So, I'm not american, but I visited that page, and from the comments here I was expecting to see a confederate flag. Instead I see an old C90 style audio cassette?<p>Also, my grasp of American history isn't great, but the south lost this war right? And this particular battle at Gettysburg. And the Gettysburg address is fairly famous.<p>So, if not for the context of this being posted and then other comments here, I would assume this was a total non-event. Am I missing something? What's the supposed link between this and recent happenings with Apple store regulations and racist symbolism in the US?<p>edit: answering my own question, this particular cross-platform game got removed from the Apple app store as they were unwilling to edit it to remove the confederate flag from the game believing they shouldn't fall under the content ban as it was only used in historical context. It's not clear to me if it's presence is anything but a coincidence as it seems to be a well regarded game anyway.
Wha?<p>Oh, there's context not on this page, it looks like Apple decided confederate flags are verboten <i>in depictions of the civil war</i>.<p>Sigh.
"We view apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app. It can get complicated, but we have decided to not allow certain kinds of content in the App Store."<p>I can create a racist song or book and sell it, i cannot create an historical game.... WTF
By refusing to show it - even in proper historical context - we're giving the Confederate flag more power.<p>This is just the latest "he who shall not be named."
As much as Apple's decision is highly contestable, I don't know if it is worth trying to make a <i>PR coup</i> by implicitly backing a racist flag. I know I personally wouldn't want to be remembered as being that guy. Anyway, well done Valve, <i>I guess</i>, stick it it to big bad Apple.<p>Edit: to illustrate my point a bit more I think there is a difference between simply proposing a game with historical flags in your store, which I think should always be allowed, and putting a controversial subject in front of your store for PR purpose. For me it's like saying: <i>see, see in our store we have games with controvertial flags</i> - come buy our games. I'm not confortable with that. Maybe I'm wrong though.
For anyone interested, Ultimate General: Gettysburg is a game made by the well-known modder of the Total War series of games, DarthVader.<p>His DarthMod series have been consistently rated as among the best, if not the best overhaul mods available for the series and rightly so.<p>They are really fantastic.
Context: <a href="http://rt.com/usa/269779-apple-civil-war-games/" rel="nofollow">http://rt.com/usa/269779-apple-civil-war-games/</a><p>Apple and other "major retailers" are pulling anything that includes the Confederate flag as content from their stores because, as we well know, the best way to respond to intolerance is to bury our heads in the sand.
My problem is Apple didn't pull books with a Confederate Flag on their cover. They pulled apps. I am getting a little sick of the stand that developers are not considered for the same creative protections that book authors are. Its bad enough that companies are designing machines that restrict the people who make those machines worth buying, but this constant harassment that no large company would think to apply to movies, tv shows, or books is discouraging.
"We view apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app. It can get complicated, but we have decided to not allow certain kinds of content in the App Store."<p>I can create a racist song or book and sell it, i cannot create an historical game.... wtf logic
The point here is, if you voice your opinion, your enemies will use this to voice how their opinion is different. You won't convince people with different opinions than your own to change, but just send them to your enemies.
Steam page: <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/306660/" rel="nofollow">http://store.steampowered.com/app/306660/</a><p>It looks like it's been available for about 8 months.
And then you realize that if we wouldn't have games about wars (be it civil war games or WWII games or whatnot), we wouldn't have this issue.
I'm wondering when this nonsense will stop.<p>This game is a history lesson for kids. You can't rewrite history, even if you don't agree with what happened. This is the equivalent of digital book burning.<p>Apple isn't removing all of the World War 2 games that contain Nazi symbols. I'm sure there are games that offend Native Americans and other minorities, but those aren't removed. Why?<p>In a related note, this just happened:
<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/vandals-target-confederate-monuments-half-dozen-states-053121976.html" rel="nofollow">http://news.yahoo.com/vandals-target-confederate-monuments-h...</a><p>"The graffiti reflects the racial tension that permeates post-Ferguson America"<p>...And it's excused. The reason I can't stand behind any of these latest protests is because it excuses criminal, savage, and animalistic behavior and this graffiti incident is just another example of it.<p>I suspect in 10 years, our racial problems will not be any better. Mostly because the media and politicians continue to create a divide for their gain and people that question the reality, like me, are silenced long enough that they just stop participating.