So before I was about to head out today to grab my copy of Dead Island, I checked my Google Reader and my world domination plans as I usually do (check out for some fun on Wednesday) and I came across a loving article from the guys over at The Escapist about how Dead Island just got a whole lot more fun.

When you work in an industry (like every media industry) that is dominated by men, you'd think a bit of "Menning Around" may get stuck between the cracks of our usual manly past times that is enjoyed by other men. But many people have found that when you leave a female character's traits and perks in the source code and said perk is called "Gender Wars" some people may not be unhappy about the situation.

Tucked away in the code for Purna's - a former female cop, turned bodyguard - is the entry for a skill called "FeministWhorePurna." On the Steam forums, a user by the name of AlekseiVasiliev discovered the code and Techland responded. It's thought that initally the entry refers to Purna's "Gender Wars" skill, which grants her a bonus to the damage she deals to male zombies. The fact that other entries in the file have names like "MeleeDurabilityPurna" and "TeamSpirit2Purna," which don't directly refer to the skills Purna uses in game shows that FeministWhorePurna was simply left in post or pre-debug.

Techland responded an hour or so ago saying: 

It has come to our attention that one of Dead Island's leftover debug files contains a highly inappropriate internal script name of one of the character skills. This has been inexcusably overlooked and released with the game.

The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturally has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was also changed. What is left is a part of an obscure debug function. This is merely an explanation but by no means an excuse. In the end that code was made a part of the product and signed with our company name. We deeply regret that fact and we apologize to all our customers or anyone who might have been offended by that inappropriate expression.

The person responsible for this unfortunate situation will face professional consequences for violating the professional standards and beliefs Techland stands for.

Apart of me feels sorry for Techland's bumpy debut and mildly worried about the internal policies of Techland and Deep Silver, but I'm still grabbing the game and hopefully binging on it this weekend amongst my other duties. 

Via [TheEscapist]

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