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
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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6 years of work realizing an artistic vision, only to change that vision over tabloids and drama addicted keyboard warriors.
Many video games, including the original Doom, strived by doing the opposite of what was socially acceptable at the time.
Sad to see this kind of totalitatian purity spiraling ******** spreading to user created mods with full creative freedom.
Sadder yet, seeing people defend it.
Please consider that "censoring" and changing some parts of the game are not because of single people's opinion, it's because of the situation with german law or law in other similarly affected countries.
This is a hobby, a game from free working people. And no hobby is worth enough for getting in court.
Come on, anyone who has been paying attention to this whole thing unfold knows this is a lie. You changed everything because some people on Doomworld started throwing a hissy-fit over their hurt feelings because they didn't like specific representations of specific people and then Rachel suggested a large list of things to change to make it more politically correct.
Exactly. The German (political) attitude towards video games depicting WW2 is well known among those involved in creating WW2 games and mods and wasn't a concern for 6 years because otherwise you wouldn't have created what you ended up creating. Some people started moaning and all of a sudden we're supposed to believe that it was a concern all these years?
Not falling for the cop out.
This is a mod, not a game published in Germany, stop using that excuse, you can put anything you want in it, German (or any other countries') laws don't apply here.
Everyone knows you just bend to the sjws, who probably won't even play this game out of principle, and dissapointed the real fans.
not only are you spineless, but you're an outright liar, too. I guess those things go hand in hand though. Good job showing your true colors. BoA is forever uninstalled.
Spineman strikes again! AHAHA.
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Keyboard warriors... here we have an entire legion of them, it seems...
Why are they all named JeffBerkley though :o
You still didnt say exactly what you censored.
Well among other things Elsa's tits...
Because it isn't much actually. I can give you a small overview though:
- The "concentration camp" term is changed to a "prison camp" (only the term, not the map itself)
- All references to jewish prisoners in the former camp have been removed
- The historical correct but anti-semitic content in the World Exhibition in Paris has completely been replaced
- Every anti-semitic Nazi advertisement posters and drawings have been replaced
- The terms "holocaust" and "Final Solution" have been replaced
Damn so you are telling me that holocaust didn't happen? Ngl thats racist
You're ******* joking, right?
Usually I don't give a **** about this kind of thing, but, now imagine if they replaced hitler in Wolfenstein NC and cut out any comments about BJ being jewish or polish.
Hell, the entire intro in the mental ward, or the backstory about his family?
The KKK?
The rallies?
All that ****?
Yeah, I guess it wouldn't change much of the game, except the entire impact of the situation.
Imagine if they released Vietcong nowadays and struck out any reference to Lang Vei.
The German version of TNC is heavily edited.
Yeah but there are 2 versions of it. The german version and the American version which is uncensored.
Flipside, they released two versions of the ****** 'Youngblood' co-op sequel in Germany, the international version which is uncensored, and a German language version that is censored like the previous games. The International version doesn't have a German language option for audio or text, so it's really only good for German players that know any of the international version languages.
Vg247.com
It sounds like they started development on the censored one before they knew if they would be allowed to release an uncensored one in Germany. So it was a 'just in case' thing.
I do know they've relaxed the laws in regards to the use of Nazi imagery in the last few years in regards to video games.
I believe that as long as you can't play as the Nazis, and that they're portrayed as the bad guys, it's basically fine now to use their symbols. It still needs to go through the review board though, and considering that's usually at the very end of development, it would really suck to have them say no and not have a censored backup.
Actually i played the later titles of Wolfenstein for the PS4 before i sold it and i had one german version without the swastikas, slightly censored and it already felt weak. you can't make french fries without potatoes, face it XD whats strange tho that no one cares about BJ having and his pregnant maiden shower in blood of german soldiers in one scene...but people cry about a concentration camp sign? bunch of douchebags why did they play it in the first place? and anti semitic does not reference to the whole jewish community, thats another missfire. semites are from arabia and they are the lesser part of the jewish people when it comes to numbers so thats bs too. the actual anti semites are the ones attacking the middle east (like you know who) because thats the semitic region per definition. every child can google that ****. people talk but they dont know what theyre actually saying.
Still attempting to convince people that you've turned Nazis into better people while not turning Nazis into better people?
Deletion of 'edgy content'? More like you don't want to be framed by some random SJW as a Nazi supporter because of your WWII mod. What's next? Going to re-re-release Torment and Torture in 4k rainbow textures because it's too "Edgy" for you?
As I've already described in the article: This is not about random people out there, it's about german laws.
One reply above yours, there is a small list about the changes. It is not much, but things that had to be done and things that we should have already considered before releasing 3.0. We simply lost an objective distance to our work.
Germany is a morally and mentally weak country that doesn't matter, quite the obvious parallel to Raycast.
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Team you have my support and my respect. Your are talented souls who gave us an incredible total conversion.
I'm also convinced that the questionable content which was present is 3.0 was not ill-intended, and since you've made the necessary corrections in 3.1 all is in order in my book.
It was a real smear campaign that you've faced not long ago, I feel it was especially geared toward destroying your reputation as modders. Let's face it, your modding skills are out of this world which can sometime spark off animosity among the envious. I'm glad they didn't succeed.
Rant aside, this 3.1 runs much better than 3.0, no more micro-stuttering on my end and I can crank up the graphics a few notches higher. Good job! I can't wait for you next project or maybe a DLC for Blade of Agony? *wink*
Thanks kindly for your words and your support, we really appreciate that and we are glad, that 3.1 is a better experience for you now :)
Regarding additional Blade of Agony stuff... well.. wait for it :)
The people of Doomworld are a triggered, insignificant subgroup of society at large and even within their own ranks I suspect there are a great many afraid to speak up against the dominant SJW personalities there because unfortunately those loons are the ones who run the site and so they risk being banned if they so much as disagree with their seething narratives. Bending the knee to acquiesce their endless rage only makes you look weak and turns people off from your product in disgust, not disgust with only you specifically, but disgust that yet another project has given in to fear that it might upset the mentally and emotionally stunted retches that lord over places like Twitter and Doomworld. People in general are absolutely sick and tired of cancel culture, "social justice" and their endless pursuit to censor and revise history.
>People in general are absolutely sick and tired of cancel culture, "social justice" and their endless pursuit to censor and revise history.
This
I wont play censored games. Sorry to the wimps, thin skinned, and countries that have dumb laws. SJWs are stupid!
Well folks, time to start ripping out the old 3.0 assets and use them as a separate "Restored" addon.
Why not give, the people, the option to choose ....
Because we simply can not officially share this content here for right issues. If someone wants to create an addon that restores this content, it’s his choice and demand - and responsibility though.
Holocaust revisionism, oh joy
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It isn't revisionism.
So removing all notions of the nazis slaughtering the jews in a game about WW2 because people screamed at you about it ISNT revisionism?
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It's a mod made for entertainment, not a history textbook or a historical documentary, so no it isn't revisionism.
Also did you even read the post? He did it because of laws, not because of the feedback.
That's a lie. It has nothing to do with German laws. The whole drama unfolded initially on Doomworld where a few people got incredibly butthurt over specific instances in the mod and then one of the GZDoom contributors (Rachel) posted a long list of things they should change to the Github in order to be more "politically correct". Saying they changed it due to Germany is a flat out lie they are attempting to pull over everyone in order to deflect the well deserved criticism at their cowardice.
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The things mentioned in this post and listed in his comments are because of German law. German law was even brought up in the Doomworld posts as one reason why some things should be changed.
There are other things changed in the update because of the backlash, but this post isn't about those, it's specifically about the ones that require changing because of the law.
Just out of curiosity: Where did you get your knowledge when it comes to German laws? I am from
Germany and consider myself to know what can be done and what can’t - so explaining the situation to me might be enlightening.
People from Doomworld are throwing a hissy fit over this game that has Nazi-related content? Not surprised, folks there are a bunch of entitled whiners who are easily triggered anyway and it's ironic that they're also playing Wolf 3D since Doom 2 has Nazi-themed levels.
You want to scrub Nazi-related themes in a game to appease a group of people who will ban your game due to international laws? Fine, the laws are there. But people say that Nazis and the Holocaust don't exist is the reason why the Western world is returning to its darker days - racist violence and superiority dominating the media and blue-checked twats giving themselves a pat in the back for destroying pretty much everything people like to hide their massive inferiority complex.
People caving in to the demands of an insane group will naturally have their support getting smaller and smaller from the average people, just saying.
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Except they didn't erase the nazis in the mod. They're still called Nazis all the symbology is still there in the mod, swastikas and all.
"Please consider that "censoring" and changing some parts of the game are not because of single people's opinion, it's because of the situation with german law or law in other similarly affected countries." - Tormentor667
He commented above saying that none of the Nazi symbology is censored, and another post has a list of what was 'censored'.
It wasn't the use of Nazis and symbology, it was the use of actual holocaust imagery, pictures of dead bodies and victims and such, the use of actual victim names on zombified prisoners and anti-semitic propaganda.
The symbology is fine since the Nazi's are the bad guys. You can even see some in the screenshots above.
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You guys are doing amazing! And the top poster gets it; it's just the edgy, racist, vocal minority squeaking about the changes. This is Wolfenstein, not historical-accuracy-sim 3.0.
Can't wait to play more of this! Love you guys and wish you nothing but awesome luck in your future endeavors!
Does anyone have the version 3.0? I want to download see how bad it is for myself.
OP didn't list each content/scene change in this format:
-What scene was "unsuitable"?
-What it got changed to?
-Why it was changed?
Instead, all I just read was "pls federal officials don't brick us" without actually saying what was the problem and why it was changed exactly. The article's goal was to address the concerns of censorship, but somehow it ended up doing the opposite and just basically being "yeah we censored it because we caved in to pressure, were poor pls don't cancel us".
So those remarks...
"You have given up", "You have given in to the shitstorm", "You have lost my respect".
...just got validated instead.
Well, if they gave a thorough list of the changes the reasoning falls flat (among the casualties is a pixel art recreation of a meme involving a porno). Also potential embarrassment of how they dealt with the Randi situation.
To the devs, you made an amazing mod and should be proud of it. Previously I used to think it was only SJW losers that were unreasonable, but it seems the other side is just as pathetic, a bunch of losers that never created or stood up to anything never placing anything at stake while judging others and deciding what integrity is and never really fighting against those who forced those decisions upon others. Where were you when Major Arlene, JMAA and the other losers that got their way by harassing the devs, instead you are here whining about a free game that you never did a thing to contribute, go on, down vote this, only serves to prove my point.
The mod is still an amazing piece of work and the devs should be proud.
You're right, sir. Maybe, when the gentlemen who rant here will release a mod or a thing like that, we will see.
Coming this summer
Saving private ryan "re-re-release"
where the word "nazi" has been changed to "persons with political differences"
and all the guns have been replaced by walkie-talkies
and now for your feature presentation!
the classic re-re-re-release of star wars: the empire strikes back!
in this version the word "wookie" has been changed to "hair challenged animal" and the entire cast has been digitally replaced by ewoks.
sorry.couldn't.resist xD
peace
Tsk tsk, it's sad that the people in the Western world are more worried about their pronouns and political leanings than you know, working together and all that for the Red, White and Blue.
I think replacing the whole cast of the sequel trilogy with Ewoks just being Ewoks might work.
Madness has spread far and wide Jokerrider. how long is there left before it is all consumed?
I'm glad I live in Asia. There's not much racial / political tensions here and we don't use those "-ist" buzzwords casually. We're too busy trying to survive due to the pandemic and we don't have the time for social justice and other invisible boogeymen that the crazies like to invent.
Best way to deal with the crazies is to either ignore them or make sure we boot them off the corporate ladder if they insist on being political / social activists that do not contribute to the company in general.
Oh and there's now a downvote brigade in here like the circlejerks from reddit who disagree with you.
Downvote brigade? Where have you seen that? Oh wait...
MAYBE HERE???
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Hair challenged would mean they're bald.
And this update didn't remove the term nazi or remove any of their symbols.
No, it just removed references to holocaust victims and casually ignores it, while still having it in. It's what the American left has been doing for some time. It's abhorrent and it's wrong. If this **** hadn't been going on for actual history, maybe people wouldn't be so up in arms, but this is a video game, where people just want to relax, have fun and not have to worry about ******** in the world. Can't have that anymore, since revisionism is here now too. Shill harder.
You're still a moron. The only people denying the holocaust is the far right.
"but this is a video game, where people just want to relax"
Then why do you want actual images from the holocaust in it? That's depressing, not relaxing.
And it isn't ******* revisionism you dense ************.
Beyond that - as I have stated before - we are not here to explain history to people. This is a game that takes place in the Wolfenstein canon.
Just imagine: If we can decide that the Nazis found the Spear of Destiny to revive undead enemies for an army of Zombies, we can also decide that there is no Holocaust at all. Crazy, isn’t it? And people can’t do anything about it because it’s our mod ;)
So, if it is depressing for you, it must be depressing for everyone? I have read all your comments here and i must say, i am amazed by your stupidity.
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If it isn't depressing for you to look at pictures of real victims and experiments, then you have no soul and/or empathy for others.
You won't be the one to dictate what is depressing or not, mods and games won't be suited especially to your needs. Unless you create something of your own so you can be free and not be dictated by others. Your simplistic conclusions about what i am, show me that you are a moron with the true sense of the word. You are also a fascist, trying to force your own views to others, so **** off. Fascism in all forms can go to hell.
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Man, thinking I'm fascist just confirms to me you're an even denser ************ than I initially assumed. I'm not a fascist, I oppose fascism in all forms.
Do you not feel any empathy for any of the Nazi's victims?
Your own words are what drive me to this conclusion, the fact you want the mod author to re-add the real pictures from nazi experiments to the mod, tells me you lack empathy.
You don't oppose fascism, you try to enforce your views to others, this is the definition of fascism. You're just plain stupid, you don't even know what fascism is. Get lost douchebag.
The far right? Oh you mean the people that get labeled far right by the far left, since everything that isn't the far left is far right?
Your standards are subjective, not objective. It isn't historic revisionism, but it is still revisionism, as the far left loves to have anything tied to actual history removed from anything and everything. Reply to me on your main account, you smooth brained sasquatch.