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Illegal immigrant-smuggling game rejected by Apple

Thursday, April 28, 2011 · 6:22 pm · 41 Comments

“An iPhone game that allows users to drive a truck full of immigrants through the desert while trying to prevent them from getting thrown out of the vehicle has been rejected by Apple Inc., the software’s developer announced Thursday,” Russell Contreras reports for The Associated Press.

“Owlchemy Labs, the Boston company that developed ‘Smuggle Truck: Operation Immigration,’ said that the Apple App Store turned down the game three weeks ago, but it did accept the company’s ‘Snuggle Truck’ app, a game that allows players to ‘bring cute animals from the wilderness to the comfort of a zoo,’” Contreras reports.

“Owlchemy Labs Developer Alex Schwartz said the immigration game’s rejection was ‘content-related’ but couldn’t give details based on a contractual agreement,” Contreras reports.

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Comment Feed

41 Comments

yourmombluray

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 6:29 pm · Reply

Apple has class. Let this game go to Android
- Dude McFarland
  
  Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 6:55 pm · Reply
  
  Hell yeah let it go to Android!
  
  I’m going to install this thing right next to “Nose Candy” another fine entertainment title that is a bit too much ‘think different’ for Apple INC to handle!
  - midwestmac
    
    Friday, April 29, 2011 - 11:32 am · Reply
    
    Would be even better if there were border agents to shoot those Mexicans in the head as they writhed in agony on the ground after being thrown from the truck (that’s sarcasm, by the way).
Legal citizen

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 6:36 pm · Reply

I don’t think it takes a lot of imagination to figure out why Apple rejected this.
KenC

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 6:39 pm · Reply

It’s okay to kill pygmies on some fictitious island, but to traffic in illegal immigrants, which might hurt relations with Mexico or China is bad joojoo. Too close to real headlines.
- Derek Currie
  
  Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 8:23 pm · Reply
  
  The species of the surreal.
anaknipedro

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 7:03 pm · Reply

I wonder if they would approve a “secure the border” app, where you build fences, capture illegals, and earn points to hire more border guards when you catch Al Qaeda members, drug smugglers, and sex traffickers.
- Nice
  
  Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 7:27 pm · Reply
  
  I’d totally buy that game. They could bill it as a tower defense game.
- ChrissyOne
  
  Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 7:42 pm · Reply
  
  Sweet! Maybe you could even play a Minuteman and murder little girls too!
  http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/06/15/minutemen-murder-arizona-immigration/
  - Greg F.
    
    Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 11:13 pm · Reply
    
    The headline on this link says “ALLEGEDLY”, but do they really deserve a trial? Let’s shoot first and ask questions later.
  - Fredo
    
    Friday, April 29, 2011 - 3:32 am · Reply
    
    You know if they didn’t, they would if they could get away with it. Comment of the month, don’t ever stop being K1!
Sol

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 7:49 pm · Reply

I don’t think it should have been rejected the first time. In the US, people crossing the border from Mexico is a hot-button issue and this game is a humorous take on it. If comedians, filmmakers and cartoonists can joke about the issue why should games developers not have the same freedom?
- iFreedom
  
  Friday, April 29, 2011 - 1:41 pm · Reply
  
  The freedom you mention protects the individual from prosecution, and gives them the right to develop the concept, build a game and market it on their own.
  
  It does not force Apple to take part in it.
  
  Having said that, I know the app approval system could use some improvement, and I don’t see why Apple couldn’t just put an age restriction on the application and let it through.
  But in the end, they built it, so it’s their choice….
ken1w

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 8:06 pm · Reply

I think it’s funny that one version of their game is called “Snuggle Truck” and the other is called “Smuggle Truck.”

> a game that allows players to ‘bring cute animals from the wilderness to the comfort of a zoo

I think Snuggle Truck’s premise is even MORE annoying. Apple should go back and reject it too…
- Derek Currie
  
  Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 8:22 pm · Reply
  
  “I think Snuggle Truck’s premise is even MORE annoying.”
  
  It’s certainly just as offensive IMHO.
Derek Currie

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 8:20 pm · Reply

“Owlchemy Labs Developer Alex Schwartz said the immigration game’s rejection was ‘content-related’ but couldn’t give details”

Hey, why not try a game about child trafficing? How about a pimp and ho game! Or I know, a game about roping in kids to deliver dope and collecting money? Or how about a game where you start a gang of high school kids, pay them to rob houses, then sell their loot on your fencing website? (0_o)

Someone is putting lead into US water…
- Sol
  
  Friday, April 29, 2011 - 1:08 am · Reply
  
  How about books, television shows or movies about pimps and drug dealers? They are out there and some of them, like The Wire and Breaking Bad are award-winning. You can’t say that a game should not exist just because you are easily offended by its subject matter. Games are creative endeavours just as much as any other medium.
  - iFreedom
    
    Friday, April 29, 2011 - 2:11 pm · Reply
    
    Both excellent shows. But see my comment above. He is allowed to create a game like that. But Apple can choose what they offer in the marketplace they’ve built. Like thousands of other books/movies,etc… if the publisher isn’t interested, market it elsewhere.
    
    BTW: Don’t forget the movie ‘The Aristocrats’ (which I think is even available on iTunes, and shouldn’t be confused with the Disney movie having a similar name). It’s probably the most vulgar, repulsive, offensive, and incorrect movie I’ve ever seen. (which I quite enjoyed)
  - Derek Currie
    
    Sunday, May 1, 2011 - 4:24 am · Reply
    
    “You can’t say that a game should not exist just because you are easily offended by its subject matter.”
    
    So you’re NOT offended by immigrant-smuggling or any of the equally offensive games I brainstormed. Making playful games out of offensive behavior does not disturb you. Why?
    
    I know! How about a creative endeavor about how to perpetrate religious genocide! Oh that’s been done already. It’s called ‘Mein Kampf’ by Adolph Hitler. Hey, why not make a game out of it!
Gm

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 8:27 pm · Reply

Its illegal alien. It is illegal. What’s funny about that?
- Fredo
  
  Friday, April 29, 2011 - 3:35 am · Reply
  
  Nothing. It’s deadly serious. Especially for poor people with no hope for a better life but to cross miles of desert on foot and only hope they dont get turned back by a cold hearted rich mans world. Or worse, that some racist asshole doesn’t shoot them first. No, not funny at all.
  - MacRaven
    
    Friday, April 29, 2011 - 9:18 am · Reply
    
    Oh, please. Why is it our responsibility? Those actually paying for these people are NOT RICH. Taxpayers can’t even afford the U.S. poor we ALREADY have. So we import MORE? Common sense has to start at some point. The money is not magically created and endlessly supplied to help all these people. Most of the people this rescue money actually comes from have 2 jobs: one to support our own families and one to support the U.S. poor and the illegals with backbreaking taxes.
    - Beeblebrox
      
      Friday, April 29, 2011 - 10:28 am · Reply
      
      You are correct MacRaven but it’s even more than this. The illegal problem is multi-leveled and probably more nuanced than the average Fredo-type mentality appreciates:
      
      1. Allowing in illegals with impunity undermines the concept that America is a nation of laws. For example, how about if we just let corporations dump chemicals in rivers again like they used to? Why is a law against that worth enforcing while other critical laws should be ignored? Overlooking obvious law-breaking encourages other kinds of law-breaking. If Americans want a flood of Mexicans coming into the country then they should encourage their Congressional representatives to change the immigration laws rather than just pretend the laws don’t exist.
      
      2. MacRaven’s point that we can’t afford to feed, house, educate, and provide health care for these teeming masses is the obvious practical problem with allowing it. The current immigration laws allow a certain number of immigrants to enter legally, based upon our ability to assimilate them and our system to handle them. Maybe these laws should be updated to allow more Mexican immigrants but that doesn’t change the fact that illegals are overwhelming our social care systems. They either take American jobs (which are in short supply these days) or they can’t get jobs and fall back on our social care system. How is either beneficial to the average American taxpayer?
      
      3. The more nuanced issue is that allowing millions of Mexican illegals across the border is an enabling behavior that keeps the people of Mexico from reforming their corrupt socialist/crony capitalist system. As long as Mexico is allowed to use America as a relief valve for the more industrious of its native populace to escape, then there will be no pressure for the government to change and things will only get worse for those who can’t cross the border. The citizens of Mexico need to rise up and change their country rather than abandoning it.
      
      4. The injustice of it all. Mexicans crossing the border illegally put themselves to the front of the line in front of those who seek to come here legally. This is fundamentally unjust. The Left is always crying about “justice” but then totally ignores the concept when it comes to screwing over LEGAL immigrants.
    - Stephen
      
      Friday, April 29, 2011 - 2:39 pm · Reply
      
      The truth about immigration…
      - ChrissyOne
        
        Saturday, April 30, 2011 - 10:46 am · Reply
        
        You know that’s a staged infomercial, right? Well done.
Cubert

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 8:34 pm · Reply

I love dark humor. I would totally buy this game.
- librium
  
  Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 10:08 pm · Reply
  
  Me too!
- auramac
  
  Friday, April 29, 2011 - 12:06 am · Reply
  
  “Humor?”
theloniousMac

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 9:13 pm · Reply

What pygmies?
TowerTone

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 10:07 pm · Reply

Or they could pose as Minutemen when in fact they were all a bunch of murdering dope thieves rationalizing their hate.

They weren’t trying to protect our borders, they were just protecting their turf. Big difference from real Minutemen.
- Now, Now...
  
  Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 11:26 pm · Reply
  
  Of course, the follow up to this game would be Obama’s Administration suing Apple for discriminating against a game that is trying to bring the next wave of Democrat voters, er, I mean people in search of a better life to this country!
  - Sol
    
    Friday, April 29, 2011 - 1:19 am · Reply
    
    Thank you for making it blatantly clear why the Right in the US is so opposed to immigrants from Mexico. In your mind they are part of a conspiracy by the Democrats to get more votes instead of people desperate for a better life away from poverty and crime. Considering how your side stole the 2000 election and misinformed your country into invading Iraq, this conspiracy theory you present looks like a case of projection.
    - Backlash
      
      Friday, April 29, 2011 - 2:12 am · Reply
      
      So much ignorance.
      
      Ask Mexico what it does with people that cross into Mexico illegally….
      
      2000 has been picked apart for 11 years now, which side kept changing the rules? That’s right… The side that lost in the end when the supreme court stopped the games being played by the left.
    - TowerTone
      
      Friday, April 29, 2011 - 8:00 am · Reply
      
      “Right in the US is so opposed to immigrants from Mexico.”
      You mean ‘illegal immigrants’, don’t you?
      - MacRaven
        
        Friday, April 29, 2011 - 9:25 am · Reply
        
        Correct! Key word here is ILLEGAL. When we can adequately pay for our OWN poor, without struggling with an immense tax burden, THEN we can talk about adding more poor. This isn’t pre-1920, immigration is a whole different ball game now. Jobs AREN’T plentiful, and neither is charity money.
    - Beeblebrox
      
      Friday, April 29, 2011 - 10:41 am · Reply
      
      It’s not a Democrat conspiracy since it is out there in the open for everyone to see. I am against illegals crossing the border because of the law and order ramifications of allowing it. However, as a cynical conservative, I also don’t appreciate the Democrats efforts to allow illegals to vote (which it is painfully obvious they promote every time they fight against producing valid ID at the voting booth). Democrats need the struggling poor in order to maintain power. These, along with public and private sector union members, are their primary voting base
      
      By the way, up until you brought up the long ago debunked “stolen election of 2000″ I was almost taking you seriously ;-/
Nightfly

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 11:36 pm · Reply

Let Google with their Android app have it it will goes nicely with the Dog Fighting game/ training app. I hate censorship but thank God Apple has some form of screening process this time.
icrizzo

Friday, April 29, 2011 - 2:38 am · Reply

Werid.. I can buy Bad Company 2 and kill US soliders.. but I can’t smuggle Pedro across the line so he can help me farm the strawberry fields. RIGHT!!!
- MacGeek.
  
  Friday, April 29, 2011 - 9:41 am · Reply
  
  Save Pedro!!!
IT2

Friday, April 29, 2011 - 9:39 am · Reply

Problem is, Pedro’s wife or girlfriend gets pregnant, has a child who is automatically a U.S. citizen and the cycle continues. More tax burden on us taxpayers paying for all Pedro’s family, often for generations.

The problem with today’s home-grown U.S. poor is THEY should be the ones employed in the fields. My mother, an Italian, had no problem picking beans for the local farmers to earn money for her family back in the 1930′s. Too many of today’s U.S. homegrown poor collect Welfare and watch Jerry Springer and Court TV all day.

Instead of joining gangs, the young adults of our own poor should be doing these fruit picking jobs just as my mother did. Her family was poor but never collected public assistance of any kind. They brought themselves out of poverty. Back then they had pride.
Derek Currie

Sunday, May 1, 2011 - 4:31 am · Reply

One aspect of immigrant smuggling that hasn’t been noted yet: Illegal immigrants are by default the new SLAVE CLASS in the USA. They make less than minimum wage, and if you still run out of cash, you can blackmail them.

Of the many ways to cheat and corrupt the capitalist economic system, slavery is one of my least favorite.

The solution of course is to LEGALLY and TEMPORARILY bring in people to perform these current slave labor jobs. But darn, then you have to pay them minimum wage! Oh well.