The Irish Herald is blasting Rockstar for the portrayal of an aptly named Irishman, ‘Irish,’ and his love of the drink in the newly released Red Dead Redemption. Though the article does praise the game for the overall content of the game, it is none to happy about Irish. “The stereotype of the drunken Paddy will again be taken advantage of, as the game's town drunk is called 'Irish'," the article reads. It also claims the drunken character "sours the launch" of the game for Irish players.
This almost seems like normal practice these days, as Rockstar is usually attacked for the content of almost every single game released in the past 10 years under the Rockstar name. The Grand Theft Auto series is perhaps most well known for the incredible amount of controversy generated, particularly with the infamous “Kill the Haitians!” mission in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Red Dead Redemption has taken it rather easy in terms of racial and ethnic stereotypes for the Wild West setting, but the old Irish joke seems to have once again helped Rockstar bat 1000 when it comes to offending someone. This doesn’t seem to be affecting sales, as GameStop has stated it has been pleasantly surprised by the success of the game that was ‘not blockbuster material.’
4 Comments
May 21, 2010
How dare they insinuate that all Irish people are drunks... although I have had a few drinks..... suppose we are all drunks... haha, go on Rockstar!
May 21, 2010
How dare they insinuate that all Irish people are drunks... although I have had a few drinks..... suppose we are all drunks... haha, go on Rockstar!
May 21, 2010
How dare they insinuate that all Irish people are drunks... although I have had a few drinks..... suppose we are all drunks... haha, go on Rockstar!
May 24, 2010
What I think is funny about this is that Irish may not be from Ireland but rather from Scotland or even Wales. If only we could see the design docs to know for sure... :)