TransLink threatens to sue creator of SkyTrain massacre game

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      TransLink is demanding that the maker of an online game that depicts a SkyTrain killing spree take it offline.

      If Alexi Wildman of Wildman Industries does not comply, the regional transportation authority says he could face legal action over Main Street Massacre.

      “While we cannot control the subject matter that individuals choose to use in the making of video games, we do have legal rights with respect to our intellectual property,” said TransLink CEO Ian Jarvis in a news release.

      “Out of safety concerns for our passengers, our employees, and the public at large, TransLink cannot be seen as endorsing or condoning such violent content.

      “Any time the safety or sense of safety of our employees and customers is undermined – that gives me cause for concern. That’s why we are vigorously pursuing our legal options for having the video game removed from the public sphere.”

      In the game, your character is a construction worker pissed off after a "horrible, crappy day at work" and now dealing with the "fucked up" SkyTrain. Watched by TransLink staff via surveillance cameras, your mission is to kill every last person in Main Street-Science World Station.

      According to TransLink, SkyTrain workers are upset about the game.

      “Our buses and trains are boarded 1.2 million times a day. And our employees are dedicated to helping people get where they need to go – safely and efficiently,” said Jarvis. “If someone made a video game like that about any other well-known provider of goods or services that touched so many lives daily – be it City Hall, an airport, a library, or a hospital - I’m sure that the employees of that company would feel the same as our people feel after learning about that video through the media.”

      Comments

      9 Comments

      Brian Trepanier

      Aug 15, 2014 at 5:19pm

      Translink needs to stop training new security in the art of hiding around corners to hand out fare evasion tickets and instead devote energy and resources to training in the identity of threats and how to deal with them. Instead of entrapping fare evaders, stop them from entering the paid zones before they get there. How many of the security team know how to deal with a knife or club attack? It is only eventual that violence will happen on the Skytain or in the stations, so how well prepared are the Translink meter maids to deal with it? With all their time being trained to hide around corners to catch fare evaders, I'd hasten a guess none of them could disarm a person effectively.

      Martin Dunphy

      Aug 15, 2014 at 5:30pm

      Brian:

      Have you forgotten that Lower Mainland transit cops carry guns?

      That is

      Aug 15, 2014 at 7:06pm

      EXCELLENT NEWS!!

      oh...

      Aug 15, 2014 at 11:51pm

      ian jarvis, grow up!

      So...

      Aug 16, 2014 at 7:05am

      Not shocking that corporations are anti-free speech.

      Why can't translink be funded by taxes as to eliminate all fair tickets. Then no one needs to check if you have a ticket, just get on when and wherever you need to without the boogie man waiting to fine you more than speeders.

      Oh yeah, forgot, corporations are pro-oppression.

      A. MacInnis

      Aug 16, 2014 at 8:49am

      Couldn't care less about fare evaders, prefer the old "honour system" of yore, but what bothers me is that the are aggressive, off-their-meds panhandlers - there's one in particular I'm thinking of, but there are others - who get on the Skytrain and harrass passengers for money, transfers, food, or what-have-you, often in very intrusive and threatening ways, sometimes seeming on the border of flipping out if they aren't given something. I have never seen Skytrain security deal with these people, but they make the ride a LOT less comfortable for everyone, and they DO seem a threat to public safety.

      Interesting

      Aug 16, 2014 at 11:31pm

      Translink's CEO goes public to demand a silly low-end video game is taken down and threatens legal action. Where was he during the two major outages and what is his position on the cost and schedule overruns for the new fare system?

      Seriously. Act like a CEO and not a politician.

      to "So..."

      Aug 18, 2014 at 1:05pm

      If the system were paid simply through the use of tax dollars, trust me, you wouldn't be happy with that either because guess who pays taxes? You and I, and a lot of other people. Then again, maybe you don't, in which case having the hard-working taxpayers fund your free rides probably IS a boon for you.