Code Violet and the Illusion of Moral High Ground – TeamKill Media

Code Violet and the Moral High Ground That Wasn’t

I recently came across an interview and a few posts about Code Violet, a game developed by TeamKill Media. According to the developers, one of the reasons they didn’t want to release the game on Steam or on PC was because they didn’t want modders to sexualize the female character in the game. Their argument was simple: releasing on PC would open the door to mods, and mods could turn their female character into something overly sexualized.

At first glance, that sounds fair.

In fact, if you stop there, you might even think, Hey, these developers actually respect women. You might think they’re trying to protect their character from being turned into cheap fan service. You might think they’re taking a stand against the usual internet behavior where anything with a female character eventually gets modded into something sexual.

But then you actually look at the game.

And that’s where the whole argument completely falls apart.

Because the truth is, TeamKill Media didn’t need modders to sexualize their female character. They already did that themselves.

If you look at the character design in Code Violet, it’s hard to miss. The outfits are skimpy. There are lingerie-like costumes. There are clothes designed in a way where the character’s chest and bottoms are almost spilling out. The camera angles don’t exactly help either. This isn’t subtle design. This isn’t accidental. This is deliberate.

So when the developers say they don’t want modders sexualizing the character, it comes off as incredibly disingenuous. You can’t claim you’re protecting your character from sexualization when you’re the one putting her in revealing outfits to begin with. That’s not taking the moral high ground. That’s pretending to stand on a moral pedestal that doesn’t actually exist.

It feels less like a principled stance and more like a convenient excuse.

Let’s be honest here. If the concern was truly about respecting women or avoiding sexual content, there were many ways to handle it. They could have designed the character with practical clothing. They could have avoided exaggerated body proportions. They could have focused purely on the character’s personality, story, and role in the game. Plenty of games do that, and they do it well.

But Code Violet clearly chose a different route.

What makes this situation worse is the messaging. By framing their decision as a stand against sexualization, TeamKill Media positioned themselves as morally superior to PC players and modders. The implication is that PC gamers can’t be trusted, that modders are the problem, and that consoles somehow preserve artistic integrity.

That argument doesn’t hold up.

Modding exists because players love games. Mods can be silly, serious, artistic, respectful, or ridiculous. Yes, there are sexual mods. That’s nothing new. But those mods don’t erase the original work. They don’t change the developer’s official vision. They exist separately, and players choose whether or not to engage with them.

Blaming modders for hypothetical sexualization while ignoring the very real sexualization already present in your own game is hypocritical at best.

It also feels insulting to the audience. Gamers aren’t stupid. People notice these things. When a developer says one thing but shows another through their own design choices, the contradiction is obvious. Claiming the moral high ground while actively contradicting it in your own product just makes the entire argument look like a farce.

And that’s really the problem here.

This isn’t about whether sexualized characters should or shouldn’t exist in games. That debate has been going on for decades and won’t be settled anytime soon. This is about honesty. If you want to make a game with fan service, just own it. Say it’s part of your vision. Say it’s meant to appeal to a certain audience. There’s nothing new about that.

But don’t pretend you’re doing it to protect women.

Don’t use morality as a shield while doing the exact thing you claim to be against.

In the end, TeamKill Media’s stance on Code Violet doesn’t come across as principled or respectful. It comes across as performative. A talking point designed to sound noble while ignoring what’s plainly visible in the game itself.

If you’re going to take a stand, at least stand on solid ground. Because right now, the whole thing just looks like posturing—and not a very convincing one at that.

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