Duke Nukem Forever Developer to Activists: Have At It

Gearbox Software President Randy Pitchford is not worried about feminists or other activists groups taking issue with the company's saucy first-person shooter, Duke Nukem Forever - in fact he encourages them to use it to their advantage if it will promote their cause. Speaking to Eurogamer at length, Pitchford can see both sides of the issue when it comes to Duke's strong personality and questionable behavior.

"I'll tell you what, if some feminist organisation that is doing a great job advocating women's rights worldwide, which I think is really important, can get some advantage by using Duke... go for it," Pitchford told Eurogamer. "How is there a downside for humanity? Go for it. Take it. Use Duke. That would be awesome.

"If anyone can better our world through the use of anything, and if Duke is a tool to help them do that, that's fine," he added. "The people that are entertained... The choices people make are their choices."

But those kind words do not mean that Pitchford won't defend the game originally conceived by 3DRealms:

"One of the things that's been brought up to me is that there's just a random cigarette machine and one of the packs says, 'Fags.' What it's doing is it's pointing out when this word used to mean something else. "But in fact, in our world, because these words have been converted into different words and meanings in different cultures, and because gay rights is a real issue, it is unfair."

"All of us want the same thing in this world – we just want to have a good time, we want to get along, we want to enjoy life and get the most out of it. That's one of the reasons I do what I do – I like to entertain. If I can maybe add a little joy, maybe I've done something worthwhile.

You can read the rest here.

And on a related note, Gearbox has put up a credits page listing all of the people that have worked on the game over the years (thanks Blue's News.)