Whore of the Orient's Name Comes Under Fire

Whore of the Orient, the next game from the creators of LA Noire, hasn't had the smoothest development so far and it seems things are about to get worse. A City of Monash councillor is now threatening to complain about the game to the Human Rights Commission on the grounds of racial vilification.

The Age reports that Jieh-Yung Lo isn't acting in his capacity as a councillor, but rather as a private citizen concerned that the troubled title's name is an "attempt to disgrace Chinese culture, history and traditions''.

"It's the use of the word 'Orient', more even than the word 'whore', that is the issue," he said. "The O-word is very similar to the N-word for African-American communities. It's a 19th century racial-colonial conception and it's especially painful for older people in the communities. That was a very bad time in China, and people don't want or need to have that dragged up."

In 2009, the state of New York banned the use of the word "oriental" as a descriptive term in all official documentation; according to Lo, this means the upcoming title shouldn't feature it either.

The current status of the game is a little murky; back in April it was reported that production had been closed down. A couple of months later however, the Australian government granted KMM, the production house that acquired the rights to the title, $200,000 worth of funding. Regardless of whether the game is still in development, Lo believes this was a mistake.

"Australian institutions should be encouraged to fund projects and initiatives that cultivate mutual understanding and prosperity in the Australia-China relationship," he said. "We need to build greater trust and cultural understanding rather than promote division and negativity."

As a gamer and fan of LA Noire, Lo has asked that the title of the game be changed or development be stopped, with the former being more preferable. Seeing as we don't know whether the finished project will ever see the light of day anyway, this could all be a moot point. All we have to cling to right now is leaked footage of the project that surfaced early last month.

What do you reckon, should the name of the game be changed? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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