• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Apple pulls everything w/ Confederate Flag from App Store including Civil War games

Interfectum

Interfectum

Member
If you've been watching the news recently, you'll know of the huge debate in the U.S over the role of the Confederate flag in contemporary America. Many see it as a reminder of the many pre-Civil War injustices while others see it simply as a way to honor the soldiers who died for the Confederacy. Many large US companies, like Walmart and Amazon, have already banned the sale of any Confederate flag merchandise as a reaction to the recent events. Now, it appears that Apple has decided to join them by pulling many Civil War wargames from the App Store. As of the writing of this story, games like Ultimate General: Gettysburg and all the Hunted Cow Civil War games are nowhere to be found. Apple is famous for reaching for the axe rather than the scalpel when it comes to political issues (like rejecting Hunted Cow's Tank Battle 1942 for depicting Germans and Russians as enemies), so this move doesn't come as a great surprise.

Update: It's looking like Apple has pulled everything from the App Store that features a Confederate flag, regardless of context. The reasoning Apple is sending developers is "...because it includes images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways." We just spoke with Andrew from HexWar Games, who have released many historical strategy games. He insists, "We're in no way sympathetic to the use of the flag in an offensive way, we used it purely because historically that was the flag that was used at the time."
Click to expand...

http://toucharcade.com/2015/06/25/apple-removes-confederate-flag/

Umm... a tad overboard? We gonna have to start editing the flag out of Civil War games?

Update:
We now have an official Apple statement regarding the removal of the games. Specifically, Apple states that "we have removed apps from the App Store that use the Confederate flag in offensive or mean-spirited ways, which is in violation of our guidelines." Sources close to the company say that it's working with the developers affected by the flag ban to get the issue resolved and get the games back on the App Store. However, the developers will have to either remove or replace the Confederate flag. If this is indeed what Apple is demanding from the developers, it raises all kind of questions about censorship and historical memory as it literally risks rewriting history. Objectionable as it is, the existence of the Confederate flag in these Civil War games is historically accurate, and I'm not sure that any company should have the ability to mold history to its standards and beliefs.
Click to expand...
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
Oh god please don't let us go Germany-style overboard on this one. Take that shit off the capitols ASAP but this is crazy.
 
K

kiguel182

Member
Really dumb move.

Context is key. If it's used to represent historical events how is that offensive? Makes no sense.

It's like if you want to make a WW2 game but can't have any Nazi symbols or something.
 
R

RealityCheque

Banned
ndqyz.jpg


Please take away the bad flag mommy, its the cause of all our troubles!!!

Anybody else getting tired of being told what to think by idiots?
 
J

JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
Seems to be quite an overreaction. I'd happily wipe my ass with the Confederate flag but I don't want it treated like the Germans treat Nazi symbols (full censorship regardless of context iirc).
 
R

robertlebrone

Member
This is silly. Nobody gave a damn about the confederate flag until this asshole decided to kill these people in this church. I don't get it. I think a lot of people are missing the point with this. This guy wasn't able to kill these people because he had access to a confederate flag...
 
M

mcrommert

Banned
robertlebrone said:
This is silly. Nobody gave a damn about the confederate flag until this asshole decided to kill these people in this church. I don't get it. I think a lot of people are missing the point with this. This guy wasn't able to kill these people because he had access to a confederate flag...
Click to expand...

The flag told him to do it
 
C

Calamari41

41 > 38
This crusade is just getting started. I can't wait to see how far off the deep end it goes.

Anybody named "Lee" out there, you'd better start thinking about a new name soon.
 
K

Kinsei

Banned
mcrommert said:
Ah and people discount the slippery slope...enjoy
Click to expand...

No one else will do anything like this.

robertlebrone said:
This is silly. Nobody gave a damn about the confederate flag until this asshole decided to kill these people in this church. I don't get it. I think a lot of people are missing the point with this. This guy wasn't able to kill these people because he had access to a confederate flag...
Click to expand...

Yes they did.
 
S

Suzushiiro

Banned
Yeah, this is getting a little silly. Making it not be flown in state capitals is long overdue. Places like Wal-Mart and Amazon not selling them anymore is... maybe a little much, but whatever. Extending this to things that use the flag in its actual historical context as opposed to its modern usage as the redneck fuckhead banner is fucking ridiculous and just going to fuel the martyr complex of the people defending it.
 
F

Fragamemnon

Member
I'm all for the general purge of the confederate flag from usage. Just change the flag graphic to something grey with "CSA" on it

edit: for reference, lifelong wargamer. It's really not a big deal to change this to something that's not completely offensive. I don't need a big flag graphic to know the difference between which army is on which side. It's glaringly obvious in ACW battles if you have any historical perspective of the way the battle was engaged.
 
C

cackhyena

Member
robertlebrone said:
This is silly. Nobody gave a damn about the confederate flag until this asshole decided to kill these people in this church. I don't get it. I think a lot of people are missing the point with this. This guy wasn't able to kill these people because he had access to a confederate flag...
Click to expand...

Of course they cared. It takes something as heinous as the crime committed with the beliefs behind what the flag stands for to bring it into the spotlight in an effective way.

Apple just straight up isn't thinking on this one.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
This is completely unnecessary and a terrible idea. No company wants their name and "confederate flag" to appear together in news headlines, no matter the capacity.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
Fragamemnon said:
I'm all for the general purge of the confederate flag from usage. Just change the flag graphic to something grey with "CSA" on it.
Click to expand...

Even in a game about the Civil War? I agree that we shouldn't be flying it in a modern context, but we shouldn't hide from it in a historical one.
 
A

andymcc

Banned
kiguel182 said:
Really dumb move.

Context is key. If it's used to represent historical events how is that offensive? Makes no sense.

It's like if you want to make a WW2 game but can't have any Nazi symbols or something.
Click to expand...

that's what they do with WWII games in Germany right? Like Wolfenstein ditches the swastika...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Apple to allow game emulators on iOS App Store
News Platform
27
2K
DaGwaphics replied
Apple opens App Store to game streaming services
News Business
1
604
diffusionx replied
Black Flag has been taken down from sale on Steam
News Platform
9
1K
Larxia replied
Apple Announces Ability to Download Apps Directly From Websites in EU
37
2K
WitchHunter replied
  • Locked
Apple's organic push towards AAA gaming jeopardizes PC gaming and benefits from this "need" where Xbox tried to reject. Exclusive Games.
Opinion 2
64
4K
Roxkis_ii replied
Top Bottom