The official Twitter account for Dying Light deleted a light-hearted tweet that included a meme that read “Zombie Lives Matter.”
Dying Light describes itself as a “a first-person action survival game set in a post-apocalyptic open world overrun by flesh-hungry zombies. Roam a city devastated by a mysterious virus epidemic. Scavenge for supplies, craft weapons, and face hordes of the infected.”
The tweet in question was captured by RT’s Sophia Narwitz.
It reads, “It can’t be easy being dead’n’alive at the same time. Support your local zombies in May – Zombie Awareness Month.”
There’s also an image that reads, “Zombie Lives Matter.”
Dying Light made a harmless tweet, but now the pronoun police are losing their shit cuz we can no longer have fun with slogans
It’s now deleted but if you search for @dyinglightgame you see nothing but anger. Game devs, stop giving in to the rage of all these unhappy fucks pic.twitter.com/t5SgleNcEt
— Sophia Narwitz (@SophNar0747) May 12, 2020
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Of course, as you’d expect some people took issue with the image and attempted to paint the studio as either racist or insensitive to progressive values.
Holy shit this was a terrible fucking tweet. pic.twitter.com/81JWRMSf73
— The Dad Who Laughs (@mistermegative) May 12, 2020
Notice all the people defending the racism, even tho you didn’t specifically call it racist, just a terrible tweet 😆 2020 and they still tell on themselves.
— T. Cann (@tweets4yomama) May 12, 2020
Oh God tell me it’s already deleted
— JellicleKitten would rather be anywhere but her 🏠 (@JellicleKitten) May 12, 2020
Excuuuuse the fuck out of me?!
So you’re just going to co-opt Black Lives Matter for your zombie game?! Fuck you! Seriously, fuck off!! Black Lives Matter isn’t an aesthetic that you can slap onto things just for publicity. Fuck you and your game!
— Noir1984 (@Noir19841) May 12, 2020
Wait this really happened?
— Martin van Vuuren (@Nokterian) May 12, 2020
Well, at least we know what kind of trash person runs the Social Media for this game.
— GodzillawiȟópečA (@LeftistGodzilla) May 12, 2020
There was even one person who advocated for the person who made the tweet to lose their job for violating their sensibilities:
They need to fire whoever thought that was a good idea like immediately.
— Trey Griffeth (@TreyGriffeth) May 12, 2020
On the other hand, others pointed out that the latest Doom entry, Doom: Eternal had a similar joke within the game that barely received any backlash.
Hey devs over @DyingLightGame, just so you know @DOOM got away with this joke, we loved it! the people getting angry over this type of thing aren’t going to buy your game anyways, the majority of regular customers liked the tweet. Don’t cave into those complete wet wipes! pic.twitter.com/Dp9mGcrnoe
— WhimsicalName (@NimblyBimbly88) May 12, 2020
A magazine titled Demonology Today is found in the game that promotes articles about why the slayer needs to apologize to demons and why its harmful to demonize the mortally challeneged.
Other users simply pointed out that no matter the situation, there is always a group of “fun police” who are always out looking to make sure everything fits into their narrow world view.
These “fun police” seem to do nothing but stalk social media for those who fall out of line so they can punish them for their crimes of wrong think.
Twitter is the no fun police headquarters now
— Doug Kelly (@Doug_Kelly55) May 12, 2020
As mentioned above, the tweet has now been deleted, but it shows the eggshells many gaming companies feel they have to navigate in order to post a joke while also promoting their game.
And these outrage mobs do claim scalps. YouTuber The Quartering documents how CD Projekt Red fired a community manager over their tweets back in 2018.
What do you think of Dying Light’s now-deleted joke? Did they do the right thing, or should they have stayed the course?