School Shooting game on steam

[spartaman64]

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The unreleased game’s Steam store page describes it as a “dynamic S.W.A.T. simulator” in which you play as a shooter, a S.W.A.T. team member trying to neutralize them, or a civilian. Its trailer depicts a player running down school halls and through classrooms, indiscriminately murdering teachers until a S.W.A.T. team shows up.

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The game’s Steam forums are dominated by threads calling for the developer to reconsider and for Valve to do something about the game, as well as people criticizing Valve for the fact that it gives the boot to many games containing nudity while letting the likes of Active Shooter fester on digital shelves.

Anti-gun violence charity Infer Trust has called for Valve to remove Active Shooter from Steam altogether. “It is horrendous,” a spokeswoman told the BBC. “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?”

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In response to all of this, Active Shooter’s developer released a statement. “First of all, this game does not promote any sort of violence, especially any sort of a mass shooting,” they wrote in a post on Steam, noting that the game was originally just going to be about S.W.A.T. teams, but then they decided to make shooters and civilians playable as well.

On the surface this does appear really bad especially with recent events and my first reaction was negative towards the game. But I thought about other games where there is a similar dilemma like COD, battlefield, overwatch and csgo where war and terrorism are depicted. It's hard to argue that this game is any more immoral than the other 3 listed imo.

Note: afaik there are only teachers and no children in the game

 

update

the game has been pulled from Steam https://www.pcgamer.com/active-shooter-and-its-developer-have-been-removed-from-steam/

Valve says the dev has a history of customer abuse

ty to Technicolor

 

https://steamed.kotaku.com/school-shooting-game-angers-steam-users-developer-like-1826336524

[iRileyx]

5 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

 

On the surface this does appear really bad especially with recent events and my first reaction was negative towards the game. But I thought about other games where there is a similar dilemma like COD battlefield and csgo where war and terrorism are depicted. It's hard to argue that this game is any more immoral than the other 3 listed imo.

It's in a school, implying children/young people.

 

COD, CS:GO etc don't have you going around shooting children, do they?

[MyName13]

Finally I can practice...evading school shooters

[spartaman64]

Just now, RKRiley said:

It's in a school, meaning children/young people.

 

COD, CS:GO etc don't have you going around shooting children, do they?

by the description i think they only have teachers idk for sure since i havent played the game

[Humbug]

Judging by the response to valve taking down the graphic novels people don't want valve to take stuff like this down. People want zero censorship.

 

But I think Valve will take it down, because the US has a long running school shooting epidemic so it is understandable that people in that country are more sensitive to this.

 

Those of us in other countries obviously will not be as sensitive to this particular issue but we can understand...

 

But again it brings up the issue of different groups of people being offended by different things which makes it impossible to ever come up with a universal standard for censorship.

[Okjoek]

Aint gonna end well.

[Yoinkerman]

It's no more bad taste than "thoughts and prayers"

[Tech_Dreamer]

NVIDIA : The way it's meant to be played.

[ItsMitch]

Legally the developer can argue freedom of expression and freedom of speech when it comes to making a bit of work (probably can argue its "art") so I dunno Valve really want to take action because of the possible legal ramifications sturing from it. 

[spartaman64]

1 minute ago, SC2Mitch said:

Legally the developer can argue freedom of expression and freedom of speech when it comes to making a bit of work (probably can argue its "art") so I dunno Valve really want to take action because of the possible legal ramifications sturing from it. 

probably not against valve since its their store and freedom of speech is usually only against the government

[TimeOmnivore]

As someone who is in no way a psychologist, I'm curious if something like this would help prevent someone from actually shooting up a school, kind of like how games can help some people expel pent-up aggression. This is probably gonna get banned though, because if you think the PR nightmare that was Hatred was bad, this will probably top that several fold. Then again, Americans may be becoming so desensitized to this topic that the outrage won't gain as much traction.

 

5 minutes ago, SC2Mitch said:

Legally the developer can argue freedom of expression and freedom of speech when it comes to making a bit of work (probably can argue its "art") so I dunno Valve really want to take action because of the possible legal ramifications sturing from it. 

Valve is a private company and can ban any game it wants to for any reason. Freedom of expression/speech only protects the authors from legal ramifications (limitations apply) and their works from being banned legally by the government.

[Humbug]

20 hours ago, SC2Mitch said:

Legally the developer can argue freedom of expression and freedom of speech when it comes to making a bit of work (probably can argue its "art") so I dunno Valve really want to take action because of the possible legal ramifications sturing from it. 

Normally Gabe's stance is that everybody finds something offensive so they normally do not take stuff down.

 

But in certain cases like borderline porn (particularly child) they do take it down and then they can use the argument that they are a private company and reserve the right to do business with whoever they choose. Who can force them to sell a particular game? It's their choice...

 

And they do not have a monopoly on PC gaming. Devs can choose to sell on gog, on origin, on battlenet, on uplay or sell directly etc... If Valve had full control of the PC ecosystem then it would be easier to win against them legally. But they just run a store, amongst other stores, and each store can sell whatever the hell they want to. Sure Valve has the most popular and the best store, but they still do not control the platform or even have a monopoly.

 

19 hours ago, TimeOmnivore said:

As someone who is in no way a psychologist, I'm curious if something like this would help prevent someone from actually shooting up a school, kind of like how games can help some people expel pent-up aggression.

Interesting question.

 

But the problem is that school shooters are way beyond the point of just having pent up aggression. They are totally fed up with the world, many of them want to die and in the process they just want to exact as much revenge as they can on the world, and on the people who they think oppress them, and then they think finally I will be famous and I will leave my mark. It's just a giant FU to the world.

 

That state of mind which they have descended into is way beyond pent up aggression.

[trag1c]

So......it's just an American shooting range simulator. New levels coming up concerts, gay nightclubs, movie theatres, army bases and many more.

[TimeOmnivore]

1 minute ago, Humbug said:

That state of mind which they have descended into is way beyond pent up aggression.

True, I was thinking more early on when they're just beginning to consider it, before they've completely fallen off the deep end. It's also highly unlikely they would ever play this game anyways. But I am curious as to whether this may cause even one of them may have second thoughts, though I'd guess that's not something that would really be quantifiable, as I doubt someone who was thinking of shooting people at a school would ever disclose that fact if they changed their mind.

[onlybuilt4cubanxlinx]

Don't like it then don't buy it. Speak with your wallet.

[aezakmi]

Can't wait for the MSM video game experts to show up.

[Daegun]

So the new version of Hatred? 

[Humbug]

Another very unlikely option for Valve is that they could keep the game on steam but region lock it to prevent it from being sold in the USA.

 

That would damage the game sales badly as the US is a big audience and one that is more into guns/shooting than other countries. But from the dev's pov still preferable to completely removing it off of steam.

[Gullerback]

This game is CLEARLY bait.    They want it to be banned so they can go on a free speech offensive

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

31 minutes ago, TimeOmnivore said:

As someone who is in no way a psychologist, I'm curious if something like this would help prevent someone from actually shooting up a school, kind of like how games can help some people expel pent-up aggression. This is probably gonna get banned though, because if you think the PR nightmare that was Hatred was bad, this will probably top that several fold. Then again, Americans may be becoming so desensitized to this topic that the outrage won't gain as much traction.

 

Valve is a private company and can ban any game it wants to for any reason. Freedom of expression/speech only protects the authors from legal ramifications (limitations apply) and their works from being banned legally by the government.

Taking a minor in Psychology and honestly, there is no clear black and white answer. Based on Social Learning Theory, violent video games can be a catalyst to violent acts as we tend to learn social behaviour through imitating others (yes that includes videos games as well as media). But then you have all these e-sports players that literally train by playing shooters day in, and day out, without forming such will to go shoot up a school. 

 

In terms of catharsis, like expelling pent-up aggression, it's been widely debated whether it actually works. For the most part, it's not the most effective at solving anger. It's sort of like an easy way out of it, a temporary fix. It doesn't solve the root of our anger, doesn't allow us to accept it and use it constructively on what to do next. It just makes us feel better by putting it off your shoulder in the mean time. It could come back a few days from now, tomorrow, heck within the next hour, and you'll feel the rage once again. 

[Blademaster91]

16 minutes ago, Gullerback said:

This game is CLEARLY bait.    They want it to be banned so they can go on a free speech offensive

A school shooting game i wouldn't mind being taken off the store. But I dunno about it being bait, seems suspicious though as Valve was so quick and had no issue trying to put a blanket ban on some harmless visual novel games so I also find it sad people are having to fight to get  a school shooting game taken down.

[spartaman64]

1 minute ago, Blademaster91 said:

A school shooting game i wouldn't mind being taken off the store. But I dunno about it being bait, seems suspicious though as Valve was so quick and had no issue trying to put a blanket ban on some harmless visual novel games so I also find it sad people are having to fight to get a school shooting game taken down.

csgo taken down for encouraging terrorism when? Kappa

[Ryujin2003]

How long until they build in a plug-in that does facial processing, so you can put your yearbook photos into the game?

 

Possibilities are endless...

[Humbug]

20 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

How long until they build in a plug-in that does facial processing, so you can put your yearbook photos into the game?

In that case you can do it for the NPCs of other games too... And shoot them.

[Christophe Corazza]

1 hour ago, Gullerback said:

 

This game is CLEARLY bait.    They want it to be banned so they can go on a free speech offensive

 

I’m not sure about this.

There are indeed people who think that such a game is a wonderful idea and who will use the argument of “freedom of speech” to combat any criticism. They’re simply oblivious to it.

I’m not supporting them or anything, but if they feel the need to make such content... you’re “free” after all... aren’t they? However, there is a difference between being allowed to make such content compared to it being appropriate. And that last one is something that they’re obviously struggling with.

 

But then again, what’s the difference between this game and GTA for example?