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‘Ready Or Not’ disappears from Steam after adding tasteless nightclub massacre level on anniversary of Pulse club shooting (UPDATE: trademark dispute)
- Thread starter Loudninja
- Start date
I hope admins consider blacklisting this game after this controversy. Second time they pull something shitty.
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This is fuck up from one of the YouTube comments dont know how anyone defend this shit.
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Mistakes were made! Old quote I forgot to respond to. But, Nex Machina is an incredible game. That wasn't meant to be replied to here.
It does have solid gameplay but ultimately I think since it's going to try to represent real life situations like Pulse and Waco and others soon, that will require a fine touch and I don't think this developer has it in them to avoid these right wing pitfalls, even if there are good people developing the game.
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Its so messed up I dont want to post a vid of the map but yeah thats all there
At its peak of popularity, I watched some military guys roleplayed this game in their stream; By roleplay, I mean playing this game as if they're in a real life mission, lingo and all. I got very uncomfortable quickly when they screamed at every unarmed civilians as they handcuffed them, or how they have this revenge-ish "KILL EM ALL" mentality and got trigger happy after one of their team got taken down.
What the hell even is an "Anal Staircase?" Is it some elaborate sex act I'm not aware of? Is it a Rusty Venture?
More on topic, it seems totally unambiguous to me that these developers were trying to be "Edgelord Controversy: The Game" and hoping to ride that to the bank.
More on topic, it seems totally unambiguous to me that these developers were trying to be "Edgelord Controversy: The Game" and hoping to ride that to the bank.
User Banned (1 Month): Excusing homophobia across a series of posts
The game is a tactical milsim that tries to simulate with maximum accuracy all possible fucked up situations a SWAT-like team would face.
I don't know what you all were expecting. This kind of shit happens all the time everywhere in the world, there are movies, tv shows, books and whatnot about this, why does a game doing the same generate so much drama?
If absurd realism, including precise depiction of this stuff bothers you, there are A LOT of other FPSes and shooters that are not part of this niche.
There are other games that do the same or worse.
I don't know what you all were expecting. This kind of shit happens all the time everywhere in the world, there are movies, tv shows, books and whatnot about this, why does a game doing the same generate so much drama?
If absurd realism, including precise depiction of this stuff bothers you, there are A LOT of other FPSes and shooters that are not part of this niche.
There are other games that do the same or worse.
I saw a song called Anal Staircase by Coil on my industrial playlist from Apple Music. Maybe it has something to do with that song?
Was that map actually added in the update from this week? If I recall there was a nightclub themed map added several months ago. In addition, there is no school themed level at this point in time, I think the devs announced it to stir up controversy which is also what this feels like. Bit of a shame since the game is great mechanically and one of the few spiritual successors to SWAT 3/4.
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I also don't see the inherent issue with this subject matter, like others have said plenty of games have grim situations going on. I take more issue with the game being copaganda than edgy level scenarios.
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I also don't see the inherent issue with this subject matter, like others have said plenty of games have grim situations going on. I take more issue with the game being copaganda than edgy level scenarios.
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This is all true, but one has to wonder if the references and content rollouts are intended to enflame. Like, of all times to release a map based on a club shooting, you do it on the anniversary of one of the worst club shootings in American history? That's the flag people are raising, I find. It's not the content, it's how the content has been presented: specifically, when it was chosen to be released or announced as "ready to play". A week before or later and I doubt a single person would bat an eye or find issue with it. Even so, I'm surprised Steam removed it for this reason.
I'm probably one of the few okay with the school shooter level conceptually, as this unfortunate reality is the one we have and it has been covered in other media. I now wonder if they'd drop the map during a Columbine anniversary, though. Marketing around shock value isn't wise, especially when in terms of the foundation, it really is like SWAT 4, a very tense, moment-by-moment experience. This is enough to make buzz because actual tactical shooters are a handful today, you don't need to fuck it up with a "hey here's our mission inspired by this terrible event, happy anniversary!" kind of thing to sell it.
Guess their sales were down, so they were looking for another school shooting type boost in sales.
I'm sure they feel real bad though and are just trying to pay homage to those affected... by making a game of the Pulse Shooting... on the anniversary. Totally in a respectful way... during pride month.
I'm sure it's all a coincidence, and they didn't mean to cause any harm, or appeal to anyone who might be hateful towards these groups.......
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Because it's not that it's a game doing it of itself, it's that the devs seemingly keep approaching it with a lack of tactfulness until they're called out about it, hence why people bring up all the various assets and what not in the game every time this conversation happens.
Like the fact that it's dealing with a subject that happens in real life is a reason you should care more about how you're depicting, not a reason to go yolo about it: it's the reason why it's not surprising that say, the ARMA devs got asked a question about the war in Ukraine affected their development plans for Reforger and 4 because their entire thing is with simulating conflicts from various eras, and part of that comes into how they decide to portray the sides involved (e.g there's bits in the Contact DLC for ARMA 3 has aged horrifically at this point, for instance)
You seem unnecessarily committed to a game that decided to drop a gay club shooting simulation on the anniversary of the Pulse shooting during Pride Month.
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People seem to be confused this is the final version of the map that just release there no reason why they chose that day to release the final version. You can't tell me that is an accident.
Again I dont get the benefit of doubt for this developer when they shown they don't give a damn about anything.
Again I dont get the benefit of doubt for this developer when they shown they don't give a damn about anything.
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I think the difference between SWAT4 and all these police sims it inspired is that SWAT 4 is not made by people dedicated to making military themed games but Irrational. The game contrasts the human tragedy at the crime scene with the methodical nature of the police actions. The environmental storytelling in SWAT4 is also really critical of a society that necessitate the existence of a SWAT force.
These other games just think role playing SWAT teams is cool.
Could you elaborate on this? Unless I'm misunderstanding the DLC, Contact was a fictional encounter with aliens. How'd they botch that?
You've thrown so many shit arguments at the wall here trying to defend this that I'm almost 100% sure you're arguing in bad faith here but, screw it, I'll respond.
Books, TV shows and movies rarely have events like this depicted without placing them into some sort of context or framing them around a core theme or some sort of socio-political message. The events depicted are used to underline this message or reinforce it in some way. Being a hardcore sim doesn't excuse the game from framing this properly and, having unfortunately played this game, the levels have never done anything in this regard. There is no context given to the violence you're presented beyond "bad dudes did this and now you must apprehend"
Secondly, the release date is extremely suspect ESPECIALLY given the previous bad actions that the dev showed. At this point, the onus is on the devs to prove good intent and releasing a level about it a club shooting on the anniversary of the Pulse shooting is unnecessarily traumatic and even more so given that the victims in that case belonged to yet another minority population that has historically been maligned, downtrodden and oppressed in the US. Releasing this particular level on this particular day is another event that showcases extremely poor judgement from any dev. Given the past actions of this dev, it reeks of malice.
Lastly, "other games do the same" is a lazy argument. Just because other games are also tasteless doesn't give these devs an excuse to do the same.
However, I'll be personally shocked if you even come back into this thread to acknowledge any of the posts that pointed out the terribly short-sighted nature of your post. Every time something like this happens, someone posts similar drive-by sentiments and then peace's out of further discussion and I suspect that's the case here.
tl;dr the climax of the DLC is that you have to stop the not![Eastern European country that has had long standing tensions with Belarus and Russia since its independence] forces from destroying an alien node because it'll violently explode on a "there won't be much of Eastern Europe left if it blows up" basis, due to incidents happening around the arrival causing a major drop in relationships between NATO and said country and resulting misunderstandings about what the aliens are doing here.
You do this with the help of Russian special forces who basically call in a full blown invasion force to force them back.
And, well, yeah I don't think I need to say anymore. :v
Calling the Night Club "Prysm" is also egregiously suspect of their intentions.
A Prism is a crystal when raised to white light will refract it into colors of the pattern of a rainbow. I shouldn't need to explain also the representation of the Rainbow Flag in this context either.
The assholes from Void Interactive knew exactly what are doing. Steam made the right decision by excising their game from the platform. Void doesn't get a fucking pass for this shit.
A Prism is a crystal when raised to white light will refract it into colors of the pattern of a rainbow. I shouldn't need to explain also the representation of the Rainbow Flag in this context either.
The assholes from Void Interactive knew exactly what are doing. Steam made the right decision by excising their game from the platform. Void doesn't get a fucking pass for this shit.
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The finish version was release days ago thats why alot of people are talking about it now. Look on youtube.
you conveniently omitted to acknowledge the nightclub massacre level releasing on the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting.
the goal is not realism or precision, it's something more malicious.
fuck that company.
you can tac milsim without a single fucking dogwhistle.
even the game's title reminds me of the kind of shit i would read on law enforcement supporter and white pride message boards about how the Race War or boogaloo is coming wether you're ready for it or not.
you can tac milsim without a single fucking dogwhistle.
even the game's title reminds me of the kind of shit i would read on law enforcement supporter and white pride message boards about how the Race War or boogaloo is coming wether you're ready for it or not.
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I case people want to know supporters got this update with the maps a few days ago vidoes all over Youtube
afaik the update was only available for the beta branch, it isn't out for everybody, so I really can't say for sure that they did that on purpose. If they did, then I completely agree that it's an absolutely shitty thing to do.
Fair enough. And didn't know that about the new content from ArmA.
I just absolutely love milsims. And like it or not this game is the most complete and feature rich Urban Milsim we have.
I am not American and I had no idea about the existence of this shooting (sorry but shootings are not uncommon in the USA). It's honestly the first time I heard about this specific shooting.
I didn't post in bad faith.
And my arguments are "shitty" because you don't agree with them but ok.
Like I said to Nepenthe, I didn't even knew about this shooting before.
Also, this update is starting to add context to missions, etc.
I haven't played Ready or Not, but if it's attempting to simulate a hostile shooter situation from the perspective of a SWAT officer, I think it might make sense that the framing or context of any given incident is sparse. Often times the criminals' motives or backgrounds aren't known until after the situation has been resolved. I imagine the game gives the player a small briefing of information that might realistically be known in a real-life scenario (something like "the location is X, there are roughly Y number of suspects and Z number of civilians, phone calls from hiding civilians indicate that the suspects are heavily armed and executing hostages") and then throws them into the entry planning phase.
You can argue that the game would be better off with an overarching narrative or more background information built into the missions, but if the devs are just trying to make a purely mechanical simulator, I can see why they would choose not to focus on that.
Context to missions?
No amount of context is going to handwave why they named the video game club "Prysm" which is self explanatory in my previous post.
It's absolutely a reference to Pulse. The timing is extremely suspect. It's Pride month, nevermind releasing on the very anniversary of the Pulse Shooting.
Context to missions doesn't really matter if they are so blatantly egregious about it. Void Interactive knows exactly what they are trying to do all implications considered. Fuck 'em!
No amount of context is going to handwave why they named the video game club "Prysm" which is self explanatory in my previous post.
It's absolutely a reference to Pulse. The timing is extremely suspect. It's Pride month, nevermind releasing on the very anniversary of the Pulse Shooting.
Context to missions doesn't really matter if they are so blatantly egregious about it. Void Interactive knows exactly what they are trying to do all implications considered. Fuck 'em!
I know absolutely nothing about this title and after seeing a single screenshot, no thanks, ever.
"It's just an unfortunate series of coincidences by the fine people who tried to Kavanaugh their way out of their last series of unfortunate coincidences by pretending 'noggin joggers' is actually a common phrase."
Also, referring to a law enforcement game as a "Milsim" is pretty gross. I know it's probably accurate and all, but it's still gross.
Also, referring to a law enforcement game as a "Milsim" is pretty gross. I know it's probably accurate and all, but it's still gross.
You came into a thread with "Pulse nightclub shooting" in the title, skipped multiple posts where people explained the issue and the problem with releasing the content on this anniversary and jumped straight to defending the decision of the devs to release this content on this particular date.
When you did that, you didn't address the actual issue of the (at best) gross insensitivity of the release date and you also didn't address the fact that this is the third time the devs have had to address self-created issues around the specific awfulness of their content and the 2nd time where their content has a definite far-right extremist tinge.
Once again, the problem here is not exclusively with what you seem to be hung up on which is the realism of scenario or the realistic roleplay that the game offers. The problem is that they dropped this content with 0 explanation or attempt to prep people on the 1 day out of 365 which was the anniversary of the shooting. They could have literally chosen any other day or even any other week and the players wouldn't have known the difference. Choosing to release on this one day which represents a significant trauma point for many LGBTQ Americans really feels like a deliberate choice made to antagonize and taunt them. "Hey, use this day to relive one of the worst terrorist attacks on your community" is a shit pitch and is the equivalent of releasing a "Mosque shooting scenario" on the anniversary of the Christchurch shooting or a "apprehend the bomber" scenario on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. At best it's ignorant, at worst it's targeted to opportunistically generate sales off the dead and it's always cruel.
The reason that I think you're arguing in bad faith is you literally ignored all that context in an attempt to tell people that actually, the devs didn't do anything wrong. It's worse because you admitted to not even doing basic ass research on the event that's the focus of this entire problem, the Pulse shooting, despite it being repeatedly mentioned in the thread. Coming in after and saying "oh, I'm not from America so I couldn't know" doesn't hold water as an excuse unless you're also unable to read and use Google.
Since you bought it up, which of my opinions do you disagree with?
The opinion that you didn't actually engage with the thread content?
The opinion that you didn't engage with the criticism of the release date?
The opinion that the criticism is valid?
The opinion that saying "other games do this" is a lazy way of thinking?
Something else?
Lastly, even if the purpose of this update is to add context, there is no context that you can add that makes releasing this content on this specific date OK. That's literally the problem that people are describing.
The problem is that the Developer can delay or not release on the anniversary of the nightclub shooting.
And this is not the first time they did it.
They clearly know a part of their audience and are trying to cater for them. I sometimes wonder how big that part really is.
As someone that was interested in this game as the SWAT spiritual sequel many of us wanted, every bad or outright shitty thing that comes out of the developer makes me less and less interested. It's just done a complete 180 for me in terms of hype.
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If people actually thought Steam would care about shit like this I don't know what to tell you. Gabe didn't give a fuck about Hatred, he surely doesn't care shit about a few school or club shootings in poor taste by some troll shitheads.
Steam does not give a single fuck about people, and yet people will back it for all it's worth.
I was foolish enough to give them the benefit of the doubt after the school level incident, thinking it was just a dev that didn't think their response through properly. I really regret it now. This cannot be accidental. Going to try and see if Steam will refund me, but I doubt it seeing as I've had the game since January.