Gamers Are Going to Have to Step Up Part 2: Hatred Edition (UPDATED)

Less then a month ago, I wrote the first part of this article. Since writing that, we have seen such motives in action. The day after I wrote it, the #Gamergte movement pushed a developer through Greenlight because some assholes online decided her involvement with it meant her game should not be sold. If you read the comments on part 1, we had a troll show up who didn’t like being told that OR that he apparently cared enough to post 6 of the 9 comments on that very article. It was amusing, but the really good news is this developer got through Greenlight because people have had enough of the SJW “do as I say or you don’t get work” bullshit.

But sadly, a darker event has now also occurred. Do you remember the game Hatred? It was announced a few months ago, and if you need a reminder, you can watch the trailer here, courtesy of PC Games. Now that you know what the game is, did you know it was on greenlight? I say was because Valve took it down, which is where I have an issue.

Greenlight was made to let the users decide what they want on the Steam service, and while shit does get across, it was valuable because it gave us, the gamers, a chance to decide what games we wanted to see and play rather then just leaving it in the hands of publishers who will take the “appeals to most people” approach which leaves us all with basically the same game repeated in each genre. I’m not even saying there isn’t a place for that, but to have the ability to supplement that ourselves was a great thing.

Sadly, I now have to say was because Valve has set a new president by removing the game Hatred from this function. At the time it was removed, it was one of the top 10 games being considered, and the reason we have been given by Valve is vauge at best. They claim a breach of Terms of Service, though what that breach was is unknown. From our end, we can determine it’s not the quality of the end product, for we have seen outright broken and unfinished messes make it to Steam through Greenlight. We can also assume it was not offensive enough in it’s own right, for they have the three Postal games available for sale as we speak… the first of which I have personally owned and played the CD version back when it came out, and which seems to me exactly what this new game is with some graphical updates. And unless a new trailer came out I am not aware of, the game is not porn. It seems, rather, that the only reason this game was removed, was because someone with a stick up their ass reported it.

So the question becomes why do I personally care and why should you? Well if you wanted to buy this game when it comes out and now have one less way to do so, you should care, but this is not where I sit. When I played the original release (Postal) I found it dull as hell and had no interest in playing it again after about 20 minutes. However, by removing a game that clearly the audience wanted, Valve has rendered their own tool through which we are supposed to be given the collective ability to choose games for the service we want to use, compromised. We have now been shown this tool will only work as well as the company lets it, and not to the original intent of letting gamers have control of their service. As such, we gamers now will need to begin thinking of going not just around the journalists with an axe to grind, but the tools we ourselves have access to.

I know in this particular case, even as I still will not be buying the game, I intend to help those who want to. I will be looking to see who sells the game and spreading the word here for anyone who wants it. I would actually love to see a database for such a purpose arise out of this situation, but seeing as my time is too limited to maintain such a thing, I would not be able to or in all fairness ask another to do it for me. Still, I recommend at the very least we keep open and spread the word amongst our own. That way. we as gamers can still take the power to decide what games we have access to, even if others try to take action to remove the game so others can not buy what they do not like. That is not a power I will give up without a fight.

UPDATE: As of now, not only is Hatred back on Greenlight, but it is number 1 in the charts. While this is a great development (as it shows gamers will get what they wanted from the service) this episode still showed a weakness. And while a need to give a link to sources may be gone for now, we can’t walk away from this lesson. We need to be ready to do this for any game we believe unfairly hiddne from it’s audience. This showed us it can happen… and sadly I do not doubt it will eventually.

14 comments:

  1. Rumsfeld: "You Go To War With The Army You Have---not The Army You Might Want Or Wish To Have At A Later Time."

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  2. No one cares. Not trolling just stating the obvious.
    Maybe 100 people know what Hatred is. And your example last time was "PorkSwaggle" or something like that...
    Who cares about these indie games that 15 people are gonna play?
    How bout MCC or ACU not working properly? How bout all the remakes and that new games are being produced? How bout some real stories.
    RAISE THE BATTLECRY!
    P.S. you had to declare him a troll to win a discussion... I want to see a scanned picture of your P.H.D. from Psychiatric school please...
    P.P.S. The Watchmen quote was trolling and you didn't even recognize what it was implying.

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    1. ....9 posts now? You dont care THHIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSS much. :)

      -Megabyte

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    2. I enjoy that you did not address a single point mentioned. Who is the troll now?
      You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

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  3. 'You don't understand now what I am doing, but someday you will." - Jesus

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    1. Owned. Megabyte sit down.
      Or write some real news articles. Find a cause to live for that isn't so goddamn minute.

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    2. Funny... but I never claimed to be a games journalist, so you might want to cool your jets there.

      And while you are at it, why don't you call a doctor to take care of that diarrhea flying out of your ass... Can't be healthy to have had a bout of diarrhea to drop 6 comments on a post you dont give a shit about 2 weeks ago and then again another 6 now... must be a lot of butthurt too, I imagine....

      -Megabyte

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    3. "Clever, Peter. Did you stay up all night writing that?" -Brian Griffin

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  4. Again.
    Stop trolling. (Poop jokes are most definitely trolling)
    And if you aren't a game journalist then why are you posting articles about gaming?
    P.S. Butthurt. Another word that doesn't mean what you think it means.
    P.P.S. at least someone is commenting huh?

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    1. Your entire argument was "nobody cares; stop posting articles" and your accusing Megabyte of "trolling"? I hope that you've truly fucked off after these past 6 days because you have absolutely no ground to stand on.

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    2. Padmasher. You clearly don't understand what trolling is either.
      I clearly made a claim. Backed it up (How many posts on reddit/r/gaming about gamergate do you see?)
      All done in order to see better more high quality posts about real gaming news and make a difference to improve this site.
      Also to defend the guy who had posted on the previous entry about this.
      That is by definition the opposite of trolling.
      Please leave your basement now. There is a bright big world out there.

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    3. P.S. Padmasher. Swearing doesn't make you more grown up or your argument any more relevant.
      Toodles.

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  5. From what I understand about the whole Hatred thing, it was something about it being shot down due to bad press by other gaming journals/news sites due to its graphic nature or something, unlike Postal and all that. I think Valve was responding more to the heat of that press than anything. But, I don't know. I only caught it as a blurb somewhere on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and didn't really study the article that much.

    -- Cougarmint

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  6. http://i.imgur.com/kvXicgp.gifv

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