Dog-Fighting Game Pulled from Android Market

[Woodsey]

"A game where players raise dogs to fight other dogs in illegal dog-fighting rings has been given the boot from Android Market after people (appropriately) complained.

When it comes to the issue of dog-fighting (and not the cool kind with fighter planes over WW2-era Britain) I find myself solidly in the same camp as MovieBob: It's a heinous act and those who engage in it should be punished with the full force of the law."

What? You're bloody Americans! I'm supposed to be telling you how free speech works best when its not totally free.

Anyway, despite that, you are wrong in this case. I accidentally (well, 'accidentally') shot a hostage in ARMA 2 today, in Mafia 2 yesterday I shot a security guard for some fuel stamps, in EVE the other month I helped steal another player's property, in GTA I shot a granny for the lulz, in Hitman: Blood Money I assassinated several people who, bad as they may be, should have been arrested and put on trial.

"Naturally, there are always going to be some amoral jerks who look at the practice of forcing dogs to brutally murder each other and say, "Hey, that would make a cool game.""

MOST GAMES ARE A VERY MINOR VARIATION ON THIS.

If it was two people being forced into fighting to the death in a crappy little flash game you wouldn't blink an eyelid.

"Such was the case with Dog Wars, a mobile game on Android where players raised their dogs to fight other dogs."

But if you call it "Pokemon" and give the animals some silly names, its all swell? My mind has just exploded from the hypocrisy in this, which is not good for my revising.

 

[Kanane Jones]

It's not like you can't still install the game on your phone as long as it's available somewhere on the 'net (this isn't the iPhone people).

 

[Dana22]

So Pokemon is okay but this isn't?




I am confused.

My thought exactly. How the fuck is this any different from Pokemon?

Its not. But Nintendo can afford to not give a flying shit about what Humane Society things. I guess !

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

Looks like the powers-that-be still have Vick on a chain. 'Yeah, I'm totally, umm against this, I guess, I don't know.'

 

[DazBurger]

No.

Just no.

Yeah free speech is great but that game...

No.

Yea free speech should only be allowed if its nice and we like it!

Well.. The Android market is run by a company, which are fully entitled to remove anything from THEIR marked-place that they find offensive.


So yeah! Free speech is great!.. But expect to be ignored If you piss of too many people.

 

[Jumwa]

Killing people - All right ! Killing Dogs - No way.

Yeah, get back to making games about humans brutally murdering each other like a HEALTHY NORMAL PERSON.

After reading this post and the comments following I feel like I'm in an insane asylum. Where are peoples priorities?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Seriously, is it just me or are you the pun-master of the Escapist (in a good way, of course)?

That sounds like fighting talk. There can be only pun.

 

[Suskie]

I'm willing to bet that you could release a cockfighting game on the app market and no one would care. And that's not even counting the fact that a large portion of today's gaming industry revolves around people killing people. There's just something about dogs. I mean, I think the idea is in poor taste (especially since whoever made it was probably well aware that it would piss people off), BUT I think it should be allowed, because I believe in freedom of speech. Pulling this particular game simply for being distasteful seems dictatorial, unless the AppMarket has documented standards that this game failed to follow.

By the way, thanks to everyone in this thread for not throwing fuel into the let's-hate-Michael-Vick fire. As an Eagles fan, you can imagine I'm a little sick of hearing about that.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I'm going to believe that Vick is legitimate in his speaking out against this.

Anyway, yeah, i dont know. My first dog was a dog fighting dog. Looking back, I'm rather amazed he was never put down. He was a bruiser of a dog. I dont know, I cant really say if dog fighting is wrong <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.279950-Poll-Is-it-morally-wrong-to-eat-cats-and-dogs?page=2#10934781>when you can have animal cruelty as art.

 

[Treblaine]

This game should be put back on the market.
In Pokemon I can fight all animals I want. In Manhunt you can stalk and violently murder people to death with primitive weapons like palstic bags and shards of glass.

Why does this Dog game matter? You can't use any argument against it you couldn't against any other game. It allows you to simulate doing illegal things? Cruel things? Immoral things? Need I list you the amount of games that allow this?

In New Vegas I could fight Rad Scorpions in a ring; why is this game any different?

Oh you know, dogs are special, you can't hurt them in a game without people makign a load of fuss;


Oh wait. Nope, it's mostly hypocrisy.

The point is people are ultimately indifferent to the appalling murder rates in the United States, after all it's mostly "gang members" (code word for guess what) killing each other. And they don't like "gang members", they can kill each other all they like. But they LIKE dogs, and while they are complacent over the slaughter of people the idea of dogs being hurt is such a shock to them they get all idealistic, that NO DEPICTION of it can be accepted.

So in the unique circumstances of a game where a dog hurts another dog they are reminded of that blood sport those "gang members" practice and get all indignant and start making exceptions to freedom-of-speech that ultimately undermine liberty for ALL games.

I put this in the same category as N'Gai Croal's rant about black zombies in Resident Evil 5, but at least he saw sense in the end.

 

[Sparrow]

Violence toward animals has always been a grey area for me. In one sense, I enjoy killing the shit out of humans in a video game but detest having to do it to animals. I'm not sure what distinction between the hampers me, other than finding animals adorable!

 

[pokepuke]

This makes no sense, especially the part about Michael Vick endorsing its removal. Even before I saw his name in the article, I was gonna say that maybe if he had this game then he might have avoided trying to do it in real life! Now how will people play out their desires to breed, train, and pit dogs against each other? They have no outlet!

 

[beema]

Good riddance. Pretty funny that Vick is now all suddenly pro-animal rights. I love when people realize something is immoral only after going to jail for it. Oh well, even if he's full of it, better that he helps out animal rights than does nothing.

This still doesn't address the issue of there being no goddamn halfway-decent games for Android besides Angry Birds!!! Come on developers! I want something besides Bejeweled knock-offs and generic top-down shooters!

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I don't really see the big deal.

Dogs fighting. There's a lot of stuff much worse out there.

Exactly because apparently digital dogfighting is bad for the digital dogs.

 

[-Dragmire-]

You know... take away the blood, say they faint and give them anime eyes... it's Pokemon.

The premise of raising an animal to fight / kill is not something new, the only difference is this is a real animal that has already been made to do this in real life. Somehow I don't see the exact same game, after swapping dogs for elephants, would get band in the same way.

While I don't condone the real life practice of dog fighting, censoring a game that includes it is wrong(from my point of view). At the same time, it's different than if the government censored it because as a private company you can dictate(to a point) what's right and wrong and censor accordingly.

 

[RabbidKuriboh]

this shit is worse than rapelay imo

 

[Gigano]

Well, that game probably just got a whole lot more publicity from this "controversy" bit than the attention it would ever garner from being somewhere in the obscure corners of Android Market. So I'm guessing it'll see release as an unofficial app for open platform smartphones and PC soon anyway.

So congratulations to Android Market for giving this game better publicity than money could buy, and more sympathy (and perhaps protest purchases) than its unpleasant content would have ever garnered on its own.

I'm considerably more disdainful towards Android Market for censoring what adult consumers get to buy than I'd ever be towards some crappy game depicting entirely fictional dog fights between some fictional animated dog models.

...Guess I'll have to get the crappy dog game whenever it's released to make a private entity statement that regulating what adults get to buy is highly offensive to me. How I hate spending money on principle matters.

 

[Darks63]

Just horrible as a owner of 2 dogs myself I cant understand the appeal of this crap.

 

[Retronana]

Though I find that concept for a game unnerving technically there shouldn't be any reason why it can be legitimately taken down. There are far worse games floating around.


Also no michael vick jokes?, wow I am sorry to have judged you so harshly escapist.

 

[Owlslayer]

Seriously, is it just me or are you the pun-master of the Escapist (in a good way, of course)?

That sounds like fighting talk. There can be only pun.

Aren't you like the master of the Escapist TF2 group? The great group admin to rule them all? yes/no? Anyways, you can't be EVERYTHING on this site, man! Leave something to us little guys, with less than 20 000 posts.

Also: lovely pun. I am amazed how you people ( no Tropic thunder reference here!) can make them up, it seems quite easy. Hopefully one day I'll be able to think of a pun on my own and be proud of it.