Censorship is Censorship [Dog Wars]

[bigedward87]

Is anyone else bothered by the game "Dog Wars" being pulled from the android market after complaints from Peta, Mike Vic, etc... about its inappropriate use of violence on animals (digital animals)?

I don't especially want to play this game and I obviously do not support dog fighting but I am quite worried as a game developer in general when censorship of any degree starts happening. I realize this may be me blowing this out of proportion but I just wanted to get take a poll and see how much I am.

I for one would like the right to be able make a game like GTA (Much worse than Dog Wars) without having to worry about being able to sell it in the standard market.

Anyone?

[sonofaresiii]

google is a private company and has every right to decide what is and isn't released on their market. I'm happy that they have the degree of freedom they do-- they could be like Apple (or worse, RIM) and pull ANY competing products.

Nothing's stopping developers from releasing the game themselves outside of the market (amazon's done just that) and nothing's stopping you from not using the market. Google offers convenience and a built-in audience-- that's what you get for paying the price of allowing them to censor whatever they want.

Capitalism, woo!

[BSG75]

Originally Posted by sonofaresiii

google is a private company and has every right to decide what is and isn't released on their market. I'm happy that they have the degree of freedom they do-- they could be like Apple (or worse, RIM) and pull ANY competing products.

Nothing's stopping developers from releasing the game themselves outside of the market (amazon's done just that) and nothing's stopping you from not using the market. Google offers convenience and a built-in audience-- that's what you get for paying the price of allowing them to censor whatever they want.

Capitalism, woo!

Right. Censorship and free speech are issues relating to how governments react to their population. They have nothing to do with the practices of private companies and consumers. It's Google's right to drop any app they want, even it it doesn't break their own terms of service. That is their right. Sure, they are coming off as less open and that ruffle's a lot of feathers. They had to make a choice.

Amazon can sell it if they want, or the developer can sell it via some other method.

Thinking about this philosophically, if it bothers you that Android is not 100%, completely open, then this is bad for you. I don't think I need them to be 100%, completely open, though. The market and platform has shown itself to be very open, with this being an extreme example that got an extreme reaction. I'm OK with this level of filtering. The platform is still open enough that you can install the app yourself (I don't think they are zapping it from phones. I would not support that type of action) if you buy/get it elsewhere.

[NoSpin]

Google has the right to pull anything from their market. But they also acknowledge the right for you to install anything you want. So they let you sideload apks.

[Verdes8891]

The app was in extremly poor taste. Was it the developers right to create it? Yes. Was it googles right to pull it from the market? Yes.

[KSmithInNY]

Not the first time, won't be the last.

[Chrisy]

I'm glad it's gone. I don't believe in much, but I'm against animal cruelty in real time or portrayed.

[Dark Wizard Matoya]

I say good riddance. I'm all for free speech but I also love animals and this app was in such poor taste it's beyond words.

[kilofox]

It never ceases to amaze me just how many people misunderstand/misapply censorship/free speech.

[Jalarm]

I am not a fan of animal fighting nor have I played this game, but I think it being pulled is wrong. It's a game, if you don't like it don't download it, it's not going to come back at night and haunt you. If you don't like it don't let it in your life, but if you wanna play have a good time. It's cruel, but for the last time it's a video game people.