1. Islam is not a race, so everyone with a functional brain should stop using the word "racist". Thanks.

2. I do not expect Muslims who play a game like Witcher 2 to be offended by those carpets. Since in the first place they already chose to play a game that is full of nudity and harsh language, which probably means they are not that easy to offend. Now if an Imam from Saudi-Arabia would be forced to play Witcher 2 and find those carpets, then I am pretty sure he would be pissed off. On the other hand a catholic priest wouldn't like it aswell, if there are typical catholic signs used on a carpet in a BROTHEL.

So I do not consider exchanging those carpets as a big symbol of censorship or a symbol of pleasing any muslim demands. CDP just didn't want to put anything inside a brothel that could be linked to any religion. No big deal. So why the big discussion?

Good point. Should have been a non issue.

I think I read three pages worth of comments on this issue before my eyes glazed over. CDPR found an issue, and it's been "fixed". Let's all move on and either enjoy the game or not.

Speculating on what their intentions were doesn't serve anyone, so perhaps direct the question to their support/pr contacts and wait for an official response.

I'm just glad CDPR is standing behind their product and fixing issues that are reported. Kudos to them for that.

This thread is utterly absurd.

I cannot believe that so many people here are offended by a single texture being removed on the basis that it may be offensive to a group of people. And I suppose every other person here would be perfectly happy to see an entertainment product insulting some of their deepest beliefs?

Let's be perfectly clear: it's not just the fact that the rug texture itself is included - that's no different from including a Christian cross, a Norse Mjolnir/Thor's hammer, a Satanic pentagram, or whatever other religious symbol one can dream up (and I can say that as a Satanist I'm more than tolerant towards all those horrible bands like HIM who utilise the imagery of my ideals in vain :p).

The issue is that that religious symbol is being used in a potentially degrading and discriminatory way. Placing a prayer rug in a brothel has roughly the same connotation as taking that Christian crucifix and setting it on fire. Whether or not it's intentional doesn't really matter in the case of a videogame, especially when that videogame is not intended as specific religious commentary.

The fact is that CD Projekt took the right move. I'm all for freedom of expression, but it's clear that this was simply a mistake - that a texture was likely selected by an asset artist (based on or even directly copied from a photo), and then used by a completely different environment artist/designer when building the brothel. If CD Projekt wanted to make overt religious statements, I don't think they would be doing so using real-world imagery in a mass-market videogame intended to be playable by wide audiences.

As for the clowns claiming "Muslims are running the show, we aren't allowed to speak without considering our words carefully for fear of offending someone" etc.... well, yes. Welcome to the real world. It's within your rights to make mistakes; it's not within your rights to blatantly and knowingly offend people and not be called out on it. I have no sympathy for certain groups of Muslims who take offense at the slightest thing, but they are often the equivalent of the "God Hates Fags" movement in the United States, i.e. perhaps a bit extreme in their beliefs, quite small in number, and not at all representative of what the "average person" thinks. If you are incompatible with changing your behaviour to accommodate other people, then I think you need to re-evaluate your life and your way of thinking, because chances are the problem is with you and not other people.

For the record, though, you want to tell Muslims to not be offended by intentional or unintentional acts... well, how about the United States stop their racist and xenophobic political and security policies, and how about individuals living there drop their prejudices first. Just saying, it's a two-way street.

amen brother...ohh wait I shouldn't have said that ;-)

Now this is funny, people arguing about a rug in a computer game. Almost as funny as people arguing about religions, but that gets people killed.

While I couldn't care less if there was a rug in a brothel in the game that some people can depict as islamic symbolism, I honestly don't believe that CDP removed it just to be nice or to maintain the artistic consistency of their product. It is such a minor aspect of the whole game, that to make it an issue in their next patch (in a game with much more important technical difficulties) clearly to me indicates that they either were contacted with people who were offended or that they wanted to be sure not to get contacted by such people.

I am well aware that there is a whole spectrum of individuals both in the "western culture" and the "islamic culture" and to define either group is bound to make gross generalizations about those individuals. But no one can deny that there is a dichotomy between the western and the islamic world, especially after the terrorist attacks of 2001 and the subsequent actions of some major western nations, and there are some major themes of development that can be seen in both groups.

In general, the western culture has gone from its own period of religious persecution, through the age of enlightenment and reason to modern liberalism and multiculturalism. At the same time the islamic culture seems to have done just the opposite: from a culture of arts, philosophy and science (at the same time people in Europe were under the terror of the christian church) to a society governed by religious dogmas and voiced by intolerant and hateful individuals.

I state it clearly: despite it's growing pains, the western culture with its ideology of tolerance, discussion and free speech is better suited to steer this world of madness than the islamic culture, which still seems to be having problems with freedoms of individuals when confronted with religious believes. But like an adult that is still too immature to have children, the western world is giving up to the whims of the islamic child because it is scared that it might go into a cry-rage in the shopping mall if it doesn't get what it wants, thus perverting the whole relationship.

No religion, philosophy, nationality etc. is so sacred that it can not be made fun of or criticized. I personally find it very hard to get offended by anything that tries to attack my personal believes or ideologies. I am not my thoughts and no one else is either.

Whatever are the rationales behind this whole rug-incident (seriously people...) it is an example of this messed up relationship between the western and islamic cultures. In a better world no muslim would ever even begin to think that they should get offended by something as silly as this OR no westerner could think that this is something by which he or she should practice freedom of speech.

Sear hit the nail on the head. CDPR had no intention of putting a muslim prayer carpet in a brothel. Whoever was working on it just threw in the carpets, probably without even thinking about what the carpets were based on. Small mistake, small issue, small fix. There really isn't a reason to be all up in arms.

Then why is it reffered to as the 'Nation of Islam'... and stop splitting hairs... if you are descriminated because of race, colour, or religion it is GENERALLY reffered to as rascist.. although not entirely 100% accurate.

What do you suggest? That we further muddy the waters with even more sub categories of discriminatory classification?

Just be glad your opinions are taken into account at all instead of finding more things to bitch about.

Please enlighten me, I'm not hating on Muslims just hyperbolizing if (for example) Madonna wears a hypoticritally cross I must hate Madonna....just stating observation If some Muslims want to get offended at a prayer looking rug in the game then thats their interpretation and an afront to their fragile faith???
Some Muslims abuse their "laws" against prostitution by "marrying" their mates ...do their thing and atone for their "sin" by announcing "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you" according to their "law". They get what they want, and are sanctified by their so called justification!! That's hypocracy!! We are not to "judge" (implication is to damnation)but we are to judge ourselves. I'm not condemning anyone, just exposing intents of some hearts!!

Your abuse of my statements and turning it into "hatred" is atypical of being overly offended and ignorently presumptuous. I'm not sure what your "religion" is but it seems far from loving. Salome

no, they found what SHOULD have been a non-issue, and changed it for the sake of political correctness.

you know, how like bioware found an issue of not everyone being gay in the first dragon age game, and 'fixed it'... did you applaud that too? or did you find it as silly and ridiculous as all examples of stupid political correctness - including this one.

Also, you guys do know it probably took one guy on CDPR's team like 10 minutes to replace the texture with another carpet's texture. Its not like it took a bunch of manpower to do it.

I don't think it's fair to compare BioWare's utterly obvious cost-cutting, poorly-thought-out and fanservice-driven model to designing (and redesigning) their characters to CD Projekt's quick swap of a couple DDS files, which probably took all of 5-10 minutes to do.

Someone needs to take a before and after screenshot now that the new patch is out for MAXIMUM CONTROVERSY.


I wonder if the Taliban have been playing TW2.

ZERO person reported to be offended here or anywhere so far, can we stop making things up?

I don't see the pressure that you speak off honestly, if you see the news there are always people who are not even religious who report being offended over something like TV ads or political statement against certain thing or race, Muslims are just like any other human when something is sensitive to them they speak their opinion and others are not obligated to listen of course, in CDP case they did something which i do find respectful to me and i said thanks that's all :)