This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Archivist_Rowan on 2025-11-01 10:25:49+00:00.

RetroAchievements, which adds a modern achievement hunting element to retro game emulation, recently got into some hot water. However, unlike most emulation projects, it wasn’t Nintendo serving a legal notice, but rather its own user base in revolt over a new set of achievements added to the platform.

Last month, an achievement set for the controversial ROM hack Pokémon Clover was released, and a series of missteps from the admin team only made the problem worse.

(Note: A ROM hack is a modified version of a retro game created by enthusiast developers. They typically have the same look and gameplay as the original, with different content.)

You see, Pokémon Clover isn’t just any ROM hack. It’s an edgy, offensive, and often outright racist and sexist ROM hack. As the name implies, it’s heavily inspired by a particular brand of humor from 4chan. The official website describes it as such:

“The main point of Clover is to be both a parody of 4chan’s imageboard culture as well as a parody of Pokémon as a whole. It thus contains themes and language not suited for the faint of heart.”

In other words, it exists to shock and offend players. Here’s a quick list of some of the offensive “fakemon” in the game (brace yourself):

• An Arab suicide bomber Pokémon (this is one of the three starters).
• A furnace Pokémon performing a nazi salute.
• A black slave Pokémon.
• A lazy Mexican Pokémon.
• A feminist Pokémon that is “often seen destroying things made by males.”
• A Jamaican Pokémon that’s always stoned.
• A greedy Jewish Pokémon with a big nose.

The dialogue in the game is even worse, but I won’t quote any of it here.

Despite this, Pokémon Clover is regularly listed as one of the best Pokémon ROM hacks. It’s remarkably well-made and coded, featuring interesting new mechanics, sprite work, and music. It’s been listed on RetroAchievements since 2017, but the things didn’t come to a head until last month.

Community developers make RA achievement sets, and after years of abandoned attempts, an achievement set was finalized for the game in late September. This renewed attention for the game immediately sparked controversy, but the admin team’s initial response made things even worse.

In a forum post that made it to the front page of the website, the team clarified that the Code of Conduct, which prohibits racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry, only applies to user behavior, not the content of games that RetroAchievements supports. They claimed that RA is merely an “archival platform” and that hosting an achievement set “does not constitute endorsement for a game’s content.”

Hundreds of comments poured into the thread, with the community split between support for free speech and criticism of platforming hate speech. Several users attempted to post content from the ROM hack as examples of its offensive content, which the moderators removed because they violated the Code of Conduct.

In other words, the game’s content could violate RA’s Code of Conduct if a user posted it in the forums, but not if it was embedded in the game itself.

Xkeeper has an excellent blog post on the controversy, but I want to highlight one particular quote that appears to have broken through the noise and influenced the RA admin team:

“…this isn’t censorship. RA is not a government, and they cannot (and are not) stopping anyone from playing the game. They are more of an art gallery you can interact with; and like art galleries, they are capable of determining what they do and don’t want to platform.”

After a few hours, the thread was locked by RA’s founder. Another forum post was opened less than 10 hours after the previous one, apologizing and stating that Pokémon Clover would be removed from the site. It still held the position that RA is an archival site, but promised that the team was discussing how to move forward.

Five days later, on October 8, RetroAchievements founder Scott returned with another forum post, clarifying the team’s final position. Here is the TL;DR from the top of the post:

“RetroAchievements supports openness and celebrating retro gaming, but we will not provide a platform for games that contain illegal, hateful, or otherwise abhorrent content. Achievement sets for such titles will not be allowed. Our goal is to keep RA a safe, legal, and welcoming community while celebrating gaming history.”

More specifically, RA would no longer host achievement sets for games with illegal content, glorified hate speech, sexual exploitation, or extreme or abhorrent content. Four games were removed after the policy update, including the controversial Atari 2600 title Custer’s Revenge.

In the end, the Clover controversy wasn’t really about one ROM hack, it was about what RA wants to be. The admins could have leaned on “archival” status as a shield, but instead they drew a line and made it clear: RA isn’t just a database, it’s a community. And communities have to decide what they’re willing to platform.