What, another one? How many does it do this month? Controversy? Over what this time?
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After getting complaints from thousands of users over their latest controversy, where Steam/Valve asked developers of “anime”-style games (visual novels, etc) to remove “sexual content” from their games (more like “ecchi”, in reality…), while ignoring real porn content in other games, Steam is now under fire from different associations, medias, and people, due to a game where you can play as a shooter… inside of a school.
The description on the store page reads as follows:
“Active Shooter – the Simulation. Pick your role, gear up and fight or destroy! Be the good guy or the bad guy. The choice is yours! Only in “Active Shooter”, you will be able to pick the role of an Elite S.A.W.T member or the actual shooter. Lead your team, extract civilians and neutralize the shooter.”
Here are some of the screenshots available on the store page:
Well, the reality is different from what the media outcry is trying to depict, as per usual. Without trying to defend the developer (we’ll explain why in a minute…), the main point of the game seems to be playing as a S.W.A.T. and help the civilians, while neutralizing the shooter. An alternative mode is offered, where the player can choose to play as the attacker and kill at random… a bit like in other titles such as Postal and Postal 2.
Sure, shooting up a school, with the current situation in the US, may be distasteful, but it does not seem to be the main point of the game, and, even if it was, there’s probably better problems out there that are waiting to be solved.
Let’s get back to why we will not be defending the developer. Some media said the game had “realistic graphics”. Realistic graphics? Where? For what year? Beginning of 2000’s? Graphics are pure trash, taking in account today’s standards. For the sake of reinforcing our argument, here are screenshots of a few shooters released in the past few years, taken by one of our employees during his play sessions. (Thank you very much for the permission!) The games, in order, are Ghost Recon Wildlands, The Division and Rainbow Six Siege.
Now that we’ve got the graphics claim out of the way, let’s have a look at what our dear developer “Revived Games” and his so-called “Publisher” “ACID” have put on the Steam store, apart from this graphically-garbage game.
Oh? Zucc Simulator? Furry? Tyde Pod Challenge? AltCoin? Dab, Dance & Twerk? White Power: Pure Voltage?
Aren’t most of these titles recent controversies, or very mediatized cases? For those who may not follow the current “popular culture”, here’s a quick explanation:
- Zucc: a popular expression, mocking Mark Zuckerberg. Can refer to multiple things, such as deleting somebody’s account. “You got Zucced” would be an example, meaning your account got deleted. Can also refer to data gathering, due to the recent scandal.
- Tyde Pod Challenge: some stupid challenge, like the condom snorting one. Basically, the “Tyde Pod” challenge is eating Tide Pods, the washing product.
Furry and AltCoin should require no explanation.
Most of these games seem to be made with GameGuru, a popular… game creator? used by most “Asset flippers” and lazy developers who want to make a quick buck. Easy and fast to use.
So, to come back to our sentence of not defending the developer, this so-called “developer” should not be banned because of some tasteless joke, riding on the current media wave, but should be banned for putting low-effort, low-quality games on the platform, an act that has become routine.
