[View the story "Apple apps rejects Syria game" on Storify ]Apple apps rejects Syria game "Endgame: Syria" refused because it depicts enemies that are real-life entities. Storified by The Stream · Tue, Jan 08 2013 12:35:15
Below, Auroch Digital's Creative Director
Tomas Rawlings explains the reasoning and design behind "Endgame: Syria". He argues that games offer a unique medium for understanding conflict in that they are "dynamic changing systems" with multiple possible end results much like the Syrian conflict.
Endgame: Syria Trailergamethenewsnet
According to gaming site Pocket Tactics, Apple refused the app because it violates section 15.3 of its guideline policy which prohibits games from featuring enemies that "solely target a specific race, culture, a real government, corporation or any other real entity". The guideline has been invoked in previous bans on a World War Two game that
featured Japanese flags and another game that invited users to "
smuggle " immigrants across borders.
Online, gamers seem unsurprised by Apple's announcement. On gaming blog Kotaku, commenter
Conniption_Fit shared:
This is why I laugh everytime someone calls iOS an open platformA Serious Game About The Syrian Conflict Has Been Barred From The App Store
Apple should be allowed to ban whatever they want from their App Store. Apple makes a 30% profit from every app in the app store - THEY are the ones selling these apps, not the developers. Therefore it stands to reason they wouldn't want to sell an app that could associate them with a political message.A Serious Game About The Syrian Conflict Has Been Barred From The App Store
Ahead of the game's release, Auroch Digital
posted additional information about the design and information sourcing for the game, which was designed in just two weeks. The company cites information from a variety of sources, including
Syria Deeply ,
Syria Comment ,
Informed Comment , Wired, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.
Most
reviews of the game ahead of Apple's decision have been positive. In the Google Play app store,
Richard Lupton writes:
Real insight into an issue that almost becomes invisible after months of desensitizing tv coverage. Great idea, wonderfully executed.Endgame : Syria - Android Apps on Google Play
Rawlings argues that games released by Game the News offer new ways of interacting and understanding real world events.
Games won't (nor should they) replace traditional news forms, but they can offer something new. Firstly they allow the user to interact with the flow of events, they are a great way to explore a dynamic situation with multiple outcomes as they let the user explore many paths in different ways. Secondly they are a medium that many people relate to as a primary media form.War in Syria: Using Games to Understand Conflict | GamesIndustry International
"Endgame: Syria" is still available in the Google Play
store and as an HTML game at
Game the News . The project plans to resubmit the game for consideration by Apple.
So Endgame:Syria got rejected by Apple, which is a shame. We will try to resubmit but it will mean we'll have to... http://fb.me/1Bqvv61z3Game The News
