School shooting mod (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and WHAT'S WRONG WITH PEOPLE) - by june gloom
Renzatic on 20/3/2011 at 18:25
Quote Posted by Pardoner
Interested to know if Aerothorn will be including this in his book chapter next to the unconscionable and senseless Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden.
...what's so unconscionable about Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden that requires it to be brought up in a conversation about a school shooting mod?
june gloom on 20/3/2011 at 19:28
Quote Posted by catbarf
I'm not sure that giving them attention by acquiescing to their 'demands' is establishing a good trend. I agree that the mod doesn't paint gamers in a good light, but telling the Jack Thompson types that we'll do what they ask is alarming at best.
Except what they are asking is for (
http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/pc/news/jack-thompson-emerges-from-hiding-to-threaten-valve-over-school-shooting-mod/a-20110318143944575095/g-2006032219817514003) Valve to block access to this mod. What moddb is doing is a little gamer self-governing. Under the circumstances it's the most responsible thing to do. It's not giving in to moral guardians' demands, because their demands are unrealistic and unhinged. It's saying that gamers as a subculture, who tolerate quite a lot of bullshit, will not tolerate this mod because it crosses a very distant, very hard to cross line.
Aja on 20/3/2011 at 23:09
Quote Posted by dethtoll
By taking a stand against this mod we're proving that we won't accept this kind of soulless bullshit nor will we just sit back while the moral guardians whisper poison into an easily-panicked public's ears.
No, by supporting a ban you're simply appointing yourself as moral guardian. You might feel comfortable drawing a line, but I sure don't.
june gloom on 21/3/2011 at 00:20
Just because we have free speech doesn't mean that some speech isn't harmful. It's like the difference between "I hate niggers" and "let's burn niggers" in US law- one gets you flipped off at, the other gets you arrested.
In this case, moddb felt the mod posed problems to themselves, the users of the site, and to gaming in general. Aside from the fact that it's their prerogative what to do with the content available on the site, they saw the mod as excessively harmful- going into "let's burn niggers" territory- and removed it.
Simply deleting it from moddb isn't going to stop its availability; moddb are well aware of that. While on the surface they're merely covering their asses, by acknowledging the mod crossed the line and dissociating themselves from it they are saying "we as modders and gamers do not accept this, it is not us."
DDL on 21/3/2011 at 00:55
I can't help but think that doing that simply helps shift it from "lol wut? meh" territory, into "OMG MUST HUNT DOWN AND TRY IT" territory.
Shit games are shit. Banned shit games are still shit, but hey: "if they've been banned there must be something going on there, amirite?"
This is how people think. And hell, even if I'm wrong here, the game has now gone from "bizarre mod that enjoyed a moderate following for a few weeks before being largely forgotten, because it was shit" to "sickening school shooter deemed too controversial for moddb".
When it comes to publicity, all press is good press.
gunsmoke on 21/3/2011 at 02:31
*claps* DDL gets it right.
And ModDB are just covering their own asses in a thinly veiled attempt at having 'high moral standands' just because the game may get some bad press in the mainstream for 1/2 a day until the media moves on to the next irrelevant story. I say, "Grow some balls". This is far from the end of the world, and in a week people would have forgotten all about it and moved on. Instead, by making a big stink about it, they actually drew attention to the mod. If they would have shut the fuck up and not tried to soap box the decision to remove it, it would have been the non-issue it always should have been. Now it is bigger story than it deserves to be.
Aerothorn on 21/3/2011 at 03:32
I think my irony meter may be broken - I'm *assuming* this is a joke (how is Barkley unconscionable?) but I'm not getting the punchline. And I'm really not being a smartass here - I suspect that was clever and I just missed it. I'm tired.
But for what it's worth, the Barkley chapter was cut. Le sigh.
Then again, I've got a chapter on Dear Esther, which dethtoll will probably finc just as obnoxious as one done on this mod.
I'll also second Wormrat - The Escapist's attempt to distance "us normal gamers" from the author was sloppy and not at all defended. I mean, whenever you say it's "impossible" to argue something, you're setting yourself up for a fall.
