If you’ve found yourself in Splatoon 2’s lobby sometime in the last day, you might have asked yourself: “Why is there so much furry art here?”
Well, dear readers, we have answers.
Furries are people who imagine alter egos in the form of humanoid animals. A lot of the time, it’s good, clean fun. It’s also a sex thing. Mascot costumes are involved. So when Splatoon 2 players noticed that its lobby has been veritable furry con for the last day or so, several fans balked. Sure, the Wii U’s Miiverse, and especially the original Splatoon’s lobby, got a little raunchy sometimes. Without a Miiverse, Splatoon 2 would surely have a bit more curation. Wouldn’t it?
A full half of the images I have encountered since around 11 p.m. last night depicted humanoid animals. None were risque, but it’s undeniable that furries are a bit controversial. So why is there so much furry art in Splatoon 2? Well, like most ridiculous things, it’s because someone didn’t want it to happen:
Teal, a Splatoon fan, logged on to Splatoon 2 last night and noticed the image. She and her friends thought it was hilarious. And she decided to draw up a response:
“It kinda snowballed,” Teal explained. A lot of fans saw the anti-furry post as a call-to-arms:
While some folks advocated for more furry art, others have been pushing back against the wave:
Teal says the takeaway here isn’t that furries love Splatoon 2. “We’re lucky even a neutered version of Miiverse can remain interesting,” she told me. “Nintendo could have easily axed the feature from the new game, but decided not to. I think more developers should embrace this sort of creative integration to their games.”
For others, there was another takeaway: