Valve has pulled a game from Greenlight due to offensive content directed at gay and transgendered people.
Kill the Fa***t [censored] tasked players with the objective of killing gay or transgendered people, with congratulatory messages for removing “AIDS carriers” upon successful “extermination” of gay people. The game, which was released as a standalone title after having been originally intended as part of a minigame compilation developed alongside survival sim The Shelter: A Survival Story, arrived on the popular download service shortly after a Transgender developer committed suicide after receiving extreme hate messages via 4chan.
Not only does Kill The F****t reward players for their efforts in killing gay people, but the in-game narrator announces kills with such phrases as “straight pride”, “faggot eliminated”, “you Killed that Fa***t”, and “fag down”.
The Game’s developer, Randell Herman, provided a statement on his homepage explaining his reasons for releasing the game. “The reason behind this particular game is because of how tired I am of people being overly sensitive and how easily offended people are by every little thing, especially with LGBT issues,” Herman said. “I decided to go down a path that most developers are afraid to go down: to piss these people off by making the most overly offensive game possible to these idiots to prove a point.”
Herman has also acknowledged the risks that this game may have on his business. “People are saying this will hurt our business and future development,” he said. “We are self-funded, and if this game ruins any future sales, then so be it.”
Since the ban, the voice actors and composer involved in contirubting to the game have release public statements condemning the game, and withdrawn the right for their contributions to be used, claiming that Skaldic games intentionally misled them.
Voice actress Rachel Lally made posted on Facebook, expressing her disgust at the games homophobic content. “I don’t see the merit, humor or artistry in ‘pissing people off’, and was certainly not made aware that that is what Skaldic is about or aims to do,” she wrote. “I wish to revoke all permission to use my voice, name or likeness for The Shelter or any other Skaldic projects. You sought to offend and I am well and truly offended.”
Keith Fay, the Irish musician behind the game’s soundtrack, has also withdrawn his support. “We did not know anything about this when we agreed to appear in their still in progress game The Shelter,” Fay said. “A statement was released by the games company that tried to explain their intention. The statement was juvenile and bizarre, basically saying if you are offended by the game you are an idiot. Well I am offended and I am not an idiot. “
Opinion: To see a game deliberately created to express homophobic views is distasteful, to put it mildly - regardless of whether or not the creator was trying to be ironic.
Kill the F***got isn’t a work of satire; it’s a self-professed attempt to troll the gaming community and whatever Herman says, it has no merit or reason to exist. It’s not surprising that Steam removed it from sale - but more surprising is the fact that Valve allowed it on their platform to begin with.
