Dante’s Inferno in hot water over baby-killing Achievement

If there’s one thing people have been talking about in the build-up to Dante’s Inferno … it’s not Dante’s Inferno.

Whether it’s the Twittersphere venting about EA’s “objectification” of women, or EA mailing replica severed hands to the press, the focus has kind of been away from the merits of the game. This post is sort of about the game, but still probably not what EA’s PR department had in mind.

The story so far: last week, Dante’s Inferno Executive Producer Jonathan Knight revealed that the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions would award a “Bad Nanny” Achievement/trophy to players who slaughter a certain number of unbaptized infants. Surprisingly, some people found this idea of killing babies offensive.

Today, the International Nanny Association (INA) stepped in and sent EA to the naughty step, saying that the Achievement was “created out of poor taste and bad judgment.” Here’s the INA’s official take on things:

“INA is opposed to video games that promote and encourage players to “kill” babies, even in fantasy play. It is our opinion that this type of play may promote violence towards children. The name of the trophy or achievement, “Bad Nanny,” is offensive to our association in that we strive to promote and educate the public regarding the selfless work nannies do to support families by providing quality in-home child care.”

While the claim that this will somehow discredit real nannies is tosh, I will say it all seems like a deeply unnecessary inclusion, not to mention a bit tasteless. Then again, if you’re sending out detached human appendages to people, I suppose taste is taking a back seat already.

[Via GamePolitics]