
For anyone who stopped reading SJW websites in the wake of #GamerGate (and if so, good on you), you may have missed several articles in which these supposed gaming “journalists” (among them none other than Nathan Grayson, one of the original “Five Guys” from the Zoe Quinn scandal) condemning a game on Steam Greenlight called Hatred. Hatred explores the world of a mass murderer by allowing you to murder innocents from an isometric viewpoint. Here is a screenshot of the carnage that players’ poor impressionable minds would be subjected to, were this atrocity to be allowed to be sold:
Sorry about that. Anyway, after a slew of articles about how sickening and repulsive the gameplay is, Steam responded to the criticism from our favorite clickbait websites by issuing the following statement:
UPDATE 15/12/2014 7.14pm Valve has removed Hatred from Steam Greenlight.
“Based on what we’ve see on Greenlight we would not publish Hatred on Steam. As such we’ll be taking it down,” – Valve’s Doug Lombardi
This despite Hatred being ranked #7 (out of over 2,000 games on Greenlight!) and garnering “Yes” votes from 93% of the people who viewed Hatred on Greenlight.
And the purpose of Greenlight is…
For those of you who don’t know, Steam Greenlight is a mechanism by which developers who do not work for established studios can pitch their game ideas to customers. Those customers then vote on which games they would like to see on Steam, and periodically Valve will select the top twenty or so and publish those games on their service. This is a very valuable prize in and of itself, considering that Steam is the highest grossing digital distribution platform in the entire world, and is even considered by some to have saved PC gaming altogether.
With such a high percentage of “Yes” votes, you might ask yourselves why Greenlight exists. TotalBiscuit certainly did:
And it’s not like Steam doesn’t already have its fair share of innocents being slaughtered en masse by machine-gun toting psychos.
A brief history of violence in gaming
Once there was a game called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which had a scene so controversial that Infinity Ward, the developer, even included a disclaimer AND allowed you the option to skip the scene. I doubt most people did – this is akin to a psychological test in which you are placed in a room with a big red button and told not to push it, then left alone. Of course you’re going to push the button. And of course you’re going to shoot up the airport.
Wouldn’t you know it, this game is available for purchase on Steam! This much more realistic depiction of violence on civilians can be yours for just $19.99, but take my advice and wait for the next seasonal sale. You could be murderin’ for five bucks, probs.