DBD's The Unknown Controversy

I was not expecting to make a post so quickly after my last one but this one kind of came up and I wanted to give my two cents on this.

First, some background on the controversy. DBD released a new killer called The Unknown (I will not post a pic of the killer here but look it up - it's horrifying). The lore for The Unknown is that it is a shapeless, amorphous being that takes the form of what horrifies it's victim. Unofficially, players have theorized that it takes parts of its victims and uses those to create it's next shape for future victims. Now, the VA (voice actor) for The Unknown was hired because they could do both male and female voices. That VA also happens to be a trans woman. As the character model was not complete when they recorded their lines, the VA had no idea what The Unknown looked it.

Now, here's where it gets a little messy: In DBD, characters have a base model and you buy additional skins/outfits for them. The Unknown's additional skins/outfits include them having long hair, crop tops, skirts, and even a cheerleader outfit. Because of this, the VA and the game developers received comments from players claiming that The Unknown was transphobic because it promoted the stereotype that trans women look like men in women's clothing and are dangerous as well as transphobic harassment. The VA then created a post accusing the game developers of tricking them and transphobia. Here is a link to an article that shows their post and explains the controversy: https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/03/16/dead-by-daylight-trans-transgender-the-unknown/

The developers responded, condemning the transphobia and stating that they support the VA. The VA later issued a statement, backtracking some of what they said, including that the developers were not transphobic. Despite this, there are still some transphobic comments being made about the skins for The Unknown (Reddit, unfortunately, houses quite a bit of them and Twitter/X has a lot as well).

Now, we need to address something before I go on to explain my view of this: Transphobia is real. Trans women are women and are under attack for just wanting to exist. There is fear mongering around them and there is a double standard that is rooted in misogyny and toxic masculinity (note that trans men are not under attack).

That being said, I don't believe The Unknown is transphobic. First, it does not have a gender, so calling it a man that is dressing as women is not accurate. Second, to make a character that has already been established look a different way would not work. That would require more time and work for something not important to the game's story. Finally, the lore of the character explains that The Unknown is, well, unknown to us, so we don't know what it is.

Now, I am willing to admit that I may be wrong, but I think most of the issue with The Unknown is that people are making an assumption without having all the information. Are the transphobic comments disgusting and vile? Yes. But that is a small part of the community and the developers at least issued a statement shortly after they were made aware of the comments. Most companies would keep quiet because they don't want to "alienate their base", so I'm pretty happy about the developers' actions. Are the skins going to be taken out? Almost certainly not. But the skins are not the problem. It's the reactions people had to them that is the problem.

There are issues within the gaming community, but I think, as with many male-dominated communities, it's gotten better over the years. This is just a reminder that there is still a ways to go when making sure the community is safe for everyone.