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[Rolan7]

It's a little weird either way...  The developers have a point that Manhunt and Postal are on Steam, which seem just as offensive.
And if it's quality, well, Air Control was on Steam.  Though they did take it down.  There are plenty of similar moneytraps they're happy to let languish, though.

I think it's all about the controversy, which was maybe a bit out of proportion for this (almost certainly crappy) game.

Edit: I forgot how entertaining Air Control actually is to watch...  Based on the dialogue the crappiness was an intentional artistic statement (still crappy and not worth $20 or whatever though).

[nyulzsiraf]

Will they remove the other violent games from steam like payday 2, postal etc?
And will they remove the crappy games like grass simulator?

[TheBronzePickle]

If there's enough people who bitch about it, yes.

There's not enough people willing to troll through Steam and bitch at them for every game that shouldn't be there.

[Playergamer]

Y'all'd be great drone pilots.

Actually, the actual footage is quite a bit more abstract and detached than video games are.
drone

Abstract and detached, yes, but also far more real. I ran into a drone pilot once and talked to him, and he explained to me that, while combat pilots, for example, get to drop the bombs and get out before they see what happens, drone pilots have to stick around and watch people die. Statistically, drone pilots are just as likely to get PTSD as combat pilots, because they're put in the situation of watching people die, and being powerless to stop it. They get to spot Marines heading straight for an IED, and they can't radio them because they've got jammers out to try to prevent IEDS, or they watch a squad clear a house, and watch people die bloodily in CQB without being able to help. It sucks, man.
Sorry for the off-topic rant. About the game...I don't like it existing, and the developer's affiliations worry me, but I don't think it should be purged from the internet, or anything like that.

[GobbieMarauder]

Thanks to how automated Valve's made the process, it's clearly gone from the usual "Unless we say yes we won't sell it" to "Unless we say no we will sell it." It's not that Manhunt and Postal have met some standard of approval that Hatred hasn't, it's that Hatred has reached a standard of disapproval they haven't.

[nenjin]

It's always interesting to see Valve draw any lines in the sand, since they otherwise avoid responsibility for the catalog in most other cases. If'd I'd been asked prior to this, I would have said Valve would have left it alone. I guess I have to be careful about what I call a murder simulator on Steam now. I mean...Hotline Miami is horrific. It's just pixel horrific. If it was higher rez, would they care about that too?

Thanks to how automated Valve's made the process, it's clearly gone from the usual "Unless we say yes we won't sell it" to "Unless we say no we will sell it." It's not that Manhunt and Postal have met some standard of approval that Hatred hasn't, it's that Hatred has reached a standard of disapproval they haven't.

Yeah, I'd buy this. Steam probably didn't have the user base, the user tools or the usage to get that kind of outcry. Especially on old games being newly released on to Steam. They had their outrage (and I remember both Postal and Manhunt got a ton when they came out. Manhunt still manages to make me a little squeamish.)

[Leafsnail]

I don't think any of the other games mentioned are as deliberately offensive even if they are violent, nor do they have an uncomfortable Nazi overtone.

[Henny]

The gruff protagonist broods over his computer, pausing occasionally for a swig of whisky, while an especially tough breed of Polish heavy metal floods from the speakers. Suddenly, an ice cold rage settles over him as he sees an e-mail from Valve, and he starts hammily soliloquyzing...

[pisskop]

I guess they could just make the gameplay better

[Rez]

If you don't think Postal is deliberately offensive, I wonder what is deliberately offensive to you.

[Virtz]

I don't think any of the other games mentioned are as deliberately offensive even if they are violent, nor do they have an uncomfortable Nazi overtone.

You have apparently never played nor seen Postal 1, then. Nor Harvester.

Also, where do you see nazism in this? Since when is looking like a metalhead stereotype nazism?


And as I've said before, I kinda doubt I'll want to play this myself. But god damn, I can't stand double-standards.

[Leafsnail]

I've actually watched a Let's Play of Harvester.  It's mostly a standard point-and-click game with a few violent scenes that wouldn't be out of place in a 15+ film (they're certainly nowhere near as bad as, say, Saw scenes).  If it has a message it's about violence in videogames.  I find it baffling that anyone would even see a comparison between it and Hatred.  I don't know that much about Postal but from what I've seen it's pretty comedic and silly.  Which I guess could be described as "deliberately offensive" so I might technically be wrong, but it still doesn't seem like it was made purely to put two fingers up to people who don't like the idea of playing a mass murderer.

The Nazi part comes from the protagonist's "genocide crusade" and the makers being affiliated with neo-Nazi groups.

[pisskop]

For its time, Harvester was every bit a controversial as this was.  And apparently this is shaping up to be every bit a terrible as that, without the humor.

'Genocide crusade' has no director correlation to Nazism.   A crusade is a fight over political or religious concerns, and the genocide part comes from killing everyone.

[Rolan7]

Postal 2 looks pretty silly to me, too.  A cat as a silencer, how wacky!
Postal 1 is... not wacky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxgoLk2NCh4
Nothing about the interface suggests it's supposed to be funny, to me.  Particularly when the civilians start begging for their children, mercy, and death (about 2 minutes in, the first enemies are cops I guess).

Harvester is confusing.  On the one hand the plot could be summarized as

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The PC is being trained to be a serial killer through desensitization.

But the rushed development of the game makes it hard to tell whether they were criticizing game violence, claiming that its effects are exaggerated, or were just cashing in.

Not that any of these games should be banned, but I wouldn't want kids in my family to play them.  Just seems hypocritical for Steam to drop Hatred but not Postal 1.

Though if Hatred really does have Nazi themes, that's more understandable...  Like if it's about killing any specific group of people.  Seems to just be an indiscriminate rampage of edginess, though.

[KingofstarrySkies]

Frankly, it seems to me that the game is just trying to dick on people who blame video games for violence.