Apple Initially Rejected Papers, Please for "Pornographic Content" - Update 2

roseofbattle

News Room Contributor
Apr 18, 2011
2,306
0
0
Apple Initially Rejected Papers, Please for "Pornographic Content" - Update 2

The iPad version of dystopian document thriller Papers, Please has no nudity option for the scanner photos.

Update 2: Apple has accepted the version of Papers, Please with nudity present. The game is on the app store with a 17+ rating.

Update: Developer Lucas Pope tweeted good news today about Papers, Please [https://twitter.com/dukope/status/543480419581038592] with the nudity option for the scanner being present on iPad. Pope has spoken with Apple and says the initial rejection, which believed the nudity option was pornographic, was a misunderstanding on Apple's part. Apple has suggested Pope resubmit with the nudity option.

Pope added this decision is not a result of Apple bowing to pressure but admitting it had made a mistake in the review.

Hopefully Apple will also examine how it reviews apps compared to other media.

Original story: Last year's praised indie game Lucas Pope [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/papers%20please] announced on Twitter. However, missing from the iPad version is the nudity option for the scanner in the game due to Apple's restrictions.

Pope said Apple rejected the build with the nudity option on grounds for containing "pornographic content."

In Papers, Please, the player is an immigration inspector at a border checkpoint. The player must decide whether or not to let individuals into the country based on whether there are discrepancies in paperwork. One way of discovering discrepancies is the full body scanner. One option in the game for the scanner presents the individuals scanned nude.

Apple's guidelines for developers [https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#pornography] state it will reject apps that contain material that has "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings." Apple also states it reviews apps different from books or songs because it does not curate books or songs.

"If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or song, or create a medical App," the guidelines state. "It can get complicated, but we have decided to not allow certain kinds of content in the App Store."

Developers can appeal to a review board if an app is rejected.

Papers, Please has won several awards for encouraging players to grapple with tough decisions and bleak gameplay. The nudity in Papers, Please is uncomfortable on purpose and framed in a way that is certainly not erotic.

Source: Lucas Pope (Twitter) [https://twitter.com/dukope/status/542877184562446336]


Permalink
 

Muspelheim

New member
Apr 7, 2011
2,023
0
0
It was hardly erotic, or particularly stimulating at all. It was another clinical, detached task carried out to please the faceless bureaucracy under which both me, the nakee and the papershed were trapped.

But then again, perhaps someone on the Apple decency board gets off to that general atmosphere, you never know.
 

Hairless Mammoth

New member
Jan 23, 2013
1,595
0
0
I highly, highly doubt it was intended to be erotic. I didn't even know the game had a body scanner in it, so it's not like "scan your citizens and see them naked" is a major selling point of the game.

"Apple's guidelines for developers state it will reject apps that contain material that has "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings."

So what happened with Papers, Please then? Did the Apple's People's Review Board for Censorship take things out of context and/or just get lazy again and deny it as soon as they saw something funny? Are they, themselves, admitting to enjoying the game in a way the creator did not intend? [small]Do they have their own body scanning game coming out and they don't want to see any competition? /jk[/small]
 

Baresark

New member
Dec 19, 2010
3,908
0
0
Yeah, because Apple is completely guilty of over-curation of their content. And they have people working that process that just don't give a shit and will just follow a set of arbitrary rules even if they don't ethically apply.

Ok, that was my rant. Boobs is porn (according to Apple). That is amazingly puritanical.
 

Gorrath

New member
Feb 22, 2013
1,648
0
0
Their platform, their rules. Still makes them censoring jackasses though. If they have a review process that's supposed to weed out pornographic material then that process failed. What you do in Papers, Please is clearly not pornographic in nature.
 

K12

New member
Dec 28, 2012
943
0
0
If you get turned on by the naked images in "Paper's Please" then you really need to get laid.

Besides I'm pretty sure there's an option to turn the nudity off, it wouldn't be that hard to make that mandatory (if you wanted to be insanely prudish about it).
 

Erttheking

Member
Legacy
Oct 5, 2011
10,845
1
3
Country
United States
Well...I'm not going to get pissed about this, but I will say that I think it was a rather dumb decision.

"If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or song, or create a medical App," the guidelines state. "It can get complicated, but we have decided to not allow certain kinds of content in the App Store."

Look I'm not denying them their right to sell what they don't want, but what the fuck does that even mean?
 

Zendariel

New member
May 15, 2012
64
0
0
erttheking said:
Well...I'm not going to get pissed about this, but I will say that I think it was a rather dumb decision.

"If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or song, or create a medical App," the guidelines state. "It can get complicated, but we have decided to not allow certain kinds of content in the App Store."

Look I'm not denying them their right to sell what they don't want, but what the fuck does that even mean?
There are a bunch of guidelines. Basicly content-wise it boils down to following: Don't offend anyone(religion, person, company etc), don't portray graphical violence or animal cruelty, and no nudity. In theory it is a pretty cencored environment, but I don't really know how much of those rules can be bend.

"We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, "I'll know it when I see it". And we think that you will also know it when you cross it." <- direct quote

And there are a lot more minor rules. The list of what you should not do covers multiple pages.
 

Alexander Kirby

New member
Mar 29, 2011
204
0
0
I think the Appstore is still very much focused on casual games. When a game starts to ask difficult questions and display uncomfortable images they don't like it. I honestly don't think they see games as an art form yet, because as they said, they'll sell books and music about that stuff, but of course when they think of games they imagine a 6 year-old playing Angry Birds. It's not that hard to set up age restrictions on games, so the "family values" excuse doesn't work here, besides one could argue letting children spend £100s on freemium games is far more damaging than letting them see nipples in a completely unsexual context.

UPDATE: Never mind.
 

Ark of the Covetor

New member
Jul 10, 2014
85
0
0
Hubblignush said:
Shows that Apple doesn't know what pornography means. If they mean nudity, they should fucking say so, because they two aren't the fucking same, most nudity is weird, awkward, ugly and offputting. Those make quality pornography actually wokr hard to make it look appealing, it's not fucking easy.
Exactly. Ever been to a nude beach, Apple? It is NOT erotic *shudder*
 

Jiggle Counter

New member
Sep 18, 2014
151
0
0
Gorrath said:
What you do in Papers, Please is clearly not pornographic in nature.
It can be if you close your eyes and wish hard enough, just like how GTA V is a violence-against-women-simulator.

With enough help, I think we can trick TV media into thinking that Papers, Please is a game about a border security man that gets points for undressing women.

Then everyone who knows it's a lie will collectively go, "WTF?!?!" While everyone who hasn't played the game, feminist watch-dog groups, Anita Sarkesian, or anyone who dubs themselves an 'expert in something' will throw in their ten seconds of verbal garbage and agree that this game needs to be taken down.
 

Ed James

New member
Apr 2, 2010
39
0
0
So rules are rules. You adhere to the Escapist Posting guidelines (I hope), so it's only reasonable that if you want to publicly distribute what you have produced (such as this comment) on someone else's medium, then you follow their rules.

Apple has a strict set of rules when it comes to publishing content and on top of that, they enforce an annual fee, as well as verification (Quality assurance by humans, not machines), something that is not widely done. Rules are put in place for a reason, to be honest, I'm surprised I have to explain why it's fair to play by some one else's rules when your round their house. This gives a barrier to entry that is a necessary deterrent to sub par developers that want to exploit the user base.

On the side of Apple being some sort of pure evil against games as an art form, there are three main factors that you should consider in your argument:

1. Audience

Like it or not, this a mobile platform, and can be compared to other portable game media such as the Vita and 3DS to some degree. As such, what's the longest period you spend on your phone/tablet/portable games device playing games? Games for mobile platforms are inherently designed for burst style play. You rarely see gourmet chiefs preparing meal deals outside of supermarkets.
Games like Papers Please on iOS are for a very specific audience. Is there really a need to feel angry about a game that you clearly support, and is obviously not in jeopardy following rules that mean you can enjoy it elsewhere.

2. Screen Real Estate

Although PP is coming out on the iPad, people seem to be railing against Apple in general, as such, I feel I can generalise the 'war on Game Art' argument to all iOS products. Angry birds sold well because it was designed for the platform. 'Art Games' are not primarily targeted at mobile platforms because of both the audience wanting something with rapid response, and the screen to display such an expierence on being sub par.

3. Battery life

If you actually have an iThingy, if yours last to the end of the day, please tell me your black magic secrete, because the things leak battery quicker than my sink at the moment.

TLDR; If you feel that the boobs are the difference between a good game or not, then you are clearly the person who is getting off on this and are projecting your own insecurities, so grow up you (hopefully) teenager and learn that life is following someone else's rules until you are big enough to make your own.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
8,407
0
0
Ed James said:
TLDR; If you feel that the boobs are the difference between a good game or not, then you are clearly the person who is getting off on this and are projecting your own insecurities, so grow up you (hopefully) teenager and learn that life is following someone else's rules until you are big enough to make your own.
or perhaps we are grown up enough to see when rules are moronic and are willing to call them out as such?

Does apple has a right to make thier own rules? sure.

should apple have this right? Nope.
 

FirstNameLastName

Premium Fraud
Nov 6, 2014
1,080
0
0
Ed James said:
TLDR; If you feel that the boobs are the difference between a good game or not, then you are clearly the person who is getting off on this and are projecting your own insecurities, so grow up you (hopefully) teenager and learn that life is following someone else's rules until you are big enough to make your own.
Nice of you to include this smugly incendiary statement at the end of your post in a most thinly veiled attempt to shame any dissenting voices. Is there a particular reason you are being so hostile towards the rather mild discussion taking place here?

OT: While it is true that this isn't really a big deal, and that Apple is well within their rights to put any rules in place. That doesn't mean people aren't allowed to disagree with those rules. But no, who would have thought that people would discuss gaming related news on a gaming forum. Madness, i know.
 

Airon

New member
Jan 8, 2012
107
0
0
This is another highly negative light shining in Apples face, and maybe that's a good thing. It should provide an added push in to solidifying a view that games are an art form, just like other media are.

This context-free judgement of a particular aspect of a highly-praised game shames Apple.

Apple is in all likelihood viewed once again as either being stupid, lazy or :) perverted. Curation of content is difficult, and the curators are judged as well. More work for the App Store team, or just their PR team if Apple chooses to be crap.
 

Knight Captain Kerr

New member
May 27, 2011
1,283
0
0
Even by their own guidelines it doesn't break the rules, the nudity isn't sexualised at all.

Papers Please is excellent and the nudity does add to the game. I liked the scanning mechanic, especially when you scan for gender instead of contraband. It made me feel uncomfortable gendering people like that. "You don't look like the gender you claim to be, you must lying." It really reinforced how cold, uncaring and inhuman the whole system was. They could be Trans, they could be that sex and just not look it (which is why you scan), they could have just gotten a shitty fake passport. I don't know, I'm a huge part of these people's lives and they're a tiny part of mine. Regardless if their sex isn't their gender then I'm meant to deny them and I kind of need to, me and my family need to not die and if I don't do it they'll just get someone who will. And that someone won't be secretly working with EZIC. The whole thing was great.
 

CrazyCapnMorgan

Is not insane, just crazy >:)
Jan 5, 2011
2,742
0
0
Hubblignush said:
Shows that Apple doesn't know what pornography means. If they mean nudity, they should fucking say so, because they two aren't the fucking same, most nudity is weird, awkward, ugly and offputting. Those make quality pornography actually wokr hard to make it look appealing, it's not fucking easy.
And you know something? This whole argument was made and, arguably, solved about 25 years ago.