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That was a quick turnaround. Just days after Valve removed the head-turning title Hatred from Steam due to it being ‘something it wouldn't publish' the controversial title is back on Greenlight and with its popularity, looks likely to get through the process before long.
At its peak, Hatred was the 7th most popular Greenlight game
Hatred has caused quite a stir in the gaming world, as it puts players in the shoes of a psychopathic antagonist who's only goal it seems is to murder as many people as possible. The reason this is problematic in some gamers' eyes, is because you don't have a good reason for killing those people. This is despite the fact that in almost every FPS title, along with a number in other genres, give you very flimsy reasons to be killing the many hundreds of people you do. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytdEYapPXdY']
Others that are against this game suggest it will be used by the anti-gaming lobby to crack down on other games, perhaps in the way the GTA V was banned in some Australian stores following protests from abused sex workers and their supporters.
Fans of the game however point to the fact that games like Manhunt, Postal, Carmageddon and many other titles also offer indiscriminate murder. Hatred might glorify it, but it would be far from the first to do so. It also offers the opportunity to provide an interesting commentary on the mental deficiencies of such a person.
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KitGuru Says: This game is brutal and it may not be for everyone, but almost every action game has you slaying hundreds if not thousands of people, often with a very flimsy reason that makes you the ‘good guy'. Hell I've personally cut down 9,000+ peasants and soldiers alike in my latest Mount and Blade playthrough. And sold slaves. It's for entirely selfish reasons too, so why is that ok , but this isn't?
“I don’t like it, therefore no one else does and we must get rid of it.” That seems to be the rationale behind taking down this game. Hatred’s not for me, but if someone else wants to play it, who gives a frack? It’s not like the game was made using everyone’s tax dollars. We don’t lose anything by it existing.
Steam is a private business entity. They have the right to choose not to sell a game if it makes them morally uncomfortable.
That being said, I couldn’t care less whether it’s available for purchase on Steam or not, despite my personal beliefs on this game being a waste of space. If people are going to buy it, they’re going to buy it regardless of gaming platform. The game would be available for download on the creators’ original website, anyway.
The problem here though is steam has other games that glorify wanton murder. The fact that it was reinstated and a letter of apology was sent out from Gabe also shows that valve? completely okay with the game. The entire takedown in the first place was probably done by Valve PR, without getting signed off. These things happen within companies that size. Not all the information reaches the head before the arms have finished moving.
I don’t think that’s a “problem”. It was an internal miscommunication – these things happen in companies of large scale – and it’s been resolved, but people claiming that the principle behind the removal was censorship were wrong.
Valve has in no way attempted to prevent the game being sold or made. They merely, for a time, opted not to endorse it themselves. That isn’t censorship, and to suggest so is an insult to any individual or country that has had to suffer under it.
you can’t pick and choose though. If you don’t want to sell games that glorify wanton murder, you can’t only not sell one of them. Course that point is moot considering they do want to sell it.
The other point that you might want to consider is, that unless your a triple A company, your game won’t sell if it’s not on steam. It’s the same principle that’s behind the selling of cigarettes in the UK. If people can’t see something, they won’t buy it.
Valve just happens to be so big that steam dwarfs all other platforms that sell games digitally. The majority of people wouldn’t even considering buying a game if it wasn’t available on steam.
I think we can all agree that the internet in china is heavily censored? But if they went somewhere else everything would be fine. Net as normal. Think of it like that. Valve (for a short period of time) got rid of a product they didn’t believe in. just like china gets rid of the parts of the internet it doesn’t believe in. Sure you could go to the developer website, but do you trust them not to steal your money? In the same way that sure the people of china could use proxies, or leave their country, but the associated risks rise above what the majority are willing to do.
Yes long and ranty, I was just trying to explain why they believe it was censorship.
But they can see it. There are various gaming sites that sell video games via online platform – GreenManGaming, GOG, Origin, etc. – and just because you don’t use them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Valve has no obligation to sell products that they don’t wish to, and for you to argue that they should is more reminiscent of totalitarian regimes than their refusal.
For example, if I owned a store, and if you were a product manufacturer that made Praise Hitler t-shirts, I would be under no obligation to sell them, and it’s not censorship to refuse. I am one retailer that does not wish to endorse your product, out of many equivalent ones that also offer the same services under a different brand, potentially based in the same region.
That situation far from the government actively deleting any reference to the game that exists in their country, blocking all citizens from accessing it to the point of needing a VPN simply to visit YouTube, and punishing any defiance of this with prison, labour camps, or death.
It’s somewhat hypocritical for them to refuse to sell Hatred when they sell Postal and Postal 2, yes, but it’s hardly censorship. I have had friends who’ve lived under the thumb of despots in their lives, from China to the Baltics to Turkey, and for you to trivialise their experiences by claiming that Steam not wanting to sell a game is somehow reminiscent of the censorship and oppression they’ve had to endure is frankly rather ignorant and misinformed.
You’ll find that I was not trivialising anything. What I did do is draw a parallel between something big, and something small.
Secondly, Origin is the EA store front, no non-EA game will be sold on it, same can be said for most online store fronts out there. with the exception of GMG and GOG. But with those two I direct you to my previous point. If people can’t see something, they won’t buy it.
Going back to my china parallel, for the most part, they see what they are allowed to see correct? Of course there’s a way round that in the form of a VPN. Shockingly the people that know about VPN’s are a minority.
In the same way, people that know there are other general storefronts apart from steam? They would be a minority. So when something is so big that it blots out the view of other alternatives, then refuses to show/give/sell something that otherwise the general person would never see nor hear about? sounds strangely like censorship to me.
Your argument is basically, they didn’t want to sell it so they don’t have to. My argument is that they are such an inconceivably big company that they have an obligation to at least /show/ us the game, Because otherwise it is censorship. You can argue that it’s not, and how dare I compare steam refusing to sell a game to the hardships of the people in china, but it was a valid parallel. Just as the folks over there can use a VPN to get around the internet blocks, folks over here can go to the smaller, almost unknown storefront. and they are almost unknown compared to steam.