Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#41

Post by paulhauggis » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:38 PM UTC

Political correctness has gone way too far in this country.

When the Boston Bomber was on trial, there was a point made that his actions, because it was in the name of Islam, in no way reflects the actions of the entire religion or culture.

Yet in South Carolina, the actions of one crazy person somehow now reflects on the entire culture and we need to remove the confederate flag.

I don't see Amazon and Ebay removing anything related to Islam and we have had way more deaths related to crazies in that religion than with the Confederate flag.

I also find it interesting that many people in government worked extremely fast to get the flag removed. I wished they could work this fast when it comes to actual important issues.

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#42

Post by a3voices » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

People are way too oversensitive. Reminds me of Muslims getting upset over cartoon drawings of their prophet.

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#43

Post by gadders » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

This is getting silly now. All for removing the flag from public buildings, but this is going too far.

Can someone get Taylor Swift on the case please?

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#44

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#45

Post by k-mcgrady » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

I get the feeling a lot of people here don't understand how important and destructive symbols like this can be. As stupid as it sounds symbols like that can have a huge impact on society and free speech isn't always the solution. I don't know how corrosive this particular symbol is as I'm not from the states but in general it is completely understandable to me coming from a place where stuff like this is a huge deal with big impacts on society.

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#46

Post by fixxer » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:40 PM UTC

So, they're in effect banning historical fiction? None of these games condone slavery, do they?

I totally get and agree with removing the Confederate flag from state flags in the United States -- The confederacy failed. But, must we deny an important part of US history happened?

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#47

Post by vonmoltke » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:40 PM UTC

Zigurd wrote: post #32

crxgames wrote: post #20

This is ridiculous. I bet they leave Nazi WWII games.

This is, quite possibly, reasonable. As you point out, they probably approve WWII historical games with Nazi symbols in them. But they probably don't approve content that glorifies Naziism. So if you have content that wasn't similarly vetted regarding the CORRECTION: Army of Northern Virginia battle flag (not "stars and bars"), what can you do but de-authorize all of it and start over?

Nitpick: the "Stars and Bars" flag and the ANV battle flag are not the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_State...

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#48

Post by sneak » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:40 PM UTC

joshuapants wrote: post #7

moron4hire wrote: post #2

This is clearly going too far.

I agree. It's one thing to stop selling actual Confederate flags, it's another to try and scrub any mention of a historical event or depiction of a certain symbol in context. Apple is certainly within their rights to do this, but I think it's silly and impulsive.

As long as Apple prevents me from using someone else's store on my phone, they are not within their rights to censor any apps based on content.

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#49

Post by hueving » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:41 PM UTC

infimum wrote: post #21

ap3 wrote: post #11

Are Siri and the Wikipedia app next on the list ? I don't understand the ban on the historical apps - the civil war did happen and the confederate flag was used. Are nazi flags and symbols banned from ww2 games ?

yes, they actually are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Germany

I believe he/she meant by Apple

Re: Apple Removes American Civil War Games from the App Store

#50

Post by DasIch » Thu, Jun 25, 2015, 2:41 PM UTC

Mithaldu wrote: post #30

DasIch wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These exceptions might apply to cases such as this one, whether they do is unknown and no publisher has dared to find out. In practice all games that contain forbidden symbols get a German version in which these are replaced for example in the Wolfenstein franchise (that were not censored due to violence).

Only because the german government, like any government, is old and slow, and as of yet does not classify computer games as art, citing the interactive aspect as an enabler of contextual reinterpretation; AND because many foreign game creators simply censor themselves proactively instead of taking this matter to court. There is a very reasonable expectation of this changing at some point in the future.

The German government hasn't declared them not to be art either and as long as they haven't the real question is whether a court would consider them to be art. I think there is a very good chance that a court would consider them to be art but I don't see it coming to that anytime soon.

A lot of gamers seem to be happy with versions that have these symbols replaced and everyone else simply imports them (which is as simple as ordering from amazon.co.uk instead of amazon.de). Publishers have simply no incentive to pursue this and because violence in games can be censored, publishers censor a lot of games on their own already anyway. I would not be surprised to learn that there are companies even profiting from the current situation.