Popular Horror Game Removed From Steam After Chinese Players Say It Insults
China
http://tinyurl.com/y3td7syg
Less than a week ago, the developers of P.T.-inspired horror game Devotion
were riding high. Their game’s February 19 release was met with thousands of
positive Steam reviews and hundreds of thousands of viewers on Twitch.
However, after a weekend of controversy, Devotion has met an even more
untimely end than the game that inspired it.
It all began late last week when Chinese players of the Taiwan-developed game
came across a piece of in-game art that seemingly disparaged China’s
president, Xi Jinping, by mentioning him and Winnie the Pooh on a scroll next
to the word “moron.” Winnie the Pooh has frequently been used in memes
mocking Jinping, to the point that last year’s film Christopher Robin was
banned in China. Some players proceeded to dig deeper into Devotion, claiming
that the game was an allegory that demonized not just Jinping, but Chinese
mainlanders as a whole (Taiwan, though considered to be an extension of China
by China and most of the world’s most powerful nations, has its own elected
government and identity, leading to tensions between mainland China and
Taiwan).
Review bombs followed these allegations, leaving Devotion with a dismal 40
percent positive review score on Steam. People also created false statements
attributed to developer Red Candle Games, who attempted to clear the air on
three separate occasions. First, on Friday, it said in a Steam post that the
Winnie the Pooh reference was accidental.
“When making the prototype, the team often referred to the then known
internet slang as placeholder,” the developer wrote. “However, due to the
version synchronizing problem, not all of the placeholders were deleted
properly. This is purely an accident, and we have no intention for causing
harm nor hatred. The art material has been taken down and replaced at the
evening of February 21.”
In a post the next day, Red Candle further explained that one developer
created the art asset, and the rest of the team was “busy working on one’s
own tasks while chasing the deadline,” which is why Winnie the Pooh made it
into the game in the first place. The developer further said that “the words
written on the art material does not stand for Red Candle Games’ stance, nor
is it in any ways related to Devotion’s story and theme.” Red Candle went
on to note that its partnership with Devotion’s publisher had been “
terminated” over the controversy, leaving the developer on the hook to “
compensate the relevant loss based on the contract.”
Those explanations, however, did not quell the anger stalking Devotion
through Steam’s dark, creaky halls. Today, the company released another
statement reminding fans “not to be misled by other incorrect information”
coming from people claiming to speak on behalf of the game and saying that
the goal of Devotion is not to “secretly project extensive ideology, nor is
it to attack any person in the real world.” Rather, it’s just a game about
a cult doing bad, culty stuff in the name of “pure parental love.” Red
Candle also acknowledged that its page on Weibo, a hugely popular Chinese
social media site, had been shut down, damaging the developer’s ability to
get the word out about what’s going on.
Earlier this afternoon, Devotion’s Steam store page disappeared, rendering
the game unbuyable. Devotion-related content appears to have been removed
from Red Candle’s YouTube channel as well. Kotaku reached out to both Red
Candle and Valve for an explanation, but has yet to hear back from either. In
a statement on Devotion’s Steam forums, however, the developer attributed
the Steam removal to “technical issues that cause unexpected crashes” and a
desire to “ease the heightened pressure in our community resulted from our
previous Art Material Incident” by reviewing “our game material once again
making sure no other unintended materials was inserted in.”
For now, Red Candle’s previous game, Detention, remains up. It’s been
reviewed bombed to the point that it has just 30 percent positive reviews.
====
連kotaku都報導了......
弄到下架又變成熱門新聞了。
前幾天看kotaku都沒提到相關事件的樣子。
結果一下架就馬上報導了。
這時間點下架真的太敏感了。
唉！

下架審查這種事情 輕者當日 重者七日 你要對赤蠋有信心!

這遊戲公司行銷能力真強

笑死 弄成國際事件也不簡單了 中國人

小熊維尼正式上五星旗成為國徽了

赤燭放火澆油技術根本一流

然後更多外國人 想看這遊戲到底是怎樣 這麼嚴重去買

你要相信赤燭啊，就讓他慢慢喬，不要打擾他，有事情我都在

赤燭其實是石油公司吧www

他們不可能不知道現在下架是增加討論熱度......吧如果是就太天真了，現在下架根本是在倒油

這火好大

奇怪...做什麼都錯...人家就是要打死你...

放火行銷 挖到石油是不是

你轉貼這新聞也是在故意在炒

「阿姨你有沒有覺得下架之後心情變得比較輕鬆？是不是很有效？」

維尼近平哪時變成辱華了啊

炒? 我在意的是整個被帶向政治問題去了

這個風頭過了赤燭才能再出來吧

「是有啦，可是齁，是不是對我們家禁頻沒有效啊，都這樣拜了，他火卻越燒越大耶」

現在就是遊戲可能違反合約 弄成政治問題真的是...

上樓找何老師

赤燭，還願的事我都聽說了，你先不要緊張，到樓上來見我

這沒什麼阿 下架一個月就完全不會有人再討論了

那些想吵的就是想這樣 反正支共五毛配上反串仔 呵呵

各方政治廚拿赤燭滿足私慾

辱華 ㄏㄏ

辱華？

說你辱華就辱華 如果美心有雀斑也是辱華

蛤????辱華?????????

操你的 說習近平是小熊維尼 跟辱華有三小關係？

不是啊 這個不是20號（還是21號）更新改掉的嗎 之後

啊...就是政治問題啊（笑）

沒用啊 今天是被發現你整間工作室有政治傾向的問題對中國來說這就是下架的理由 跟測試用途無關

標題全翻是"熱門恐怖遊戲在被中國玩家質疑辱中後從Steam上移除" Insult China現在翻辱中會比較好吧?

再說 你跟中國談合理...嗯...

「何老師，我照你的說了把遊戲下架了，可是他火還是一直燒耶，你不是說下架就可以下庄了嗎？」

讓維尼符咒燒一下

所以說怪ptt討論根本沒道理啊 現在是全球熱議+中國人不想這樣算了 ptt有沒有討論根本沒影響好嗎？

原文就不是辱華了這是在翻啥

標題就辱華了...都不看標題的?

標題是辱支

辱中國拉

中國國產遊戲最好能辱華，別在傷害中國人的感情~同個國家

華人本來就是一種政治用語啊台灣人是有差呢除了中國根本沒有其他地方的黃種人會因為小熊維尼到處崩

辱華？辱中謝謝

原文也亂寫，可能是被中國帶風向。

有人就覺得ptt無所不能啊 鄉民既能幫赤燭下指導棋，又能把赤燭當成反共義士

什麼辱華…小熊維尼有什麼好氣的

蛤?鄉民可是不管誰都當成反共義士,但自己都不是那個第一線

揭露支那人的智商，把習包子看得比爹娘還大

事實上全世界都沒有人在乎合約問題而是中國人如何崩潰洗負評還有怎麼下架的

都是覺青害der 大家快閉嘴救赤燭

赤燭懂燒

標題翻譯錯誤

這翻譯真的不行

乳滑7777777777

原來習帝已經代表全球華人了啊 快喝女兒紅壓壓驚

習維尼=辱華？？？？說辱中 還能凹 連全球華人都包含進去了 這三小？？

這樣也能刺到某些人的心 XD 我也算是弄了個新紀錄了

辱華

and...合約問題？（繼續偷笑）誰看過合約分享一下喲～

辱華翻譯得不太正確吧？

華人在歐美地區=中國人 這用語也沒錯用啦

今天頭七，原來重者七日是只這件事

李姓中壢？

XDDD 說你辱華就辱華啦

外國人分不出China跟Chinese啦，就說中華台北是騙人的

笑死 要讓習近平代表全體中國人是他們自己的選擇 關其他國家的華人屁事

小熊維尼是侮辱人，小熊維尼才是被習近平侮辱吧

標題呵呵

標題有甚麼問題XD炒中跟華還滿好像的就是...

C進頻小熊維尼哪裡乳華了啊?

笑

這個本來就是輕者當日重者七日，心誠則靈你知道嗎

還下架退燒，燒的更大了，全世界都覺你心虛

用維尼跟他們領導人連結 同張符咒還有尼ma87這不算辱華嗎？ == 雖然我也覺得很好笑就是了

這樣不是很好嗎，等外國人玩完應該會對辱華這個詞黑人問號？

乳滑？

辱華？維尼一個人代表整個華人嗎？

imsult china是中方自己說的好嗎....

我為所有Chinese 道歉，C洽打了太多酸中國言論害慘台灣人

之前就有不少人警告這樣之後會有合約問題、會有法律糾紛、連帶產生賠償問題，結果通通被打成舔中，顆顆

還有人在覺得PTT鄉民可以帶全世界的風向，快笑死

講真的，會搞到Steam下架通常是有大條的理由（侵權、詐欺、重大瑕疵之類的）

不是修正bug嗎