Superhot VR "Scandal" in summary

[Lollerobot]

I have summarized most of what the developers have commented and what has been done to the game since the big update below.

For my own sanity I only have my own messages to which Piotr responded here, the full conversation is up at the Superhot Discord shvr_general channel with a pinned message at the beginning.

-21st of July 2021 17:00 GMT
Superhot VR gets update labeled "Important update (1.0.22.1)" which removes the jumping off a building scene and the two shooting self in the head scenes from the game with the following statement:

"“Skip disturbing scenes” toggle was added in a previous update. Considering sensitive time we’re living in, we can do better than that. You deserve better. All scenes alluding to self harm are now completely removed from the game. These scenes have no place in superhot virtual reality. We regret it took us so long.

We’re commited to shipping this update to all vr platforms.

-superhot team"

-21st of July 17:00 GMT to 21nd of July 22:43 GMT
Both steam discussions and Superhot Discord get a flood of messages about the update most of them not liking it. In Discord Avar1ce and SynthJackalope (Superhot PR guy) were moderating the chat.
At 22:51 SynthJackalope gave the next messages on Superhot discord general channel:

"SynthJackalope the transcendent: This is a valid point to which I have no answer. Yes, we did cut out a portion of the game, one of those that stirred some discussions.

However, I can personally ensure you that this wasn't really due to, how people on Steam like to put it, "snowflakes" forcing us. In all reality - there was no real outside force on us. This really was a decision driven by a feeling that the way the world looks now, the world in which we are and were to a large extent forced to separate from all other people and spend all of our time mostly alone, has changed the way this part of the game works. It's no longer just striking. We felt that people became a bit too lonely in general, to allow our game to incite this heavy depressive feeling. That there's just too much sadness to allow our game (something that should let you disassociate from the reality at least for a bit) drive people a little bit too far.

You know, I won't get into gritty details, but I personally really dislike how mental health institutions are portrayed in media. It's always so dark. It makes people feel like seeking help is equal to self-harm actually.
But in normal circumstances I can just, you know, appreciate the art. The story of, say, Lovecraftian horror. I can put my feelings about the social side of such portrayals aside.
Now, if the world was somehow under influence of a real mental health plague (there's no such thing, but let's imagine), I probably wouldn't be able to put my feelings aside like that.

And that's the thing. Lately there was just too much sadness and loneliness in the world, and we couldn't have predicted it when we made the game. But now the social context of those scenes has changed, so we took action.

SynthJackalope the transcendent: Frankly, it's almost 1 AM in Poland here, so if I may - can I ask not to raise ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? Discussion is fine, but not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, please."

After this message he kept moderating the Discord and answering what they could about the situation.


21st of July to 23rd of July 02:09 GMT
Conversation between the community continued on Discord and Steam Discussions and no further info from the developer was released until Piotr the designer and CEO of Superhot sent these message on Superhot discord shvr_general channel:

"piotr: piotr here, designer and ceo of superhot.

I just saw steam reviews for superhot vr moderated, which feels weird. Crushing game's reviews like that was a valid message. It's not the most pleasant, but I get it: something was taken from a game, as if stolen remotely. This didn't feel right and you reacted.

SUPERHOT VR is now a scarred experience, as its' 'story' hinges on the offending scenes removed. If you played before the update: you played a classic. This version is now history and we are not erasing it - we're simply living on, responsibly. I don't want us to sell this version any more. It does not feel right.

We're still commited to removing these scenes on all VR platforms.
piotr: Place where time freezes until you move is far more interesting on its own, without the edgy narrative that forces you through a set of levels and until you get a "you win" message. Further updates will sharpen focus on gameplay and presence.

When I wrote "you deserve better", I really really meant it. We first developed superhot for a 7 Day FPS Jam in 2013 and it was a massive success ever since. This was a taxing experience for everyone involved, myself included. Almost 8 years have passed and we're still stuck making games about self-destructive loops: this is a fingerprint of this pressure. You deserve better than the product of stress and depression that we feel obliged to preserve because of the possible outrage of content removal.

superhot is a place where time stops until you move. You cannot possibly experience that without virtual reality. This place is made of hard concrete and brittle crystal exacly because this physics of shattering can be so mesmerising in slow motion. This place is safe in a weird way: even if it's crumbling around you, the danger will not reach you until you move. If you ever froze still, scared of an object fast approaching - we deliver what your instincts wanted in that moment. This is the core of superhot virtual reality.

Scenes alluding to self-harm will not be part of this place. Neither will I allow for manipulative design and illusion of achievement. In Poland we call this 'dzidzi-bobo design'. We're past that. Time freezing for you means you are in control and let this be foundation for all things superhot from now on.


piotr: I hope this clears up our intentions behind this important update. It was not easy to do and is not easy to communicate. I kept the original message minimal, but that only spawned confusion and in the end you deserve to know what is happening. I'm open to suggestions on how to preserve the old version, but maybe it's better off as a folk tale rather than a working software.

Peace."

The first of these messages is pinned on the shvr_general channel on their discord. After the message Piotr was responding to the community members online for multiple hours with the most important messages compiled below:

"piotr: The deleted scenes are not coming back."
"piotr: I'm not pushing you to play the old version, I don't consider the game having the self-destructive narrative better"

"piotr: Violence is part of gameplay of superhot. You shoot virtual enemies, you feel whatever you want doing it. It's fantasy. Shooting others is not okay, but shooting virtual enemies I consider acceptable.

Game gatekeeping you from further levels and requiring to shoot yourself is manipulative. That's wrong."

"piotr: Toggle is a lame solution. This toggle wasn't really visible: you had to know about it to use it so it's not a real interface solution"

"piotr: virtual reality is different somehow. currently platforms are focused on 'apps' or 'games', but the atomic (smallest) piece of VR content is more like 'an object' or 'a place'. If you think of superhot as a virtual place it's only natural that this place changes over time."

"piotr: "updates that add content make people happy, updates that remove content make people unhappy" - lol. it became impossible for us to work without addressing the scenes in question."

"piotr: From the inside view of development I see a lot of time put into things not significant (auto-destructive narrative), while the core of the game - physics, shattering in slow motion, sound - get skipped over. We focused on wrong things, because important stuff is difficult technically. That's the negative message from my point of view."

A message from me to piotr:
"Lollerobot: I noticed this from the long conversation. Is that update going to bring more gameplay content or is it just going to remedy the story which is now a bit lacking?

Also, are you guys planning on any more VR games in the future or was SuperhotVR a one time special treat?"

to which he responded:
"piotr: What do you mean by remedy the story?

I started with pure gameplay and added shuffling levels: you start the game immediately in the zwishenplatz void with a pyramid in front of you. grabbing it starts random level with level phases shuffled. effectively it a surprise any time you grab a pyramid, you land in different part of the original game.

Adding new content to that would require a VR editor which can be simple enough: maybe just select a place on an existing level, put items, put enemies, maybe give items to enemies? i don't know. simple stuff.

I consider superhot still an unfinished game, but most of superhot team is doing other vr games, on their own."

A second message from me to piotr:
"Lollerobot: By remedy I mean, are you going to fill in the blank from the removed scenes with something else to make the story flow better, or is it just a blank which moves to the next section of the game from now on?

That shuffling sounds like a fun mechanic, especially if enemies and items are shuffled too!"

and response:
"piotr: yeah, that's what i'm excited about. without the story the game can be more interesting, that's what i'm thinking. you don't play those really long sessions - it's still a bit cumbersome to wear a headset for so long. just drop in anytime you put on a headset?

i'm still working on it, but it's good stuff"

Piotr continues to respond to others:

"piotr: I long thought that this kind of update - removing self-harm - cannot be done without adding something great to the game. When recently I played this game again I realized that removing some parts is enough to hugely improve the game. I've made a new cut of a game. It's really different and already feels more complete. Taking anything away is not my intent, but as superhot grows it also changes? thay means confronting the past."

"piotr: This is a matter of emotions. Story within a story is an intriguing concept. Virtual Virtual Reality does that great and wholesome: taking off the headsets is so swift that you can take them off and off and off. It's a wonderful VR story.

Our handling of it was never this clean technically and it was never this wholesome. It was heavy-handed and only fuelled the auto-destructive story. I'm glad playing through our story was not disturbing for you, it can be a kick when the game crosses boundaries a bit. I don't want to engage on this level anymore, though. As a creator I see lots of good things to be done so the story won't be missed."

More back and forth with Piotr and I:
"Lollerobot: Oh @piotr sorry for pinging again! Are you the only dev working on Superhot VR atm or are there multiple of you working on it?
piotr: no, i'm not the only one. I still learn to ask for help, though"

"piotr: i'm gonna get some rest, too. good interacting with you :). i like the vibe of this place"
This was the last message before Piotr stopped responding to messages on discord and has yet to respond to anything more.

These messages happened between 23rd of July 02:09 GMT and 23rd of July 07:39 GMT.

at 07:55 Manu from the Superhot team sent a superhot emoticon on the same discord channel.

Around 13:00 24th of July Steam changed all the recent reviews of Superhot VR in to Off-topic review activity, which shuts them out of the total review score if you have the settings enabled on steam.

After this, discussion continued between community members and Superhot discord was moderated until 24th of July 02:05 GMT when the discord got locked down by SynthJackalope with the following message:

"SynthJackalope the transcendent: @here

With a REALLY heavy heart (hope you all understand I'm being genuine about this), I am locking all the channels on the Discord for now. Probably for the weekend, possibly longer - that's being decided on.

Our crew here (myself, Szymon, and our wonderful volunteer mods: @Stuff and @avar1ce) had been working hard on making this a very welcoming place for everyone. A place in which people can talk, discuss, but not necessarily argue. This also was my personal pet project for the last two years: I never actually cared about how many of us are in here, but the point was to make it a nice place. Full of internet friends, or even people you might disagree with, but it's still a healthy dose of disagreement.

Currently it's really difficult to maintain it this way. It takes a bit too much of our crew's lifetimes to moderate constantly and, sadly, no bot in the world could help with that. No amount of waiting time, no "click to state you've read the rules" would stop the need to moderate, since the thing about people who break the rules is that they disregard the rules.

So, I think it will be best for all of us if we take a short break from this Discord. Not sure how short, and it is a heavy decision for me.
But I cannot allow this place to fall into anarchy and spite because of singular people who'd go on their way unmoderated.

I would also like to state that even among people angry at us, the developers, there have been some who presented brilliant backbone and personal manners. People who not only never struck at anyone, but also asked others not to do that. For this I'm thankful to you, my Discord friends.

Oh, and special thanks to those, who helped me walk my dog by reminding others to keep their emotions in check when I was away. That was sweet.

Hope to see the place as happy and nice as it used to be in some time! See you later!"

Discussion continued on Steam Discussions and as I have heard Twitter, though I have not followed the twitter discussions.

The Superhot Discord was opened up again 2nd of August at 14:46 GMT with updated rules to follow as stated below:

"SynthJackalope the transcendent: @everyone Let's try reopening this place!

Please remember about the rules in #rules_and_info, keeping the place nice for everyone, and it will all be ok.

This is to a large degree a test - should it seem like the issues that resulted in locking the Discord persist, it's possible we'll have to use similar measures again. Therefore, I kindly ask all of you - keep it nice and clean!
SynthJackalope the transcendent: Also, another important update: trolling, raising ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and insulting others will be met with an instant ban this time. Irrevocable.
SynthJackalope the transcendent: Including messages sent by emotes.And do mind that you using a clown emote just makes my task here easier."

After quite a few quick bans of people who did not heed the new or existing rules the discord quieted down a bit.

Up until now no more official statements have come forth from the Superhot team.

Beta branches removed. I was informed on 22.9.2021

[Razzar]

Jesus christ they are trying to justify it so hard by going into tangents about mental institutions, how self harm is portrayed in media. This studio will no longer be receiving any of my money.

[Raydeus]

I just want my refund, I couldn't care any less about this developer anymore.

[Baldrickk]

"we are not erasing it"

but they did remove it from the game?

"something was taken from a game, as if stolen remotely"

exactly...

"Violence is part of gameplay of superhot. You shoot virtual enemies, you feel whatever you want doing it. It's fantasy."

so if it's fantasy, where is the problem with doing anything? because it's not real.

"Toggle is a lame solution. This toggle wasn't really visible: you had to know about it to use it so it's not a real interface solution"

So the real problem is that the toggle wasn't visible... it's a UI PROBLEM and you instead choose to delete content?

"If you think of superhot as a virtual place it's only natural that this place changes over time."

I see it as a game, that I bought, and a piece of art. that's now been tarnished. Change isn't bad... destructive change removing content is.

"From the inside view of development I see a lot of time put into things not significant (auto-destructive narrative)"

so the narrative of a game is not important? maybe we should take the narrative out of films (lets just have random explosions for 120 minutes) or out of a book (lets just alphabetise all the words?)

"updates that add content make people happy, updates that remove content make people unhappy" - lol

that "lol" is infuriating... you're laughing at us. Mocking us. You show that you don't CARE about the fact that we bought this. That we're invested in the narrative. You're happy to remove content from us, your paying customers, because you can. You don't respect us, and you don't give a damn.

[Doc]

"Toggle is a lame solution. This toggle wasn't really visible: you had to know about it to use it so it's not a real interface solution"

So the real problem is that the toggle wasn't visible... it's a UI PROBLEM and you instead choose to delete content?


Yeah that’s a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dumb argument. Literally flick one switch to keep the toggle on by default and anyone who specifically wants to have these scenes in can have them, and those who would not want them would probably not even realize they exist.

[Bread]

However, I can personally ensure you that this wasn't really due to, how people on Steam like to put it, "snowflakes" forcing us. In all reality - there was no real outside force on us.

So to the "snowflakes" you were the despicable developer that put self-harm in their game, and to normal people you are now a snowflake. What a dense move.

[Wylie28]

Originally posted by Razzar:

Jesus christ they are trying to justify it so hard by going into tangents about mental institutions, how self harm is portrayed in media. This studio will no longer be receiving any of my money.

Children don't have money anyway. What the ♥♥♥♥ would they care about your non-existent money

[Razzar]

Originally posted by Wylie28:

Originally posted by Razzar:

Jesus christ they are trying to justify it so hard by going into tangents about mental institutions, how self harm is portrayed in media. This studio will no longer be receiving any of my money.

Children don't have money anyway. What the ♥♥♥♥ would they care about your non-existent money

Im 20 years old and have been working since I was 15, your argument children have no money is a lie.

[Acer Spacer]

They removed the beta branches so it is now completely gone

[Mukatsuku]

Originally posted by Acer Spacer:

They removed the beta branches so it is now completely gone

I wouldn't be surprised to see them deleting more and more content from all their games, from now on.
In what other industry can someone forcibly remove something you have already paid for?

[Lollerobot]

Originally posted by Mukatsuku:

Originally posted by Acer Spacer:

They removed the beta branches so it is now completely gone

I wouldn't be surprised to see them deleting more and more content from all their games, from now on.
In what other industry can someone forcibly remove something you have already paid for?

Most digital industries where you download updates or stream the content.
For example: Pokemon has banned episodes that are removed from the streaming services that stream pokemon and therefore are not available in the same manner Superhot VR cutscenes are not available, you need to access them from unofficial measures.
Now is streaming content something you already paid for? That I have no answer for.

Another example is Windows 10 which forces updates on you and has in the past removed content from the OS.

[Baldrickk]

Originally posted by Lollerobot:

Originally posted by Mukatsuku:

I wouldn't be surprised to see them deleting more and more content from all their games, from now on.
In what other industry can someone forcibly remove something you have already paid for?

Most digital industries where you download updates or stream the content.
For example: Pokemon has banned episodes that are removed from the streaming services that stream pokemon and therefore are not available in the same manner Superhot VR cutscenes are not available, you need to access them from unofficial measures.
Now is streaming content something you already paid for? That I have no answer for.

Another example is Windows 10 which forces updates on you and has in the past removed content from the OS.

Netflix etc you're paying for access to what they have available, not a licence to specific content. So content can be added and removed just fine.

[Lollerobot]

Originally posted by Baldrickk:

Originally posted by Lollerobot:

Most digital industries where you download updates or stream the content.
For example: Pokemon has banned episodes that are removed from the streaming services that stream pokemon and therefore are not available in the same manner Superhot VR cutscenes are not available, you need to access them from unofficial measures.
Now is streaming content something you already paid for? That I have no answer for.

Another example is Windows 10 which forces updates on you and has in the past removed content from the OS.

Netflix etc you're paying for access to what they have available, not a licence to specific content. So content can be added and removed just fine.

Well, if I pay them for a month and they remove the show I paid them a month to watch, I think we are pretty much in the same place. Even if that does not count my windows example does.

[☐HappyMask☐]

Originally posted by Baldrickk:

Originally posted by Lollerobot:

Most digital industries where you download updates or stream the content.
For example: Pokemon has banned episodes that are removed from the streaming services that stream pokemon and therefore are not available in the same manner Superhot VR cutscenes are not available, you need to access them from unofficial measures.
Now is streaming content something you already paid for? That I have no answer for.

Another example is Windows 10 which forces updates on you and has in the past removed content from the OS.

Netflix etc you're paying for access to what they have available, not a licence to specific content. So content can be added and removed just fine.

You are comparing apples to oranges. When you buy a game, you buy it for the content inside. Netflix isn't a game, it is a streaming service. I'm not paying a sub to access Super Hot (and if I was it would have been canceled when this whole thing went down)

[ZoneAnomaly]

Would it seriously have been too much effort to like put a warning screen the first time someone boots it up saying "This game contains content some viewers might find disturbing, would you like to toggle this content?" instead of putting it in an obscure place and then sobbing that it was hard to find?

No matter how they try to rationalize and defend the choice they made, they still made a bad choice. Removing content some would consider integral from a paid product is really stupid, even more so considering there were ways to solve this oh so sensitive issue (that, let's face it, no one who actually played the game realistically had with it) that was amicable to all parties. Instead they held their hands up and surrendered to the crowd who probably don't play the games they whine about. And then went on to insult the customer base. Which, historically, doesn't work out as well as you hope

[Heretic]

I reckon they've been paid or offered other incentives. No developer in their right mind would destroy their own vision.