Our beefs with Apple’s inconsistent behavior when it comes to approving or rejecting applications for the iPhone / iPod Touch platform has been well documented. iPhoneWorld.ca draws our attention to yet another example that makes us wonder if there’s a clear policy at Infinite Loop at all, or if the team is simply trained well in the ‘hit or miss’ phenomenon. Or as ComputerWorld eloquently puts it: “[Apple's App Store] is lorded over by an inscrutable team of guardians devoted to maintaining control over the platform.”
Take this Zombie School application from the aptly named iPhone app developer Retarded Arts. It lets you turn your depicts classmates or teachers as zombies, after which you can use a machine gun, bow or grenades to kill them. It’s a pretty tasteless game, but I can see how the team at Apple responsible for screening new apps for submission in the App Store could have missed the sensitivity surrounding the topic of the game to ultimately approve it.
Update: and the app is gone. From Retarded Arts:
“Zombie School, which was approved by Apple, was taken down from the App Store, at 12:30 PM this morning. We think that there has been a massive confusion.”
But what threw me off, and what should make them reconsider rejecting the application into the store if you ask me, is the fact that the developer has been astroturfing the iPhoneWorld forums and touting the game saying that it just like “promoting school shooting!” Check out this forum post from user ‘privateson’, who pretends that he became aware of the game after his friends downloaded it, writing that he’s ’shocked’ about his ‘insane’ game that lets you “bomb the Cheerleader into several pieces!!!”
Only, this is the user’s second post on the forum, the first one being this promotional post in which he discloses to be working for Retarded Arts.
Whether you think this app has its place in the App Store or not, I think it’s sick for the developer to promote the game the way he does in the forums. What’s your opinion?
Android will soon have similar problems as handets are coming out and popularity explodes. My advice to google: create a wiki-style community of ordinary users for the bureaucracy and policing of the android market store
No Android wont have these problems you idiot.
Google have clearly said they wont be policing which apps are and aren’t available.
It’s only the “Jobs Nanny State” that feel the have to protect their precious fan boys from themselves.
You want to spend 99c to shoot cartoons….go right the F ahead is googles attitude and correctly so.
Cheers,
Dean
C64 emulator: NO!
App that doesn’t use Apple’s camera view: Nien!.
App that uses undocumented SDK calls: Nyet!. (Unless you are Google.)
Killing your classmates: Hell yeah!
If Apple insist on being the “Overlords Over All That is iPhone” then perhaps they should try a little consistency.
Apple is using emulation as a way to keep Flash and such off the platform. Agreed though, that Apple is just nuts with application approval issues. Goodness knows I am nothing if not infuriated.
This would not be Apple’s PR problem if they did not take it on themselves. As the Tipper Gore of the iPhone ecosystem, they have chosen to play mommy. We need a Jello Biafra of mobility!
TC, some had a problem with your treatment of Twitter. Please, no stones! The web is fragile.
I just love how Apple’s not willing to allow a Commodore 64 emulator onto the app store, but they were perfectly fine with allowing SEGA to put their iPhone Genesis emulator on the App Store (in the form of Sonic iPhone, etc.).
What is allowed in the App Store and what is’nt? No one really knows. Anyway lets see how long it stays in the App Store for before it is pulled down, remember it has happened before (with the shake the baby app).
I am not sure whether I would feature this app on http://www.appgiveaway.com but then again I would have to look at the app in a little more detail before I decide on that
you and your website are cunts.
u are one too sir
Looking back in the http://www.appgiveaway.com archive we have featured this iPhone app as a giveaway and it proved very popular see here:
http://www.appg...e_giveaway.html
Wow, I don’t think this is really the place to promote your site as much as possible. One link would’ve made me iffy, but three’s a bit too much and starts to look spammy.
Misleading title? Who are you quoting as saying “Promotes School Shootings” ?
It looks like the developer’s own astroturfing forum posts are where they got the quote from. (Check the first link in the third paragraph)
I see that it’s really a zombie killing game, which sort of flies in the face of the recent teen/tween trend of romanticized supernatural creatures on high school campus. But I can also see how some might take offense.
Why the developer is trying to play up the offensive angle is a bit weird, but also smart marketing when it comes to the denizens of the internet. Many out there will post things simply because they’re so horribly offensive.
Trolling a forum to get more downloads of your application is likely to become a viable marketing strategy.
Well it got them an article on techcrunch, I’d say it worked.
Did you read the article?
I read the article and your headline is still misleading
Its relevant
Apple needs to sort itself out on this front. It should set proper guidelines for publishers and tighten what gets through the filter. Some of the apps they’ve approved are just wrong.
No! It should set a small set of guidelines — no porn as applications, no emulators… — and leave it at that. Apple should not be regulating the web or the content to the extent they are.
With respect to iTunes this is most relevant. They are limiting products because they say it confuses users. More accurately, it calls into question the need for an iTunes like product to control music. As HTML 5 will get at, content can be the application in a sense.
Some of the apps they have rejected are just right. Get out of the way!
By writing this post aren’t you just helping the developer accomplish their intended promotional tactic, creating controversy?
Thats like saying GTA promotes killing people on the streets, smuggling drugs, etc.
IT’S A GAME, it promotes FUN. People that can not interpret that in the right way should just not play it.
I would add that if you are a psychopath, then you’re better off releasing some steam by hitting buttons on game controllers than pulling triggers.
What’s missing from this article is two different views from psychiatrists telling you whether they think shooting pixels makes people more or less willing to shoot real people.
tasteless indeed, but no excuse for poor english, there is alot of sensitiveness about that sort of thing too
Yeah, that was bad. Fixed, thx.
nearly every post that u write has some mistake or typo which you fix after being pointed out. grow up or go home mr. belgium
“every post that u write”?
Well i have to disagree with u guys on this. I dont think playing some games make ppl terrorists.. More over no one actually shoot thr frnds ( expect at techcrunch[shooting arington] ).
The basic point here is, if u try to control ur anger it will burst one day thus making u even a terrorist
.. But with this app students can release thr anger by killing those ppl virtually.
In my younger days i got somewht similar problem tht i tent to keep all the anger to myself nd then it vl be released in the most unexpected time in the most unexpected ways.. So it was my moms suggeestion to get a pillow nd fight with it as much as i want imagining it as my the other person. And the truth is.. it really helps..
..
So i say this is actually a nice app..
I think Apple do these things for press coverage, looks like they have adopted the Benetton moto, any publicity is good publicity
“..any publicity is good publicity.”
That is -far- from correct, sir.
What a way to get bad press. Reject an app that will donate to a charity called the Committee to pRotect Journalists.
Robin Wauters, if this game gets does end up getting taken off the app store, you will have someone (app dev.) with an extreme grudge against you.
I’m just saying.
well make a decent app instead of crap!
You ppl have to realize… games dont make kids go shooting at school…. and if you have to blame someone, blame their parents.
The gov. or the school teachers arent the ones supposed to educate and identify social or mental problems within the kids… parents are.
The article is about how it’s impossible to predict what the team at the appstore will approve or reject. It never mentioned that games make kids kill each other, just that it’s in bad taste, while other less offensive apps get rejected.
Point well made… but still, this is my opinion for the game/killing subject.
This kind of stuff is not very creative. It plays on the idea of “getting back” at your teachers, i.e. those that are trying to help you. Its another sorry excuse of a game…
So Tech Crunch is promoting the pseudo-science agenda of religionists, politicians, and other social alarmists who claim that playing video games leads to teen violence -sigh- In honor of your epic footbullet, I bought the app and it’s pretty good. The goal here should be to get Apple to open up and NOT point out apps that they neglected to censor.
“The basic point here is, if u try to control ur anger it will burst one day thus making u even a terrorist .. But with this app students can release thr anger by killing those ppl virtually.”
Where is the real scientific support for such a claim ?
Are you also saying hate speech is preventing genocide happening. Or at hate thinking.
This is not about fake killing anonymous people but your classmates, teachers,….
Violeance in games doesn’t make one violent in life. I play GTA, Max Payne, Hitman and so on. I dont go about killing people on the street, selling drugs, busting drugs dealers or any of those things. Games don’t teach violence. simple.
Calling for the ban of this app is hardly the way to encourage Apple to be more rational about their policies. Whatever the marketing techniques of the developer, it’s still just a game about killing zombies.
@Mark Freedman & @weatherman
Techcrunch is not saying to ban the app — or any app. Instead they are pointing out how inconsistent Apple is being with they’re own policy. It is very difficult for developers to know whether their app will be acceptable or not if Apple is all over the place.
This shows that Apple app store is completely out of touch with public decency. This is the 2nd instance of an insensitive app ( 1st being the Shaking baby app).
Apple is just another big corp encouraging these rogue developers who just want money and nothing else.
This kind of hypocrisy makes me sick. We can’t have any form of nudity (including an occasional side boob) so says the moral police of Apple, yet killing get 2 thumbs up? I don’t care if it is zombies which deserve it, the conditioning using such methods is sad.
I’m moving to the Netherlands where thinks make more sense.
Where does it let you “turn your classmates or teachers into zombies”? You mean it lets you turn classmates in the game into Zombies?
I.e. not real? I.e. fantasy?
For a minute I thought you meant you had some way of putting your buddies heads onto zombie characters.
Meh.
Totally agree about the dick trying to cause controversy by astroturfing in extreme bad taste though.
Meh.
Oh come now they will take it down…
I am more inclined to bad not only the app, but the app developer for the bad attempt at astroturfing rather than the bad content. Then again, the astroturfing worked as I would never have heard about the game otherwise.
That should be ban the app… I wish they had a mechanism to fix simple typos. As indicated above, the author was able to fix his article.
WTF! If that is true, that is NOT right
Apple now has no role in regulating what kids do or do not see.
The App Store and OS 3.0 now have parental controls, and parents can exercise control over what apps their kids can purchase, download, and use. Developers are free to pursue whatever avenues they wish to chase the market, and, if the parents are responsible, no delicate young minds will be harmed.
As to the content, if one’s badly-drawn classmates are zombies, they are legitimate targets. It isn’t much to be offended about.
Apple is following an American moral pattern: you can kill her, but don’t show us her naked breasts.
Wired just broke the news that the app has been removed.
http://www.wire.../zombie-school/
I think you got the citation marks wrong in “Promotes” school shootings. And I have no idea why anyone is peddling this lame fucking game.
I suppose it was only a matter of time once the story made Tech Crunch news…
The App Store is doing fine without crap like this. The way the developer promoted the title says it all. It’s gone and tomorrow nobody will even remember.
If they are zombies, then they have already died and are therefore fair game for being blown away.
There is no moral problem with blowing away a child who is a zombie. It’s a reanimated corpse beyond saving.
Has no one played Resident Evil or watched Dawn of the Dead?
I really think Apple should open App Store. I’m more in favor of “power to the people” approach. The application it’s there, it’s my choice whether I want to buy it or not, I don’t need Apple to tell me that !
In my opinion, the people who set the guidelines for the store should just have a few simple guidelines. No confusing, misleading, harmful apps, etc, and leave it at that.
Why should there be policing of this kind anyway? Application that hurt your phone, spread viruses or by any other way is malign, fine. But do we really need a taste-police? AAPL nannying for us, deciding what we can, and can’t do?
Of course, the nannylike state of how Apple let’s user install software on their phones, after approval by Apple, lends itself to such policing. But why, in principle, should there be any bans on what content we are allowed to have on our phones, as long as it’s within the law?
We would never tolerate such a ban on our desktop computers. Why handheld computers should be more nannylike (not in terms of safety, but in content) is hard to understand.
I believe rock ‘n roll caters to school shootings, and I’m glad TechCrunch and Robin Wauters took a firm stand on this issue.
This story was featured on http://detentionslip.org ! Check it out for all the crazy school-related headlines.
Perhaps, the developer was simply less concerned with social impact (understanding that this game won’t ever become massively popular), than with the fun and stress-relief that sort of ‘retarded’ gameplay delivered to teenagers in that way.
Pop culture evolves and so do the culture & entertainment tastes of the youth. You have either to live with it or ignore it completely.
Virtually, you can the say that the developer was merely (unconsciously?) following the trend of the media, which is exposing all the shootings as globally shoking events, thus even provoking even more mentally sick kids (not all kids are nice!) to produce similar acts of violence.
For most people, this is just part of the environment, something, what happens somewhere else and is just ‘news trivia’.
You know what, Apple is damed if they do or don’t you will slowly flay them if they try to incremental relax controls of time and you will beat them up for every to restrictive rejection.
Personal, I don’t want big brother in the pool, let people vote with their money, if the game is trash or no politically correct enough then it will languish and die. I don’t want apple worrying about anything other then technical quality control, leave the rest of to consumers and the market to sort out.
This is exactly why they shouldn’t have started down the “Jobs Nanny State” route in the first place.
It’s a no win situation.
Read Michael Eisners book about Disney and Universal Studios as a text book example of why this will never work.
Cheers,
Dean