In recent years, due to highly publicized events, the perception of the police and their roles in communities has been re-evaluated. Especially when it comes to games and other media, many companies are now reconsidering what used to be frequent use of them in games. Player First Games is the latest to make these changes, with one of its MultiVersus characters losing a big part of her moveset.
One of Velma’s moves, her down special, allowed her to summon a police car once she’s gathered enough evidence. The police car picked up the opponent and could drive them off the screen, scoring an elimination. But many users were quick to make memes around this move, with some saying they felt uncomfortable maining a character that’s core move was to call the Five-O.
But with the release of MultiVersus update 1.02 later today, Velma is losing her police car, and instead, the gang in the Mystery Machine will be helping. Instead of being arrested, Scooby and the gang will kidnap the opponent, never to be seen again. This change has been joked about in the community since its announcement last night, with many users happy that PFG is making the switch.
While the patch that’s updating this move hasn’t been released yet, MultiVersus data miner AisulMV said that they found a copy of the Mystery Machine in the files. It’s heavily damaged, which might be the look of the vehicle after a player destroys it. Either way, this points to the fact that PFG has had this change in mind for some time.
While we don’t know specifically why PFG decided to make the change, it could be the memes and other jokes that have been made at Velma’s expense since MultiVersus’ release. Many of these include calling Velma a Karen for calling the police on LeBron James.
In the video above, Velma appears angry at LeBron just standing there minding his own business before calling the police. The video ends with LeBron being dragged off-screen, followed by a pained yell from the character. That’s not the best look for the developer in a time when the police’s unjust treatment of Black people is under the spotlight.
Even some Velma mains aren’t comfortable with the move, saying they don’t like the idea of calling the police on random people. Users have been raising these concerns since the game’s launch, so it makes sense that Tony Huynh and his team would be hard at work trying to fix it. This points to a developer who has an ear open to the community, willing to make any necessary changes.
The change seems to be welcomed among fans, who’ve begun to crack just as many jokes as they did before the patch. This new move is likely to make fans happy while still keeping Velma’s really powerful down special.
MultiVersus players should be able to see the Mystery Machine for themselves when the patch releases in just a few hours.
