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Earlier this month, Catamount Software submitted their game Prohibition 2: The Dope Wars to the App Store. Kind of a crazy thing to do, considering, you know, it’s Apple. Not surprisingly, Apple pretty quickly shot them down. The game’s developer, Hardy Macia, was obviously upset, but somewhat naive in his response:

“I personally find applications like iFart much more repulsive, yet Apple has approve it. DopeWars is about current political events. We had alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, and we have drug prohibition today. It is no more objectionable than many of the songs and movies Apple is selling on iTunes.”

Okay, except that:

1. Farts are not an illegal substance that can lead to addiction, crime and death…I don’t think. I mean, there have been some that…well, never mind.
2. DopeWars is as much about current events as is iBackAlleyWhore, which hasn’t been developed, and probably shouldn’t be, because I’m willing to bet Apple’s going to turn down that one, too.
3. I’m not sure what comparing Prohibition to today’s “war on drugs” is supposed to accomplish, so I’ll just move on to…
4. Hardy, I’m totally with you on point four.

See, games always get a bad rap. They did the moment people actually started to look somewhat like people, and guns started to actually look somewhat like guns. If GTA looked like this…

...games wouldn’t have ESRB age ratings on them.

My theory, which will be open for debate in another article sometime, is that the “man” views video games as kids’ stuff. Movies, books and music can have all the drugs and violence you want because adults watch movies, adults read books, adults listen to music, and what adult wants to be told what he can and can’t watch, read and hear. If you can find me one 55-year-old business executive contemplating retirement who’s upset about Apple turning down Prohibition 2: The Dope Wars, then I’ll find you a guy who somehow stands to make money off the game.

It’s also about video games not being perceived as art. But again, that’s another article for another time. Here, I want to focus on how Hardy Macia got around Apple’s restrictions and got his game in the App Store after all. It’s not the gameplay that offended, after all, it’s the reference to drugs. Drugs that we know and understand as being bad. So, what do you do to make this acceptable; get rid of the drugs? No, you just change their name. Check out the description of Prohibition 3: Candy Wars from Catamount Software.

In Prohibition 3: Candy Wars you play a candy dealer in New York City in the summer of 2040 during the height of candy prohibition—a few years earlier, due to an obesity pandemic the United States Congress declared sugar was a highly addictive substance and banned the sale and manufacture of all candy. Your goal is to make as much money as possible in 30 days without getting caught by the FDA or run out of town by the loan shark’s thugs.

See what he did there? Replace “candy” with “narcotics” and you’ve got the same game. It’s still about prohibition, crime, and the nature of addiction, but that’s okay because it’s candy! It’s lollipops and Gobstoppers and Zagnut! It’s colorful and tasty and who doesn’t love the gentle comedy of a chubby boy stuffing his face with chocolate? Ha ha!

Macia makes the point better than I do, though:

aka, sugarcoated DopeWars: CandyWars is a reskinned version of Catamount Software’s remake of the cult classic DopeWars called Prohibition 2: The Dope Wars.
Catamount Software founder Hardy Macia stated, “Apple’s rejection of DopeWars was frustrating because we thought we had a big hit on our hands. We decided to rename it, gave the police and player pixie dust instead of guns. changed ‘Cocaine’ to ‘Sugar Sticks’, ‘Weed’ to ‘Brownies’, ‘Crystal Meth’ to ‘Rock Candy’... It was like adding another level of realism to DopeWars by using street names for drugs, but at the same time highlighting the problems of prohibition no matter what (when) the government tries to prohibit whether it is alcohol (past), drugs (present), or candy (future).”

Clever (but Hardy, dude, you’ve got to get over this whole notion that alcohol prohibition and drug prohibition are comparable; they’re different beasts, and you’re cheapening your point by continually drawing the comparison). The thing is, though, I’m sure the powers-that-be at Apple are fully aware of what the changes represent. “Weed” to “brownies?” They get it, no one’s trying to hide anything, but they let the game through, anyway. Why? I believe it’s because they didn’t want to ban it in the first place. Apple makes money off these things, too, but when some idiot kid nearly ODs on crystal meth and his parents find Prohibition 2: The Dope Wars on his iPhone, who do you think they and their lawyers are coming after? Catamount Software? No. They’re coming after Apple. Apple gets the bad press, Apple fights the lawsuits, and Catamount Software makes the money on sales to those who wouldn’t have even heard of the game had it not been for the crusade against it.

So, hopefully, this turns out a win/win. Catamount gets their game in the store and makes the money they deserve, Apple ends up with another happy developer and fewer legal battles, and gamers get the exact same gameplay they would’ve had with the first version. Hardy Macia and Catamount Software have done a smart thing here, and hopefully other developers will take note.

If you want people to play your games, sometimes you have to play the system.

Product [Prohibition 3: Candy Wars]