Apple Yanks "Sweatshop Themed" Game From App Store

First time accepted submitter danhuby writes "Apple have removed sweatshop-themed game Sweatshop HD by UK developers LittleLoud from their app store citing clause 16.1 — 'Apps that present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected.' According to the PocketGamer article, Littleloud's head of games, Simon Parkin, told Pocket Gamer that 'Apple removed Sweatshop from the App Store last month stating that it was uncomfortable selling a game based around the theme of running a sweatshop.'"

Comments

Game Dev Story

[Akratist]

Then how did Game Dev Story get approved??

Re:Game Dev Story

[Nerdfest]

It was probably fine until someone noticed that it was very much like a Foxconn facility. The "objectionable" in their approval terms is pretty loose and doesn't mention who the app has to be "objectionable" to.

Re:Game Dev Story

[bhagwad]

No biggie. The developer can just offer it for download on their site like Adblock is doing after Google kicked them from their Play store.

Oh wait...

Re:Game Dev Story

[mabhatter654]

But then its competing directly with an Apple "product".

Re:Game Dev Story

[pushing-robot]

Dear sir;

In the future, please refrain from comparing 80 hours a week spent hacking out a video game to 80 hours a week spent standing and endlessly performing the same repetitive task in a factory filled with noise, toxic chemicals and dangerous industrial equipment.

Cordially yours,

The Real World

Re:Game Dev Story

[Looker_Device]

Obviously, you've never worked at EA.

Apple

[bradgoodman]

What, so only APPLE is allowed to run a sweatshop?

Re:Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, requirements of FoxConn. Not FoxConn's subcontractors.

Inspectors go in, FoxConn guy says "Oh no, these are workers of PhantomCorp, not our employees" and the Inspector goes the other way.

PS, Angry Birds smashing pigs? That makes me uncomfortable! Very uncomfortable!

Re:Apple

[epiphani]

Nope. This exact thing has happened before - except it was Nike, not Apple:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blnike.htm

Re:Apple

[_xeno_]

What, so only APPLE is allowed to run a sweatshop?

No, no, no. Apple doesn't run any sweatshops.

They contract that out. That way, they can be shocked - shocked! - to learn that their third party contractors are running sweatshops and hiring children. Plus they can "drop" the manufacturers who hire children, just to rehire them under a different name when people stop paying attention.

Plus, Apple's contractors have the best suicide-prevention nets in the industry! Who needs "livable working conditions" when you have suicide prevention nets?

Re:Apple

[Tx]

They probably have a patent on it.

The definition of PC

[LordKaT]

If it makes you feel uncomfortable, force people to stop talking about it. The definition of political correctness!

Re:The definition of PC

[i kan reed]

It's not really though. The original intent of political correctness was to provide a way for people to be self-critical about the subtle biases that they engage in when they speak.

When you say "black" as a description of someone, for example, your description carries with it connotations that aren't necessarily true, especially since in western culture the word black is historically associated with evil(i.e. black magic, black death, black mark, blacklist, etc.). Political correctness has never been legally forced on anyone, and it's a straw-man to call it "forcing" people to do things. The social judgement people get for failing to be politically correct is no different than the judgement that people get for being rude.

I won't say political correctness has never been about people being offended, because many people invoking the concept have as poor an understanding of it as you do, but that's not the point.

Re:The definition of PC

[garett_spencley]

Any time you have a movement or an ideology that affects people who don't share that ideology you see outrage. That outrage often comes with straw-man tactics used in discourse.

I can think of many examples of so-called "right wing" or "conservative" ideologies that are on the receiving end. The "pro-life" movement is one example. To most who are "pro-life" the issue that is that life begins at conception and so an abortion is literally murder. But many on the "pro-choice" side have accused the "pro-life" crowd of hating women and wanting to enslave them. That's a very blatant straw-man argument from my point of view. And FWIW, I'm probably more "pro-choice" than most.

Fiscal conservatism receives straw-man arguments all the time. Whenever people accuse a fiscal conservative of being "on the side of the wealthy" or "greedy", whenever someone claims that libertarianism is "anarchy for rich people" those are straw-men arguments.

Thinking???

[Carnivore24]

"challenged people to think about the origin of the clothes we buy" Challenging people to think is one of the main things an Apple user is not allowed to do. Makes sense if you think about it.

Seattle Rex said it best

[Anonymous Coward]

"Increasingly, Apple is not for doâ(TM)ers. It is not for power users. It is not for creators. It is not for people who think different. It is for posers. It is for hipsters. It is for metrosexuals. It is for wannabes and pretenders."

Oooh, I know a game...

[digitalhermit]

This game will be called "Patent War"...
The object is to collect as many patents growing around the landscape stuff them in your pocket. The more patents you collect, the better are your chances against the Innovation Monster. Defeat the Innovation Monster and collect Gold Coins. Use the Gold Coins to buy Senators who can help build fences to keep the Innovation Monster away. Once you level up, defeat the Consumer Rights Beast and collect even more Gold Coins and even the Vorpal DRM which can stave off the Indie Media Goblin and the DIY Music Devil.

Typical

[Anonymous Coward]

Kill hundreds of thousands of virtual people in videogames? No prob! Force them to work in a sweatshop? That makes me a little uncomfortable.

Walled Garden

[stevegee58]

Welcome to the walled garden where everything is beautiful inside and you're protected from the ugly outside world (by the gardener's definition).

Too close to home.

[Culture20]

Seriously, a game called "5 minutes to kill yourself" (and the wedding day edition) is okay, but a game where you run a sweatshop isn't? I'm guessing the top tier goal of the sweatshop game had the workers building iGlasses for an unnamed American corporation.

Confidential guidelines

[tepples]

A leaked version of the App Store Review Guidelines already contains a ban on realistic violence.

But the real problem with the App Store Review Guidelines is that they're confidential, intended only for current developers, not for prospective developers. Say someone has been developing applications for PCs and Android devices as a hobby, and he wants to try developing a few applications for the iPhone or iPad. Before he spends over $1,000 on a Mac, an iPad, and a developer license, how can he be sure that Apple won't reject his applications' concepts?

Re:Android

[PyroMosh]

While I agree with you in principal (the ability to run whatever I wish is one of the reasons I use Android and avoid iOS myself), in practice, what you describe is the same on both platforms.

If I'm selling a commercial app, even on Android, the built-in store is more or less the only avenue to making money. Google's store has rules just like Apple's does.

Sure I can sell through Amazon or some of the other third parties instead. But this obviously greatly diminishes my potential market (and they will likely have similar rules too). What percent of Android users ever install a third party store? What percent are even aware they can do so?

If you're talking about commercially selling software to sideload, the problem is even worse. Most users have no idea this is possible. So in effect, if you're investing a lot of money into a project and Google says "no", the results aren't much different from Apple saying "no".

Re:When the rules are paywalled

[rvw]

So Apple is enforcing their rules which they've openly and clearly published

When I tried to view the rules on Apple.com, it asked me to log in with an Apple ID. Where should a prospective developer view these rules before spending four figures on a Mac, an iPad, and a developer license?

You can create your apple id for free, without using an ipad or mac.

Re:Block this dick from posting

[DrXym]

There is a difference between censorship and moderation. I see no issue with slashdot insta-modding particular kinds of post down to -1, without requiring human mods to do it, e.g. anything linking to goatsex for example or posts with certain keywords that appear within 30 minutes of a story going live.

They could even rank it down to a -2 which is only visible to the randomly designated mods so they can rescue posts that end up there without subjecting everyone else to that shit.

Re:Block this dick from posting

[wonkey_monkey]

There is a perfectly workable system already in place that relies on, rather than centralised censorship, crowd-sourced moderation. Unfortunately, it's ruined by chumps who reply to to the trolls, thus bringing otherwise rapidly hidden posts to the attention of all and sundry.

Re:Tapper?

[vux984]

What about the Tapper game that's been around since the dawn of time ...

You do realize Tapper was reworked to use Root Beer in most of its iterations including a version for Arcades, the version for Coleco and Atari, and even the version on Xbox Live all are "Rootbeer Tapper"... even the Tapper scene in "Wreck it Ralph"; looks like the original Tapper game, but the Bud logo is not present, and you can clearly hear a patron interrupt Tapper to order a Root Beer.

Probably not the best example.

Streisand Effect

[CanHasDIY]

Never heard of Sweatshop HD before this...

Now I MUST PLAY IT!!!!

Good work, Apple, the dev couldn't pay for this kind of publicity.

Having a free Apple ID is not enough

[tepples]

You can create your apple id for free

I just logged in with my Apple ID, and it told me "Sorry, you cannot access this page. The Apple ID you signed in with does not have permission to view this page."

Simply rename the App!

[HycoWhit]

Sweatshop HD is such a crude and offensive name. The game simply needs to be renamed: Foxconn Fun or iFactory, maybe Making Apples...

After the first few hours of a discussion

[tepples]

Why bother requiring intervention - just get rank it down and let a mod rescue it if and only if it was somehow relevant.

I can think of three reasons.

First, moderators tend not to rescue posts after the first few hours of a discussion.

Second, users can set a threshold on whether replies show up in their Message Center. An on-topic reply to one's comment that's robo-modded due to forbidden keywords might never show up. I, for one, depend on Message Center for notifications of replies to my comments.

Third, Slashdot karma works on a percentage scale. Each "In" moderation adds 2 percent, and each negative moderation takes away 2 percent. (Funny appears to do nothing.) Only users with "Excellent" karma (over 50%) get to post with the bonus, which is essential to keep late-discussion comments visible. A post at 1 that's robo-modded down to -1 due to forbidden keywords takes away 4% karma.