{"id":1246002,"date":"2026-02-28T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T10:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/RcgAtCtMQrx7MQPP6S3RZF"},"modified":"2026-02-28T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T10:56:09","slug":"at-the-request-of-south-korea-valve-pulled-a-mod-from-steam-that-glorified-the-countrys-military-dictatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/at-the-request-of-south-korea-valve-pulled-a-mod-from-steam-that-glorified-the-countrys-military-dictatorship\/","title":{"rendered":"At the request of South Korea, Valve pulled a mod from Steam that glorified the country’s military dictatorship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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First reported by Korean gaming website This Is Game<\/a>, and in English by Automaton<\/a>, Valve acquiesced to a South Korean government request that it remove an offensive Mount and Blade: Warband mod from Steam last month.<\/p>\n

Notably, the mod has been blocked from global distribution, not just in South Korea, and this marks the first time to my knowledge that Valve has removed a game or mod from Steam worldwide over a government’s objection to its content.<\/p>\n

The mod itself is a baffling and risible piece of right wing esoterica, converting the medieval sandbox Mount and Blade: Warband to a modern-day setting and presenting a warped version of the events of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising<\/a>, a pivotal moment in the history of South Korea.<\/p>\n

The 1980 protests in Gwangju against South Korean military dictator Chun Doo-hwan were violently repressed by the government, provoking an armed uprising that Chun responded to with even greater brutality.<\/p>\n

Up to 2,300 people were killed by government forces, and after the overthrow of the dictatorship, the Gwangju Uprising has been commemorated with a day of remembrance as a key moment in South Korea’s struggle under a string of US-backed dictatorships in the second half of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Gwangju Running Man reportedly presented a revisionist narrative of the event popular with South Korea’s right wing, one sympathetic to Chun Doo-hwan, slanderous to the memory of the victims and protestors, and justifying the massacres conducted by government forces.<\/p>\n

This Is Game reported that the South Korean Game Rating and Administration Committee initially blocked the mod’s distribution in South Korea before requesting that Valve remove the mod from the Steam Workshop worldwide, a request the company had fulfilled by the June 13 publication of This Is Game’s initial story.<\/p>\n

Typically, Valve operates under singularly laissez-faire content moderation guidelines, slow to respond to reports, and rarely removing mods or games from Steam unless they break the law, manipulate the platform in some fashion, or reach a critical threshold of negative attention. A few instructive examples include:<\/p>\n