ModDB Shuts Down School Shooter Mod

[Stormz]

"Anyone who wants to be a school shooter, but is too big of a pussy to actually do anything."


...this is just disgusting. I completely support ModDB's choice in taking it down, the mod has no right to exist in my opinion. It's offensive just to be offensive.

 

[Dana22]

Regardless of if anyone agrees with this game or not, you shouldn't take it down if you didn't take down "Sci Hunt" for Half Life One...

Its a private portal so they can take down whatever they like.

 

[gibboss28]

I'm looking at this from a different angle:

It's easy to have a go at the person who made the mod for being a prick who did this for nothing more than a reaction.

It's also easy to have a go at the website and say that somehow them removing something from their website which they've been getting shit for is apparently caving in

To be honest I think we all should be questioning the gaming news sites that gave this thing the pointless publicity it doesn't even deserve

Why do I think this?

Well very simply, mods like this are a dime a dozen. Hell games like this are a dime a dozen (there's tonnes of them on the internet for fuck sake), what exactly is one more on the fire going to do?

Nothing should be the answer to that question but that's the joys of publicity for you, without the publicity it would have existed, a couple of people would have played it and that would be that, just like almost every other game of its kind that exist on the internet that are there for one thing and one thing only - to get a knee jerk reaction from people.

And anyone who's been paying attention knows now that its not just the gaming press who are now circling this corpse.

Oh joy. I guess I should have learned this by now but I cant get away from sensationalist bullshit.

 

[mjc0961]

http://www.moddb.com/terms-of-use


So really, this isn't so much censorship as it is "You violated our Terms of Use, so we take your content down." It's no different than if someone came here, started flaming people and posting porn, and got banned for it. Yes, you have the right to freedom of speech (and remember, most of us are hoping that the Supreme Court decides that games are protected under freedom of speech, and if they do then this mod would be free speech as well), but you give that up when you enter another person's property and agree to their rules in order to participate. This guy's mod clearly violates the ModDB terms of use, and thus they have every right to take it down. The mod creator is still free to find alternative hosting if he wishes.

I still think that the mod is in poor taste, and that the guy making it is a supreme douchebag. "Anyone who wants to be a school shooter, but is too big of a pussy to actually do anything." Really? Joke or not, that's just the kind of thing you don't joke about and you're still a douchebag for doing it even if you weren't serious.

 

[Arizona Kyle]

Nice job on taking it down i think that a mod like that is just plain stupid and sets our medium back even further

 

[Art Axiv]

I thought I'd never say that in accordance to someones work but if you've ever seen the videos posted on MODDB...
"... and nothing of value was lost".

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Tito seems pretty biased when he wrote the report. All he said was Pawnstick's rather unintelligent parts of interviews, but he never stated how dignified and intelligent Pawnstick was about the whole deal.

Shame, I am disappoint.

 

[Tony2077]

till people understand the difference between games and reality and even games based on real events the gaming industry is stuck with people that aren't willing to understand and condemn it without finding the truth and removing the fiction. there will always be idiots who make things like this and we get condemn for it because some people are too damn shortsighted and slap there label on everyone without taking the time to separate the good from the bad.

 

[ResonanceGames]

Now granted, ModDB did have a right to get rid of his work. They're not the government. They're an independently run website that can do what they want. However! They claim to support free speech. NO. THEY. DO. NOT. They support free speech when it suits them, and oppose it when it could hurt them.

So if you lived right next to a veteran's cemetery and the Phelps family wanted to use your front lawn to protest a dead soldier's funeral, you would let them, right? I mean, it's your property, but if you support free speech then anyone should be able to use your resources to make any point they want, huh?

Or maybe it's possible to support free speech, but not want to personally financially sponsor and distribute free speech that you find reprehensible.

 

[Popido]

And ModDB crumbles under pressure.

Dude, there's a difference between crumbling under pressure and taking down something ridiculously offensive. Just because Jack Thompson says something doesn't immediately make it wrong (just most of the time).

Actually, they were threathed to do so.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Everyone believes in freedom except when they are personally offended.

"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"

I'll translate that. "I'm a wuss and I can't handle reading angry emails". Hypocrite. Deliberately in bad taste is EXACTLY the kind of content that needs the most protection. Because it is the kind that is easiest to get rid of with public (mob) approval.

I'll just directly quote the first comment on the MODDB page about it, that is more compelling than anything I can write.

There was nothing unlawful about the School Shooter mod, so any 'threats' issued to you were just knee jerk social reactionaries with little value for their free time.
If the School Shooter mod was worth anything, it was watching the social white knights try to infringe on constitutional rights, while other fictional atrocities presented in other forms of media go untouched.

You claim that you support freedom of speech but actions speak louder then words, and whether or not you believe it in doesn't change that your actions don't support the belief.

Oh and if you think that this is going to shut up the journalistic crybabies then you're sorely mistaken. By caving to their shallow demands you've only given them power, power that they'll be more inclined to use now that they have it. Expect to see these kinds of complaints more frequently now that you've caved to this kind of foolery.

 

[Csae]

i really don't care much for the mod, but the fact that Moddb crumpled is a sad thing.

Bidding to ignorant people's wishes and threats only makes you worthless.

If moddb had been like, we disagree with the mod, bye. Thats cool, they have the right, but oh noes we're getting hate-mail, we must protect everyone! "Flee!" Is sad.

That being said, i have had issues with Moddb management in the past as a mod creator of a decently large mod, and i've looked down on that place ever since.

 

[archabaddon]

AS much as I believe in the 1st Amendment, I think I'd feel the same way about this mod as I would if someone made a KKK mod, which is that it's toxic for the greater well-being of society.

Certainly, it's within someone's rights to code it, but ultimately I think that ModDB made the correct decision, especially given the flack they received from ignorant people who wrongly assumed that ModDb was a haven for antisocial homicidal people :/

What choice did ModDb have when ignorance uses a wide stroke of stereotyping to possibly malign the creative work of other modders? If anyone's to blame, it's the decline of education and intelligence in America (IMPO), and a person's inability to do an iota of research before making an engry email or threat against an otherwise inculpable group of game modders.

 

[Toeys]

You are a hypocrit if you think games are art, but still think this mod should be banned.
Intellectual or stupid, whatever the case, no medium has been moved forward without massive amounts of controversy.

Day in and day out the Escapist talk about stories in games and how shallow they generally are. This comes from developers being too scared of shocking the consumers away from their product(ye i know, some of them dont have a clue about good stories either). Then it becomes laughable to vocally banish a product of someones twisted mind just because it went too far.

 

[Korolev]

Well, it's their site. They have the right to take down whatever is posted on it, if they want to. Remember kids, the First Amendment only applies to PUBLIC PLACES and the GOVERNMENT. The site wasn't owned by the Feds or any governmental department, so they don't have to take into account the First Amendment.

I mean - imagine if you owned a site and some guy came on the forums and started posting images of Nazis and other horrible people, glorifying the WWII atrocities or denying the Holocaust. You wouldn't like that would you? You especially wouldn't like it if people started associating YOUR name with the content published by someone else! The people who ran that site have every right to demand that this modder take his mod elsewhere! Hell, it's what YOU would do! Especially if you started getting torrents of hate mail and dozens of press people calling you on a daily basis.

No freedom of speech right has been violated here. The mod wasn't destroyed, it was just removed. If you think this somehow violates the 1st amendment, then I would like to put up offensive posters on your house in the name of free speech and get very angry if you take them down.

 

[Harbinger_]

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

*sigh* yea. I hate to think it, but you're right. Jack will see this a a personal victory and will honestly think that he was responsible for it's removal.

Maybe it'll encourage him to do something constructive with his super-troll powers.... Yeah, never mind, what was I thinking!

 

[Korolev]

And look, at the end of the day, it must be said that there is a red-line for everyone. EVERYONE. Everyone finds at least ONE THING in this world so abhorrent that they would not host it or wish to be even remotely associated with it. If you claim that "no, I tolerate ALL types of speech", I'm pretty damn sure you're either wrong or immoral. In any case, it wasn't your site, and you weren't getting hate mail. It's easy to criticize someone when you aren't in their shoes.

 

[Darkauthor81]

And ModDB crumbles under pressure.

I thought this too. Though I thought the game was sick and a lame ploy at attention I believed in his freedom of speech to create it. At least until I read his quote there at the end about who his target audience is: "Anyone who wants to be a school shooter, but is too big of a pussy to actually do anything." Now I think this may be the work of a deranged individual.

 

[Macgyvercas]

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

*sigh* yea. I hate to think it, but you're right. Jack will see this a a personal victory and will honestly think that he was responsible for it's removal.

Speaking of which, is he going to shut up soon? He has to be getting old by now.

 

[captain underpants]

I'll never understand why some people choose to be offended by such things rather than just ignore them. See, I can tell just by looking at it, that this mod is not really for me. I don't need it to be removed from the site; I can choose not to download and play it. Is self-control really such a problem?

"Anyone who wants to be a school shooter, but is too big of a pussy to actually do anything."

Why are people getting offended at this comment as well? I seem to recall the old 'doing it virtually so you don't do it actually' theory being widely used as a supporting argument for violent video games.

Also, the whole mod seems like a pretty obvious troll. Keep feeding it, guys.