The One Laptop Per Child project's XO Laptop (also known as the $100 laptop) has been designed with playing PC games in mind, but perhaps not all games are ok after all.
As well as standard features and internet connectivity, the XO laptop features a D-pad on the left side of the screen as well as 4 game buttons on the right. Back in November, EA donated the original SimCity to the project. Enthusiasts have also ported and created several games for the XO Laptop, including a popular Civilization clone called Freeciv.
The controversy started when Doom was added to the list of games playable on the XO laptop on its official wiki. The submission was then removed by a contributor called Bryan Berry.
"I work in Nepal, a country recovering from an 11-year civil war. Exposure to more violence, real or virtual, is the last thing most Nepali communities want", Berry explained.
While Berry's argument was reasonable enough for some people, others saw it as an unacceptable act of censorship. "OLPC is not in the business of censorship or content classification, and you have no right to try and remove thing from the wiki just because you dislike them. If you are worried children will find distasteful things on the internet, perhaps you shouldn't give them a laptop", Noah Kantrowitz argued.
After lengthy discussions and refusing the middle-ground solution of listing the game in a separate list of "unendorsed" games, Doom was returned to the official wiki and Berry's comment was removed.
Comments
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
berry got owned.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
who the f**k is that guy to speak on behalf of a country?
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
besides I'm sure kids play pretend games with pretend guns, or even real ones were they kill people so... ya.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
I'd go so far as to say Doom will never make an impression in third-world countries since ppl already kill each other all the time.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
...Because we all know nothing stirs a big civil war like a 10 year old videogame.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
...except for of course the same videogame replicated 10 million times so that every f**king child in a third-world country is privy to the violence and guns exhibited.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
Pussies, your country is a 3rd world country because you won't grow some balls, you probably don't deserve all of the "sinful" things technology brings anways...you can't handle it.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
Too many retards here that don't seem to get the point of what berry was trying to make.Perhaps if you were in a 3rd world country for once, and not listen to what they tell you in the crooked media. Than you might actually have some brains of your own.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
Anonymous at 17:24 you think youre a f**king man do you, all high and mighty whilst you vigorously fondle your ass over 4.0ghz dual-core processor chips.f**king c**t.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
If it stops them from killing each other I'm all for it and to be honest after so many years of stress any game is a positive relief for them. Censorship does nothing except spark off controversy.We've all been watching films for years; I've never shot anyone in real life. People need to get a grip of reality and realise people do know the difference between games and the real world.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
I've been to a 3rd world country and its horrible because of the people that are in countrol there. At anonymouse at 17:2...My whole point was that it seems as if greed and ignorance cause much more violence in 3rd world countries than a silly 15 year old video game. Go back to smoking crack you anti-gamers...
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
Regarding anti-censorship people:How the f**k do you then explain age-based classifications for games??A large part of the OLPC project goes to children aged below 15 so censoring games like Doom isn't controversial at all, dips**ts.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
some of you guys talk about out of control pplz in 3rd world countries ... do you realize that the us has one of the highest homocide rates ON EARTH (all of europe times a HUNDRED!!!) not mentioning that it moves out into the world screwing around to keep 3rd world countries at their low level?!?!
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
What a baby. The murder of living, breathing human beings is SO similar to murder of fantastical, pixelated hellspawn.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
Jelly, youre an idiot.
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
Anon at 3:5 14/2/2008SHUT THE F*CK UP
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
Please f**k me I like it hard in the ass
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
Is this really about politics or old granny gamers that need over the dos age??
Doom On OLPC Stirs Controversy
Btw why is the Cyber Demon cybering a rocket launch from between his "hello"!!
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