Behavior Games’ massively popular asymmetrical horror game Dead by Daylight recently released its highly anticipated “All Things Wicked” update, but the new killer character has proven quite controversial within the transgender community.
The “All Things Wicked” update went live on March 12th, 2024, introducing a terrifying new killer known as The Unknown. This genderless, shapeshifting entity can adapt its appearance at will, using both masculine and feminine voice lines performed by transgender voice actor Zoey Alexandria. One of The Unknown’s cosmetic outfits is a cheerleader uniform.
While representation through a transgender voice actor would normally be clout-clapped by social media drones, many felt The Unknown’s design promoted harmful trans stereotypes and didn’t appreciate the character being a crazed killer. On the Dead by Daylight forums, players criticized the character’s masculine body paired with feminine clothing like the cheerleader outfit, arguing it depicted trans women as “dangerous and grotesque.”
The controversy quickly spread across social media. On X, user @_rawrell shared an image of The Unknown alongside the caption: “>New Dead by Daylight killer is a deformed freak in a skirt >voiced by a trаոѕ VA What in the ever-living H*CK did the devs mean by this?” The post racked up over 15,000 likes in under 24 hours.
Voice actor Zoey Alexandria then weighed in, claiming he had no idea what The Unknown’s final design would look like while recording the voice lines. In a lengthy X post, Zoey Alexandria alleged that Behavior Games intentionally created a “stereotypical ‘man in a dress'” killer voiced by a transgender actor as a marketing ploy “to bring lots of money and people back to the game.”
The voice actor walked back some of these accusations in a follow-up post, clarifying that his issue was more with the lack of transparency from Behavior during production rather than the skins themselves. “They are NOT transphobic,” he affirmed.
From Behavior Games’ perspective, having a transgender voice actor portraying a genderless, shapeshifting killer who adopts different identities was ironically likely meant as an inclusive creative decision.
However, Alexandria’s shifting statements and the outcry over The Unknown’s specific design choices have combined to create a heated controversy among the woke.
As Dead by Daylight’s developers potentially reconsider The Unknown’s aesthetics, and despite Alexandria’s attempt to defuse the situation, the trans controversy surrounding Dead by Daylight’s “All Things Wicked” update shows no signs of slowing down, and neither does Behavior Games.
Will you support Behavior Games? Have you played Dead By Daylight? Give your thoughts in the comments below!
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