You think you’ve seen it all, and then along comes someone to dig even deeper. A company called Skaldic Games came up with a little game they had up on Steam, before it got pulled. It was called Kill the Faggot. It was appalling, as you might guess from the title.
It was a pathetic little arcade style shooter: you moved a crosshair around the screen, clicked a button, and shot whatever was under the crosshairs. Only the targets were running groups of people, some of whom were stereotypically gay, and others were cartoonishly transgender individuals. And you got points for killing them.
I didn’t really believe anyone could be scribbling this kind of crap nowadays, but then Jim Sterling reviewed it. He sounds almost speechless as he tries to discuss it.
Here’s the person who created this crude and incompetent monstrosity.
A California game developer, skateboarder, and failed Christian shoe promoter named Randall Herman, has launched what might be one of the most offensive anti-gay games ever created, called “Kill The Faggot.”
Why am I not surprised that it was a Christian failure who created this thing?
In addition to the game, app, music, and skateboarding projects listed on Herman’s personal site, Ars Technica found another project with his full name and likeness attached: Devotor Footwear. Herman, who rode a skateboard while wearing Devotor shoes in the site’s primary YouTube video, launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2014 on behalf of a skateboarding shoe company “with one goal in mind: to promote the words and teachings of Jesus Christ through quality footwear.” That campaign was canceled before coming anywhere near its $20,000 fundraising goal. (Herman created a separate Kickstarter account for his video game projects, but a Whoisology search confirmed that a Randall Herman with a Skaldic Games e-mail address registered the site for Devotor Footwear.)
In an e-mail response to Ars Technica, Herman confirmed that he made the KTF game entirely by himself and that Valve delisted and banned the game within “about two hours” of the game going live. When asked about his role in creating Devotor, Herman claimed that he merely “built and hosted” the Devotor site “for a friend.” When pressed about the fact that Herman posted to at least one forum saying he “started” the shoe site himself, rather than list any other names either at that forum or at the project’s original Kickstarter, Herman insisted that he was “promoting it for a friend.” He declined to respond to any questions about the ideological conflict between those two decidedly different projects.
I guess now he has branched out into promoting the words and teachings of Jesus Christ through bad games and hate speech. Remember that name, Randall Herman, and his company, Skaldic Games, and never ever buy anything from him.
Now that’s clever marketing!
Maybe he hoped to get some financial support from Tony Perkins.
Was that phraseology intentional? On first reading I thought “a Xian failure” referred to someone who failed at being a Xian. Further reading informed me that the failure was his company, that tried to sell shoes with a Xian theme attached. Then again, he is Xian, and he is a failure, so “Xian failure” is appropriate moniker for him, as intentional double entendre.
Never mind… go about your business… nothin to see here…
You have to wonder at the self-awareness – or just general awareness – of people sometimes. Did this idiot expect Steam to leave this digital terrorism up for sale? Or, alternately, am I just being naive? After all, getting an offensive and/or terrible game yanked from Steam is almost guaranteed to get it noticed. Notwithstanding his “I’m just holding it for a friend” excuse (which is as credible in this situation as it was when I used it in high school), he’s probably very proud of his little hatewank-for-Jesus.
I am, uh, aghast. Appalled. It’s hardly a secret that too many people (many religious) share Mr. Herman’s attitude, but I am quite surprised at the way he seemed to think this would be very acceptable. I’m just at a loss here, at just how hate-filled some people are, and think that’s not only normal, but a good, moral way to be. Yikes.
OMFG I fucking loooove Christian shoes! How is it even possible to be a failure promoting these shoes?
http://us.christianlouboutin.com/us_en/shop-online-3/women-1/women.html
Well, Mr. Herman explains:
Seems that all those horrible people didn’t manage to destroy Mr. Herman in every vicious way possible. I guess that escaped Mr. Herman’s bigot logic.
Irisvanderpluym:
Mmmmph. I would do…almost anything for a pair of those Louis Spikes. And the Confusa. And the Dictata. Oooh baby.
A “game” this offensive and slapdash was made almost certainly for one purpose: to get pulled so the creator could go crying to the Gamergate hordes about SJW censorship and rake in donations for whatever project he decides to promise and maybe deliver on, not that it matters.
I don’t know about you guys, but I am always just so impressed with the breathtaking courage certain individuals display by promoting oppressive and deadly narratives that have dominated Western discourse, law and social custom for millennia.
Caine 7: I like all the ones with spikes. Because MISANDRY.
Irisvanderpluym:
I don’t know what Herman thought his point was, but he certainly succeeded in making the point that yes, he is indeed hateful and a bigot.
Irisvanderpluym:
Oh yes, the delish misandry is key to maximum shoe enjoyment.
PZ
I don’t know, why? If there is anything I’ve discovered in the last years is that anyone, Christian, Buddhist or atheist could have made a game like this. This isn’t vastly different than the “Punch Sarkeesian” game and their like, a game (also previously on Steam) called Hatred, and the myriad of rape games.
There is a market for these things and I think it’s overly optimistic to think that it’s limited only to Christians.
________________
irisvanderpluym #5
My vertebrates ache just from that catalogue. Those stilettos can cause lost of problems for your spine.
To be fair, given that the Shoot Brown People genre of video games is worth billions, I’d say that expecting one’s reactionary murderous power fantasy to not only be green-lighted but also profitable is not that far-fetched
Christian homophobe with violent fantasies launches a game company with the name Skaldic, referencing Norse mythology and the Viking era. I don’t know about anyone else, but my Neo-Nazi alarms are starting to ring.
@15 I was thinking the same thing. I don’t know how else that would fit into the Christian part.
It’s not the first christian-made game to advocate murdering those not in the cult. I’m surprised no one mentioned “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” before me.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Convert-or-die-game-divides-Christians-Some-2465605.php
“Games” like those aren’t entertainment, they’re incitements to commit violence. They make Super Columbine Massacre RPG look tasteful by comparison.
Here is their website: http://www.skaldicgames.com/
Here is the statement on the game: http://skaldicgames.com/statement.html
Summary: they deliberately wanted to cause offense, it was totally just a social experiment you guys,but people are too sensitive, and LBGTQ folks are the REAL haters!
In it, he also says this:
So basically he doesn’t care if he turns people away from his company because of this shitty stunt.
Look at their game catalog:
http://www.skaldicgames.com/games.html
Aside from Survival, which is going to be their “anti-industry” game that is apparently going to be inflammatory trolling, they have been designing an engine to make RPGs. They also published a game similar to a text adventure where you play as a fugitive and then a minimalist game about orbs, infection, and reflexes.
They’ve also made an app that secures notes in your phone with a password, and an app for making Black Metal songs.
All of these concepts and motifs might underlie something, that is one observation.
But my key point in mentioning all of these games and game concepts is that none of them are overtly bigoted or are Christian exclusivist or anything like that. Some of these games actually sound like things I might have looked at if I hadn’t discovered the company existed because its leader decided to joke about killing gay people. And his response to people now maybe being averse to past or future games is just to shrug it off? Fucking asinine, baffling behavior. He could have made something half way decent with broader market appeal, but instead he decided to be a bigoted troll, throw three years worth of serious game design under the bus, and hoping that the bigoted gamer demographic, supporting this one shitty trolling game, will be enough to sustain them for the rest of their existence. No, not all publicity is good publicity. I suppose, though, that I should not be surprised that someone so ridiculously hateful is also undiplomatic and reckless as well.
I bet V*x Day is kicking himself for not thinking first of this plan to both make a shitty Christian game and play the martyr afterwards.
Maybe the sad puppies will try to get him a game of the year award.
St. Hubbins is rolling in his grave.
The idiot behind this trainwrecks last big project was a failed Christian skateboard shoe kickstarter.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/05/04/failed-christian-shoe-promoter-makes-anti-gay-first-person-shooter/
Just lookit all that Christian lurve.
I guess this unnamed friend would be Jesus. Christ his imaginary friend’s an asshole.
@18, anteprepro:
Ah, right, because it’s “overly sensitive” to take offence at a game about gleefully murdering gay and trans people, because it just a social experiment and because it’s not like anybody – much less reactionary Christian fundamentalists – ever go around actually gleefully murdering actual gay and trans people.
From fuckwit’s statement:
Aw, poor little ‘phobe is “tired” of society growing increasingly intolerant of homophobia. Solution? Make a shitty little game where you kill faggots just to “piss off” the “overly sensitive” (which appears to be anyone who isn’t a homophobe)!
I happen to think that yes, if you are even a tiny bit homophobic, that classifies as bigotry, even if there’s no actual or at least conscious hatred involved. Bigotry doesn’t have to be acted upon or even acutely felt to still be bigotry. The way to address your homophobia is either to fucking well educate yourself about LGBT people so you stop being a fucking bigot or to simply shut the fuck up about it if you’re not willing to ask why it’s there – not by declaring yourself right, playing the victim and then pandering to violent adolescent fantasies about people you don’t even want to understand just to fucking troll people. I reiterate that actual gay and trans people DO get routinely murdered and that calling this blatant trolling-for-lulz a “social experiment” is, in my most polite estimation, the largest and most pungent pat of self-serving, disingenuous, nematode-riddled cave-troll shit in the history of defecation itself.
Which conflict? What difference?
A Christian? Gee, imagine my surprise.
Gotta feel for the band that have now been tarnished by association.
http://www.thejournal.ie/skaldic-games-kill-the-cruachan-2085062-May2015/
Well, could yesterday’s “draw Mohamed cause you’re not the boss of me” people please show up here and stick up for our poor prosecuted christian guy here?
Especially those who lectured about the love and peacefulness of all the other religions?
So, basically, it’s a bigoted version of Moorhuhnjagd/Crazy Chicken. Yeah, that’ll sell well.
@24 Hank_Says
You had me scared for a moment, because there’s already a game simply called “Shelter”. I didn’t get around to playing it yet, but I was really surprised to hear that the badger you play as would not only get to collect a cellphone but also play homophobic games on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelter_%28video_game%29
I’m not sure I’m ready to endorse the idea that “don’t murder people” and “don’t draw pictures of this one person” are equally reasonable.
Nobody was murdered. Pixels on a screen. Very hateful pixels that stereotype people and increase their marginalisation. Unless you want to make the point that all videogames where people are getting shot fall under this?
Clearly the reasoning is very similar: our christian homophobe was pissed off by being expected not to be an asshole against gay people and he decided to show them by intentionally putting up the most offensive stuff he could imagine.
If “murdering” fictional characters in a video game was a crime, I would be in a cell in the Hague for being a serial genocider.
If writing games that involve “murdering” innocent fictional characters en masse in a video game was a crime 4X games would be illegal, and that would be a shame.
There’s also the fact that he’s clearly exposing his own murderous fantasies in this game: you never get the feeling when playing, say, GTA, that the game’s writers wished they lived like Niko Bellic or Trevor Phillips; here, all it takes is a cursory glance to realize the game’s “author” is making this game because he’s angry at real life for denying him the pleasure of killing with impunity.
Ah, gamergate…fighting for what it’s true and good in the world….
I bet he has been raving against people like Anita for being “attention whores” only to then do this and not see the fucking irony at all…not even a tiny little bit…
Much like the reviewer, my reaction this was just an incoherent salad of swearing, blasphemy, and the word “wow”. I am honestly not capable of speech any more complex than that.
Yuhp.
What the fuck does that even mean?
I am boggled. My mind is boggled. By the existence of this game, by the person who created it, by fucking everything that I just read, heard and saw over the last five minutes. What the actual fuck.
I can’t believe nobody got my Saint Hubbins reference.
Not that this is a joking matter, of course.
@ Caine #6
My friend on FB, with whom I am discussing this, said he had heard the same justification. Nice to have it confirmed.
So this seems to be equal parts traditional fundie-Xian homophobia, and pissy GGer-style whining about censorship in games, or something? “I am a homophobe, and these people say that makes me nasty, so I’m going to be even more of a homophobe! That’ll show ’em!”. Logic; how the fuck does it work, eh?
If they make you walk on water, then I can see these making a big splash.
Wait, that doesn’t work.
To follow Jeezus example. Jeezus pissed off the Romans to prove a point, and being gawd (self-funded) did not care at all when the Romans nailed him up on that tree.
This game-developer/skateboarder has to prove he ain’t no “sensitive *fabulator* by pissing them off as much as possible, to prove to them they are too sensitive.
ah yes, the old “Dad strategy” of: if your little boy gets caught smokin a cig behind the wood shed, then make him smoke a whole carton all at once, to show him how bad it is.
And all the words about “don’t care. self-funded” sounds a lot like other words I’ve heard from other proselytizers. “Just gotta get THE WORD out there, to save those ‘misguided souls’ from eternal darmnation. No money necessary, I gots enough dollars to print up these leaflets to tell people they are going to hell! That’ll wake them up, and get them to come to get reborn in Jeezus name!”
pffftt ~~ spit ~~~ pffft
Well, he accomplished the first part of, That goal: he really pissed me off, at least.
Jesus uses footwear to promote His words and teachings? How? Does it leave prints with the Sermon on the Mount or something?
I don’t get it. What point is he trying to prove?
The shoes are attached by big iron nails through your ankles.
Well, it’s certainly no Bible Blaster.
Well after Christian rock and Christian Mysteries* Christian shoes were just a shoo-in!
__________________
* I don’t see where the ‘Mystery’ in Christian Mysteries can possibly come from: surely it’s always Satan dunnit, and they know that before they start???????
35 wrote:
aaacck, me too. I thought I was a fan of that “Tap-ster” and I missed the reference completely. Like making the Stonehenge model 11″ tall instead of 11′ tall. May St. Hubbins forgive me my transgression, missing the holy footwear so completely.
Not when you can turn it up to 11 !!!
re 40:
What point is he trying to prove?
He’s trying to prove they are TOO SENSITIVE and get offended by merely being the target of a simulated shooting gallery… got it. point made. what point? made where? IDK, I guess that proves his point, that I don’t get it, cuz I not savd in jebus name…
So can I prove a counterpoint by releasing a game Kill the Bigot?
@46
Do it. It’d be a game where you sat around waiting for them to die.
I guess he was trying to get a spot on Glen Beck and the Christian persecution / martyr racket because the pizza market for fundie money was already cornered? I did not watch the video, but I would have expected a judge or two, may they be supreme, to have appeared in order to get more viral marketing of his name, cause, and martyrdomism.
What a Brave Hero. He’s sure showing social justice warriors what a nontroversy bigotry is. I’m sure this is all about ethics and Freeze Peach.
I have grown weary of this world.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/89/77/de/8977de42efd8e4441cd73204ca5ea387.jpg
O.o
???
And that point is… “I’m a sadistic asshole”?
If the point he was trying to prove is that they tend to be right when they regard them as “hateful” or a “bigot” then I’d have to say he certainly succeeded. Otherwise, I’m not sure what point he may have been trying to prove.
Not that it matters but I don’t think he’s upset about being called “hateful” or a “bigot”. I think it would be more accurate to say Herman- and a lot of people like him- is more pissed that now he can’t be those things without the negative response being equal to, if not louder than, the concurring one. That’s the sense I get from people like Herman; that their issue isn’t people are starting to regard them negatively. No, their issue is their detractors are no longer unable/ unwilling/ incapable of expressing it. People like Herman are finding their usual means of force or the threat of it to slap them back down is becoming less effective. Their real issue is that, to defend their opinions, they may have to rely on something they simply don’t have on their side: reality.
Giliell @ #31
Well, no. There are, however, two people who are dead as a result of thinking that the response to images they ostensibly found offensive was to try to kill a bunch of people.
Are gay people usually incensed to visit violence upon those who marginalise and murder them?
Is this so of trans* people?
And while we’re drawing comparisons that aren’t, Giliell, I’m pretty sure that we’ve examined here that sometimes violence can be a reasonable response to marginalisation and murder.
Whatever could it be that separates the actions the two dead men in Texas took from those of gays from those of trans* people from those of the protesters and rioters in Baltimor?
Muslims, non-Muslims who fit racist stereotypes, gays, trans* people and blacks are all murdered Giliell. They are all marginalised. There are, however, meaningful and measured differences between the responses to the experienced marginalisation that these groups face.
It is legitimately questionable whether, given the actions of ISIS and a person who admittedly allied himself to them, whether there is actually a comparison to be made between:
and images of Mohamed. Even if, I would say, the intent of pixels depicting one or the other is to cause the same degree of offensive. Because, intent isn’t magic, I think it goes. Because depictions of Mohamed aren’t equivalent to depictions of gays and trans* people getting gunned down. At least not always, by intention or degree or level of response.
I will say that I think it’s really very inappropriate and poorly thought out of you to even try to make the comparison, Giliell.
You know no one is going to do that.
We can acknowledge that Muslims are marginalised and that gays and trans* people are too without drawing comparisons to the intended offense of depictions of Mohamed and that of depictions of gays and trans* people getting murdered.
I guess he should have been more imaginative; I still don’t want to kill him.
If you’re trying to make an argument and I’m completely missing it, I want to know. I really don’t see, though, how exactly the reasoning behind two bigoted actions being apparently similar should be compared when no one has tried (and I very much hope no one does) to kill Herman and there are two people dead who did want to and tried to kill those who offended them.
And let me return to what I think really is the most pertinent question: Whatever could it be that separates the actions the two dead men in Texas took from those of gays from those of trans* people from those protesters and rioters in Baltimor?
I believe the crux of why the comparison you’ve tried to make isn’t appropriate is in the answer and I believe that answer is more complex than the mere observation that bigoted reasoning looks ‘very similar’ no matter against whom it is applied.
On a bit of a tangent, the fact that this Better Homes and Gardens guide to freezing peaches exists just made me substantially happier.
@ rietplum #40
I strongly suspect that there was no point, and that this is merely post-hoc reasoning of the “I’m no homophobe, this is a statement about those pesky SJW’s ruining games!” variety.
This is currently being discussed on a popular computer and gaming forum I’m a member of.
Here’s some nice gamer culture perspective on this:
To which I replied: “Yeah, humans.”
The person replies:
Shame harsh language isn’t allowed there.
Saad: Gamers never fail to disappoint me. I imagine no amount of explaining will get people like that to understand why this shit matters. They don’t want to understand, they just want bullshit excuses to continue to be callous, indifferent assholes.
Yeah, and there’s the guaranteed analogy failure too: thinking that being able to kill people of a certain group in GTA should you choose makes it analogous to this game with its title, content and explicit goal of killing gay people.
I got out of that thread after a few posts. I don’t engage with bigots like that unless I can use harsh words.
@57
What’s bothers me even more about that analogy failure is why he might make the comparison at all. GTA is a modern day open world sandbox. Some of the wandering NPCs are gay. You can tell by their passing conversation. You can also run people over with your car. Is he turning GTA into his own version of “Kill the Faggot”? That’d be pretty fucked up.
jehk, #58
Good point. I’m sure they don’t even realize how revealing that is. It’s easy to get them to show their true colors. They always start out hiding behind this freeze peach facade, but under it lies not only apologia for the bigots they’re defending, but the very same ideas.
I decided to drop this in the thread in reply to that, because you know, analogies…
Last I checked, not a single person addressed it. If they agree, they’ll be racist. If they disagree, they’ll be inconsistent. An analogy is like the bigot’s kryptonite.
@Thumper #34:
I have no idea where I picked it up, but there’s some sort of Christian Identity thing that wants you to be representing Jesus in everything you do by doing excellent workmanship. So by being an excellent Plumber while a Christian you’re furthering the gospels of Jesus through your being a Christian Plumber. Or something.
Heh, I interpreted that as the merchandise itself having been blessed by Jesus. Sometimes I worry that I’m too cynical for my own good.
AIUI (sorry, no link atm, as gamer sites tend to be blocked at work) this little escapade lost Skaldic one of their voice actors, Rachel Lally. Good on her for walking.
I hear it also helps you stomp on turtles, then use their shell to clear the level.
John Horstman:
From my experience, he probably thinks he’s proving the point that he has the right to make a game like this, which he does – there is no real reason he should be absolutely banned or barred from actually coding a game like this. He shouldn’t code a game like this, as it is quite obviously only intended to deliberately cause offence, with no other purpose whatsoever, and only serves to unequivocally demonstrate he is a bigoted, homophobic arsehole of premium calibre and degree, but that is different from having the right to code a game like this, which is where he is likely going wrong – he thinks ‘having the right to do X’ and ‘should do X’ are the same thing. In addition, everyone who is letting him know exactly how offensive this game is not only have the right to do this, but should be doing it as well.
Yes, that — and more — seems to be the case, “It’s vile”: Irish metal band’s shock after being linked to anti-gay game:
Here is another kill the gays game.
So is Christian foot ware because shoes have soles?
No, I don’t. I want to make the point that “deliberately defying cultural taboos around objectively harmless actions ” is not equatable with what we are actually discussing in this thread, even if you endlessly hairsplit my exact way of phrasing it.
Yeah, but a picture of Mohammed doesn’t have to involve murder, stereotyping or marginalization.
Now, if people on here were saying, “let’s push back against the no-pictures-of-Mohammed thing by drawing pictures of stereotypical modern Muslims being murdered,” you’d have a point. But did anyone do that?