There’s good taste, there’s bad taste, and then there’s Logan Paul in the Suicide Forest. It’s a video game based on the recent controversy surrounding YouTuber Logan Paul and a video he made during a trip to Japan’s Aokigahara Forest.
The game was briefly available on the Xbox Marketplace and Android. Once people noticed it, found it offensive, and reported the game, both Microsoft and Google pulled it from their stores. Believe it or not, this isn’t the first game about the Logan Paul situation to be published and then removed from a digital store. That dubious honor belongs to Logan Paul: Suicide Forest Run.
But let’s back up. As you may have heard, Paul got in a heap of trouble after posting a video showing a dead body in the so-called “suicide forest.” After much social media outcry, YouTube severed its business ties with Paul, but the incident raised his profile and earned him lots of new followers. After a brief YouTube hiatus, Logan Paul is now back to work on his vlog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gNj74VEIgg
Logan Paul in the Suicide Forest is about… well, here’s the game’s description:
Playing as Logan Paul, you are going to explore the suicide forest searching for bodies in order to get millions of views for your YouTube channel. The forest is full of dangers, so you gotta be careful, otherwise, you may become one of the bodies you came to film.
The dangers in question are bear traps that litter the ground and wolves that chase you. Step in a bear trap, and you’ll also get sexually assaulted by a wolf.
Clearly, this game is not meant to be taken seriously. The developer, Felipe Orion, told the Daily Dot in an email that he made it in four days as a “social experiment about indie game development.”
“If you ask any indie developer one of their biggest struggle[s], probably a lot of them will answer ‘make my game noticed by the public,'” Orion said. “Many of them build great games with very positive themes and are totally ignored. They send lots of press kits to the press, try to convince the players to play their games and nobody seems to care. In my opinion, this happens because good things are treat[ed] as not relevant in our culture.”
That the press is reporting on this irreverent joke game is proof that he’s right, he says.
Although Microsoft and Google removed Logan Paul in the Suicide Forest, you can still download it on PC.
For more information about suicide prevention or to speak with someone confidentially, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (U.S.) or Samaritans (U.K.).