Official Paper Castle statement regarding the problematic depictions in World 3
A couple days ago, I contacted the developers of Underhero regarding the troubling caricatures surrounding World 3.
Shortly afterwards- I received a detailed response back from the team acknowledging the harm of the matter, and I have been given permission to share their response publicly to spread information.
Thank you again to @papercastledevs for letting me share this response online, and I hope this official statement is helpful to those who are fans of Underhero or interested in checking out the game!
- mod ascel
Below are screenshots of the original email sent and the response, including written transcripts for easier accessibility:
[Text transcript:
Hi Paper Castle! I wanted to reach out regarding the harmful indigenous caricatures in Underhero, specifically the "savages" trope depicted in the monkans of World 3. As far as I have noticed, no one has contacted the team about this troubling portrayal but I have seen several folks address it online- and I wanted to ask if these depictions were an accidental oversight on the team's part or intentional? articles that describe the harm of these stereotypes: https://red-face.us/indian-stereotypes-history.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_Indigenous_peoples_of_Canada_and_the_United_States
/End text transcript]
[Text transcript:
Hey there! First of all thanks for reaching out, and hope you’ve been having fun playing Underhero. Before getting into it, we should probably clarify that we're developers from Venezuela, not the USA. This is not to say that we're beyond criticism because we're poc, but that certain things that are seen as harmful in the US might have gone over our heads because we come from a different background. It has been pointed out to us before that the depiction of the Pica Pica Tribe in Underhero is problematic, and we have already addressed this criticism and learned to do better in our future games. Beyond that, all we can do at this point is explain our thought process at the time of Underhero’s development, and how it was never intended to be a harmful portrayal of indigenous people. The Pica Pica tribe is actually inspired by the Yanomami, a group of indigenous people who live in Venezuela. Underhero is filled many other references from Venezuelan culture such as this, even though we knew that most players wouldn’t get them. The intent with the depiction of the Pica Pica tribe was that, even though some of the characters are prejudiced against them (namely, Elizabeth), they’re just like all the other minions in the game. We understand now that such depictions are delicate and require a lot of nuance, and we’re truly sorry if this portrayal caused any harm. It was done with the best intentions, and with the hope that we could share a bit of our culture with the rest of the world. Thanks again for reaching out and sharing your thoughts. Best, Paper Castle Team
/End text transcript]