“Racist” iPhone app

From NZ Herald

An iPhone application where the aim is to kill off islanders has been criticised as racist by members of the Pacific Island community.

Pocket God opens with a “meet the islanders” screen, before brown-skinned men wearing hula skirts are shown on an island with a volcano in the background.

To score points, the player kills off each islander by drowning them in the sea, shooting them with lightning or burning them in the volcano.

A blogger on Spasifikmag.com said: “This game is very racist, yes. But what I can’t get over is people finding joy out of killing people … It’s really scary to think that people – and most likely young people – can use the game to torture and kill.”

Karlo Mila-Schaaf, a Tongan currently studying for a PhD in sociology, said the game was offensive and degrading. “Virtual torture of Pacific Islanders is where I draw the line.

The makers of the product say that it doesn’t represent any race or nationality.

“But it is fairly clear that these supposedly non-human islanders with their brown skin, grass skirts and Easter Island statues in the background are not aliens from outer space.”

 

Created by Bolt Creative – based in California, San Francisco – the application costs US$0.99 cents and has proved popular.