The Door and Devil May Cry 3

For those of you joining in late, the Devil May Cry series is a best-selling franchise developed by Capcom Ltd., Japan marketed here by Capcom Entertainment Inc, Central Europe.

The series primarily revolve around demons and other dark forces, which Dante – the series protagonist – must overcome. Gameplay is quick with plenty of adrenaline pumping slashing and gore…
…until you get to a scene in the 3rd game (available for PS2 and PC) where Dante's brother enters the Demon's domain through a rather familiar-looking door. Here is what it looks like: 

  DMC-door

If you can’t make the connection, here’s a hint:

kabah

Above shows a picture of the Door of the Ka’bah, the single most sacred religious location on earth for over a billion people of the Islamic faith.

That this so-called “devil’s door” borrows its design from such an incredibly holy relic causes deep hurt and offence..and is completely unacceptable no matter which side of neutrality you look at it.

Understandably, a lot of people are upset and I personally know people who’ve been shouting their voices (or at any rate, their keyboards) hoarse about “boycotting Capcom” and “banning their products”.
But what I can’t really understand (or accept) is why we as a people – Asians, Muslims and Indians in particular – are so paranoid about banning and boycotting stuff all the time…
…as if its gonna do anyone any good. I mean, assuming boycotts did work, who’s going to tell the statistics guy scratching his head at Capcom that the REAL reason the sales of one particular game dipped by 3% was due to religious indifference?

I’m one guy who doesn’t believe in Online Petitions or boycotts, so I wrote to Capcom at their London headquarters address telling them exactly what I felt about the whole thing.
To be honest I didn’t really expect a reply (who answers back to criticism anyway?) but they did. And here is what they had to say (translated from German):

“Dear Mr. Noor,

Thank you for your message regarding religious artifacts in Devil May Cry 3 We regret that this injury has been caused to religious feelings. The title was developed in a production department of our Japanese parent company, which we will refer to this as soon irreverence.

We will do our best to remedy this artifact representation. Unfortunately, this would be in the form of a patch and would be available only in the PC version because for the PS2 console version it is not possible to produce any program code changes, and also not is not allowed on our part.

With kind regards from Hamburg,

<
name withheld>
PR Manager
(Capcom Entertainment) Central Europe”

I know we still have no confirmed dates for the rollout of this patch, but at least they acknowledged that the problem exists…and promised to do something about it.
Of course they are saying there’s nothing they could do about the PS2 version but that is understandable – after all the ten-year-old console isn't exactly cutting edge on upgradability.
But still, I guess I'll be okay even if it is just the PC version getting the patch to remove the offending door. 

Personally, for me it means there is still hope in the world and that people are willing to listen, and reaffirms my faith in the power of the Written Word.

And that “boycotts” and “bans” aren’t necessarily the best way to deal with a problem.

17 comments:

Rayees Ahamed said...

Good one bro,
I also do not believe in online petitions. literally speaking, perfectly organised mass scale boycotting will have a great effect, i don't believe that in this modern economic lifestyle one could organize such a boycott.
Thanks for publishing your approach to the problem, i think this is the right thing to do.

A New Beginning said...

I think the main problem is with the way things are put across.
It's important to stand up against whats wrong...but in the right way.
Thanks for bringing this up, its very important to understand certain things and share them with others.I'm glad you did.

Dhanya said...

Ahem! Not the post I was expecting ;)

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@Rayees
Thx.
Actually I'm not really keen on boycotts because with video games I think it is hardly practical; most of the eastern world (where we have the problem) is not really a big market for games in economic terms.

I hardly know anyone who buys original software - let alone games - so any such boycott has no impact.

@Sana
I wanted to also quote the letter I wrote to them but then I remembered, I "wrote" to them (as opposed to email) so I didn't have a copy to refer to.

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@Dhanya
I hear what you're saying
:D

But i'm not sure if I really would be able to write that; feel a bit...you know...uncomfortable.

Intern said...

devils door eh, very disappointing :(
its pretty interesting to see that you actually got a reply:). its a good sign that they actually took to the problem. but the point is that just one complaint may not bring fast enough action to correct the error they have done. i think a couple of people/gamers must complain to arise the seriousness of their error.

boycott's do work, but depending on the place and situation :)

Unknown said...

kudos to you bro!!!
Every time people go for mass boycott, I wonder if its of real help. Most of the time they only manage to make it more popular.
Good work again !!!

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@Shimmer
At least as far as software and especially gaming goes, boycotts will NEVER work...simply because no one in the eastern world even buys the real thing in the first place.

Avoiding pirated games is not a boycott
:P


@Issam
I agree...especially with those stupid forward mails that say, "Don't click on this site" and followed by a link.

Intern said...

yeah, thats what I said, boycott only works depending on the place and situation :P

Eid Mubarak :) (belated)

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@Shimmer
Belated Eid mubarak to you too!!

And yeah, I agree boycotts work on the place and situation...just that i've never seen an appropriate one so far.
:D

Sheeraz Ahamed Khateeb said...

Dude.. seriously i never thought it was this thing, when u were saying in chats!!... really surprised and angry about their shitest thing and how cooly they are writing an so called apology, which is actually a letter through which they r making fun that they made a irreversible fun of us... just like Burj-ul-arab for which dubai bastards are boasting off...

Till the time, we muslims support such a kingdoms like uae, ksa, kuwait... we deserve this!!!!

Mohammed Musthafa said...

Nice one! Never knew about this...but u did the smart thing by letting them know....Actually, didnt think you'd get a reply myself...

Still...the boycotts do work sometimes...like wen we were supposed to boycott danish products cuz they insulted our prophet....It let them knw that we shouldnt be taken lightly.....or so I think!

Prasanna said...

That's, indeed, a great job! Nice to see that you got a charming reply (though not much positive)..

Hmmm... Heard that you got a bunch of gifts too from Capcom :)

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@Sheeraz
Please calm down!
If its one thing I've learnt is that getting angry doesn't solve any problems.
What we should be doing instead is looking out for solutions.
You've any ideas?

@Musthafa
Sorry but I don't think boycotts ever work anymore...with that Danish controversy, apart from the lame forwarded emails we all got about how Denmark lost 6billion dollar in profit...I never saw any actual proof of the boycott or how it helped.

If anything, it helped republish the pictures to ppl who had never heard of it before.

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@Prasanna
Ah yes, Suresh told you I see :)
Yeah, I got a whole bunch of Capcom fan merchandise: 3 t-shirts, a game DVD, a book, shoulder bag, wallet and pen.
:D

Unknown said...

Brother Good one !

This is an excellent way to stand up for what is right ! I never thought things like this would be handled seriously ! Congrats.

-=A.R.N.=- said...

@Zubair

Thx! Actually I was quite surprised myself...but it only renewed my faith in the power of the Written Word
:)