Of course. Why wouldn’t there be? Ooookay, let’s explain to people why rallying around this particularly absurd little product is a bad idea…
Of Course There’s A Game With A Mass School Shooting In It On Steam (The Jimquisition)
Of course. Why wouldn’t there be? Ooookay, let’s explain to people why rallying around this particularly absurd little product is a bad idea…
I am glad this game exists. It is a wake up call for valve . I know they’ll hit the snooze button again but I will take pleasure in troubling their sleep.
Jim, I love your channel and I greatly appreciate what you do for the community. However, I can’t help but feel like you’re above this. It’s just a video game, and a poorly made one at that. I guess video game violence is okay until it’s something you personally don’t like? I don’t support this type of game, nor would I play it, but the creator has just as much right to create and distribute this trash as anyone else has. I would say that’s most likely Steam’s feelings of the subject as well, but I know they’re just thinking about the money.
Of Course this comment section is filled with people who misunderstood Jim’s video and hid under the guise of the “Free Market” argument.
Hmm, hey, as an experiment, someone make a White Genocide video-game and see if they still come out and support it to “stick it to the libs.”
I am staying way the hell away from this comment section, but I did have to stop by to at least quickly thank God for Jim first.
Gotta love the hypocrisy here when they say this is okay but you can’t have saucy visual novels.
Correct me if I am wrong but didn’t you defend Hatred’s right to exist on Steam? If so I fail to see the difference why this one isn’t allowed to die by the vote of the buyers like Hatred was.
Have to disagree on both accounts. For the battlefield cover, I don’t really care about what’s on the cover itself, but the politics behind it. If you’re not making an alternate timeline like, say, Wolfenstein, I dislike revisionism, especially for the purpose of tokenism. They’re basically trying to appeal to demographics by having a self-insert for them to sympathize with in a setting where it doesn’t make sense. That’s worrying. Since when does one need to have someone with a similar identity to have investment in the story? Doesn’t that sound like a, oh I don’t know, racist and/or sexist frame of thinking?
Additionally, they’re being just lazy. I’d have no problem if this were a French or Russian soldier (as they’re well known to utilize women), but it’s a British female soldier, because fuck effort. Let’s not go all the way in showing a different perspective of ww2. NO no, let’s just stick with the American/British side of WW2, and pretend we’re doing something different by having a poster-girl in a scenario where it doesn’t make sense, with a prosthetic limb no less. They do this because they know the political demographic that they’re appealing to will shower it with praise despite having no more objective worth than previous titles.
Now, after that rant, on the active shooter game. It should not be pulled. Is it tasteless? In my opinion, yes. However, that’s the thing about cow-towing to people that take offense to something. Anyone CAN take offense to just about any thing. What happens if, say, people claim “offense” to a controversial political point raised in a game? Censorship follows if we tell people that we’re willing to listen to their demands purely because they take offense to it, and not tangible reasons. In reality, this game is inevitably going to be age-restricted, so who’s hurt by this? Is it by only existing hurting people? Well, then reporting on it, and giving it attention increases that pain. I don’t see these people complaining that the new-sites should be censored as well. We shouldn’t compromise artistic liberty (even though this particular game isn’t really artistic) because we’re handing power-hungry individuals the keys to our entertainment.
I miss TB :'(
I disagree with Jim on the point that this probably shouldn’t be on Steam because of the potential ramifications of it reaching mainstream media and causing backlash that will likely result in some sort of stricter laws or repercussions around violent video games. I’m strictly anti-censorship and this is censorship and regardless of whether or not it is beneficial to the idea of free speech, censorship in such a way is an attack on it.
What I do have a problem with is the Valve double standard, where VNs with nudity (often through a patch only available outside of Steam) were told to either remove the content or leave, even if Valve slightly backpedaled on the issue. Yet a game about mass school shooting is considered acceptable.
I also have an issue with the quality of the game. Hatred wasn’t a good game, but it could be argued that there was at least some quality and budget. This game just looks like some generic shooter Steam asset flip. Hatred also sold way more copies than it had any right to thanks to drummed up controversy, and this game will probably sell at decent more than the sub 100 sales it would have likely sold if it released without the mass shooter theme.
If this game is a threat to freedom of speech, then there is no freedom of speech. “Be careful of what you say or we’ll remove your right to say whatever you want” is a paradox.
Artistic expression is supposed to challenge the viewer. The fact that you find this subject matter challenging means it’s working, not that it should disappear.
That doesn’t mean I agree with the content. I don’t have to agree with the content. In the past 50 years, there’s been a lot of ‘disagreeable’ speech that was later vindicated by history, or ‘agreeable’ speech that was later damned by history.
The original Columbine massacre RPG was lambasted at the time for it’s subject matter, but on later reflection was lauded somewhat as a reflection on the motives of a real world monster, so there can be positive work that comes out of negative subject matter.
As an artist, as a journalist, you shouldn’t be perpetuating implicit threats to people’s fundamental rights like that — it is your livelihood at stake as well when freedom of speech is ever under attack.
I thought you were a games journalist – you lost me on all this politico talk. So is this game good or not?
Reported the game on Steam! – Cheers Jim and R.I.P John Bain.
I guess the big question is “Is this the hill you want to die on?” Like, you must understand that you ate being used, guys. The devs are pulling the “free speech” card just so you can rally behind them and give them money for what looks like, by the way, a very poor FPS. Free speech doesn’t mean immunity to consequences. You ate free to act like a jackass, but don’t come crying when people end up treating you as one.
Of course Steam won’t take this game down. It’s not a visual novel, therefore it’s automatically okay! As we all know, it’s only important to think of the kids when fictional catgirls are present…
Anyways, as someone who is concerned about censorship, I have to agree with Jim here. For all intents and purposes, the ESRB was formed to prove that the government doesn’t need to step in and regulate games. But that can all change if we push the envelope too much. Yes, the First Amendment exists, but the politicians will find a way to classify games as terrorism or something if they really want to, and bad press like this will only push them to do it.
And before anyone gets the bright idea that our meme-in-chief President will somehow save us from those “evil SJWs”, remember that he was spearheading the censorship movement just a couple months ago. I’m not saying the left is any better, mind you (actual SJWs are annoying). I just think we should stop picking sides and realize that we need to regulate ourselves again, before any more politicians feel inspired to crusade against us. Next time, we may not win…
Totalbiscuit died 4 days ago.
Yet anime tiddies VNs are not alright on Steam 😀
7:02 eCEET MAoRP… felt like trying to make things a little less depressing.
Jim, its a lovely sentiment for TB at the end but… Maybe the background score wasnt the best to let keep running. The jokey song style didnt match the seriousness of what you were saying.