Gears of War:General Raam is an example of outcome of not culturally aware team | Hacker News Reader

Gears of War:General Raam is an example of outcome of not culturally aware team

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2 pointsdesi_ninja8 comments

I'm sorry this turned out to be the case, but 5 pages of google search for "raam" don't mention the deity.

I also did not recognize this as the name of a religiously significant entity.

I don't belive this was intended on their part.

I am aware of that. If you read in followup tweets, I have mentioned that. This decision could have been prevented back in 2005-06 had there been more cultural awareness. For the name of Raam, it is a Sanskrit word which can be spelt in english as Ram/Raam/Rama/Raama - Ram is the most popular English word. However, the pronunciation remains the same

My apologies again, I only read the initial tweet.

I recognize that I could be certainly more culturally aware. I'm just pointing out that as someone who works with many native Indians in America here on work visas and student visas, I was not aware of this phonetic reference and that is totally on me.

I appreciate the sensitivity but I personally give the Gears devs a pass given that I am not sure it would have been reasonable to expect a phonetic search then page through potentially dozens of "Americanized" results to see their blunder.

I think it is also unfair (in general) to accuse Epic Games of being not culturally/socially aware given their stewardship of follow up titles in the series.

As an Indian myself ... this is one of those instances where it is quite a stretch. Looking for controversy imo.

This is like something from a silicon valley episode.

hi, I am the OP. This is not for controversy. If you read the whole thread, I have identified that this happened in 2005-06 and team might not have had awareness for it. It is one of the cases where nothing much can be done as it is part of established lore but atleast a spotlight can be put on it. As for being Indian and responding to it, I and you can feel differently on it and I felt differently and expressed myself.

I meant that the whole thing of relating the name "Raam" to the Hindu god is a stretch.

GM named a pickup truck the Ram (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_pickup).

There is a range of phone/tablet mounts named Ram (https://www.rammount.com/)

There is a DC comics villain named Lady Shiva. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Shiva

Then there is Sheeva from Mortal Kombat. Skimpily dressed and admittedly also pretty ugly but that is subjective. Her attire would possibly hurt the sentiments of some devout Hindu with a conservative mindsets. https://mortalkombat.fandom.com/wiki/Sheeva/Gallery

Should they all be renamed to not offend religious sentiments as well?

It is one thing if the character in question had some resemblance to the religious figure and had subtle intentional similarities either in back-story or appearance or abilities but made to look grotesque. Otherwise this is just looking for a controversy for its own sake, IMHO.

Good luck with your crusade!

Isn’t that obvious ? Would you be OK if Bollywood makes a movie with cannibalistic villain with names like Moses, Zeus, Jesus or even Lincoln ? No, that won’t be OK. Just because something already happened long ago doesn’t make it OK. Don’t normalise it

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