Apple Disapproves Sweatshop Game That, Perhaps, Hits A Little Too Close To Home

from the lame dept

Tue, Mar 26th 2013 12:12pm — Timothy Geigner

Apple considering its iOS app store a way to nanny their customers is nothing new. We've already seen examples such as when they took down a dictionary that included profanity, a scan of the Kama Sutra, and an educational game revolving around the war in Syria. That last example is particularly relevant, as Apple has once again chosen to take down a game that sought to educate the public on how pressure-filled and awful work conditions are in sweatshops abroad.

Anyone with any level of understanding that's had the opportunity to play Sweatshop HD knows the defense-style game isn't about glorifying the practice of hiring underage workers to toil away in unsafe conditions to create designer clothes for wealthy foreigners. Instead it's an exploration of the pressure put on people in all aspects of the sweatshop business model. It's about raising awareness, and communicating the sick feeling one gets when seemingly the only way to win is to subject workers to dangerous conditions.

And now that educational avenue has been blocked. According to the report, Apple finds something about a game based on sweatshops to be unfit for their customers' iDevices, which is an interesting stance for a company that has been accused of making those same devices in sweatshops themselves. Sweatshops: good enough to build your electronics, but not a fit subject for a game to play on them? Developer Littleloud even attempted to add a disclaimer to the game to clarify that you weren't supposed to think running a sweatshop was fun, but that didn't satisfy Apple.

As a result, people are beginning to see Apple devices as attractive only for a pigeon-holed selection of potential customers.

Given the size of its market, it's quite unfortunate that Apple has decided to take this sort of hardline stance on game approvals. The platform's reach could prove invaluable in advancing awareness and understanding of serious topics, but with each banned game, Apple's position becomes clearer — iOS is not a place for serious games, and other developers are beginning to get the message.

Serving as an example of these other developers is Introversion Software, who released their game, Prison Architect, on Steam, but has since said they won't release an iPad version. Cutting off both potential customers and developers in favor of some obtuse nanny principal may end up coming back and biting Apple in the backside.

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Filed Under: games, gatekeepers, ios, sweatshop
Companies: apple

32 Comments

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Divide by Zero (profile), 26 Mar 2013 @ 12:24pm

Somehow I am not surprised. Apple do seem to have a very condescending attitude towards their users. Glad I'm not one of them.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Mar 2013 @ 12:32pm

Re:
Agreed on both counts. I've only ever bought one Apple product and it was the worst electronic device I've ever owned and turned me off from ever buying anything Apple again.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Mar 2013 @ 12:33pm

Re:
Agreed on both counts. I've only ever bought one Apple product and it was the worst electronic device I've ever owned and turned me off from ever buying anything Apple again.
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out_of_the_blue, 26 Mar 2013 @ 12:34pm

Apple may be "nannying" customers, but are exploiting laborers.
Not to differ with the overall pro-labor, pro-Populist, anti-corporate tone that you ALMOST get to, sort of elliptical on the underlying evil.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Mar 2013 @ 12:44pm

So, people willingly and happily embrace the tyrant's reign, and then complain that the tyrant is being mean to them?

Seriously, what the FU...nctional programming were you expecting?
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Adam R, 26 Mar 2013 @ 12:51pm

Not the first time
Not the first time Apple has done this. Phone Story (http://www.phonestory.org/) was also banned from the iOS app store. Available on android, but banned on iOS

15.2 Apps that depict violence or abuse of children will be rejected

16.1 Apps that present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected

21.1 Apps that include the ability to make donations to recognized charitable organizations must be free

21.2 The collection of donations must be done via a web site in Safari or an SMS

We contest the violation 21.1 and 21.2 since it's not possible to make donations through Phone Story. Molleindustria simply pledged to redirect the revenues to no-profit organizations, acting independently.

The 901 users who managed to buy the app before it went offline are now owners of a rare collector edition piece.

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Long Justin, 26 Mar 2013 @ 1:03pm

Big Brother
On my Mac Pro (15" late 2011 i7 2.4GHz 8GB RAM) I get redirected to Samsung's site whenever I search for "Apple sweatshop".
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gorehound (profile), 26 Mar 2013 @ 1:07pm

Re:
Me Too !
I personally will never ever Support their Walled-In Garden nor their Proprietary Locked down Systems.
Computer Geeks might be able to State the usual but Apples are better because they Control the Hardware & Software so there is less Bugs, Etc.
But those same folks lose hands down when it comes to the other.Who the hell wants to Support a Walled-In Nanny Garden !
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jackn, 26 Mar 2013 @ 1:25pm

Re: Apple may be "nannying" customers, but are exploiting laborers.
are you anti labor and pro corporate?

your post is ALMOST a complete sentence.

I guess DIFFER is the verb?
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jackn, 26 Mar 2013 @ 1:27pm

Re: Big Brother
I think it is your monitor size. I hear that search result on a mac with 15" monitor has a problem with search results, they keep going to samsung (because samsung made that product (private label) for apple.

What search engine are you using, that could be the problem too, but I think it is your hardware.
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David (profile), 26 Mar 2013 @ 1:33pm

Re: Re: Big Brother
I disagree. Sounds like a textbook case of PEBKAC .
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MAC, 26 Mar 2013 @ 1:34pm

Apple
I don't use their stuff...
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Rikuo (profile), 26 Mar 2013 @ 1:35pm

Re: Re: Big Brother
....What does the monitor's SIZE have to do with search results? I would be hard pressed to find any other two completely unrelated pieces of hardware and/or software.##
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jackn, 26 Mar 2013 @ 1:37pm

Re: Re: Re: Big Brother
Just working with the info provided. I think david got it right, PEBKAC
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jackn, 26 Mar 2013 @ 1:38pm

Re: Apple
nobody does. They use you!
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Bergman (profile), 26 Mar 2013 @ 2:16pm

Re:
Some corporations have a policy of "do as I say not as I do". Apple takes that and runs with it to the extent that the company seems to be made of that saying...and nothing else.
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dennis deems (profile), 26 Mar 2013 @ 2:20pm

Re: Re: Apple may be "nannying" customers, but are exploiting laborers.
He says "NOT to differ with... etc." Honestly, language isn't really that hard.
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jackn, 26 Mar 2013 @ 2:42pm

Re: Re: Re: Apple may be "nannying" customers, but are exploiting laborers.
You understand his point?
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Mar 2013 @ 3:06pm

it cant bite Apple soon, enough or bad enough! seeing as how they use 'sweatshop' labour to forward their aims and increase profits, i'm not surprised the game was pulled. even when called out about their use of under age workers and excessive hours, they promise everything but deliver nothing. lying hypocrites that cant bear to have the truth put in front of them!
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 26 Mar 2013 @ 3:38pm

Re: Apple may be "nannying" customers, but are exploiting laborers.
THERE WAS NO VERB IN THAT SENTENCE.
YOU HAVE BEEN EATEN BY A GRUE.

*** YOU HAVE DIED ***
YOUR SCORE IS: -1 OUT OF 9000, IN 2 MOVES.

THIS GIVES YOU THE RANK OF "SMELLY CORPORATE DOG".
WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY AGAIN? (Y/N)
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Ninja (profile), 26 Mar 2013 @ 5:42pm

Seems a very bad move for someone that has this stain in their past. I don't expect anything good from Apple though, that's why I keep diverting potential customers to a more open system ;)
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Mar 2013 @ 6:26pm

Apple is not responsible for how their manufacturers operated. They investigated these matters with Foxxcon and paid the fine to China. Samsung has had child labor issues in their own Samsung owned manufacturing facilities in Taiwan and South Korea and nobody bats an eye at that?

The app promoted child labor, which, unlike Samsung, Apple has corrected its ways in the matter.

So yeah, I guess it is sort of ethical to make a joke out of child labor in an app meant for "education". /S

Here are the two reasons Apple may have pulled that app.....it swears at the user with the game's manager saying saying if you do not do your job right...."I will fire your sorry ass". That is against app policy for educational games.

And also this same game also asks you to "hire well endowed ones"
http://i.imgur.com/JQKGUDp.jpg

I am pretty sure that is fairly sexist and honestly some people might get offended at that. You have to understand Tim that while the game educated through humor, some people might take child labor as a joke and shrug off the real issue. We can always blame a scapegoat for things hitting way too close to home, but it also stands that Apple, while working to nor promote child labor in its efforts, would not like to represent an app in their store that makes people laugh at it. Normally I would approve the humor, but that type of humor is only meant to make fun of the stupidity of the matter and only works when appropriately applied to the subject at hand. I see no humor in such a way in this game.
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Wally (profile), 26 Mar 2013 @ 6:55pm

Re:
Well the game is meant to be humorous. There is only so much protest in humor you can do before it backfires. After about 10 or 15 minutes of game play, it just starts making the issue of child labor not as real by making you laugh at it. It makes the sweatshop owners look smart rather than doing what Mel Brooks had done with Blazing Saddles by implying that those with extremely bigoted views tend to have the lowest of IQ's. Blazing Saddles portrayed racists as, dumb, ignorant, uneducated hicks....the Sweatshop game only makes a point by making you laugh at the entire issue.

Apple pulled that app likely out of the fact that it could desensitize people from a very real issue. The app implied (and the flash version here: http://www.playsweatshop.com/ is exactly the same as the iOS version) that sweatshop owners were smart, in charge, and sarcastically mean individuals. It made me laugh with them and not at their stupidity.
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Long Justin, 26 Mar 2013 @ 9:34pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Big Brother
I do not have PEBKAC installed.

My Raven was equipped with the following:

HIGH
06 x Cruise Missile Launcher I
01 x SMALL TRACTOR BEAM 1
01 x SALVAGER I

MEDIUM
04 x LARGE SHIELD EXTENDERS
01 x �HYPHNOS� ECM
01 x MEDIUM SHIELD BOOSTER

LOW
01 x EMERGENCY DAMAGE CONTROL
01 x ARMOR KINETIC HARDENER I
01 x ARMOR THREMIC HARDENER I
02 x WARP CORE STABILIZER I

DRONES
02 x WARRIOR I DRONES
03 x HAMMERHEAD I DRONES

UPGRADES
01 x ROCKET FUEL CACHE PARTINTION I
01 x BAY LOADING ACCELERATOR I
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Bergman (profile), 27 Mar 2013 @ 1:51am

If Apple is filtering based on content, does this mean they have lost the ability to claim to be a common carrier?
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Arthur Moore (profile), 27 Mar 2013 @ 2:09am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Big Brother
Care Bear
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Tim Griffiths (profile), 27 Mar 2013 @ 3:21am

Games and art
So the issue here comes down to the fact that Apple do not think games should be art. They do not want games to say anything, they want games to be time wasting fluff that will never cause their consumers to have to worry.

They didn't take this game down because they are afraid it makes them look bad, they took it down because they are afraid it makes the world look bad.
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Howard the Duck, 27 Mar 2013 @ 4:18am

Sweatshop?
We want other countries to follow USA guidelines for worker safety, and the workers in other countries want to eat.
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dennis deems (profile), 27 Mar 2013 @ 6:08am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Apple may be "nannying" customers, but are exploiting laborers.
I do. He is expressing agreement with Tim, albeit with a dollop of snark sauce.
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AzureSky (profile), 27 Mar 2013 @ 12:33pm

Re: Re:
people who want to be "different" by being the same as all their peers.

im a geek, I hate dealing with apple, I can build a far better system for the same or less money then a mac, I can get a far better media player for the same price or less the an ipod, and i can get a far better phone with android or the like for the same money or less then an iphone....

My father talked my mother into getting a ip4s, i hate that stupid thing, shes constantly asking for help with it, shes got to install itunes on all her systems to be able to get pictures and videos she makes off the stupid thing....UGGG!!!!

I much prefer my cowon c2, or samsung DAP/PMP(mp3 players), they both "just work" no need for 3rd party crapware, support for better more common audio formats(flac and ogg).
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nasch (profile), 1 Apr 2013 @ 2:07pm

Re: Re:
This just in: Wally approves of Apple's actions and blames app developer for getting their app banned.
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Lai-Lai, 21 Jul 2013 @ 6:27pm

Again? Not surprised.
At first I thought this was old news, because a few years ago there was another game removed from iTunes about sweatshop work, supposedly developed by a Foxcon employee.
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