Google's Niantic Labs Sorry Over Death Camps In Smartphone Game

New submitter LunaticTippy writes: For those unfamiliar with Ingress, the game has GPS coordinate portals that correspond to real world locations, players then use smartphones to battle for control of these portals. Many public locations with historical or artistic interest are submitted by players. It turns out some of the sites were located within concentration camps such as Dachau and Sachsenhausen. NBC reports: "In a statement to The Associated Press, Niantic Labs' founder John Hanke said the company has begun removing the offending sites from the game. He said 'we apologize that this has happened.'"

Comments

What could possibly go wrong?

[Megane]

Give people the ability to create things tied to real world locations without any sort of moderation controls, act surprised when they pick controversial locations. Trolls gonna troll.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[mythosaz]

Location submissions in Ingress have always required approval.

Similarly you could request locations be removed for a variety of reasons - generally because they were on private property, were out of reach to the general public, etc. Sadly, sour grapes and even more sour players were more often the cause. A portal at my place of business was removed ostensibly because the garden was for patient recovery and meditation. Site management never even knew the game existed, let alone that Ingress players were disrupting meditation in the garden. The real reason a portal at my place of business was removed was that the opposing team didn't like a cluster of portals that was in the lap of the opposition -- so they faked a complaint to get it removed.

Bitches gonna bitch.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[JWSmythe]

I have outstanding submissions anywhere from 6 months to a year right now. I just got one denied that was just over 6 months old.

Of course, they'll take graffiti on the side of a dumpster, but they won't take actual non-death-camp historic landmarks.

As I keep saying, their approval process is handled by a randomizer. No human can be as pathetic as their approve/deny decisions have been.

Hell, I tried to have a portal removed from my ex-wife's house. I went out to visit our daughter, and while I was trying to explain the game, I turned on the game and it was on the house. The picture was from a commercial property miles away. They refused to remove it.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[cfalcon]

They didn't really "do" it, they just missed what it was when they approved it. And it should be pointed out that the whole point of locations is that they be basically what the death camps are today- aka, public places, museums, etc. It's entirely possible that they were not added to troll, but simply on the idea of "hey, people are around here to learn, lets put a portal here because it is interesting for the players who come here".

Again- Ingress portals are placed in historical and public areas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

"The gameplay consists of establishing "portals" at places of cultural significance, such as public art, landmarks, monuments, etc."

Denialist

[OverlordQ]

So is removing them and pretending those places dont exist is a better solution?

Ingress.

[mythosaz]

The "goal" of Ingress is to get people outside and walking around and looking at the real world.

A lot of players use it trolling around in their cars to hit as many points as possible, but a lot of fat nerds like myself have walked around a lot of parks we might not have otherwise gotten off our fat asses for.

I'd have rather seen a historic site -- no matter the subject -- than a few graffiti mural-ed alleys I've wandered down here in Phoenix.

Re:Too late

[Gravis Zero]

The damage has been dough, you hurt my feels you insensitive bigot! Reparations for me now!!!

well... how about a cookie? :)

I still don't get this

[Guy From V]

Again why are they needing to apologize for approving portal locations for historic areas?

I'd like "What is history?" for $500, Alex.

[Loopy]

When did learning about history or using historical figures, locations or groups in games or other activities become verboten? If we are to apply this crap objectively and consistently, then we need to make sure we ban everything that anyone anywhere ever could possibly be offended by, just so nobody suffers from undue loss of self-esteem or panic attacks or feel that their positions are not getting equal respect.

Books with any controversial name? BANNED
TV shows that say certain trigger words? BANNED
Cars named after people or places that someone fears? BANNED
Documentaries about terrible events in history? BANNED

Where, pray tell, does it end? When did people lose all ability to process input on a rational and contextual basis? /smh

The smartphone game trivializes Auschwitz.

[westlake]

So is removing them and pretending those places dont exist is a better solution?

It hurts my head when a geek asks a loaded --- smartass ---- question like this and gets modded up +5, Insightful.

The exact opposite of what Niantic should do

[smellsofbikes]

The entire point of portals is that they are located at physical locations that have historical or cultural significance. https://support.google.com/ing...
The list of the top ten most historically and culturally significant sites in the whole world would include the concentration camps.
This is political correctness at its worst, where in seeking sensitivity it in fact hides atrocity.