Valve complied with a request from South Korea’s Game Rating and Administration Committee to locally block a Mount & Blade: Warband mod, after which it's author deleted it.
For such mods, there is pretty much always a very firm emphasis on “this is a work of fiction” when starting the game/mod. Example is the Assassin’s Creed games, where they don’t always have historic accuracy, but that’s okay because they have emphasized that this is a liberty they have taken, and they have already made the user aware of it and agreed to the terms.
This mod however (without having tried it myself) does not make any emphasis on this, and hence uncritically portrays it as part of real events.
I mean, any person that tries to learn history from video games or movies alone is pretty dumb. In order for it to be entertaining, artistic liberties often need to be taken which usuaally means the final product is not historically accurate. The thing with Assassin’s Creed games is that where history was involved, in the past they tried to be as accurate to real life as possible. The layouts of cities, the appearance and roles of real historic characters, etc. In more recent years they have tossed that out the window, but historic accuracy on elements not related to the assassin storyline was something Assassin’s Creed prided itself on.
Even still, most only have a single text screen at the very beginning that just says “this is a work of fiction.” I don’t know that I would call that emphasis, but it is present. I also haven’t tried this mod myself, but I don’t see that it would be portraying itself as real events unless it says “this is based on real events.” I have always assumed that video games are a work of fiction, even if they are based on real events. If I wanted to learn more about the real events, I would do research on my own.
I suppose at the end of the day more context is needed. Did Valve contact the mod author prior to takedown to request a change in the mod description to add a “work of fiction” tag and the author refused? If Valve just straight up removed it without even contacting the author, I think that is not good.
I am concerned that censorship might become greater with this action. What other governments will say to Valve “remove X or Y game/mod because it is offensive or portrays real life characters or events improperly?” Ideally none, but still. I don’t exactly agree with the context of this mod and entirely understand why it would be offensive, but at the same time I think that a mod author or game developer should be free to create whatever they want, without fear of censorship removing their work.
For such mods, there is pretty much always a very firm emphasis on “this is a work of fiction” when starting the game/mod. Example is the Assassin’s Creed games, where they don’t always have historic accuracy, but that’s okay because they have emphasized that this is a liberty they have taken, and they have already made the user aware of it and agreed to the terms.
This mod however (without having tried it myself) does not make any emphasis on this, and hence uncritically portrays it as part of real events.
I mean, any person that tries to learn history from video games or movies alone is pretty dumb. In order for it to be entertaining, artistic liberties often need to be taken which usuaally means the final product is not historically accurate. The thing with Assassin’s Creed games is that where history was involved, in the past they tried to be as accurate to real life as possible. The layouts of cities, the appearance and roles of real historic characters, etc. In more recent years they have tossed that out the window, but historic accuracy on elements not related to the assassin storyline was something Assassin’s Creed prided itself on.
Even still, most only have a single text screen at the very beginning that just says “this is a work of fiction.” I don’t know that I would call that emphasis, but it is present. I also haven’t tried this mod myself, but I don’t see that it would be portraying itself as real events unless it says “this is based on real events.” I have always assumed that video games are a work of fiction, even if they are based on real events. If I wanted to learn more about the real events, I would do research on my own.
I suppose at the end of the day more context is needed. Did Valve contact the mod author prior to takedown to request a change in the mod description to add a “work of fiction” tag and the author refused? If Valve just straight up removed it without even contacting the author, I think that is not good.
I am concerned that censorship might become greater with this action. What other governments will say to Valve “remove X or Y game/mod because it is offensive or portrays real life characters or events improperly?” Ideally none, but still. I don’t exactly agree with the context of this mod and entirely understand why it would be offensive, but at the same time I think that a mod author or game developer should be free to create whatever they want, without fear of censorship removing their work.