{"id":49737,"date":"2025-07-05T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49737"},"modified":"2025-07-08T10:12:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T01:12:03","slug":"valve-cooperates-in-banning-steam-mod-for-depicting-historical-revisionism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/valve-cooperates-in-banning-steam-mod-for-depicting-historical-revisionism\/","title":{"rendered":"(Updated) Valve cooperates in blocking Steam mod in Korea for depicting \u201chistorical revisionism\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Update (2025\/07\/08 at 9:50 JST):<\/strong> Valve has provided us with important context regarding the deletion of the Gwangju Running Man mod. In March 2025, the company was notified by GRAC that the mod was in violation of South Korean laws. In response, Valve restricted access to the mod only in the Korean region<\/em>. Later, in June 2025, the mod’s original uploader deleted it from Steam entirely. In other words, Valve did not remove the mod from Steam (as our original article suggested).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Korea\u2019s Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC) says Valve agreed to cooperate in taking down a mod that \u201cdistorted historical facts\u201d related to the Gwangju Uprising, a pivotal event in the country\u2019s history (as reported by ThisIsGame<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mod in question is a fan-made total conversion mod of the hit strategy RPG Mount & Blade: Warband,<\/strong> originally uploaded to the game\u2019s Steam Workshop page. Titled \u201cGwangju Running Man,\u201d the mod transformed Mount & Blade: Warband\u2019s medieval setting into a modern depiction of Korea\u2019s Gwangju Democratization Movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gwangju Uprising was a series of student-led pro-democratic demonstrations that took place in Korea in 1980. These protests are known to have been violently suppressed by the military, resulting in a massacre of civilians, but the mod depicted protesters as armed and violent criminals (according to YNA<\/a>), thus framing the military regime\u2019s brutality as justified. Additionally, the mod brandished the image of military dictator Chun Doo Hwan as its cover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gwangju<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

South Korean press speculates that the uploader may have been Chinese, based on reviews by the account being written in Simplified Chinese. However, users online argue that these may be a \u201ccover,\u201d as denial of the Gwangju massacre is more likely to come from Korea\u2019s own far right groups than from abroad. In response to reports, GRAC initially had the Mount & Blade: Warband mod blocked in South Korea, but subsequently teamed up with the Korean government to ask Valve to have the mod suspended worldwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valve complied, and the Gwangju Running Man mod was deleted from Steam as of June 12. Valve commented that it recognizes the importance the historical event has for Korean people. This is a somewhat rare instance of the platform taking acting upon local political and historical sensitivities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valve complied with a request from South Korea\u2019s Game Rating and Administration Committee to locally block a Mount & Blade: Warband mod, after which its author deleted it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":49740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-49737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\n(Updated) Valve cooperates in blocking Steam mod in Korea for depicting \u201chistorical revisionism\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Valve complied with a request from South Korea\u2019s Game Rating and Administration Committee to locally block a Mount & Blade: Warband mod, after which it's author deleted it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/valve-cooperates-in-banning-steam-mod-for-depicting-historical-revisionism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"(Updated) Valve cooperates in blocking Steam mod in Korea for depicting \u201chistorical revisionism\u201d\u00a0 - 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