The Slaughtering Grounds

The Slaughtering Grounds is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Digital Homicide Studios. It was released for Microsoft Windows on October 31, 2014, via the Steam storefront.

The Slaughtering Grounds
Developer(s)ImminentUprising
Publisher(s)Digital Homicide Studios
EngineUnity 
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
ReleaseOctober 31, 2014
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The game became infamous due to a controversy regarding professional critic Jim Sterling, in which their negative review of the game caused the developers to file a lawsuit against them.[1]

Gameplay

The player must kill zombies, and the game can be played in single-player or a 64-player free-for-all. The game describes itself as "a constant intense experience while tossing in comical use of excessive physics and blood for those Laugh out loud moments".[2] Various characters and weapons can be unlocked by the player.[3]

Reception

The game did not attract much attention until it was criticized by Jim Sterling (formerly of The Escapist) as a "new 'worst game of 2014' contender", citing its poor graphics, numerous glitches, bad controls, short music loops, and use of pre-made models and textures not made by the developer.[1][4] Sterling later used the game as an example of the lack of artistic cohesion that usually results from what they termed asset flipping, specifically drawing attention to the inconsistent enemy types and the placement of a United States Postal Service post box next to a red telephone box.[5]

Controversy

In addition to their negative first impression video of the game, Jim Sterling also accused the developers of deleting negative feedback on the game from Steam's review page, as well as banning users who criticized it.[4] The developers responded by filing a DMCA takedown notice over Sterling's video.[1]

On March 4, 2016, James Romine filed a lawsuit against Sterling for "assault, libel, and slander", seeking over US$10 million in damages.[1][6] The amount was later increased to $15 million .[7] On September 12, 2016, he filed an additional lawsuit against 100 Steam users for "personal injury" for a total sum of $18 million .[8] This was followed by a request for a subpoena against Valve for the identities of those 100 users.[8][9] Later that day, Valve removed the entire catalog of Digital Homicide Studios, consisting of 21 games (including The Slaughtering Grounds) and 15 pieces of downloadable content, from Steam, stating Valve had "stopped doing business with Digital Homicide for being hostile to Steam customers."[7] On October 2, 2016, Digital Homicide Studios dropped the lawsuit against the Steam users, with James Romine stating the studio was "destroyed" due to it.[10]

After months of legal stalling and setbacks due to technicalities, on February 21, 2017, James Romine agreed with Sterling's defense lawyer to drop the lawsuit with prejudice. Romine agreed to refrain from pursuing the lawsuit and the charges launched against Sterling again, and to never file another DMCA takedown without first considering whether Sterling was engaging in fair use.[11]

References
  1. Klepek, Patrick (March 17, 2016). "Angered Game Developer Sues Critic Jim Sterling For $10 Million". Kotaku. Archived from the original on November 9, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  2. "The Slaughtering Grounds". Metacritic. Archived from the original on February 17, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  3. Jones, Brad (November 7, 2014). "You Might Want to Avoid 'The Slaughtering Grounds' Mess". Gamerant. Archived from the original on March 31, 2020. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  4. Sterling, Jim (November 10, 2014). "The Slaughtering Grounds: A Steam Meltdown Story". The Escapist. Archived from the original on October 26, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  5. Sterling, Jim (May 25, 2015). "The Asset Flip (The Jimquisition)". YouTube. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  6. Cosimano, Mike (March 17, 2016). "Indie developer Digital Homicide sues Jim Sterling". Destructoid. Archived from the original on November 9, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  7. Parsons, Don (September 16, 2016). "[Updated] Digital Homicide's Games Removed From Steam". TechRaptor. Archived from the original on November 12, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  8. Grosso, Robert (September 16, 2016). "Digital Homicide Suing 100 Steam Users for 18 Million". TechRaptor. Archived from the original on November 12, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  9. Good, Owen S. (September 17, 2016). "Steam removes games of developer seeking subpoena for users' information (Correction)". Polygon. Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  10. Good, Owen S. (October 3, 2016). "Developer seeking Steam users' identities for lawsuit withdraws case, saying his studio 'is destroyed'". Polygon. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  11. Yin-Poole, Wesley (February 22, 2017). "Jim Sterling comes out on top as lawsuit with Digital Homicide dismissed". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
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