For those deeply entrenched in online culture, the 1st of May holds a peculiar significance. It marks the anniversary of a notable event from 2016 when the notorious figure “DSP Gaming,” also known as Darksyde Phil, inadvertently streamed himself masturbating.
And now, eight years after that fateful day, “The Detractor” has made its debut on Steam.
Crafted by Happii Gamer, “The Detractor” epitomizes the classic roguelike fighting genre. Players confront the “king of hatred,” navigating a journey of vengeance and redemption.
Along the way, they encounter diverse microgames, from arm-wrestling to Fappy Pig, all presented with captivating pixelated graphics.
Naturally, enthusiasts reveling in the misfortunes of the infamous internet personality DarksydePhil will readily note his prominent role. Given that he is known for two decades of e-begging and general gaming ineptitude, as he suffers from acute retardation, he assumes the central antagonist position in The Detractor as the King of Hatred himself.
It’s a charming roguelike boasting delightful artwork and a compelling gameplay loop. Drawing inspiration from titles like Punch-Out, it seamlessly integrates puzzles and even includes a Flappy Bird clone. Frankly, it could have thrived independently without poking fun at an irritating internet celebrity, but it wouldn’t be anywhere as ironic or memorable.
Clearly aimed at those who disdain DSP, the game humorously parodies his incompetence, portraying DarksydePhil as a bumbling lard arse. Regrettably, despite its obvious parody nature, “The Detractor” was swiftly pulled from the Steam store after just two days.
The reason for its removal became evident when the game’s developer, HappiiG, took to Twitter to announce that their creation had been taken down due to copyright infringement.
The initiator of the DMCA request was none other than Phil Burnell, also known as DSP, who asserted that the depiction of the game’s antagonist unmistakably resembled him. He claimed that all instances of his pixelated likeness had been directly lifted from his content without permission.
As an example, when you upload photos of yourself to Facebook, you essentially surrender the rights to those specific photographs. This action grants Facebook the legal authority to utilize your photographs in any manner they see fit.
Well, it’s certainly absurd to claim copyright infringement when your likeness is used, considering how freely DSP himself shares content on public platforms like YouTube and Twitch.
DSP doesn’t have much credibility when it comes to the legality of his likeness or content.
He’s been known to bend the truth, such as claiming his addiction to the “WWE Champions” mobile game as a business expense for being a content creator and streamer. It’s a glaring example of his lack of integrity and intelligence, the IRS is certainly somebody you don’t want to fuck with.
But, I’m no legal expert. Valve, however, takes such matters seriously, regardless of their validity. The Steam store has undeniably declined in quality over the past few decades, with thousands of games flooding the platform each year compared to just a hundred a decade ago.
Valve’s absence of robust curation protocols is evident, as they seem willing to approve almost any game, with one notable exception being games featuring “underaged” female characters. Their recent decision to permit AI-generated content in games submitted to the Steam Store reinforces the notion that Valve desires to include everything on its platform, even if the games contain cryptocurrency miners or if the developers have malicious intentions.
It’s quite ironic that the King of Hatred can easily criticize others but struggles to handle criticism himself. While the legal boundaries of parody may be debatable,
The writing was on the wall from the fact that HappiiG commercialized the game, selling it for $5 USD on Steam. This further underscores Valve’s failure in curating content, as profiting from someone’s likeness goes beyond mere parody. It’s truly unfortunate because the game deserves better treatment than a swift removal merely days after release.
However, this situation may ironically benefit the developer more than anything. The attention garnered from DSP filing a DMCA takedown is invaluable. Hopefully, HappiiG can navigate this setback by perhaps modifying assets resembling DarksydePhil, allowing the game to be re-released on the Steam store.
It would be a shame if someone were to release a “mod” for The Detractor that reintroduces its previous content if the game were to be relisted.
