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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday February 25 2018, @03:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the nothing-to-see-here dept.

Facebook removes VR shooting demo at top conservative conference out of 'respect for the victims' of Florida shooting

Facebook has removed a virtual reality shoot-em-up experience from a tech demo at a top American conservative conference after recieving criticism for being "tone deaf" following last week's deadly school shooting in Florida. The social network has a presence at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conference in Maryland, this week, including a booth running a demo of its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. This demo included a first-person shooting game.

People on Twitter have criticised Facebook for running this demo so soon after the deadly shooting attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead.

The game, Bullet Train, was just one of a number of standard Oculus games/demos that Facebook has included at public events. In fact, Bullet Train has been around since 2015, and the team that made it released a full game called Robo Recall, funded by Oculus:

The game will be an Oculus exclusive — that company is funding its development — and the five-to-ten-person team that created Bullet Train has ballooned into a full 15 person team at Epic in order to turn this into a real game with a release date in "early 2017." It will include a number of graphical jumps from Bullet Train, and this benefits Epic in other ways as well.

Yet, Facebook still tried to distance itself from the original demo:

The demo for the game, called "Bullet Train," is being developed by a third-party game-maker, not Oculus, the company said.

Why is Facebook at CPAC? Probably as part of an ongoing effort to placate conservatives angry at the platform.

This comes a few months after the Puerto Rico hurricane VR debacle.

Also at The Guardian and The Hill.


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 25 2018, @04:19AM (7 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday February 25 2018, @04:19AM (#643320) Homepage

    Have you all EVER.

    BEEN INSIDE.

    COOOOONTOWN?!!YYYYEEEAHHHH?!

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   -2  
       Troll=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Troll' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   -1  
  • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @04:47AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @04:47AM (#643326)

    A sickening crack was heard. The sound, which had never been heard before until now, continued without end as the man rapidly brought down his fists of justice upon the sow's face...

    A man - a champion - reclaimed his freedom that day.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:23AM (4 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:23AM (#643335) Journal

      This guy routinely gets modded as "spam". But, he is truly perverse. He seems to epitomize the term "misogynist". Maybe the staff should capture his IP address, and turn his posts over to some police force with jurisdiction? Yeah, I'm aware that the hateful little shit probably only comes out of his mama's basement when she lures him with cheetos. Still, I can't help wondering how many women he has assaulted when he does come out. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that he's from Cleveland. http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-criminals-that-prove-cleveland-is-the-serial-killer-capital-of-america.php [toptenz.net]

      (Yeah, you can read the link - toptenz dot net - it's a clickbait site. Don't allow scripts, and block ads, the site is alright - my computer is fine

      disconnected

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:33AM (1 child)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:33AM (#643338) Journal

        I don't think we have any plans to collect IP addresses ever.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jOqOlETcRU [youtube.com]

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 25 2018, @09:45AM

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Sunday February 25 2018, @09:45AM (#643411) Homepage Journal

          If the administrators turn everything over to my FBI, there will be a full & prompt investigation. I'm joking, obviously I'm joking. It's no joke. My FBI is VERY WEAK & INEFFECTIVE because they're busy with the so-called Russia investigation. They're supposed to be working for me, instead they're "investigating" me & my people. Big reason why all those children -- 17 children, as everyone knows -- were killed in Parkland!!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:41AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:41AM (#643343)

        This guy routinely gets modded as "spam". But, he is truly perverse. He seems to epitomize the term "misogynist". Maybe the staff should capture his IP address, and turn his posts over to some police force with jurisdiction? Yeah, I'm aware that the hateful little shit probably only comes out of his mama's basement when she lures him with cheetos. Still, I can't help wondering how many women he has assaulted when he does come out. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that he's from Cleveland. http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-criminals-that-prove-cleveland-is-the-serial-killer-capital-of-america.php [toptenz.net] [toptenz.net]

        (Yeah, you can read the link - toptenz dot net - it's a clickbait site. Don't allow scripts, and block ads, the site is alright - my computer is fine

        Nah, I don't think so. [youtube.com]

      • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Sunday February 25 2018, @03:38PM

        by unauthorized (3776) on Sunday February 25 2018, @03:38PM (#643461)

        It is obviously a troll. Someone sufficiently retarded to be that obstinate wouldn't be able to pull off proper punctuation.

    • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:26PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @05:26PM (#643490)

      With a jolt the man woke up. Never had his dreams been so dark. He thought back to recent events trying to figure out why such disturbing imagery was floating around his head. Being a reporter he frequently would read and view all sorts of need, but he paused when he recalled his visit to Graceland. He was covering the NRA rally and he started to recall some of the conversation s he'd overheard. One from a dick farmer who put down his animals with his bare hands, a true psychopath. He'd barely understood any of it as he was also near a man going on about his crazy ex-wife. Seems the NRA events truly are good indicators of mental illness. The man drifted back to sleep a little less sure of himself after seeing how darkness can enter the mind.