend · Mar 23, 2017

yodamerlin said:
It seems to fall back onto the same Freedom of Speech problem.
I think it's a good thing. People should be allowed to say what you want. But then I would still want to be able call them a dick, and refuse to distribute their content.
I think Freedom of Speech shouldn't protect you from the consequences of what you have said, it should just allow you to say it.

^ This. Jontron's freedom of speech isn't being compromised here. You're allowed to say anything you want, but that doesn't mean you're guaranteed not to get metaphorically punched in the jaw for it.

Pluupy · Mar 23, 2017

dimmidice said:
People in this thread really don't get what free speech means.

Then stop playing smug and explain it if you understand what it means. Just standing on the side and saying they don't understand free speech contributes nothing to the thread.

Deleted member 408979 · Mar 23, 2017

woah now, JonTron controversy?

What did he do?

TotalInsanity4 · Mar 23, 2017

endoverend said:
^ This. Jontron's freedom of speech isn't being compromised here. You're allowed to say anything you want, but that doesn't mean you're guaranteed not to get metaphorically punched in the jaw for it.

On top of that it's not a government organization "punishing" him, which is the only thing the First Amendment protects against

Foxi4 · Mar 23, 2017

chartube12 said:
The company i work for would disagree with you and me. They somehow found a comment i made against hollywood and comic books on a comic book site. I am totally against changing well established characters race, gender, sex and sexuall choice for the lolz and p-correctiness. And they force me to remove my comments or else be fired...and i work in automotive plant. Completely unrelated to what i was posting

If you have a clause in your contract that specifies what you can and can't say on social media, they may be within their rights to do so. Besides, I'm not saying that they shouldn't - if you're contractually obligated to follow certain rules, you should. That being said, it works both ways - if the contract had no such clause, they had no leverage. Freedom of association is just as important as freedom of speech and expression, however we cannot forget about contractual obligations.

Sonic Angel Knight · Mar 23, 2017

A7MAD said:
The part about FE: Fates is really something alright, I never thought people would actually care about touching 2d characters with a stylus or think it is somehow creepy ... oh wait, pokemon anyone?

My arguement wasn't defending the content it was defending the decision to make it japanese exclusive and call it censorship, rather than include it and have a option not to use it. The fact nothing replaced it shows it was unnecessary to begin with but is there in japanese game. I don't care what kind of content it is in the game, is incomplete without it.

Just like in call of duty games where there is "OFFENSIVE CONTENT" To the player, you have a option to skip it, spectate it or play it. In Fire Emblem fates, you have no choice, is just gone for the sake of censorship, which is why most of the projects to translate games exist by fans. I plan to make friends, is a goal i had since grade school that never had seem to been getting better, and losing someone cause they can't respect my view on censorship just shows how bad the nature of some people are. Is fine we can't agree on things but we have other stuff in common, why should that lead to not having a relationship? Just find friends who do the things you don't wanna do with me, that why people have so many in the first place.

Anyway is not about me, is about the jon tron person getting his voice removed from a video game cause of a public opinion that seem to be effecting various spontaneous decisions. So is this game delayed until new voice actor can be found and recorded? To be honest i hope he is alright.

TotalInsanity4 · Mar 23, 2017

eechigoo said:
woah now, JonTron controversy?

What did he do?

He fucked up on Twitter and I think on a livestream

SomeKindOfUsername · Mar 23, 2017

Foxi4 said:
We know they can do it, unless it violates the contract they signed with Jon, the question posed is whether they should.

Can you provide some reasoning as to why they shouldn't?
You've already established that they can, so under what circumstances can't they?

guisadop · Mar 23, 2017

Playtronic are fully in their right to remove him. That said, I probably won't be buying it now. Don't want to support bigotted companies.

endoverend · Mar 23, 2017

Foxi4 said:
I said it when the campaign was announced, long before the Jontron controversy, and I'll say it again - Yooka-Laylee seems like a total cashgrab to me. The developers are desperately clinging to their former glory and instead of making a brand-new, original game they're making a pretend sequel to a game they no longer have the rights to that's basically bordering on copyright infringement by replicating everything they can including the font and replacing the protagonists so they don't get sued. That's all they can do at this point because the flame of their creativity is long since dead. They're removing Jontron because he can damage the brand, and the brand is all they have left. Yooka-Laylee, like many other games of its kind, is an elaborate attempt to cash in on your nostalgia and squeeze the last bit of money out of your wallet. I know it because I fall for it too. Some companies do this well, like inExile, others fail miserably. This is not original content, this is desperation. It's C.P.R administered to a cold corpse of an IP.

I actually totally agree with this. As I've already expressed in an article, I think gamers are tired of being handed the same things regurgitated over and over in an endless stream of the same games we've seen for the past 20 years. This is possibly the most flagrant abuse of nostalgia in recent memory. If it's a good title in its own right, then good for it, but somehow I just don't see this being the case, especially considering the Kickstarter platform and how often it's abused for the sake of nostalgia.

Bimmel · Mar 23, 2017

I do not like the guy. Take that, you unlikable person!

Please distance yourself from me, I need space anyway. : )

Foxi4 · Mar 23, 2017

SomeKindOfUsername said:
Can you provide some reasoning as to why they shouldn't?

You've already established that they can, so under what circumstances can't they?

In terms of contractual obligation they wouldn't be able to shred the agreement if the contract does not have a specific social media clause or gag order - he did his job and deserves payment. Whether the content is included or not upon its completion is up to the developer - they're in charge of the product and it should reflect their vision.

More broadly, I don't think they should remove content based on a Twitter shitstorms, or any form of positive or negative reactions from the media, simply because it shows lack of the aforementioned creative vision. I think creators should stand by their product rather than alter it to appease the mob. They should release exactly what they intended to and hope that people will like it, any less than that amounts to pandering. Moreover, I don't think such judgements should be based on what people do outside of their place of employment. Just because it's legal doesn't mean that it sits well in my stomach. I work with plenty of people I don't agree with, but I wouldn't disavow them or seek to remove them based on how I feel. That's just a personal opinion.

Pluupy · Mar 23, 2017

Playtonic is within their rights to withdraw the content made by someone they disagree with. I disagree with them affiliating Yooka Laylee with their political agenda, but I am not saying they can't do it. It is just distasteful for them to do so.

The people who Kickstarted Yooka Laylee weren't crowdfunding the game so the company would use it to push political commentary.

So why remove JonTron from Yooka Laylee? Playtonic is a no-name game developer with no gravity to their ideas. They had to resort to Kickstarter because only common peoples who don't know any better will support them. Their only position of power in the world is Yooka Laylee, this popular game which piggyback-rides on the nostalgia of Banjo Kazooie. They are nothing.

This incident is nothing but a publicity stunt to garner attention for the game.

"Yes, we'll work with you for this game but your personal political stances better be in line ours." So much for being a company who claims to supports diverse ideas. Fuck those hypocrites.

My god the main villain of Yooka Laylee is, I shit you not it says this on their website, "Corporate Creep Capital B". Fucking wow. Way to show "the man", Playtonic! Clearly you are the only good guy company who doesn't assert their authority on the little guys.

TobiasAmaranth · Mar 23, 2017

Humanity really should start learning how to block out extremist opinions. Metered discussion being the only acknowledged discussion rather than the crazy shitstorm dramafests we see online and now even on news sites, that would be a world I would enjoy living in. This current world, of everyone shouting without listening, is becoming extremely depressing to be a part of.

The earlier quote with Jon's comments indicates that it was a metered discussion, mostly emphasizing the strange hypocrisies, and not advocating any sort of extreme violence, just cautionary awareness of the strange social climate. But when we show balanced opinions, it's met with extremism, and we become drowned out. It's like, people have forgotten that the world isn't black and white, A and Z, etc.

Foxi4 · Mar 23, 2017

Pluupy said:
Playtonic is within their rights to withdraw the content made by someone they disagree with. I disagree with them affiliating Yooka Laylee with their political agenda, but I am not saying they can't do it. It is just distasteful for them to do so.

The people who Kickstarted Yooka Laylee weren't crowdfunding the game so the company would use to push political commentary. It's a fucking cartoon video game.

So why remove JonTron from Yooka Laylee? Playtonic is a no-name game developer with no gravity to their ideas. They had to resort to Kickstarter because only common peoples who don't know any better will support them. Their only position of power in the world is Yooka Laylee, this popular game which piggyback-rides on the nostalgia of Banjo Kazooie. They are nothing.

This incident is nothing but a publicity stunt to garner attention for the game.

"Yes, we'll work on you for this game but your personal political stances better be in line ours." So much for being a company who claims to supports diverse ideas. Fuck those hypocrites.

This actually reminds me of Blizzard's approach towards Overwatch and their never-ending campaign of trying to make it the ultimate PC PoC LGBTQ+ SJW #RESTOFTHEALPHABET game of all time. It started with Tracer's butt, which for some reason was controversial, and even then I was upset that they altered the product because of a couple snowflakes. The moment they realised that they had the eyes of the SJW community on them, more alterations, or "lore", as they call it followed suit. "Hey guys, did you know that Tracer is actually a lesbian?", "Hey! Did you know that Symmetra has autism?", "Are we diverse yet?" - it's shameless and disgusting, it reeks of blacksploitation from the 80's. People don't realise that their constant outrage was turned into a revenue stream. I just enjoyed the game because it was a good shooter, I don't need all this. In fact, it's making me like it less

jumpman17 · Mar 23, 2017

Jon can say whatever he wants, Playtronic can do whatever they want with their game.

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