The Slaughtering Grounds is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Digital Homicide Studios. It was released for Microsoft Windows on October 31, 2014, via the Steam storefront. The game became infamous due to a controversy regarding professional critic Jim Sterling,in which his negative review of the game caused the developers to file a lawsuit against him. The company also sued 100 steam users, but both lawsuits would ultimately be dropped.
Gameplay
The player must kill zombies, and the game can be played in single-player or a 64-player free-for-all. The game describes itself as "a constant intense experience while tossing in comical use of excessive physics and blood for those Laugh out loud moments". Various characters and weapons can be unlocked by the player.
Reception
The game did not attract much attention until it was criticized by Jim Sterling as a "new 'worst game of 2014' contender", citing its poor graphics, numerous glitches, bad controls, short music loops, and use of pre-made models and textures not made by the developer. Sterling later used the game as an example of the lack of artistic cohesion that usually results from what he termed asset flipping, specifically drawing attention to the inconsistent enemy types and the placement of a United States Postal Servicepost box next to a red telephone box.
Controversy
In addition to his negative first impression video of the game, Jim Sterling also accused the developers of deleting negative feedbackon the game from Steam's review page, as well as banning users who criticized it. The developers responded by filing a DMCA takedown notice over Sterling's video. On March 4, 2016, James Romine filed a lawsuit against Sterling for "assault, libel, and slander", seeking over in damages. The amount was later increased to. On September 12, 2016, he filed an additional lawsuit against 100 Steam users for "personal injury" for a total sum of. This was followed by a request for a subpoena against Valve for the identities of those 100 users. Later that day, Valve removed the entire catalog of Digital Homicide Studios, consisting of 21 games and 15 pieces of downloadable content, from Steam, stating Valve had "stopped doing business with Digital Homicide for being hostile to Steam customers." On October 2, 2016, Digital Homicide Studios dropped the lawsuit against the Steam users, with James Romine stating the studio was "destroyed" due to it. After months of legal stalling and setbacks due to technicalities, on February 21, 2017, James Romine agreed with Sterling's defense lawyer to drop the lawsuit with prejudice. Romine agreed to refrain from pursuing the lawsuit and the charges launched against Sterling again, and to never file another DMCA takedown without first considering whether Sterling was engaging in fair use.
