Valve faces backlash with "Active Shooter" video game - Valve content control at work

Part two of Valve's content control hitting the news.

http://abc7ny.com/entertainment/active-shooter-video-game-draws-backlash-from-parents/3524668/

A video game allowing players to play as an "active shooter" is drawing backlash from parents.

"It turns my stomach it makes me sick to watch it," said parent Stephanie Robinett.

Around noon on Friday, Stephanie Robinett found out about the video game titled "Active Shooter." The mother of three said she couldn't believe a game like this exists, reports KCPQ.

"How could anyone think this is ok?" she said.

Active Shooter is set to be available for download on Steam, a digital distribution platform for video games. Steam is developed by the Bellevue, Wash.- based company Valve.

Valve itself did not create the game, but is providing the platform for people to access it.

"It's not ok to do it in a school and any reasonable company should know that," Robinett said.

Robinett says she cant just sit by and do nothing. In about six hours, Robinett got organized, creating a petition on Change.org.

The petition already has more than a thousand signatures. She says she has only one goal.

"I want them to pull the game simple, just pull it," Robinett said.

Robinett said in the world we live in today, this game just crosses the line.

 

[CIA Nigger]

Counter Strike should be banned, it's a game about playing as terrorists, taking hostages and planting C4s. It also makes anyone who plays it want to shoot up a school.

 

[Teri-Teri]

Counter Strike should be banned, it's a game about playing as terrorists, taking hostages and planting C4s. It also makes anyone who plays it want to shoot up a school.

That reminds me of a high school student suspended for creating a map based on his school.

 

[Grog]

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.W.A.T member or the actual shooter. Lead your team, extract civilians and neutralize the shooter.

So it's singleplayer hostage mode Counter Strike but with added edge and controversy. Certainly the game looks like something you could easily find in some Garry's Mod server.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Watched the trailer, looks like a really lame clone of SWAT4 with shitty assets. People get mad over this?
That being said, I don't want such edgy garbage on Steam cause the shop is bloated with shitty games as it is.

 

[Mr. Poker in the Front Liquor in the Rear]

It's not something I'd ever buy or recommend, but I'm not going to call for it to be banned either. It looks terrible, but I don't like the concept of banning anything that someone disagrees with.

Freedom of speech involves people getting offended. I think the news coverage of mass shooting incidents is far more harmful than any completely fictional game.

 

[Bussy Catalog]

Uhm, have they completely forgotten about Hatred?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qV3PhvCf_Jg

Yes, and if it wasn't for the controversy everyone else would have too. It was a totally forgettable mediocre game and the violence was the only hook it had.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Yes, and if it wasn't for the controversy everyone else would have too. It was a totally forgettable mediocre game and the violence was the only hook it had.

I thought it was all right. But I love top down shooters.

 

[Billy_Sama]

I am just loving that fact that Steam's gravy train of easy money with little effort is now biting them in the ass. I remember looking through the Steam's store for quality stuff (compared to now) years ago, now its filled with Unity assets flips and cringey dating games.

 

[Sargoy of Mossad]

The developer is smart as fuck; Google sees "active shooter" as an important news keyword and puts the game on the first page when you search for "Steam" on Google.

Valve make millions of shekels from the salt generated by these edgy games.

 

[José Mourinho]

Game looks pretty low quality and there’s asset flipping, which is sadly common in generic Steam games nowadays.

Usually people can just ignore it, but nope they decide to flip their shit over it being a school shooting game and gave it more attention.

Great job.

 

[NotSoGreatLord]

I'll paraphrase what I said in the first thread on the subject: If Hatred is sold on Steam, then this game has every right to be sold on there as well. But it's stupid that a game like Hatred gets a pass and games like HuniePop are getting the ax.

 

[Maxliam]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/866890/Active_Shooter/

Dev is already saying he might puss out about the shooter part of the game. Frankly this is the time to make sure it's in there because there will be no pleasing those soccer moms. Hell I would have never heard of this game if it weren't in the news. It looks shitty but I'm kinda interested in trying it out to see if it is even remotely playable/fun. It probalby won't be but whatever.

 

[Rihanna Ikari]

Please note:
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 (or applicable). Thank you

There's a disclaimer on the store page like it's fucking 13 Reasons Why. (Then again, the multiple disclaimers haven't stopped the 13RW sperging.)

 

[Jarilo182]

All the controversy will do is sell more copies, I'm hoping it doesn't get censored or removed.

 

[c-no]

Tbh I don't know what the hell they were expecting. The only semi-legit reason I see for launching this is to attention whore.

What would expect from a dev behind Tide Pods and Furry.

Don't let your kids buy the game. It's that simple.

That'd be too much work compared to shrieking over this game and demanding Gabe to take it down. While this game would no doubt sound disrespectful and such with recent school shootings, complaining about it will just get the dev attention and will likely have people buy it because of the Streisand Effect.

Watched the trailer, looks like a really lame clone of SWAT4 with shitty assets. People get mad over this?
That being said, I don't want such edgy garbage on Steam cause the shop is bloated with shitty games as it is.

Despite being a game where you play as a school shooter, the fact you can also play as a cop would lend more credence to one seeing it as a shitty SWAT 4. Only reason one would see people angry over this is that you pretty much have this banking on school shootings of today. If people didn't really give this game attention, it really could of died and ended up being another shovelware shit title in the depths of the Steam store.

 

[Lioness]

Valve will be removing the game after investigating the creator (perhaps or perhaps not) due to the petition. Here is their response.

"We have removed the developer Revived Games and publisher ACID from Steam.

This developer and publisher is, in fact, a person calling himself Ata Berdiyev, who had previously been removed last fall when he was operating as "[bc]Interactive" and "Elusive Team". Ata is a troll, 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.

The broader conversation about Steam's content policies is one that we'll be addressing soon."

 

[AnonAutismo]

Where's Ryan Lambourn when you need him?

 

[Jarilo182]

Spoiler: Links to Game and Article

https://buy.acid.software/product/standoff-early-access/

https://nypost.com/2018/06/13/active-shooter-game-developer-vows-to-continue-selling-online/

HARTFORD, Conn. — The developer of a school-shooting video game is vowing to continue selling it online as parents of slain children and other mass shooting victims work to get the game wiped off the internet.

The “Active Shooter” game was created by Anton Makarevskiy, a 21-year-old developer from Moscow, Russia, and is being marketed by his entity Acid Software. Acid said in a Twitter posting Tuesday that it will not be censored and cited free expression rights.

The news coverage seemed to end after it was pulled from Steam, but the all the seller did was release it (still in Early Access, but further along) on his website under a new name: "Standoff".

I haven't played it yet because it requires you to shell out $20, but hey: the game is still alive.

 

[Ineedahero]

Spoiler: Links to Game and Article

https://buy.acid.software/product/standoff-early-access/

https://nypost.com/2018/06/13/active-shooter-game-developer-vows-to-continue-selling-online/

HARTFORD, Conn. — The developer of a school-shooting video game is vowing to continue selling it online as parents of slain children and other mass shooting victims work to get the game wiped off the internet.

The “Active Shooter” game was created by Anton Makarevskiy, a 21-year-old developer from Moscow, Russia, and is being marketed by his entity Acid Software. Acid said in a Twitter posting Tuesday that it will not be censored and cited free expression rights.

The news coverage seemed to end after it was pulled from Steam, but the all the seller did was release it (still in Early Access, but further along) on his website under a new name: "Standoff".

I haven't played it yet because it requires you to shell out $20, but hey: the game is still alive.

When valve calls you a troll and says they will never do business with you, your vidya career is probably over.

 

[Jarilo182]

When valve calls you a troll and says they will never do business with you, your vidya career is probably over.

As long as Steam dominates the PC gaming market, that is.