Apparently Kage Games and the developers of the Dog Wars Game are trying to hide behind smoke and mirrors they have appeared and disappeared several times throughout the day by switching servers on Wednesday. Then they came back and added 2 add-ons for the game that you pay for in order to get a boost of adrenaline to win the dog fight. Not only that but now they are trying to say the game was only in BETA testing and they didn’t have time to launch their campaign about how this app is supposed to be educational about how horrible dog fighting is. Yet there is not a single organization from Best Friends, to Helen Woodward, to the HSUS that seem to have any idea this was meant to be educational about how horrible dog fighting is.
The best thing we can all do is to continue to spread the word about the petition and get everyone you know to sign it
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-android-to-block-dog-fighting-app
From Kage Games
Thank you for your inquiry, question or opinion. We have been asked who we are and why we did this – it makes for a great story and we would love to tell it one day, but we can not reveal much about ourselves for fear of our safety as well a…s our families right now.We have received real and extremely violent threats from animal activists.How people could want to actually injure or kill us in real life over a rudimentary virtual environment is beyond us. As stated in the market, this app is in a silent, early beta period and is not yet finished. We are still under active technical development and had no chance to file any sort of explanation or promotional material behind the app or our intentions before we went under media fire.
This is a cultural/generational gap misunderstanding in the shift of modern media and our effort at new age advocacy. This is our groundbreaking way to raise money/awareness to aid REAL dogs in need,execute freedom of expression, and serve a demonstration to the competing platform that will not allow us as developers to release software without prejudgment. The selling of electrons and fields in a database can raise real money for real causes and if executed properly raise awareness for this terrible blood sport at the same time. It is doubtful to us that any of our outraged attackers have even played the game or stopped to ask us the important questions… it has become total lynch mob mentality at this point. Below is a version of our official statement we recently added to the Android Market Description: “We appreciate everyone’s thoughts about our app as we are firm believers in the right to free speech and the free exchange of ideas. These freedoms are the building blocks of the Google Android operating system and the very reason so many users choose Google Android over the alternative. We’ve heard thoughts from many dog and animal lovers about our app andfirst we, as dog owners and dog lovers ourselves, would like to thank you for your thoughts and for the work many of you do on behalf of our canine friends.
We DO NOT CONDONE violence towards animals or humans, and we areconfident in humankind’s ability to distinguish between a rudimentary game and the consequences of real life. We are confident this game will be a net benefit to dogs as it has been inour operating agreement from the start of this project that a portion ofthe proceeds go to animal rescue organizations. Further, this is a satireabout the ridiculousness of dogfighting and we believe in the power of amodern media tool to educate and raise awareness of the real horrors. Another portion of our proceeds are also being appropriated forcatastrophic human tragedies, the first of which is the Japan Tsunamirelief effort. We encourage everyone to donate to BOTH of these veryimportant causes.
There are hundreds of games on the Google Android market as well as anyother popular game platform which, if acted out in real life, would be illegal. What makes the Google Android platform special is it gives thefreedom and responsibility to the individual users to decide what to puton their phones as opposed to the phone carriers and app stores makingvalue judgments on our behalf. The Google Android platform does, however,explicitly state, “We don’t allow content that contains nudity, graphicsex acts, or sexually explicit material.” One of the biggest shocks to us is the number of misguided activists who have questioned or insinuatedthat our next app will be some type of rape app: 1) we’d never be interested and 2) people making this argument are out of line for even suggesting it. Lastly, we are incorporating suggestions from both our supporters and our detractors in an effort to create a more socially conscious app that provides a net benefit to dogs as well as humans. Please remember that censorship is a very slippery slope.”
Best Regards,
Kage Games
The game is down right now for trademark infringement.