ModDB Shuts Down School Shooter Mod

[Greg Tito]

ModDB Shuts Down School Shooter Mod

The website that hosted materials for School Shooter: North American Tour 2012 decided to completely remove the mod from its database.

Jack Thompson even sounded off [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108065-Inside-the-Sick-Mind-of-a-School-Shooter-Mod] with a letter to Gabe Newell of Valve, supposedly because the mod uses the Half-Life source code and Newell has the authority to stop it. In response to all the unwanted attention, the administrators of ModDB, the self-proclaimed largest repository of games, mods and addons on the web, removed School Shooter: North American Tour 2012. INtense!, the Managing Director of ModDB owners DesuraNET, said that although he respects a creator's right to free speech, he thought that School Shooter was deliberately in bad taste and ceased hosting it to remove any confusion that his website supported or encouraged such content.

"We believe in the freedom of speech, the right to share information and be creative. We have enjoyed watching mod developers push the boundaries for years and create amazing content, and shall always do this," INtense! said. "On one hand we find the content to be deliberately offensive and in poor taste, but on the other we also feel people should have the right to be creative and share what they want."

The problem ModDB faced was that it received a flood of hate emails from ignorant people who assumed that the website was a haven for miscreants and degenerates. "We are currently receiving quite a bit of threatening mail as people believe we are the creators, supporters and makers of this content. I want to stress that this absolutely isn't the case. We have never encouraged or made any content, we disagree with the mod."

INtense! felt that the only way to protect the rest of the authors on ModDb was to remove School Shooter entirely. "We don't want the hard work of thousands of other mod developers to be threatened by people misunderstanding this one mod/game, and assuming all others are like it."

I first brought the School Shooter mod to the attention of the world because I seriously thought it crossed the line from a mature-rated videogame into something wholly other. Speaking to Pawnstick did little to dissuade me from the conclusion that this mod was the project of someone who might be capable of, say, shooting up innocent students at his school, and did little to move the medium forward. Another interviewer at Beefjack.com [http://beefjack.com/features/interview-checkerboarded-studios-on-school-shooter/] asked Pawnstick who the intended audience of School Shooter is and he replied, "Anyone who wants to be a school shooter, but is too big of a pussy to actually do anything."

I think that sentiment is downright frightening and has no place in the videogame industry. I support ModDB's action to no longer host or support School Shooter: North American Tour 2012.

Source: ModDB [http://www.moddb.com/news/why-we-removed-the-school-shooter-mod]

Permalink

 

[Bretty]

I am glad this was taken down.

This is just as lame and pointless as Rapelay IMO.

 

[James Raynor]

And ModDB crumbles under pressure.

 

[sir.rutthed]

Ya, this mod needs to burn in Hell. Props to those guys for having the moral fortitude to take it down. Seems to me the guy who made it is either incapable of empathy, or an epic troll. Either way, there's no reason for this mod to exist; it's just sick.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Indeed, if the kid wants people to play it then let him distribute it on his own so that he can take all the shit for it.

Also, since Gabe Newell never did do anything (not like he could) did Jack Thompson ever follow up on his threat?

 

[PoweD]

IMO This should have the right to be released.
Anything that resembles school shootings is the name and the maps.

 

[Drummie666]

Now Jack will say that Newell told them to take down the mod and they did so and Jack won't learn anything!

 

[FogHornG36]

Slippery slope there, when you do something like this you are pointing out that there is a line to be crossed, and now people like Jack are going to start arguing were exactly that line should be.

Also, if the creates of the mod realy have some balls, they will keep working on it and post it on their own website, but there is a chance that they are just a bunch of d-bags looking for attention.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Works for me. People deliberately being morons is bad.
Pawnstick probably needed a few more slaps around the ear as a child.

I don't usually do this but, captcha: and/or lemroll.
Wat?

 

[Fappy]

They did the right thing. They have a responsibility to represent themselves and the modders they host.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Frankly, that's a bit disappointing. It reminds me of that incident with South Park being censored because of threats, which was atrocious.

The mod was horrible and offensive in theory, but if you never saw the backstory and just saw the gameplay, you'd have no idea it was anything other than a standard survival mod with the gimmick that you have to shoot first. The whole thing just seems blown out of proportion to me, considering the huge disconnect between content and what the content represents.

I understand their choice, and this is not a mod I would mourn at all, but I feel a little sad whenever something like this happens. Although I think this guy didn't intend to innovate at all, there's bound to be others that want to push boundaries that are going to find their freedom is conditional as a result of precedent.

 

[manythings]

And ModDB crumbles under pressure.

Yeah, businesses sure hate it when douchebags who pretend their crap has real value make them look bad. Who do those assholes think they are protecting their own interests at the expense of one tactless twat?

 

[Jaebird]

Another interviewer at Beefjack.com [http://beefjack.com/features/interview-checkerboarded-studios-on-school-shooter/] asked Pawnstick who the intended audience of School Shooter is and he replied, "Anyone who wants to be a school shooter, but is too big of a pussy to actually do anything."

I think that sentiment is downright frightening and has no place in the videogame industry.

Truer words have never been spoken, Mr. Tito.

 

[Void(null)]

And yet we have films such as:

Duck! The Carbine High Massacre

 

[Armored Prayer]

Glad its down.

I have no issues with the game itself, but that guy seemed like a heartless dick and I will not support a man like that.

 

[HyperionToASatyr]

Successful troll is epic-level successful.

 

[Virgil]

IMO This should have the right to be released.

They have the right to release it, they just don't get a guarantee that someone else will host it for them. ModDB has the right to host what they want to - it's their site and their bandwidth.

The developer could put it on their own hosting or share it freely via BitTorrent to distribute it if they want to.

 

[Arehexes]

I wonder how many movies can be as "tasteless" as a video game and no one says anything. Also what about books, I'm sure there are books that can be just as tasteless.