u/cwybabiesucks

post match stats

inhib went down at 15 min and the enemy team wouldn't hit our nexus. my own team was purposely killing their minions so the game wouldn't end. like, halfway down the lane killing minions. i was fountain dived on spawn for over 20 min by the aatrox.

riot rly ruined mayhem so bad that i'm going back to ranked so at least i have a justification for getting mad at this game. all the fun augments are gone and the new augments are shit and promote stalling like this so ppl with nothing better to do can stackmax or whatever.

my previous post abt this got taken down for being "poorly written and aggressive" and i was advised to resubmit my post. fair enough.

this post contains links to all information referenced, as well as screenshots. i think w/any amount of critical thinking, it's easy to see what is going on here. i also want to state i am not "calling out the developer," i am calling out this behavior. even if rogue duck interactive isn't necessarily aware of what's happening, it's still happening. so here we go.

vending machine co, a newly released game by rogue duck interactive, (the publisher/developer of ship inc, lost but found, cats & cups, witchy business, and other cozy games commonly recommended in the community) is currently on sale for 39% off, for a resulting price of $14.88, a n*zi dog whistle.

for those who aren't aware, 1488 is a reference to two pieces of n*zi rhetoric: the "14 words" slogan, which i don't feel comfortable writing out, and 88, which stands for "heil hitler." this is not a reach, nor is it grasping at straws. this is a well known and defined n*zi dog whistle and it is actively in use today.

for further reading: hate symbols database; wikipedia page for "14 words" if u are curious abt the context. the wiki page explicitly references 1488 as a n*zi dog whistle.

i understand ur first reaction may be to assume that this sale price is a coincidence and that rogue duck interactive had no idea abt 1488, etc.

rogue duck interactive also currently has another game, cardboard town, on sale for 33% off, resulting in a price of $19.38. this is the year n*zi germany committed the kristallnacht, a horrific attack against the jewish resulting in at least 90 deaths.

neither of these games are on sale on their own; instead, they are both bundled w/a game called mad smartphone tycoon, developed by miradil (this is their only paid game) and published by gamersky games (hotel architect, restore your island, plateup!, cash cleaner simulator, trash goblin and other assorted cozy games that occasionally get recommended; i myself have several of their games wishlisted and will be removing them all).

here are screenshots of both games; note that on the rogue duck interactive's page, the games are listed as the bundle sale price. i've also included screenshots of the games' store pages as well, which show that these games are not currently on sale on their own.

vending machine co displayed on rogue duck interactive's publisher page for $14.88

vending machine co's store page showing it's only this price when bundled w/mad smartphone tycoon

cardboard town displayed on rogue duck interactive's publisher page for $19.38

cardboard town's store page showing it's only this price when bundled w/mad smartphone tycoon

gamersky games also has two games currently bundled with mad smartphone tycoon resulting in these prices: omelet you cook is currently on sale for $14.88 and plateup! is also currently on sale for $19.38. they also currently have a game called bumper blitz td on sale for $14.88 (and also bundled with mad smartphone tycoon) which isn't a cozy game but is worth mentioning. here are the screenshots:

plateup! being displayed on gamersky games' publisher page as $19.38

plateup!'s store page showing it's only this price when bundled w/mad smartphone tycoon

omelete you cook displayed on gamersky games' publisher page for $14.88

omelete you cook's store page showing it's only this price when bundled w/mad smartphone tycoon

it's easy to dismiss these prices as coincidences or honest mistakes. however, in all cases, they are bundled with the same game (mad smartphone tycoon, which is developed by miradil and published by gamersky games) and have strange discount amounts (why not 40% off for vending machine co? bumper blitz td is also 39% off; why not 40%?). i will admit that the 33% off can genuinely be attributed to being 1/3 of the price, which is not that uncommon. however, the 39% is suspicious and i'm not a publisher on steam so i'm not sure how setting discounts works, but i'm pretty sure it's not a mistake/error.

it seems like any "real" shenanigans happening here could easily be attributed to developer miradil, since their game (mad smartphone tycoon) is the one bundled with all of these games resulting in these prices. it's also currently heavily discounted at 87% off. but it has to be acknowledged that gamersky games the publisher of mad smartphone tycoon. here is a screenshot of it on gamersky games' publisher page.

my question is, why is rogue duck interactive bundling w/this game to begin with? vending machine co's base price is $14.99. why bundle with mad smartphone tycoon for a bundled sale price of $14.88 at all? vending machine co itself is not on sale alone. it is on sale in various bundles, and it seems like only the bundle with mad smartphone tycoon is the one with the problematic price.

mad smartphone tycoon is currently bundled with around 95 games. u can see them all here and sort by price: https://store.steampowered.com/bundlelist/2891120/Mad_Smartphone_Tycoon. there are currently 11 games bundled w/mad smartphone tycoon that result in a price of $14.88 and 5 games bundled that result in a price of $19.38.

the 11 games bundled at $14.88 are: bumper blitz td, gods vs horrors,. into the grid, jotunnslayer: hordes of hel, omelet you cook, rogue: genesia, monster battles, seer's gambit, tiny auto knights, turnbound, and vending machine co.

the 5 games bundled at $19.38 are: hunter's moon: a sovereign syndicate adventure, cardboard town, plateup!, recharge, and shambles: sons of apocalypse.

i think the takeaway lesson here is that the cozy game genre is not exempt from n*zi dogwhistles. i understand it's disappointing and it's easier to claim ignorance (either on our own part as the consumers of the product or on behalf of the developers/publishers utilizing the product as a n*zi dogwhistle) than to admit the possibility that ppl as vile as n*zis could exist in our community.

but it is incredibly important that we call this out when we see it and we make it loud and clear that n*zis are not welcome in our community. even if it is a genuine mistake somehow, or even if miradil is truly the mastermind behind this and rogue duck interactive and gamersky games didn't realize they were being used as an instrument of n*zi propaganda, we need to call it out. we need to say, we see this, we don't approve of this, we reject this.

if i were in rogue duck interactive's shoes rn, i personally would withdraw from the current bundles of vending machine co and cardboard town with mad smartphone tycoon, acknowledge the existence of their games being used as instruments of n*zi dogwhistles even if it was unintentional, and denounce any affiliation with n*zis. same goes for gamersky games and their respective bundles.

imo, this is an easy thing to do and is a simple and extremely effective message to their customers (and any n*zis trying to weasel their way into the community). withdraw from these bundles, apologize, and state in no uncertain terms that they had no intention of being involved w/any n*zi dogwhistles, mistake or not.

here is a link to the imgur album containing all screenshots in this post: https://imgur.com/a/O1oDdmF

this isn't an attempt to do anything but call out this behavior and state that it is not welcome in our community, intentional or not. i do genuinely hope this is a mistake on rogue duck interactive's and gamersky games' parts, because i love this community and i would hate to see n*zis being welcomed into it, even if it's "only" a wink-nudge kind of invitation.

n*zis have no place here, and we all need to let them know that.