Gearbox Writer Responds to Racism Allegations
Tiny Tina of Borderlands 2 by Gearbox may be a very annoying but funny character, but she also has a weird vocabulary.
Gearbox’s Borderlands 2 has been a critical hit for 2k and universally loved by gamers. But some people aren’t happy about some things. Mainly, the use of African-American slang by the character Tiny Tina. Anthony Burch, a writer at Gearbox who wrote all of Tiny Tina’s lines has said that “a lot of people love her, some find her irritating as hell”. Some people thought have said that Burch used “low-class stereotypical African American slang”. Burch responded with the following. “Have you never met white people who use that kind of language?” “Tina is based on several I know personally.”
“The last thing I want to be is exclusionary or prejudiced,” Burch continued, “so if Tina truly is problematic I’ll change her. I’m just not convinced that a character using lingo like badonkadonk/crunk is inherently racist. If I’m wrong I would like to know why.” “[Changing existing dialogue is] not actually feasible within the technical constraints of the game,” he said, “but I’d alter her dialogue in any future BL stuff.
Boss of Burch, Randy Pitchford went on Twitter to defend his worker. “Tina is not racists because you are not racist,” he told Burch. “You’re a pillar of tolerance and inclusion.”
At least one more Borderlands 2 downloadable content package is expected so look for that sometime soon.
Source: Eurogamer
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