Firewatch, the walking simulator, is getting review-bombed on Steam - Sensationalist Headlines

[QUOTE=Conna;52674703]Because I care more about racism than I do about DMCAs; my mouth has never slipped and said that out loud, but then again I'm not a closet racist. Nobody accidentally says that word, especially a person with so much influence on a public stream, and if they do they need speech therapy or something.[/QUOTE] the use of DMCA in this fashion could easily set a precedent that it is okay for a company to DMCA videos of people playing their games saying anything they might disagree with, whether it be something like "fuck" or something like "this game sucks". [editline]12th September 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Marik Bentusi;52674931]So because the Firewatch devs are abusing DMCA for personal reasons that don't directly involve the game or PDP's review of it people are protesting by abusing Steam reviews for personal reasons that don't directly involve the game or their experience with it? I'm trying to give the mob some credit because I don't support the Firewatch devs' decision here, but this just seems like blind revenge because reviewbombing is more impactful than hashtagwars.[/QUOTE] i guess it is kinda comparable to people protesting in the street and blocking highways and shit or doing sit-ins of government buildings, if for something likely less important. those protest methods, though usually less legal are far more disruptive and thus likely to get noticed, just like review bombing might be more abusive of an in place system but undeniably more disruptive and noticable.

[QUOTE=DeEz;52674935]I think abusing Steam reviews is the wrong way to go about it (even if it's effective). Literally everyone involved in this fucked up.[/QUOTE] I think that consumers have the right to review a product however they deem fit to. Some people might point out that the company takes part in what they believe to be morally wrong or legally shady practices, and may wish to warn others how the product might be contributing to things that encroach on their ideals. I think this is a totally acceptable response from consumers.

[QUOTE=Conna;52674784]Hmm, Firewatch devs produce beautiful interactive content, "PewDiePie" just talks very loudly over it.[/QUOTE] Are you actually mentally handicapped, just being contratian or honestly just this stupid? Legit question because I need to know if I can laugh at you without feeling like a bad person. Like I don't like pewdiepie, his content or anything either but you act like he killed your nan and raped your dog and somehow that means questionable dcma abuse for censorship purposes is fine. I wouldn't say that review bombing is right either, but it's hell of a lot more white side of grey than dcma abuse. [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Flaming" - GunFox))[/highlight]

[QUOTE=DeEz;52674935]I think abusing Steam reviews is the wrong way to go about it (even if it's effective). Literally everyone involved in this fucked up.[/QUOTE] I don't think it's really that wrong, even if it's not exactly right either. The question the store asks is '[describe what you liked or disliked about this game and whether you'd recommend it]'. Whether the developer unlawfully goes after someone's livelihood (whether you agree with that or not) seems like relevant information for people who care about stuff like that. Personally I don't necessarily want to support developers who do stuff like this, even while I agree with these ones on the underlying issue for the most part.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;52675008]I think that consumers have the right to review a product however they deem fit to. Some people might point out that the company takes part in what they believe to be morally wrong or legally shady practices, and may wish to warn others how the product might be contributing to things that encroach on their ideals. I think this is a totally acceptable response from consumers.[/QUOTE] That's a fair point to make.

[QUOTE=Conna;52674703]Because I care more about racism than I do about DMCAs; my mouth has never slipped and said that out loud, but then again I'm not a closet racist. Nobody accidentally says that word, especially a person with so much influence on a public stream, and if they do they need speech therapy or something.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]out loud[/B][/QUOTE] closet racist

[QUOTE=DeEz;52674935]I think abusing Steam reviews is the wrong way to go about it (even if it's effective). Literally everyone involved in this fucked up.[/QUOTE] I really don't get this mindset, are you asking people to get involved but in a non-effective manner? What would be achieved? Either you get involved and do something effective, or you ignore and move on

[QUOTE=Scot;52675041]closet racist[/QUOTE] [I]"it's always the quiet ones"[/I]

[QUOTE=Antimuffin;52674752]Pewdiepie's vids probably led to some people buying the games with free coverage. Soo.. kinda dumb.[/QUOTE] They actually acknowledged that and had to fumble around about how the moral obligation of not associating themselves with Pewdiepie trumped the financial help he was to them by providing free coverage of their game. [editline]12th September 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Conna;52674703]Because I care more about racism than I do about DMCAs; my mouth has never slipped and said that out loud, but then again I'm not a closet racist. Nobody accidentally says that word, especially a person with so much influence on a public stream, and if they do they need speech therapy or something.[/QUOTE] People accidentally say words all the time, they're colloquially referred to as a Freudian slip. Not to mention that pewdiepie said himself that he wasn't thinking about it too hard, got pissed and just said the most offensive word that went through his mind.

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;52675061]They actually acknowledged that and had to fumble around about how the moral obligation of not associating themselves with Pewdiepie trumped the financial help he was to them by providing free coverage of their game. [/QUOTE] Pretty sure they just hate him and used this as an opportunity to cut him off. [media]https://twitter.com/vanaman/status/906984060215427072[/media] Unfortunately it sets a terrible legal precedent that I don't think they acknowledged.

[QUOTE=latin_geek;52674869]what's fraudulent about it firewatch devs offer a blanket permission for people to monetize their game, this guy does something that's worth revoking that privilege, they file a DMCA complaint for [I]their content[/I] being used in a way they don't agree with[/QUOTE] even if they didn't give permission they're taking a video down for something wildly and completely irrelevant and intentionally doing it purely cause they don't like him [editline]12th September 2017[/editline] The precedent that you can effectively censor someone by removing totally unrelated content is pretty bad

I don't think whether or not PewDiePie is racist is relevant here. He might be. I might believe he's a racist. The question is, is there a valid legal argument that being a racist shit in a separate video constitutes breaking copyright on a totally unrelated video when, to my knowledge, express legal permission was granted previously without stipulation or restriction? Is there a racism clause in DMCA that I'm not aware of? With all the arguments I've seen so far, I'm inclined to believe that no such provision exists. I'm inclined to believe this is abuse. Is racism bad? Yep. Is saying "it's okay to abuse the law just in this one case because he's a bad guy, trust me, this won't ever be abused to be bad if this becomes legal or whatever so just take my word for it" right? I don't believe it is.

[QUOTE=Conna;52674641]Ridiculous overexaggeration by children having a literal hissy fit; Firewatch is a fantastic gane.[/QUOTE] Sorry but I think developer scumminess is something that should always be made known in Steam reviews. You shouldn't get to DMCA certain people just because you don't like them.

[QUOTE=Conna;52674784]Hmm, Firewatch devs produce beautiful interactive content, "PewDiePie" just talks very loudly over it.[/QUOTE] Jesus that's a high horse. Its also a very wrong way to use copyright infringement, especially when no one was actually racist. If I had a penny for every time I've seen the word nigger being thrown around, I'd actually be legitemaly rich. Like, seriously, actually loaded with cash.

I bet they're also salty about how Pewdiepie took a fat shit on their awful ending for this game when he was playing it [editline]12th September 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Marik Bentusi;52674931]So because the Firewatch devs are abusing DMCA for personal reasons that don't directly involve the game or PDP's review of it people are protesting by abusing Steam reviews for personal reasons that don't directly involve the game or their experience with it? I'm trying to give the mob some credit because I don't support the Firewatch devs' decision here, but this just seems like blind revenge because reviewbombing is more impactful than hashtagwars.[/QUOTE] Pewdiepie saying nigger is unrelated to Firewatch entirely Firewatch devs committing DMCA fraud on a Firewatch video when they as devs promised the right to make a Firewatch video was protected is related to Firewatch as a product Consumers should know that the game they're buying has devs willing to fuck with/over their customers entirely based on whether the devs dislike them personally or not, and that they're dishonest.

[QUOTE=Conna;52674703]Because I care more about racism than I do about DMCAs; my mouth has never slipped and said that out loud, but then again I'm not a closet racist. Nobody accidentally says that word, especially a person with so much influence on a public stream, and if they do they need speech therapy or something.[/QUOTE] You can care about racism more than you care about DMCA takedown abuse, and you can also believe that [I]neither[/I] of involved parties were in the right. They aren't mutually exclusive.

[QUOTE=DeEz;52674942]It's also ironic[/QUOTE] It really isn't since the DMCA situation that caused this review bomb is related to the product, its consumer rights, and its devs promises directly and not just a personal beef like what caused this dev to do it in the first place

This is bullshit, what does the game have to do with this streaming drama crap? It's just a piece of entertainment made for people to enjoy, its not even representative of the developers' shitty attitude towards people saying bad words and it's been created in a completely unrelated context. Most people just looking for a cool game to enjoy won't even know about all the youtube drama nor do they give a fuck. There's no point in fucking up the reviews for people who are not involved in the least, its just slightly inconveniencing the customers not 'punishing' the devs for being asses.

[QUOTE=DeEz;52675121]Pretty sure they just hate him and used this as an opportunity to cut him off. [media]https://twitter.com/vanaman/status/906984060215427072[/media] Unfortunately it sets a terrible legal precedent that I don't think they acknowledged.[/QUOTE] I've read these tweets a few times now, and it's only now dawned on me. This sounds a [b]lot[/b] like Sean is jealous of PewDiePie. Which I mean, I can understand. Sean et all spend goodness knows how long making and releasing a game, and then comes along PewDiePie who, as Conna puts it, "just screams overtop it" - and between the two, PewDiePie makes several times more money than Sean et all do, as well as receive a lot more feedback, praise, and comments. Nevermind the fact that PewDiePie and Sean are in [b]entirely[/b] different spheres of the entertainment industry.

At this point Sean is dick. Like others said, it looks like complete PR move to me. They're really hungry for clicks and drama.

You reap what you sow, right. They abused the DMCA system to affect PDP, people abuse the steam rating system to affect them. This has nothing to do with what he said anymore.

[QUOTE=latin_geek;52674869]what's fraudulent about it firewatch devs offer a blanket permission for people to monetize their game, this guy does something that's worth revoking that privilege[/QUOTE] you realize that it's not a privilege, right? if anything, it's a privilege to be on pdp's channel, not that pdp gets to play their game. if this was like, an Activision or Blizzard game then you might be correct, but this is a relatively small game and studio they're the ones getting recognition, they're the ones getting potential sales out of the video existing. which makes it abundantly clear that the only reason they're doing this is to try and look like heroes to the outraged community.

[QUOTE=Gmod4ever;52675412]between the two, PewDiePie makes several times more money than Sean et all do, as well as receive a lot more feedback, praise, and comments.[/QUOTE] Then again, comparing the [B]Top #1 Youtube game monetizing guy[/B] with some [B]Whatever-Thousand[/B] developer isn't a fair fight. Could Felix play WoW and make more money than Blizzard? Hell fucking no, so there you have it.

[QUOTE=sh4d0w;52675591]Then again, comparing the [B]Top #1 Youtube game monetizing guy[/B] with some [B]Whatever-Thousand[/B] developer isn't a fair fight. Could Felix play WoW and make more money than Blizzard? Hell fucking no, so there you have it.[/QUOTE] Yes, that was my point. Congratulations.

Firewatch is legitimately one of the worst games I have ever played. It's only redeemable factor is that sometimes, the visuals are nice. It is the epitome of a "non-game" experience.

[QUOTE=Gmod4ever;52675613]Yes, that was my point. Congratulations.[/QUOTE] I mean, it was never specified that Pewdiepie was the highest echelon and this guy somewhere in the bottom. If it was implied I missed it but hey, why disagree if we agree.

[QUOTE=General J;52675725]Firewatch is legitimately one of the worst games I have ever played. It's only redeemable factor is that sometimes, the visuals are nice. It is the epitome of a "non-game" experience.[/QUOTE] Yep it's only selling point is the visuals, should have been a VR title at this point (for $15) and it wouldn't have been so harshly judged.

[QUOTE=H4ngman;52675381]This is bullshit, what does the game have to do with this streaming drama crap? It's just a piece of entertainment made for people to enjoy, its not even representative of the developers' shitty attitude towards people saying bad words and it's been created in a completely unrelated context. Most people just looking for a cool game to enjoy won't even know about all the youtube drama nor do they give a fuck. There's no point in fucking up the reviews for people who are not involved in the least, its just slightly inconveniencing the customers not 'punishing' the devs for being asses.[/QUOTE] There are two ways of looking at how Steam Reviews should be used. The first is to answering the question of "Is this game good or bad?". The other interpretation is the question of "Do i think you should support this and all it encompasses?" - that includes things like update frequency, DLC policies, overall intent of the developer and things like their business model. There's a lot more that's going to influence someone giving their opinion on whether you should support something with money than just "It's a fun game". If there's a developer who does something that makes you not want to support them, then you aren't going to recommend people support them by buying their games. These are peoples opinions on "Do i personally think you should give this developer money by buying it?" and that's something you can't really make a proper recommendation on by [I]just[/I] taking the game into account.

Man this drama can never be handled properly: youtuber uses racist slur -> reaction to that is get the law involved with something completely irrelevant -> reaction to that is to hit the game with negative reviews with something completely irrelevant. Also I find it real funny this is the turning point for Campo Santo, and not 6 months ago when google and disney pulled out over the "death to all jews" thing.

[video]http://twitter.com/vanaman/status/906984318685155328[/video] The saddest thing about this is that DMCA abuse and censorship is a real damaging problem in the culture of youtube There are also probably an incredible number of people out there who are openly racist and have videos up of their firewatch LP. But I don't see him also going after these people. if he wants to 'take a stand' against racism where is the rant for those people as well?