Infestation 88 developer, Nightmare Forge Games, have responded to claims that the ‘88’ in the game’s title refers to the Neo-Nazi salute.
I can see the devs having no clue about the alternative meaning, but a game about gassing rodents called “Infestation 88” is a terrible look. I’m glad the devs changed the name right away.
Yea, if they say “we didnt know what that insinuated”, and there are no other dog whistles, I’m happy that they responded so well and quickly!
I think just changing it to “Infestation 1988” would have also been enough…
Though, “infestation 88” a game about killing nazis, would also work!
Relevant reply from the developer. I’ll transcribe it here.
@everyone // Our game “Infestation 88” is set in the 1980s, with the year 1988 chosen simply due to its symmetrical design in the game’s artwork/logo. Unfortunately, we were unaware of any additional meaning the number ‘88’ has. However, after learning about this, we’re changing the game’s name to “Infestation: Origins” We apologize for our ignorance on the and appreciate that this was brought to our attention so we could address it ASAP!
With respect to our Discord server, we also apologize for the current lack of moderation in place, and will be working on remedying this ASAP. As per the rules, any hateful speech or content in any regard will result in a ban. We also plan to update our FAQ soon when we have a chance to address common questions that pop up. We greatly appreciate your patience and support!
@here Due to the overwhelming number of posts and rule-breaking content, we’re temporarily pausing discussion until we have better moderation in place. We hope to have things back online soon! Thank you again for your patience.
IDK, what else do you do with rodents in a game? Set traps? Shoot with guns?
I’m guessing the devs were born in 1988 or thereabouts and wanted to set the game in their birth year or something like that. Or they picked a number that’s somewhat long ago but not too long, and ~35 years ago is something I’d probably come up with (it’s not a neat number like 25 and 50), it’s far enough back that it’s old, but recent enough to feel familiar.
Occam’s razor: they’re probably not Nazis or Nazi sympathizers. I had never heard of the meaning behind “88” (granted, I’m not that interested in neo-Nazi symbolism), and I was born near 1988. Maybe I’d change the name, IDK, even hearing the arguments here I really don’t see an actual connection so it’s really no big deal to me. Then again, I think it’s a stupid name regardless, so I probably would’ve been more clever.
It really is annoying how many alt right dog whistles there are
It seems like every time the alt-right and neo-Nazis make something a new dog whistle (remember the “ok” sign thing that started on 4chan?) the left is just like “oh fuck, I guess we better stop using that now.”
I’m not sure there’s a better option. It’s not like it’s a good idea to just go on flashing “ok” signs and pretending it hasn’t been coopted by fascists, but it seems shitty and frustrating to just cede ground like that every time the alt right is just like “this is ours now.”
Come to think of it, I named a project at my workplace “IG-88” a while back and didn’t think about the Nazi connection until the name was already in common use. (With that name, the project in question even had a badass theme song.)
There’s some pretty obscure ones to that came and went in a hurry like a glass of milk.
I feel like some have also been claimed for general use. I don’t really associate Pepe memes with the alt right anymore
In my opinion the better option is to ditch the concept of dogwhistle. We [people in general] should look at what a symbol (including words, gestures, etc.) conveys within a certain context, we shouldn’t be picking individual symbols and assuming the discourse (what is being said) based on them.
For example, the 88 in the title of the game should be associated with the rest of the game. Because depending on the rest of the game it might convey only “1988”, or it might convey “heil Hitler”.
Well sure, but people use dog whistles so it’s important to recognize them. Context can be important but sometimes it’s subtle, that’s why they’re called dog whistles.
It’s not like it’s a good idea to just go on flashing “ok” signs and pretending it hasn’t been coopted by facists
Why not? Symbols only have meaning given context. In Germany, a swastika is a symbol of hate, whereas in India it’s a symbol of prosperity and good luck. It’s usually not hard to differentiate them, so there’s no real reason to avoid a symbol just because some idiots have decided to use it to mean something else.
On the flip side, there’s a fantastic reason to keep using them: the best way to beat a troll/bully is to ignore them. Don’t give them the emotional response they’re looking for and you remove all rewards for their behavior.
So if the alt-right coopt a symbol, use it more. Don’t let them impact you or they’ll keep doing it.
So does that mean you would have preferred that Infestation hadn’t changed its name?
The “ok” sign thing pissed me off. I had learned from a very young age that it was sign language for “ok” (it combines the signs for the letters) and when I went to swim class, my mom would watch and when I’d look over to her she would sign that to me that everything was ok, and sign “I love you” (🤟 — not to be confused with 🤘ROCKANDROLL🤘) to me as well. For the record, no one in our family is deaf, we just learned some basic sign language because communication is cool.
Then keep using it as the ok sign.
If they coopted the peace sign or the “I love you” sign, would you stop using them too? Stop giving in to their trolling. I feel like being so sensitive to Nazis gives them way more relevance than they deserve.
I’m not saying we should ignore Nazis in general, just… don’t let them control our culture.
Honestly, a lot of it was just some random twitter user trying to start shit. The drinking milk thing was one of those.
That’s the thing is it always seems like it’s just one of these shitheads but soon enough it always becomes more, that’s why they push this stuff, and why they hope for reactions like yours.
It goes back to the 60’s and 70’s, the dawn of Punk music, back before Skinheads were inherently Nazi they were black and white people in London fighting for worker solidarity, then the Nazis took it over and it became a thing inherently Nazi.
So this corruption of things is what they do to grow and to maintain a general ignorance about them.
It’s because they purposely co-opt things in order to spread their message and find new recruits, they’re societal human cancer.
This isn’t “the ‘OK’ hand gesture is used by nazis”
This is shit like a game about gassing rodents to death, lots of “14 88” references, references to german WW2 military technology, etc.
I guess you’re not getting this.
The Ok hand gesture, Pepe the frog, Yes Chad, GigaChad, Wojak, these are all things that the neo-nazis online utilize to get the conversation about them going, this is stuff that they take purposely to get guys like you to say “but this isn’t the ok hand gesture is used by the Nazis” because they want that cover, they want that doubt, they want that degree of dismissal of the person pointing out that this or that is nazi shit, and they also want the person who has it pointed out to them to feel like the claimant is just being silly, hyperbolic, and seeing Nazis everywhere, this is their goal and their purpose, not only to recruit and become bigger, but also to seem like there are more of them than there are.
My point is it’s all the same shit, 1488 or just 88 isn’t old nazi shit, that was a post-war Hitler humper invention, so even you’re conflating the topic out of confusion.
Here’s some good references and write ups about this stuff, because educating yourself on what is or isn’t nazi shit will help prevent you from falling for their bullshit:
https://www.isdglobal.org/explainers/memes-the-extreme-right-wing/
https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/ADL Hate on Display Printable_0.pdf
Yeah I remember working with people who didn’t even feel comfortable using the “ok hand” emoji because of associations with white supremacy (back when the hand sign was in the news again). Obviously white supremacy is a lot worse than that kind of minor chilling effect, but yeah, they just smear a little of their leaky shit everywhere so that people who actually care about their fellow humans have to expend extra energy vetting their own messages for dog whistles and double meanings.
“Look, I’m not saying it’s IMPOSSIBLE that this game wasn’t made with ill intent, but 88 is an immediate red flag,” said streamer Josh ‘Anoriand’ Fagundes on Twitter. “As are the facts that they use the word ‘Infestation,’ they use rat-based imagery, it involves gassing them, and counting the space ‘Infestation 88’ is 14 keystrokes.”
That’s quite the quinkydink.
counting keystrokes goes too far into chemtrail conspiracy theorist logic for me, ngl.
oh boy I had an 88 in my old email address back in the days cause you know I’m born 1988…glad I ditched that before the twitter mob find out that I’m also german…
really don’t get why this is a story based on some streamer with too much time. Looks more like something to get out of irrelevance if I look at his subscriber numbers…
The game is also looking bland as fuck and it’s only “thing” is the steamboat willi character that has been slapped on for no other reasons than marketing. Seems a little bit desperate if you ask me…
Everyone knows that the ability to connect something to Nazism makes it actually Nazism.
You’re German, you were born in '88, the phrase ”i had an 88 in" takes 14 keystrokes, and you seem to think not everything is connected to neonazis.
You’re clearly a Nazi.
He’s clearly a witch. I’m going to denounce him. Right now.
- “avater” has six letters. “lemmy” and “world” have five each, suspiciously close to six. His username is almost a literal 666.
- “I
had an 88 in my oldemailaddressback inthe days cause you know I’m born 1988” has the exact letters, in the right order, that allow you to spell “heil [name of the devil]”. - He wrote the number “8” four times. Eight symbolises new beginnings, regeneration, and resurrection; he’s signalising to be full converted to satanism.
- He’s German. You know how Germany is known as? Birthplace of Protestantism, one of the major heresies against Christianity. How much do you bet that he worships Luther, Mammon, Calvin and Asmodeus???
- Being German also means that he’s from the same place as that witchcraft band called Faun. I bet that he already heard Walpurgisnacht on the radio. Perhaps he even likes the band. Or did no effort to call them out. (If you sit with witches then you’re a witch too)
There are simply too many obvious signs of him being a witch. Sure, one or another might be coincidence, but all of them?
I hope that someone publish this in a sensationalist news site. Then other people will find further evidence that he’s a witch.
He could prove his innocence, though. Witches float, honest people sink, so w could put a 20kg stone around his neck and throw him into the river. Of course he won’t accept it, witches do not want to be outed as witches.
By the way, anyone trying to defend him is just trying to cover a witch. They’re probably dancing partners in the Hexennacht (German for “the devil child-eating ritual”)
[/sarcasm][/irony]
I was thinking this was a stretch, but then you found hail Satan in there. Grabbing my pitch fork.
Okay… I think that it’s worth to look further at the Twitter comment chain from Josh Fagundes, mentioned in the text.
I’ll use the exact same [lack of] reasoning that the author used to “prove” that he’s a Nazi. (I don’t think that he’s a Nazi, mind you; I’m doing this to show how bloody stupid his witch hunting is):
- Josh ‘Anoriand’ has 14 characters, including the quotation marks. Coincidence? Perhaps not!
- Look, I’m not saying it’s IMPOSSIBLE that this game wasn’t made with ill intent is exactly 14 words. And it’s immediately followed by “but 88”. Coincidence? Perhaps not!
“Conclusion”: I’m going to play it safe and treat Josh Fagundes as a nazi!
…yes, it is that tier of stupid. And if the developers are actually Nazi trying to push a Nazi discourse into the players, Josh is not “denouncing” them. He’s actually helping them to push said Nazi discourse, since now they can say “ah, that’s just someone being silly. Pay no mind, look at the ridiculous shit that he’s using to “prove” that our game is Nazi.”
Here’s a better approach.
What’s “88” in the title conveying to the player, within the context of the game? Through all the screenshots being shared, I’ve seen it being consistently used to refer to 1988, and nothing else. Is there any other element contextualising it to be interpreted as “heil Hitler” instead of the year?
More like “tankie user defends basic reading comprehension”.
What Josh is doing here is witch hunting like a moron. That only helps the Nazi by giving them a believable cover.
Not the point. “Infestation” + 88 + gassing vermin is absolutely not comparable to the mental gymnastics you just vomited out as an example. Even if the developer was truly this oblivious, it would still not change the issue of it, and the Nazis that posted on their Discord for so long were clearly proof of that as well.
I’d hate to live in your world, where literally everything and anything is a Nazi dog whistle
Buddy, if you’re unaware of literally the most common Nazi dogwhistle out there, then that’s simply ignorance and naivety on your part. Just because you chose to look away, does not mean they aren’t there.
