New 'active shooter' video game sparks backlash

[seemslikeadream]

Parents of Parkland victims are outraged about a new video game that would let players shoot up a school

New 'active shooter' video game sparks backlash
(CNN)Politicians and parents of slain students in Parkland, Florida, are expressing outrage about a forthcoming video game in which players can simulate being an active shooter to terrorize a school.

The game, "Active Shooter," is set to be released June 6 on Steam, a gaming platform owned by Valve Corp., a video game developer based in Washington state. The game was developed by Revived Games and published by a Russian company called Acid, which plans to sell the game for between $5 and $10 on the Steam platform.
Marketing materials for the game say players will be able to choose between portraying a SWAT team member responding to a shooting or portraying an actual shooter whose objective is to "hunt and destroy."

A fierce backlash


Ryan Petty, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Alaina in the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, called the game "despicable" in a tweet.
"It's disgusting that Valve Corp. is trying to profit from the glamorization of tragedies affecting our schools across the country," Petty said in a statement. "Keeping our kids safe is a real issue affecting our communities and is in no way a 'game.'"
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime also died in the Parkland shooting, is urging people to boycott the game.

"This company should face the wrath of everyone who cares about school and public safety and it should start immediately. Do not buy this game for your kids or any other game made by this company," he tweeted.

This company should face the wrath of everyone who cares about school and public safety and it should start immediately. Do not buy this game for your kids or any other game made by this company.https://t.co/LbkXy0upwc

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) May 27, 2018
Bill Nelson, the senior US Senator from Florida, also criticized the game Monday.

"This is inexcusable. Any company that develops a game like this in wake of such a horrific tragedy should be ashamed of itself," he tweeted.

This is inexcusable. Any company that develops a game like this in wake of such a horrific tragedy should be ashamed of itself. https://t.co/jjp6LxNWhC

— Senator Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) May 28, 2018
More than 25,000 people have signed an online petition urging Valve not to release the game.
"This is horrific," wrote Stephanie Robinett, a Seattle-area woman who created the petition. "How can anyone sleep at night knowing that they are profiting from turning deadly school shootings into entertainment?"

CNN has reached out to Valve for comment.

The developer's response


"Active Shooter" is not the first video game to simulate a school shooting scenario. But it may be the first new such game since 27 people died in recent mass shootings at high schools in Parkland and Santa Fe, Texas, heightening discussions around preventing gun violence in schools.
The game's Steam page includes a statement that reads, "Please do not take any of this seriously. This is only meant to be the simulation and nothing else. If you feel like hurting someone or people around you, please seek help from local psychiatrists or dial 911."
"Active Shooter's" developer also posted a disclaimer on a preview for the game, saying its content is not recommended for children.

"Revived Games believes violence and inappropriate actions belong in video games and not (in the) real world, and insists that in no event should anyone attempt to recreate or mimic any of the actions, events or situations occurring in this game," it said.

Revived Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an update posted on Steam last week, Acid said that intense criticism of the game has made them reconsider whether to publish it with the option allowing gamers to assume the role of the shooter.
"I have wrote to Valve regarding this game and (am) waiting for the reply," the update said. "After receiving such high amount of critics and hate, I will more likely remove the shooters role in this game by the release, unless if it can be kept as it is right now."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/28/us/activ ... index.html

[DrEvil]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018 ... oting-game

Valve slammed over "horrendous" Steam school-shooting game

UPDATE: Game removed, developer banned.

UPDATE 30/5/18: Valve has removed controversial school-shooting FPS Active Shooter from Steam, and its developer and publisher - Revived Games and Acid respectively - have been banned from the platform.

In a statement addressing the matter, Valve explained that Revived Games and Acid are, in fact, one person - Ata Berdyev. Berdyev was previously been removed from Steam last autumn, according to Valve, when he operated under the names [bc]Interactive and Elusive Team.

"Ata is a troll," read the statement, "with a history of customer abuse, publishing copyrighted material, and user review manipulation. His subsequent return under new business names was a fact that came to light as we investigated the controversy around his upcoming title. We are not going to do business with people who act like this towards our customers or Valve."

Berdyev previously fell foul of Valve after Adult Swim issued a copyright claim on Piccled Ricc, his unauthorised Rick and Morty game - reportedly just a pre-existing Unity demo scene with swapped assets. In fact, Berdyev appears to have a history of quick-fire assets flips on Steam, including the likes of the now-removed Fidget Spinner Simulator.

As part of its statement, Valve also noted that a "broader conversation about Steam's content policies is one that we'll be addressing soon".

ORIGINAL STORY 25/5/18: Just a week after the Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas that saw 10 people fatally shot and 13 others were wounded, Valve has come under fire for a Steam school-shooting game that encourages you to "hunt and destroy" children.

Active Shooter, which at the time of publication is live on Steam and due for release on 6th June, is described by its developer as "a dynamic S.W.A.T. simulator". The idea is you're sent in to deal with a shooter at a school, but you can also play as the actual shooter, gunning down school children.

Now, an anti-gun violence charity has called on Valve to pull the game from Steam. (We've asked Valve for comment but it has yet to respond.)

The developer of Active Shooter is called Revived Games, the publisher Acid. Revived Games' credits include White Power: Pure Voltage and Dab, Dance & Twerk.

"Acid", who plans to add a survival mode in which you play as a civilian and have to "escape or perform a heroic action such as fight against the shooter itself", took to Active Shooter's Steam page to defend the game. "First of all, this game does not promote any sort of violence, especially any soft [sic] of a mass shooting," Acid said.

"Originally when this game started its course of the development, I have planned on having SWAT only based gameplayer [sic]. Then I thought about adding more gameplay to it by adding additional roles: of the shooter and the civilian. While I can see people's anger and why this might be a bad idea for the game, I still feel like this topic should be left alone. As I mentioned in Steam discussion forums, there are games like Hatred, Postal, Carmageddon and etc., which are even worst compared to Active Shooter and literally focus on mass shootings/killings of people."

Acid said they have contacted Valve and are waiting for a reply. "After receiving such high amount of critics and hate, I will more likely remove shooters role in this game by the release, unless if it can be kept as it is right now," Acid said.

A spokesperson for Infer Trust told the BBC: "It's in very bad taste. There have been 22 school shootings in the US since the beginning of this year.

"It is horrendous. Why would anybody think it's a good idea to market something violent like that, and be completely insensitive to the deaths of so many children?

"We're appalled that the game is being marketed."

When once Steam was heavily curated, Valve now employs a hands-off approach that means scores of games of varying quality are published to the platform every day. According to SteamSpy, 7672 games were released on Steam in 2017, with an average of 21 games per day.

Anyone can publish games on Steam through the Steam Direct program for "a $100 recoupable publishing fee per game".

There are rules and guidelines that are supposed to govern the content distributed on Steam, however. You're not supposed to publish hate speech, for example: "i.e. speech that promotes hatred, violence or discrimination against groups of people based on ethnicity, religion, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation." Developers are also not supposed to publish "content that is patently offensive or intended to shock or disgust viewers" or "content that exploits children in any way".

It seems Active Shooter slipped through the net.