"There are good, moral ideas that are worth being expressed and bad, immoral ideas that are worth being punished for. That's the philosophy underpinning countless forms of oppression and intolerance, from casual expressions of transphobia and racism to systemic persecution and censorship. Developer Santa Ragione's Horses explores the psychology of those who perpetuate oppression, putting you in the shoes of a young man hired to help manage a farm full of enslaved people forced to wear horse masks -"
"He's greeted by the cheerful but unnerving owner of the farm, who takes a liking to Anselmo and assures him that he'll enjoy the two-week gig. But almost immediately, things take a dark turn. Anselmo is taken to see the "horses," who turn out to be human beings, stripped naked and forced to wear horse masks, crammed into a tiny enclosure together."
"The largest PC game storefront in existence, Steam, recently had the biggest scandal in its history when it blacklisted large swaths of games with vaguely defined "inappropriate" content at the behest of payment processors, spurred on by hardcore conservative activists. And just before the release of Horses, Santa Ragione revealed that its game, too, had been banned from Steam, but this time, the decision came directly from owner Valve."
Horses is a roughly three-hour game that follows Anselmo, a young farmhand who encounters enslaved people forced to wear horse masks, presenting surreal, unsettling scenarios. The game examines the psychology of oppressors by placing players in the role of someone complicit in managing the captive "horses," balancing mundane chores with escalating traumatic events. Steam and the Epic Games Store have both banned Horses, with Valve removing it from its platform, while a wider Steam controversy saw many titles blacklisted over vaguely defined "inappropriate" content at payment processors' urging. The bans imperil Santa Ragione's studio and its future.
Read at Inverse
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