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‘Slave Tetris’ removed from educational video game

(YouTube/Serious Games Interactive)

An educational video game that depicts the slave trade has removed a section of the game, which features a Tetris-like challenge where slaves are stacked on top of each other in a ship.

Playing History 2: Slave Trade was developed by Serious Games, a Danish firm with offices throughout Europe, which produces games with educational themes. Slave Trade was released in 2013 and is the third of a series that includes Vikings and Plague.

It recently caused a stir after Serious Games promoted a discount for Slave Trade on the gaming entertainment platform website, Stream, along with the trailer. The trailer features the Slave Tetris part of the game.

After an outcry erupted on social media, the firm tweeted that it took the offending section out of the game, though the rest was still available.

In a statement to ThinkProgress, CEO Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen chalked up the controversy to cultural differences:

“Maybe there is just a lot of culturally differences in what you can discuss and express – and maybe just maybe there are larger issues at stake here then whether slave tetris was bad taste or not… and maybe as a lot of the tweeters say a stupid white dane like me don’t know anything, and shouldn’t be allowed to say a single word about the story of African-Americans.”

“What do I know.. We just tried to make a game to teach about what we thought was an important topic. We did spend a lot time doing it, We did consult with experts. We didn’t set out to make a racist or inflammatory game. Actually the opposite – a game where you would understand slave trade from the inside by escaping slavery… I have reached the conclusion that no matter what we had done it would have been wrong.”

In an email exchange with Kotaku, he went on to defend it further.

“I still believe the game mechanics convey in a very powerful way one of the most important points with slave trade then and now: that you dehumanize and objectify people into bricks. It makes you think and reflect— was it really like that. Did people really do that to each other. I have been a classroom using the games, and I have seen middle schools students have this discussion. It is hard and sensitive—of course. Should we stop teaching kids about in a way they can understand—I don’t think so. I may be wrong but that was the goal to create a strong education experience.”

The edited version of the game is still available online.