Since the release of v3.1 of "Blade of Agony" we have received numerous messages, comments and emails. Besides positive messages and words of support, we have also received a lot of opposition and disappointment.
"You have given up", "You have given in to the shitstorm", "You have lost my respect".
After more than 6 years of working on a project of the heart, these words of course hurt and disappoint us very much and after we had answered some of the comments on ModDB and by email, we now feel that an official statement is necessary to gain understanding and shed light on the matter.
The changes and mitigations we have implemented for version 3.1 do not stem from cowardice we have shown towards some users of the Doom community. Blade of Agony is a creative, free and artistic interpretation within the Wolfenstein universe. And as long as we are unpaid developers working on such a project in our spare time, it must be ensured that we realise our vision as we see fit. This is exactly the motto we have been working by for the last 6 years, releasing the last 3 chapters. So why the adjustments to v3.0 now?
As some of you know, the team around "Blade of Agony" consists of a colourful bunch from all over the world, including Israel and Germany. Wolfenstein 3D and swastikas have long been banned and punished in Germany in the field of entertainment. Since 2018, these laws have been toned down, but games of this kind are still under the strictest observation by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (FOftPotC).
Although we as developers strictly condemn any form of discrimination, racial hostility, anti-Semitism and glorification of the Second World War, there were concerns on the part of various German gaming sites and news sources about whether we had not crossed a line with some content (including the depiction of a concentration camp, the explicit mention of affected population groups or the World Exhibition in Paris with historical anti-Semitic content). From that point on, it was clear to us that we would have to reconsider the content in order to weigh up possible personal damage (for example a punishment from the FOftPotC if they deem the game unacceptable) from all the developers of the project concerned.
The Second World War was the most horrific conflict in our history, and we as a development team do not want to ignore, censor or even deny these atrocities. However, we have asked ourselves what position we are in as entertainers. Wolfenstein is and always has been a fictional scenario, so we have no duty to educate the people who play our game. We want to tell an exciting story. So our yardstick in toning down the game was "What content is necessary to achieve that and what content can we do without?"
Blade of Agony has been released in several versions before and as we changed, removed and added content from version 1.0 to 2.0 based on experience gained and advice received, this is an organic process that has now also taken place between 3.0 and 3.1.
While we can understand some of the disappointment, we hope players will understand why some changes had to be made and why we can no longer officially support v3.0, and ask that you do not share public links on our ModDB page. Of course, we have no influence on what happens in the private area.
We hope that you continue to have as much fun with Blade of Agony as we had during its development and we still wish you a good time.
Thank you,
Daniel Gimmer
and the entire Blade of Agony development team
Never forget that for every loud, hateful poster out there, ten other people are just silently and happily playing. There is always a small but abnormally loud and aggressive minority complaining about this or that. *NEVER* judge reactions by an internet shitstorm.
Do what you think is right.
Thanks kindly for your words! This is encouraging!
:)) Keep up the good work! Despite little people with a bleak life!
Oh so you mean how the mod caved in to the SJW crowd right? When it was noted doomworld is a shitshow minority of real people. Your arguement is a pretty big strawman. I ain't falling for it.
"There is always a small but abnormally loud and aggressive minority complaining about this or that."
Ironic that the people from Doomworld are exactly that.
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Blah blah blah, you little man. Make your own mod, then we'll see. You're just plain jealous.
If I ever make a mod, I will NEVER stab my fans in the back to appeal to crybullies who will hate me no matter what. **** censorship, **** the cowards who let it happen.
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If there is someone who cries that one is you, mr. "**** censorship". Doomworld may be bad, but at least they can write something better than "**** you", unlike the "good" guys here.
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Truth hurts, huh?
And to think this is the party of "civility" and "maturity."
Freedom of thought and expression is the only thing that matters. **** anyone who wants to mitigate creativity. Whether its government, corporate entity, journalist or individuals. People who find things insensitive are just weak minded individuals without a stomach for the horrible things in life. Art, whether it be a game, movie, book or music shouldn't be altered to appease those with a weak stomach.
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If freedom of expression is the only thing that matters, then why do you have an issue with the developers wanting to keep their fantasy entertainment version of WW2 separate from the horrific reality?
They had to go this road because they have been forced. That is not the same thing as 'wanting' something when you have to choose between saving your existence and doing what you love. And its actually the behaviour criticized by those trolls what they do themselves recklessly....
it's always a choice my friend.
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I would add : an abnormally loud, aggressive, frustrated, full of anger and hatred, invidious, irrelevant minority. And now c'mon, downvote this, you know i'm right.
You are right, but based on your other comments Im willing to bet the minority you are thinking of is not the correct one for this description.
that's great that most people are emasculate losers like you who will eat the **** that the SJW's shovel them, but I'll gladly fall into that 10% that has a spine, pussy.
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AHAHAHA, so we have a real man here! A real man that belongs to an elitist minority (estimated 10%) of great people too! Glad to know you, sir. You just insulted someone and wrote your garbage here, do you feel good, now? Do you feel great? Do you feel better and superior than the loathsome SJWs??
I upvoted your comment by an accident, looks like there's no option to downvote it back. Anyways, hope spending your only life as a woke authoritarian clown is worth it.
You're not wrong, you're just wrong about who the vocal minority is. For every one person who felt the need to complain about the content in 3.0, another ten were happily playing. That loud and angry vocal minority are the reason 3.1 exists, and 3.0 has been scoured from the internet. For the record, I don't blame the devs and I'll happily keep playing 3.1, but this never should have happened in the first place, and it's ironic that you'd accuse those who took issue with the changes of being the aggressive minority, when that is exactly what the other side are. Furthermore, I'd bet there are far more people upset with the changes from 3.0 to 3.1 than there were people upset with the content of 3.0.
You're not wrong, you're just wrong about who the vocal minority is. For every one person who felt the need to complain about the content in 3.0, another ten were happily playing. That loud and angry vocal minority are the reason 3.1 exists, and 3.0 has been scoured from the internet. For the record, I don't blame the devs and I'll happily keep playing 3.1, but this never should have happened in the first place, and it's ironic that you'd accuse those who took issue with the changes of being the aggressive minority, when that is exactly what the other side are. Furthermore, I'd bet there are far more people upset with the changes from 3.0 to 3.1 than there were people upset with the content of 3.0.
EDIT - My comments are doubling up. Sorry.
EDIT EDIT - I hope the devs don't think this is a shot at them or the game (which is ******* awesome, even with the unnecessary changes, which I understand were necessary for the devs to get their game out there.)
pdl1989 v3.0 has been ARCHIVEd if you know what I mean...
And sometimes that abnormally loud and agressive minority turns into the normality, and hence v3.1...
But on the whole, I agree with your message (though maybe remove the "internet" from the sentence to make it more inclusive).
Thanks for following up with us all. Personally, I have every reason to trust in your artistic vision, I'm excited about version 3.1 and on top of that, damn it, you're releasing this amazing game for free!! Nobody has any right to complain.
I understand you came under a lot of pressure from outraged people on the Internet because of contents in 3.0, to the point where it started affecting your personal lives. When you then announced you were changing some contents, you got flak for that, too. I don't think any of that is ok, and I'm really sorry it happened to you.
In the end, TheVidmaster said it best above. For every shithead complaining, there's a ton more people who simply appreciate this game and enjoy playing it. It freaking kicks ***. Keep up the awesome work, and thanks!!
Thanks kindly to you as well - this really helps us!
Glad to know that. Be positive, be creative!
Don't waste words with these frustrated little people, they don't deserve them.
"Personally, I have every reason to trust in your artistic vision"
There artistic vision was version 3.0. 3.1 is the version they were forced to make to appease the vocal minority (and yes, the vocal minority were the ones who got up in arms when 3.0 came out, not the ones who are upset about the changes in 3.1.)
"Personally, I have every reason to trust in your artistic vision"
There artistic vision was version 3.0. 3.1 is the version they were forced to make to appease the vocal minority (and yes, the vocal minority were the ones who got up in arms when 3.0 came out, not the ones who are upset about the changes in 3.1.)
EDIT - my comments keep showing up twice, once as a guest and once under my name. Sorry. Don't know why.
That's so so sad. Historical revisionism and SJWs win again, and in a MOD for a M rated game. Even worse that you're removing full content and purposefully not giving people an option to download the older versions.
When will it stop? Will we have to scrub the history books and movies of every swastika and mention of the word Nazi, until everyone's forgotten why the conflict was so horrible to begin with just so that everyone can be content?
Literally nothing is gained from doing this.
You are making good points here, and even if I agree with you, we are not the only ones who can decide on this. Times have changed - fortunately? Unfortunately?
Let's think about it: A game like Duke Nukem 3D would end up in a huge shitstorm as well in the 2020's for its sexism. We grew up in these times and I really wouldn't consider it discriminating. But that have been the 90's. Good old times :)
If you could be downvoted you would be. Right into the negative stack but you can't downvote creators on their own projects.
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Yeah yeah downvote, you hero with a keyboard. That's the only thing you can do.
Jokes aren't sexism or any kind of ism for that matter. Sexism is a man or woman discriminating against the opposite gender. Those who scream discrimination in this day and age don't understand what the word actually ****** means.
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Jokes can 100% be sexist or any kind of ist.
the only -ists anyone needs to be wary of these days are "left-ists"
People seem to fling the "-ist" words nowadays in the Western world. Sooner or later, those words will lose its meaning and emphasis. It's like saying the word "****" for a thousand times a day.
you can choose to be a girl even with a **** nowadays marry a man and adopt children but you cant make a video game that doesnt suck without someone crying about it beeing badass? thats not the future i wanted. thats fuckture.quote me
I think the issue you are having is mostly from a difference in what defines 'girl', 'man' etc rather than anything, though assuming your issue is calling someone with a ***** a 'girl' like it would seem, it would be a little bit ironic that a mere game is not allowed to make the same sort of "transgressions", so to speak, but even then it is not very concise an argument methinks.
You're right. The 90s were all time when it came to gaming. A game like Duke Nukem would definitely end up in a shitstorm today (which is ridiculous, and completely ironic, considering it was the right-wing Christian crowd in the 90s whinging about the need for censorship, and now it's the left-wing progressives having the cry. Seems they've turned into the thing they hated most). Unfortunately 95% of all entertainment these days is god-awful, and I think even the easily offended would prefer work they consider offensive than work that is just trash. (None of this is directed at your game, which is awesome, although it would be better without the changes.) I would argue in this case that the shitstorm surrounding your game was what got it noticed. I had never heard of it before the controversy. I'm sure it's the same for others. Another irony is that those who would have boycotted or shat on your game due to the content in 3.0 are probably far less than those that will boycott and **** on your game for making the changes. I don't know how it all went down, but I would imagine you'd have more love and respect in the community if you'd have left all the controversial stuff in. Just my two cents. I'll keep playing this awesome game either way.
I cant speak for the 90's but I never took offense to Duke Nukem because I KNOW he is kind of a piece of **** when it comes to his regards for things like women, and it is part of what makes Duke, Duke. I do not understand why this is so hard for people to do, like back in the day it might have not been an issue for the wrong reasons but why is it today that everything is judged as if it is presented as the truth or the correct way to behave oneself, be it a character or otherwise, despite the disclaimers often stating things like "X opinion is not necessarily the opinion of the creators" and whatnot.
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They're not going to censor history books and documentaries.
A mod for a video game isn't a history book or a historical documentary, this is completely different situation.
Plus the swastikas haven't been removed from the mod. You can even see some in the screenshots above.
They already have you insolent fool
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No they haven't you moron.
Here in the US, CRt and the 169 Project is just that. Revisionism and False History, you are wrong.
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Those examples are the opposite of historical revisionism, they're bring the truth into the light.
Spoken like a historically illiterate fool.
Blade of Agony wasn't scrubbed of swastikas or references to Nazism, though: the few things that the devs removed have no business being in a pulpy fantasy version of WW2. Even in TNO, the sudden trip to a concentration camp felt out of place and completely unearned given how tongue-in-cheek the game had been up to that point.
Did I ever say that was the issue? No. Thats your opinion and its garbage anyway.
Yeah im not going to lose sleep over your opinion, it's clear from your comments how immature and uneducated you are despite calling others illiterate.
You cant say Fantasy without fantastic imagination beyond the usual bs and if this is censored its not what fantasy means tho. So dont call it Schnitzel.
It wasn't scrubbed of swastikas? I feel like the text heavily implied this though, what with the specific mention of swastikas being illegal to show in Germany?
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