I happen to like playing driving games to wind down and just relax for a few minutes after a busy day. Trucking games, and especially those from SCS Software were among my favourites.
Yesterday SCS Software made a biased political statement, containing inaccuracies on their Steam Community Hub forum of their game Euro Truck simulator 2.
Coming to the forum, which was not locked for comments, I naïvely thought that SCS Software was open to discussion and posted the following comment:
[quote=jxnnxk GER;3185738591084346113]This game is about trucking not qbout politics… [/quote]
Exactly. I am saddened to see this statement by SCS, where I hoped they would keep away from politics.Especially with a such badly-educated statement as “We deeply condemn this act of aggression for which there is no reason, nor excuse.” Forgetting the people of Donbass – children, women, elderly – their livelihood and homes being shelled by the Ukrainian army for the last 8 years, a topic which is not spoken about in the MSM.
I go to games to avoid politics, to find respite from it, not to find another political statement on the game’s newsfeed!
I was looking forward to the Heart of Russia DLC, and I have bought most of all of your map DLCs, enjoying all the routes, including those to what little of Ukraine you have there. But no, after this statement, I wonder if it is time to find another game to play…
…in reply to someone else. Shortly thereafter, I noticed that my comment was deleted. They were deleting any comment that did not tow the political line of their statement, and also removed comments from people asking SCS to keep the game away from politics. I replied to another commentor, who complained that their message was removed, saying that mine was gone too. After that I was banned from posting for 1 month for… wait for it… “Repeated political posts”. Yes, for those 1.5 posts on a thread that was started by SCS software and was clearly political in nature.
I asked for an overturn of the ban from Steam support (update: upheld) and for a refund of the game (rejected).
Incidentally, the other blatant inaccuracy that SCS Software made in their statement is comparing the current military operation in Ukraine with the events of 1938 and 1968 in Czechoslovakia (SCS is a Czech company). Apart from placing those two past evens on the same level, which is historically incorrect, the better and more accurate comparison of today’s events is to the Soviet Army mop-up of the Nazis in Germany in April-May 1945 and the Russian Army mop-up of the Napoleonic forces in France in March 1814.
If SCS software first starts remembering 1938, it should be consistent and remember that is was Czechoslovakian factories that were providing Nazi Germany with tanks and other heavy assault vehicles, and they should remember how after the 1917 revolution Czechs performed an “intervention” deep into the tormented Russia, reaching Urals and making away with the Russia’s gold reserve.
On the other hand SCS Software left untouched numerous Bandera-Nazi hails in the comment section.
By the time of writing of this article today, the thread was locked with 284 comments remaining, which give an impression of a largely pro-Ukrainian stance on the matter. Observing the rate of posting and censorship yesterday, I would estimate that without SCS Software censorship, there would have been ten times that number of comments today, having a larger share of comments either asking SCS Software to keep away from politics or expressing the Russian point of view on the events.
I would have let the above statement from SCS Software slide if they made it as a closed topic, not pretending to play at democracy, or if they allowed all kinds of comments, removing only those directly calling for violence (incidentally, none of the comments that were subsequently banned did that), or if their statement was more balanced, wishing to provide for humanitarian aid to Ukraine in a controversial situation, while refraining from pointing fingers. Or better still, kept the politics entirely out of the game. But they just had to go ahead and shoot themselves in the foot, losing themselves, I suspect, not just one customer.
On a different note, I wonder what is the stance of the truck manufacturers that license their trademarks for use in SCS Software’s Euro Truck Simulator 2: Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, DAF, Scania, MAN, Iveco?
My profile in Euro Truck Simulator 2, with the political statement by SCS Software in the news strip. Volvo Construction Equipment DLC is something that I was going to buy prior to them making this statement.
At least Putin hasn’t been falsely accused of gassing millions of Ukrainians.
Are you willing to look into “other” “unprovoked attacks” in “history”? Or do you feel this is unique to Russia?
This is similar to 1938. As in, Poland was committing genocide against ethnic Germans in post-Versailles “Poland”. Germany pleaded to the League of Nations to do something, and of course..nothing.
When Germany stepped in, they were vilified as “aggressors”. You even liken the brutal Kiev regime to “Nazis”. And refer to the “denazification” of Ukraine.
The “Putin as Hitler” comments are now widespread. And, the Western Media ignores the Kiev regime’s atrocities that led to this so-called “unprovoked attack”.
Yet, even you use the “Nazi” attack on Zelensky.
Who knows? Maybe one day “Putin” will enter the language the way “Hitler” has.
The power of biased Media, and lack of freedom of expression.
You can see the reality today. Or the reality of “Terrible” Czar Ivan. But not others? Both “history” and “news” are written by those who hold power.
Well, Zelensky is a puppet, groomed by the West in much the same way Hitler was. But that’s probably where the parallel ends. The “denazification” refers to the rampant neo-Nazi battalions – Aydar, Azov, etc, who were raised by the Ukrainian oligarchs as their private armies, and which have come out of their masters’ control. That is why Russia is still willing to talk to the present-day Ukrainian government – they seem to have a hope of un-weaving that bond between the state organs and the neo-Nazi formations.
As for Ivan the IVth. I consistently prefer using the correct translation from Russian of his by-name “Grozny”, which is “Formidable”. “Terrible” is a mistranslation, coined precisely, as you point out, to vilify a Russian leader, which did not do the bidding of the West.