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Hey everyone,

In case you're not aware, we have something called the Dakka Contributing Member program, and its basically just a way for those of you who use and appreciate Dakka to help donate to keep the site running.

We purposely keep Dakka as ad free as possible, so as to make the user experience and pleasant as possible, but the side effect of that decision is that Dakka does not make a whole ton of money. We absolutely need and rely on donations from you guys to keep the site going.

While becoming a DCM (Dakka Contributing Member) does grant your profile a few perks as a side benefit (access to a private forum, the ability to turn of header banners, customizable forum rank, etc) it is absolutely a donation to keep Dakka running.

However, every now and then we do get a sponsor who is willing to kick a little something free down to our DCMs, and now is one of those times!

You might have noticed the front-page press release for a game called NEXUS (if not, check it out on our front page...you may need to scroll down a little to see it). While the creators of NEXUS are not releasing a lot of information about their new game just yet, they ARE wanting to send Dakka Contributing Members that live in the US some free NEXUS swag! Check out the attached pics below to see what they're offering (for free).

The offer ends May 1st, so if you like Dakka and you like the look of the swag (and you live in the US), consider becoming a DCM today!

If you are interested, the way to become a DCM is to go to your user profile page and look on the left side of the page. There you will see a 'paypal' button to make a DCM donation. Once you make the donation, you will have your DCM status activated, and you can then go find the NEXUS sticky thread in the private 'DCM Mosh Pit' forum for details of how to sign up to get the swag. If you are a DCM and are having trouble finding that submission thread, feel free to PM me.

And if you're already a DCM, but want to help Dakka out more, you can always 'gift' DCM status to another user's account by going to their user profile page and making the donation from there.

Thanks everyone for helping to keep Dakka running strong!

Well that’s a tasteless design crassly riffing on a very important political movement. No thanks.

Yeah really poor taste

I personally like the design; it takes the michael out of two Political movements that have devolved into two angry hordes spouting slogans and inciting violence. Good on them and I hope they don't feel pressured to change the design.

That's not okay at all. That bottle opener has talked me out of trying Nexus, let alone contributing to dakka. Next time you might consider not cheapening a movement whose very foundation is a life-and-death plea for dignity.

Indeed. The systemic killing of black people isn’t a fun joke to parody to sell your wargame, or boost your website funds. Really shockingly poor judgement all round.

Sometimes I ask how people would have reacted to all the original Warhammer's political satire in his beginning.

But well. Controversy sells.

Maybe I’m out of the loop (likely), but what is wrong with it?

 Nostromodamus wrote:
Maybe I’m out of the loop (likely), but what is wrong with it?

It Parody's the political slogan "Black Lives matter" (or possibly the slogan "All Lives matter" or maybe both).

For some reason people on this board believe that BLM shouldn't be parodied. We parody and jab fun at pretty much everything in this world though; God knows why BLM gets a free pass.

 mrhappyface wrote:

 Nostromodamus wrote:
Maybe I’m out of the loop (likely), but what is wrong with it?

It Parody's the political slogan "Black Lives matter" (or possibly the slogan "All Lives matter" or maybe both).

For some reason people on this board believe that BLM shouldn't be parodied. We parody and jab fun at pretty much everything in this world though; God knows why BLM gets a free pass.

I know right

 mrhappyface wrote:

 Nostromodamus wrote:
Maybe I’m out of the loop (likely), but what is wrong with it?

It Parody's the political slogan "Black Lives matter" (or possibly the slogan "All Lives matter" or maybe both).

For some reason people on this board believe that BLM shouldn't be parodied. We parody and jab fun at pretty much everything in this world though; God knows why BLM gets a free pass.

Yeah, that kind of seems weird. It's not like it's calling out BLM people specifically for anything in particular either, its just a passing tongue-in-cheek reference. I mean if this gets your britches all riled up, I worry about how else these people feel when they wander into other parts of the internet (unless they're safe space people )

Yeah with those kinds of attitudes, I can see you really driving away even more people from wanting anything to do with this.

People being killed ex-judicially isn't a joke.

 mrhappyface wrote:

 Nostromodamus wrote:
Maybe I’m out of the loop (likely), but what is wrong with it?

It Parody's the political slogan "Black Lives matter" (or possibly the slogan "All Lives matter" or maybe both).

For some reason people on this board believe that BLM shouldn't be parodied. We parody and jab fun at pretty much everything in this world though; God knows why BLM gets a free pass.

Bolded a bit of your quote. Even you indicate that there are some things that are beyond parody or else you wouldn't have qualified your statement. You may not think BLM is deserving of that privilege, but it is a movement intent to end the rights abuses and outright killing of people of color. For Americans who are living day-to-day with the threat of violence in their communities this isn't a laughing matter.

 Grimskul wrote:


Yeah, that kind of seems weird. It's not like it's calling out BLM people specifically for anything in particular either, its just a passing tongue-in-cheek reference. I mean if this gets your britches all riled up, I worry about how else these people feel when they wander into other parts of the internet (unless they're safe space people )

Yeah, it is really outrageous of people to not want their fellow citizens, especially young men, killed based merely on their melanin levels. Even more outrageous for people to get upset that a game company is playing on that social movement as a way to push swag and brand recognition. On a fething bottle opener no less.

BLM doesn’t get a “free pass”. If someone wants to make a comedic statement that includes BLM that actually says something relevant about our society, fine. Buts that”s not what this is. This is a company (given this hobby, probably a white-owned company) trying to minimize the systemic killing of black people in order to sell toys. Some people find that a little gross. I’ve been thinking about becoming a DCM for some time, since I read these boards nearly daily, but I won’t as long as this promotion is going on.

Yeah honestly blm doesn't get a free pass. nothing does.

but i wouldn't really call this satire.

without the context of the game we know nothing about this. it might be funny in the creators head because in universe literally everything dies or death is meaning less or yada yada but otherwise its a pretty cheap shot at the movement for attention. (in jokes are the worse jokes for those not in the in)

DarkTraveler777 wrote:Bolded a bit of your quote. Even you indicate that there are some things that are beyond parody or else you wouldn't have qualified your statement. You may not think BLM is deserving of that privilege, but it is a movement intent to end the rights abuses and outright killing of people of color. For Americans who are living day-to-day with the threat of violence in their communities this isn't a laughing matter.

I'm not saying BLM isn't deserving of respect and there are a few organisations worthy of parody immunity, what I meant by the bolded section is that there are very few things for which there is no parody material for. I don't think anything should have the "privilege" of being immune from parody.

Yeah, it is really outrageous of people to not want their fellow citizens, especially young men, killed based merely on their melanin levels. Even more outrageous for people to get upset that a game company is playing on that social movement as a way to push swag and brand recognition. On a fething bottle opener no less.

Can they make fun of the extremists in that movement who have themselves killed people based on the uniform that they wear? I never really had an opinion of the BLM, Antifa, Alt-right movements (I don't know enough about the situation to suss out who is lying, who is telling the truth and who is mearly misinformed) until all three of them started getting violent. Even if I didn't support parody of movements that I respect, I wouldn't respect any of these movements enough to grant them immunity.

Erren wrote:BLM doesn’t get a “free pass”. If someone wants to make a comedic statement that includes BLM that actually says something relevant about our society, fine. Buts that”s not what this is. This is a company (given this hobby, probably a white-owned company) trying to minimize the systemic killing of black people in order to sell toys. Some people find that a little gross. I’ve been thinking about becoming a DCM for some time, since I read these boards nearly daily, but I won’t as long as this promotion is going on.

It's making fun of a turn of phrase that is being thrown around:
"Black Lives matter!"
"All Lives matter!"
"No Lives matter!"

It's not attacking either side of the argument, it's a turn of phrase. People don't have to get so personally offended by a joke.

Yeah mate, we gotta have a larf, don't we! I mean, it'd be downright undemocratic if we couldn't have a larf about black people and people of colour being murdered in the street just because of the colour of their skin. I mean, where's the freedom of speech? I just want to be able to have a bottle opener which mocks the fundamental exercise to the right of life which is being demanded by people who are being killed ex-judicially. I mean, what's the harm in belittling that core idea, except for possibly the idea that because of wanting a larf at this, people will see that ideal as a not being a worthy one, and thus decide such things aren't so important to care about.

Not like having a larf though. That's the most important thing, I think you'll see. Gotta have a larf!

 Fenriswulf wrote:
Yeah mate, we gotta have a larf, don't we! I mean, it'd be downright undemocratic if we couldn't have a larf about black people and people of colour being murdered in the street just because of the colour of their skin. I mean, where's the freedom of speech? I just want to be able to have a bottle opener which mocks the fundamental exercise to the right of life which is being demanded by people who are being killed ex-judicially. I mean, what's the harm in belittling that core idea, except for possibly the idea that because of wanting a larf at this, people will see that ideal as a not being a worthy one, and thus decide such things aren't so important to care about.

Not like having a larf though. That's the most important thing, I think you'll see. Gotta have a larf!

You strike me as someone who gets personally offended about a lot of stuff, even little things.

 Galas wrote:
Sometimes I ask how people would have reacted to all the original Warhammer's political satire in his beginning.

There is one teeny tiny difference - 40K was taking the piss out of pompous, holier-than-thou warmongering right-wingers treating human suffering and death like pesky annoyance interrupting your stay in billionaire closed club. See who for example was picked to lead the biggest ork horde, for one.

40K was not taking the dump on the victims, like the Farage fanboy above you. Nice utterly false equivalence and whataboutism you have got there.

Hell, it's not even a 40K thing, a lot of British culture in 80s was doing the same - bitterness over the whole "better dead than red" crap, reaganothatherism, lack of perspectives, and purposefully engineering crisises that were turning the cold war more and more hot in stupid attempts to "pressure" soviets. See say this 1980 song (which is wonderfully relevant today, still, just replace WW2 vet with Iraq war one):

Hmmm... I think the intent has actually worked, look at all this comments.
Probably this would have received 1-3 replys if not for the "No lives matter".


PD: Irbis, you have a good point. I agree with you. But at the same time I laught with holocaust/Spanish Civil War/America Colonisation jokes so I can't have a moral high horse here.

 Formosa wrote:
You strike me as someone who gets personally offended about a lot of stuff, even little things.

What, like I did when I had the crap kicked out of me at school for being of different ethnicity on a regular basis, in addition to being verbally attacked and mocked, even by teachers, who did nothing when either myself or my parents complained about it. Yeah, funny that.

"It's just a joke" is one of bigotry's biggest covers. Don't try to make this into a whole "oooh, triggered!" thing.

 Fenriswulf wrote:
Yeah mate, we gotta have a larf, don't we! I mean, it'd be downright undemocratic if we couldn't have a larf about black people and people of colour being murdered in the street just because of the colour of their skin. I mean, where's the freedom of speech? I just want to be able to have a bottle opener which mocks the fundamental exercise to the right of life which is being demanded by people who are being killed ex-judicially. I mean, what's the harm in belittling that core idea, except for possibly the idea that because of wanting a larf at this, people will see that ideal as a not being a worthy one, and thus decide such things aren't so important to care about.

Not like having a larf though. That's the most important thing, I think you'll see. Gotta have a larf!

Oh yes, saying "No lives matter" is really a political statement used to oppress and offend the entirety of the African-American population. Honestly, saying this slogan in America is worse than inviting the Grand Wizard of the KKK to come speak at a 'Push for Equality' event.

I bet the owner of Nexus stays up at night laughing at TV reports of police shooting a black person.

Erren wrote:
BLM doesn’t get a “free pass”. If someone wants to make a comedic statement that includes BLM that actually says something relevant about our society, fine. Buts that”s not what this is. This is a company (given this hobby, probably a white-owned company) trying to minimize the systemic killing of black people in order to sell toys. Some people find that a little gross. I’ve been thinking about becoming a DCM for some time, since I read these boards nearly daily, but I won’t as long as this promotion is going on.

Boy, wait until you find out there's a video game about Hitler in a robot!

 mrhappyface wrote:

DarkTraveler777 wrote:Bolded a bit of your quote. Even you indicate that there are some things that are beyond parody or else you wouldn't have qualified your statement. You may not think BLM is deserving of that privilege, but it is a movement intent to end the rights abuses and outright killing of people of color. For Americans who are living day-to-day with the threat of violence in their communities this isn't a laughing matter.

I'm not saying BLM isn't deserving of respect and there are a few organisations worthy of parody immunity, what I meant by the bolded section is that there are very few things for which there is no parody material for. I don't think anything should have the "privilege" of being immune from parody.

I largely agree that most topics can be satirized but as others have pointed out there isn't really satire at play here. That bottle opener isn't making a statement about BLM other than riffing on their name, which is already a loaded political grenade. So, while BLM may have some openings for satire, it isn't found in that bottle opener, and it definitely isn't found in this publicity campaign. That makes the bottle opener inappropriate and a complete misfire on "parody" or "satire" and worthy of derision.

 mrhappyface wrote:

DarkTraveler777 wrote:Yeah, it is really outrageous of people to not want their fellow citizens, especially young men, killed based merely on their melanin levels. Even more outrageous for people to get upset that a game company is playing on that social movement as a way to push swag and brand recognition. On a fething bottle opener no less.

Can they make fun of the extremists in that movement who have themselves killed people based on the uniform that they wear? I never really had an opinion of the BLM, Antifa, Alt-right movements (I don't know enough about the situation to suss out who is lying, who is telling the truth and who is mearly misinformed) until all three of them started getting violent. Even if I didn't support parody of movements that I respect, I wouldn't respect any of these movements enough to grant them immunity.

If you don't know anything about the movements you should probably keep your mouth shut on the appropriateness of "satire" leveled at those movements. If you are merely paying attention to the fringe elements and not interested enough to learn more about the situations which have galvanized those movements, then again, out of self-interest to *not* look like a complete idiot in public, keep your mouth shut about how to poke fun at those movements. Note, I am not saying you can't have an opinion, as you clearly do and have aired it, but if your fall back position to challenges of your opinion is simply, "herp derp I dunno LOL!" you aren't doing yourself any favors.

 Fenriswulf wrote:

 Formosa wrote:
You strike me as someone who gets personally offended about a lot of stuff, even little things.

What, like I did when I had the crap kicked out of me at school for being of different ethnicity on a regular basis, in addition to being verbally attacked and mocked, even by teachers, who did nothing when either myself or my parents complained about it. Yeah, funny that.

"It's just a joke" is one of bigotry's biggest covers. Don't try to make this into a whole "oooh, triggered!" thing.

I do like to make these things into a whole "triggered" thing because I know people who've gone through exactly what you've gone through but they can tell the difference between someone actually being racist and someone making a joke.

 Desubot wrote:
Yeah honestly blm doesn't get a free pass. nothing does.

but i wouldn't really call this satire.

without the context of the game we know nothing about this. it might be funny in the creators head because in universe literally everything dies or death is meaning less or yada yada but otherwise its a pretty cheap shot at the movement for attention. (in jokes are the worse jokes for those not in the in)

People joke about the Make A Wish Foundation. Ya know, the organization that helps make certain dying children more comfortable.

If THAT doesn't get a free pass, nobody does.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

Erren wrote:
BLM doesn’t get a “free pass”. If someone wants to make a comedic statement that includes BLM that actually says something relevant about our society, fine. Buts that”s not what this is. This is a company (given this hobby, probably a white-owned company) trying to minimize the systemic killing of black people in order to sell toys. Some people find that a little gross. I’ve been thinking about becoming a DCM for some time, since I read these boards nearly daily, but I won’t as long as this promotion is going on.

Boy, wait until you find out there's a video game about Hitler in a robot!

Now that would be funny if this game had that. take all the political incorrectness from past and present and ramp it up to 11.

 mrhappyface wrote:

Oh yes, saying "No lives matter" is really a political statement used to oppress and offend the entirety of the African-American population. Honestly, saying this slogan in America is worse than inviting the Grand Wizard of the KKK to come speak at a 'Push for Equality' event.

I bet the owner of Nexus stays up at night laughing at TV reports of police shooting a black person.

It's not just this alone, it's the constant drip drip drip of this and so many other things like this which causes a toxic environment for people trying to advocate for their own lives.

I do like to make these things into a whole "triggered" thing because I know people who've gone through exactly what you've gone through but they can tell the difference between someone actually being racist and someone making a joke.

Awesome, you know people who've had this done to them. Congrats. Never occurred to you that the way to stop this going ahead is to stop treating all of this as a big joke, and instead get on their side and say "Nope, this kind of behaviour stops here. This is unacceptable". That's what gets things to change, not demanding that people who are mistreated instead be able to "take a joke". It's part of being an adult. Realising that some behaviour is unacceptable, and needs to end, not treating it as mere frippery.

But we've gotta have a larf now though, don't we? I mean you've gotta be able to have a larf...

 mrhappyface wrote:

 Fenriswulf wrote:

 Formosa wrote:
You strike me as someone who gets personally offended about a lot of stuff, even little things.

What, like I did when I had the crap kicked out of me at school for being of different ethnicity on a regular basis, in addition to being verbally attacked and mocked, even by teachers, who did nothing when either myself or my parents complained about it. Yeah, funny that.

"It's just a joke" is one of bigotry's biggest covers. Don't try to make this into a whole "oooh, triggered!" thing.

I do like to make these things into a whole "triggered" thing because I know people who've gone through exactly what you've gone through but they can tell the difference between someone actually being racist and someone making a joke.

Maybe, just maybe, some ‘jokes’ aren’t appropriate or funny? Instead of playing Outrage Police and telling everyone to “calm down dear” how about appreciating another POV than your own? Anyway, congrats on trying to make this thread all about you - successful diversion is successful.

I urge Yakface and Legoburner to reconsider this association. Or just get this game to change their slogan. There are almost infinite combinations of words that don’t take the piss out of the death of black people. Maybe try one of those?

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
I largely agree that most topics can be satirized but as others have pointed out there isn't really satire at play here. That bottle opener isn't making a statement about BLM other than riffing on their name, which is already a loaded political grenade. So, while BLM may have some openings for satire, it isn't found in that bottle opener, and it definitely isn't found in this publicity campaign. That makes the bottle opener inappropriate and a complete misfire on "parody" or "satire" and worthy of derision.

A parody doesn't have to make a political message, it can be a joke, a pun, a play on words, etc. Parodies don't have to have any kind of political bearing, even when parodying politics.

If you don't know anything about the movements you should probably keep your mouth shut on the appropriateness of "satire" leveled at those movements. If you are merely paying attention to the fringe elements and not interested enough to learn more about the situations which have galvanized those movements, then again, out of self-interest to *not* look like a complete idiot in public, keep your mouth shut about how to poke fun at those movements. Note, I am not saying you can't have an opinion, as you clearly do and have aired it, but if your fall back position to challenges of your opinion is simply, "herp derp I dunno LOL!" you aren't doing yourself any favors.

So well done on making that argument, too bad I didn't make a point that that arguments fits with. I didn't say I didn't know anything about the situation, I said I had no opinion on it: I'm aware of the situation with possible institutional racism in the police, I'm aware of the instances where police have shot black men when the men were apparently not armed and I'm aware of the excelations.

At no point did I fall back on "I dunno", I fell back on "I don't care what has happened politically or who's accusing who of what, attacking and/or killing people has no excuse". You may say there's no excuse for the police officers but their intentions are less black and white than "people who wear the same uniform as them killed people who have the same skin colour as me".