Steam Greenlight recently removed an anti-LGBT game called Kill the Faggot for violating its terms of service, but many have questioned how the game was released on Steam Greenlight to begin with.
Removed just two hours after its launch, the object of the game was to shoot and kill people who uttered stereotypically gay or trans phrases; accidentally shooting a “straight person” would cause the player to lose points.
This violates several points of the Steam Greenlight terms of service, which states that a game submitted to Greenlight should not contain “porn, inappropriate or offensive content [emphasis added], warez or leaked content,” “threats of violence or harassment, even as a joke,” or “soliciting, begging, auctioning, selling, advertising, referrals, racism, discrimination [emphasis added].”
The game’s creator, skateboarder and failed Christian shoe promoter Randall Herman, created and submitted the game in a few hours under the name Skaldic Games. Upon its removal, he posted a free version of the game on his website.
While Steam introduced the $100 fee for entry into the Greenlight program as a method of cutting down on the flood of joke submissions received when Greenlight launched, it does not always serve as a deterrent to those who would violate the terms of service, as Herman has demonstrated. This leaves many wondering what Steam is doing to prevent games like this from being promoted through Greenlight.
Is Steam doing enough to filter submissions to Greenlight? Let us know in the comments.
Published: May 9, 2015 01:24 pm