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.
====
连kotaku都报导了......
弄到下架又变成热门新闻了。
前几天看kotaku都没提到相关事件的样子。
结果一下架就马上报导了。
这时间点下架真的太敏感了。
唉！

下架审查这种事情 轻者当日 重者七日 你要对赤蠋有信心!

这游戏公司行销能力真强

笑死 弄成国际事件也不简单了 中国人

小熊维尼正式上五星旗成为国徽了

赤烛放火浇油技术根本一流

然后更多外国人 想看这游戏到底是怎样 这么严重去买

你要相信赤烛啊，就让他慢慢乔，不要打扰他，有事情我都在

赤烛其实是石油公司吧www

他们不可能不知道现在下架是增加讨论热度......吧如果是就太天真了，现在下架根本是在倒油

这火好大

奇怪...做什么都错...人家就是要打死你...

放火行销 挖到石油是不是

你转贴这新闻也是在故意在炒

“阿姨你有没有觉得下架之后心情变得比较轻松？是不是很有效？”

维尼近平哪时变成辱华了啊

炒? 我在意的是整个被带向政治问题去了

这个风头过了赤烛才能再出来吧

“是有啦，可是齁，是不是对我们家禁频没有效啊，都这样拜了，他火却越烧越大耶”

现在就是游戏可能违反合约 弄成政治问题真的是...

上楼找何老师

赤烛，还愿的事我都听说了，你先不要紧张，到楼上来见我

这没什么阿 下架一个月就完全不会有人再讨论了

那些想吵的就是想这样 反正支共五毛配上反串仔 呵呵

各方政治厨拿赤烛满足私欲

辱华 ㄏㄏ

辱华？

说你辱华就辱华 如果美心有雀斑也是辱华

蛤????辱华?????????

操你的 说习近平是小熊维尼 跟辱华有三小关系？

不是啊 这个不是20号（还是21号）更新改掉的吗 之后

啊...就是政治问题啊（笑）

没用啊 今天是被发现你整间工作室有政治倾向的问题对中国来说这就是下架的理由 跟测试用途无关

标题全翻是"热门恐怖游戏在被中国玩家质疑辱中后从Steam上移除" Insult China现在翻辱中会比较好吧?

再说 你跟中国谈合理...嗯...

“何老师，我照你的说了把游戏下架了，可是他火还是一直烧耶，你不是说下架就可以下庄了吗？”

让维尼符咒烧一下

所以说怪ptt讨论根本没道理啊 现在是全球热议+中国人不想这样算了 ptt有没有讨论根本没影响好吗？

原文就不是辱华了这是在翻啥

标题就辱华了...都不看标题的?

标题是辱支

辱中国拉

中国国产游戏最好能辱华，别在伤害中国人的感情~同个国家

华人本来就是一种政治用语啊台湾人是有差呢除了中国根本没有其他地方的黄种人会因为小熊维尼到处崩

辱华？辱中谢谢

原文也乱写，可能是被中国带风向。

有人就觉得ptt无所不能啊 乡民既能帮赤烛下指导棋，又能把赤烛当成反共义士

什么辱华…小熊维尼有什么好气的

蛤?乡民可是不管谁都当成反共义士,但自己都不是那个第一线

揭露支那人的智商，把习包子看得比爹娘还大

事实上全世界都没有人在乎合约问题而是中国人如何崩溃洗负评还有怎么下架的

都是觉青害der 大家快闭嘴救赤烛

赤烛懂烧

标题翻译错误

这翻译真的不行

乳滑7777777777

原来习帝已经代表全球华人了啊 快喝女儿红压压惊

习维尼=辱华？？？？说辱中 还能凹 连全球华人都包含进去了 这三小？？

这样也能刺到某些人的心 XD 我也算是弄了个新纪录了

辱华

and...合约问题？（继续偷笑）谁看过合约分享一下哟～

辱华翻译得不太正确吧？

华人在欧美地区=中国人 这用语也没错用啦

今天头七，原来重者七日是只这件事

李姓中坜？

XDDD 说你辱华就辱华啦

外国人分不出China跟Chinese啦，就说中华台北是骗人的

笑死 要让习近平代表全体中国人是他们自己的选择 关其他国家的华人屁事

小熊维尼是侮辱人，小熊维尼才是被习近平侮辱吧

标题呵呵

标题有什么问题XD炒中跟华还满好像的就是...

C进频小熊维尼哪里乳华了啊?

笑

这个本来就是轻者当日重者七日，心诚则灵你知道吗

还下架退烧，烧的更大了，全世界都觉你心虚

用维尼跟他们领导人连结 同张符咒还有尼ma87这不算辱华吗？ == 虽然我也觉得很好笑就是了

这样不是很好吗，等外国人玩完应该会对辱华这个词黑人问号？

乳滑？

辱华？维尼一个人代表整个华人吗？

imsult china是中方自己说的好吗....

我为所有Chinese 道歉，C洽打了太多酸中国言论害惨台湾人

之前就有不少人警告这样之后会有合约问题、会有法律纠纷、连带产生赔偿问题，结果通通被打成舔中，颗颗

还有人在觉得PTT乡民可以带全世界的风向，快笑死

讲真的，会搞到Steam下架通常是有大条的理由（侵权、诈欺、重大瑕疵之类的）

不是修正bug吗