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Apple rejects iOS game about war in Syria
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Mobile game from Auroch Digital denied distribution through App Store; remains available for Android and Web.
Apple has rejected an iOS game aimed at raising awareness about the war in Syria, according to a statement provided to Polygon. Developer Auroch Digital explained that its Endgame: Syria was rejected because it violated a guideline that prohibits games that "solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity."
Endgame: Syria remains available on Android devices and through its official website. An Apple representative was not immediately available to comment.
"This decision is a shame really as it makes it hard to talk about the real world," developer Tomas Rawlings said in a statement. "Our aim is to use games as a format to bring news to a new audience and submission processes such as this do make it a lot harder for us. I get that Apple want to make sure really offensive titles don't pass into their store, but ours is far from that."
Rawlings further explained that the development team will make changes to the game and re-submit it to Apple. This is not without cost, though, as he claimed doing so means some of the game's context and meaning will be lost.
Developed in two weeks, Endgame: Syria has gamers exploring options available to the Syrian rebels. Each choice a user makes has consequences, and players can replay events to see how different choices would affect the final outcome.
Rawlings and his development squad have been creating games based on current events at GameTheNews.Net since October 2012. The team has produced titles based on such events like child labor in Uzbekistan, rhinoceros poaching in Africa, and the United States' presidential debates.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
93 comments
I think they should be put in a separate store section, unless they are highly political/offensive.
Wow, for once Apple is taking a more humane concern for the world...NOT that that excuses their business model in general!
Good work by Apple. This is purely a $$$ for the developer. idiots. People will read the news if they want news.
2 Like This is sad. I am syrian and i feel terrible that this game is out. This doesnt 'raise awareness' about the issue, it celebrates the genocide going on over there regardless of what side its on....
"solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity."
The keyword is 'TARGET!' Apple are concealing people how to make their games. It's not a process of approval, it's a process to have developers give up there rights to make games for Apple! It takes away that power that developers have in order to make a game. I give praise to other companies that allowed this game to be sold.
Keep in mind, there a game for the iPhone called 'Capture Joseph Kony'
@91210user No its not. Its a Developer trying to make money on a war thats still going on. End of.
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4 Like PEOPLE, please play the game before you post all your hate on it. It's not a Pro-Rebel piece or a Pro-Government piece, it simply states some facts and possible outcomes. Sure its partially biased, but so is every news outlet and media agency on the planet, take the good with the bad just like you would on CNN or FOXNews.
1 Like American overzealous censoreship as a cry for attention from a group of hero wannabes.
Propaganda is bad, mmmkay. Who is to say who is the good and bad guys? Let's just keep politics out of gaming.
Now I'm off to kill some nazis in *generic war game* yay!
And yes that is a joke for the hard of f***ing brains.
5 Like It's be nice if the media would stop portaying Arabs and Native Americans as the bad guys all the time, as we are the ones fighting for our land. But hey, I guess that's asking too much! Bring on the imperialism!
@PuebloZuni Well, the new assassins creed protagonist is half native american. Thats a start at least, yeah?
5 Like Those bad Arabs neither speak for nor represent the decent Arabs. I do not believe all Arabic people are bad. I happen to believe that most of them are good people. Unfortunately, some people just are not willing to see it that way.
4 Like Here's a hint ?for ??oblivious people and those who don't catch up with the news :
-Syrian goverment : Bad guys
-Syrian rebels that are fighting against oppression and for their freedom : Good guys
You are welcom.
1 Like @UsernameofDoom Let me make it clear for you and those with peanuts for brains. First of all the news is all propoganda. This is no revolution, it is a proxy war being fought by US/NATO. Everything being said about the Syrian Government is one big lie, there is zero evidence to prove any of these claims except the word of liers and traitors. The Syrian rebels are not fighting against oppression or for freedom, they are sheep and fighting because they are not inelligent enough to see that they are being used to kill their own people. And if you were following the "news" you would know by know that Al-Qaeda has built a strong presecence in this so called rebel rat resistance. The same group US/NATO has been supposdly fighting for 12 years, but instead are now supplying with heavy weapons. So pleasse pull your head out of your ass and do some research. One thing the US and it's allies learned from Iraq was that there is no point in sending troops when you can easily have the local population do all the work for you, all that is needed is a little push.
3 Like @HIT3kNology @UsernameofDoom Wow. What the Hades is the Syrian propeganda machine doing on Gamespot? You really think we're going to beleive that EVERY independent source of news has gotten it wrong? Do you really think the USA could convince all those media sources to even tell a TINY fib?
5 Like Wouldn't this apply to your American government that stole my land and butchered my Native ancestors?
at the time was normal to butcher the natives of land. how many people do you think the French or British empire killed when back in the day? nowdays if that happened the government in question would hopefully be prosecuted by the UN or some other group
@PuebloZuni @UsernameofDoom That was manifest destiny. It was their God-given rights to expand to the Pacific.
@fightingfish18 @PuebloZuni @UsernameofDoom Yeah, by some fake God that lives in the sky. This land belongs to the children of the Great Spirit, not the Bible.
1 Like And Apple did exactly what they should do with this game, or any like it. You want to make a game raising social awareness about your specific perspective or plight, then make a news app and allow users to post comments to articles....and let the games begin. The real world Game of Thrones...is no game actually, and the 2 things you tend to get into arguments discussing in real life- politics and religion, have no place place in video games in a blatant, directed forced perspective to an issue where it is easily not of a shared viewpoint. Gamers already can be obnoxious, racist, gender bashing, culture bashing playing typical games...why one thinks this game is not going to fall to that due to the 'awareness' intent, much less due to focus of a real life turmoil, and Apple not wanting to contribute to any part of it being stupid....is truly the real idiot.
2 Like @xMoonDevilx And trolls on the internet are jerks, but we still post articles we know will enrage them because the x-number of people intelligent enough to understand it deserve the right to such knowledge/information.
The same can be said for the game.People offended by the content therein (have you played it? I have!) obviously don't know what's going on over there, and haven't bothered to do any kind of research on their own. The game acknowledges that the rebels aren't "good guys" and neither is the current government, they both have flaws, and they both need change. Of course, people would rather just spew bile like my first paragraph states, but that doesn't mean the game deserves a ban. Stupid people deserve a ban.
@Dareitus @xMoonDevilx you seem to miss exactly the point you bring up..."people offended". I don't care what affiliation they are...if one can find offense, it only fuels their fire, so you avoid it not embrace it...unless that is your intent and then you acknowledge any backlash. And trolls on the net, are awarded anonymity which lets them act the way they do.
@Dareitus @xMoonDevilx Al-Qaeda is not a flaw, it's a disease.
do your own homework before you start preaching to other people.
2 Like @MaxPainAlchmst @Dareitus @xMoonDevilx
And the US is a country founded on stolen land and genocide. No different than Al Qaeda really.
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2 Like @mori70 sorry about that, but this issue is too sensitive for me.
Al-Qaeda is taking control of my country, committing genocide against Christians and other minorities, while the majority of people here in the US repeat whatever the media spoon feed them like dumb monkeys really pisses me off.
@MaxPainAlchmst well said. It's nice to see that you aren't some sheep like the greater majority who assume they know anything becasue Gerber spoon fed it to them. In a way it's a good thing. You have people in the US beliving all this garbage the news feeds them and the day will come where they will go through a similar experience and like mindless muppets they will wait for CNN to tell them what the government wants them to hear.
@don_saulari So wait if Americans start a revolution and aim to overthrow the government by attacking them with weapons then that would make the American government terrorists for defending itself? The only ignorant one here is you.
3 Like @MaxPainAlchmst @mori70 The only terrorist in Syria is Al-Assad and his mafia u ignorant good for nothing freak.
@MaxPainAlchmst Did you play the game? It doesn't directly support the rebels. Merely explains their cause. "Good Endings" can be achieved without siding with them entirely, in fact, the "Best Endings" require you to support the current Government to an extent. But please, keep bitching about things you haven't even tried.
@Dareitus I refuse to play as Al-Qaeda, if you do then you have some explaining to do.
@Xstreak @MaxPainAlchmst True, but you're also clueless about the game who's ban you are advocating.
Sadly, this is about the only way people in our modern society pay attention to these conflicts. If the game can enlighten people in any way, I say great. It's better that people actually become educated about something than to get just another glorious war game, like CoD. I don't know how extensive the game goes into the conflict, but I respect the developers attempt to do something to educate people further. It's a shame Apple has no interest in something like this. Just another reason for me not to become an i-user.
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10 Like @Suikogaiden Where do you get your information from? I am from Syria and the only terrorists are the Assad family and the regime, the government is killing muslims and christians and everyone else who opposes them, and they create propaganda against the rebels as if they are terrorists with fake videos. And what is Alquida? you mean Al Qaeda that the American government has created back in the 80s? Get back to CoD kid.
1 Like @SamehH99 You're from Syria and you support the rat rebels, please explain how that makes anything you say about the Assad regime true. The thing i noticed about you sheep is that you can provide zero evidence of any of these claims. CNN and Aljazeera already made the truth obvious when they made the same claims as you. You might as well say Assad is a robot from space, you'd be surprised at how many people would actually believe you.
2 Like @HIT3kNology @SamehH99 rat rebels? lol...I don't watch aljazeera or cnn or any other news, I just know the history of the Assad family because it's my country and I know what they did and what they do. And what "claims" are you talking about? You think Al Assad and his family isn't a dictatorship? The west want Syria to weaken and divide so they use Al Assad's ignorance and brutality to crush his own country while Russia backs him up for it naval base in Tartous and Iran and Hizbollah back him up because of their wicked religious beliefs and the whole world just sits and watch because they are scared to do anything without American and Israeli approval, go learn world history and politics because you are the sheep thinking you know it all by simply not believing in the media.
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7 Like @Suikogaiden So the Syrian rebels are nothing but terrorists to you? As opposed to poor people attempting to fight the oppression of their government?
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