SCS Software, the developer of Euro Truck Simulator 2, has announced a new event which lets players help deliver shipments of coronavirus vaccines in the game to "recognise the selfless drivers and support crews working so incredibly hard to achieve this goal" in reality.
The "Hauling Hope" event, which started on January 21st and lasts until February 7th, lets players pick up vaccine cargo to deliver across the in-game territories, as a show of support for real truckers who are carrying out the same task. "The fight is not over, but we can see light at the end of the tunnel, we see hope in the creation of the COVID-19 Vaccines and their rapid worldwide roll-out," said the studio in the post. "We would like to, once again, recognise the selfless drivers and support crews working so incredibly hard to achieve this goal." Though, it will be a challenge to even the most experienced of virtual truckers.
The cargo must arrive at its destination undamaged, and so players will require a Fragile Cargo skill of level 1 or above. Any damage to these shipments will negate the player's hard work to drive them over the trucking territories. Complete seven of these deliveries and the player gets a Hope Trucker air freshener for their cab. Sweet, right?
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The majority of players in the Truck Simulator community put the pedal to the metal - as they did in last year for SCS Software's "#TruckAtHome" event - and are thrilled to be playing their own virtual part in the pandemic. Yet, there was a vocal minority that derided the developer for the event, criticising the inclusion of "politics" in Euro Truck Simulator 2 and saying that vaccines are "poison." What happened next were a series of press releases which ended up causing much more confusion than anything else.
"We salute to the real truckers out there tirelessly working and facing the very difficult challenge of distributing vaccines around world these days!" the first press release read. "We do not take a stand neither for or against vaccines, we just wanted to express our appreciation and support for every real truck driver out there who have been facing a very challenging times since pandemic situation began!" Then, SCS Software went back on its "we do not take a stand neither for or against vaccines" statement in a second press release, and explained that this was "an error that happened due to a language and translation barrier."
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Tomáš Duda, a producer at SCS Software, added to the story on Twitter. "We wanted to write that no matter if you stand for vaccines or against them, truckers have to work really hard and we wanted to highlight that and focus the event on this," he said. Lastly, a third press release explained that the studio "would like to clarify that we fully recognize the threats posed by COVID-19, and the effects and turmoil that the pandemic has caused around the globe," and that it "firmly believe[s] that the way forward is to have faith in science, to adhere to recommended COVID guidelines and to practice good personal hygiene."
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It only reacted to the evident divide in Euro Truck Simulator 2's community, and "called for calm, given that participation in the event was entirely voluntary." The studio representative did recognise that the first message "may have given the wrong impression that we are denying responsibility by avoiding a clear stance on COVID vaccines." However, it continued to state: "our position is as such: We created this event to recognize the sacrifices of truckers and logistics staff in these difficult times. We are resolute in our belief that vaccines offer a glimmer of hope for normalcy once again, and we are proud to stand behind sound policies and good research."
Gosh. The fact that all of this arose from a translation error regarding an in-game event that aimed to support real life truckers in their day-to-day lives in a pandemic is astonishing. Thankfully, the real message that SCS Software wanted to communicate got out to the public and to players, eventually.
Featured Image Credit: SCS SoftwareTopics: News