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🇦🇺 Australia /Culture & Society

'This is not a game': Survivors disgusted by scam centre simulator games

From ABC Australia · (13m ago) English Critical tone

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • A video game called 'Scam Center Simulator: Under Kingdom' allows players to simulate running a scam operation, including controlling workers and using punishments.
  • Victims of real-life scam compounds, like Gavesh who was trafficked to Myanmar, have expressed horror and disgust at the game, calling it a trivialization of their trauma.
  • The game's mechanics mirror the brutal realities faced by victims in scam compounds, where they were subjected to forced labor, violence, and psychological distress.

The digital world often blurs the lines between entertainment and reality, but a new game on Steam, 'Scam Center Simulator: Under Kingdom,' has crossed a particularly disturbing line. This game allows players to step into the shoes of a scam operator, making decisions about abducting individuals, controlling their 'work,' and even inflicting punishment. The developers describe it as 'darkly humorous,' a framing that is deeply offensive to those who have experienced the horrors of real-world scam compounds.

This is not a game, this is our life.

— GaveshA survivor of a scam compound expressing his horror and disgust at the 'Scam Center Simulator' video game.

Survivors of these brutal operations, who have endured immense trauma, psychological distress, and physical abuse, are rightly disgusted. Gavesh, a victim who was trafficked to a notorious scam hub in Myanmar, shared his harrowing experience, emphasizing that for him and others, it was not a game but a living nightmare. He recounted the 16-hour workdays, the constant fear, and the violent punishments, including being confined to a 'water jail.' The game's depiction of these acts, even in a simulated environment, trivializes the suffering of real people.

They don't know the trauma that we went through, the mental distress that we had to go through. I was really disgusted.

— GaveshA survivor detailing the emotional impact of seeing his traumatic experiences simulated in a video game.

What makes this particularly galling is the platform it's being distributed on – Steam, the world's largest PC game distributor. While the game's description on Steam mentions controlling workers through 'punishment' and 're-education,' and even inflicting 'physical punishment,' it fails to acknowledge the real-world consequences. These scam compounds, run by criminal syndicates, steal billions of dollars annually and inflict unimaginable suffering. For survivors like Gavesh, seeing their trauma turned into a game is a profound insult. It raises serious questions about the ethical oversight of content on major gaming platforms and the responsibility developers have when creating games based on real-world atrocities.

The bosses said, 'If you do not listen to what we say, this is what is going to happen to you.' They showed him as an example for us.

— GaveshRecounting the violent threats and punishments used to control workers in the scam compound where he was held.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Australia. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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