A Steamworks mod for Plague Inc: Evolved on Steam (currently available as of this writing) is catching some heat for its highly racist themes and a title that leaves very little room for interpretation.

The name of the mod is "Niggas Conquering the World (ALPHA)," and features a picture of President Barack Obama, a caption photo of former president George W. Bush saying "Nigga what," and a photo of African American gang members holding guns.

Battlefield Hardline is taking a bit of heat today in Conservative circles for using imagery and language that some insist is meant to malign members of the Tea Party.

On this week's show hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight are joined by special guest Jason D'Aprile to discuss whether 'gaming addiction' should be an officially recognized addiction by mental health professionals around the globe, Turtle Rock's community manager getting fired for talking about disgraced LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling on Twitter, and a whole lot more. Download Episode 97 now: SuperPAC Episode 97 (1 hour, 8 minutes) 78 MB.

Josh Olin, the community and eSports manager at Evolve developer Turtle Rock Studios, has been fired over tweets he made yesterday in support of embattled LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Olin, who is a former community manager at Treyarch Studios and Riot Games, said on Twitter on Wednesday:

"Here's an unpopular opinion: Donald Sterling has the right as an American to be an old bigot in the security of his own home. He's a victim."

The United States Department of Justice has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Alamance County, North Carolina Sheriff Terry S. Johnson. According to Federal prosecutors deputies of a North Carolina sheriff accused of illegally targeting Latino drivers shared links to a violent and bloody (unnamed) video game in which players shoot people entering the country illegally, including children and pregnant women.

An Indie GoGo fundraising campaign has launched for Luc Bernard's Imagination Is The Only Escape, a game about a young Jewish boy named Samuel who uses the power of his imagination to escape the horrors of the Holocaust after the Nazi occupation of eastern France during World War II. To say that the game's subject matter is dark is an understatement, but that's the point of the game, according to what Luc Bernard recently told The Verge.

A prominent member of the Australian-Chinese community is speaking out against "Whore of the Orient," the latest game from L.A. Noire creator Brendan McNamara and Australian development studio Kennedy Miller Mitchell.

Does an abusive and abrasive community scare away game development talent? That depends on how far individuals in such a community are willing to go in order to express their disdain for what a game developer is doing. When members of a community think that it is acceptable to wish death or a sexual assault on someone, it has a very real affect on game developers - or anyone else in the public eye.

This fall Fox will air a new show produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane called "Dads." If you haven't seen the barrage of commercials airing on Fox about the show, it's about two game developers played by Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi who have to deal with their fathers moving in with them. But critics who have seen an early screening of the upcoming show are saying it employs casual sexism and racism to tell much of its ill-received humor.

Nnnnice Games, an independent studio operating out of the Netherlands named its "raccoons in space" game "Starcoons," not knowing that the term is considered by some as a racist term. After learning that the title of its game might be offensive to African Americans and people of color, the studio decided that it had to change the name of its game. Starcoons will now be known as Curio's Starquest, the developer announced. The studio also said that it was unaware of the possible cultural issues associated with the game's original title.

Ball State University (in Muncie, Indiana) professor Ronald Morris and computer science professor Paul Gestwicki have teamed up with graduate students to create a Unity-based game that teaches fourth grade students about the Underground Railroad (thanks to Polygon). The game is called The Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley River and puts students in the shoes of a runaway slave who must make his or her way to Canada where they can live a free life.

In a six minute interview with Joystiq, Irrational Games boss and lead on BioShock Infinite Ken Levine talks about why it is important to not be afraid of using topics that some might consider controversial as vehicles for a story. In BioShock Infinite, Levine has weaved a narrative around a number of belief systems and ideals, and all of these things come together in the floating city of Columbia to create tension and drive the narrative.

In line with a story we published earlier this morning, Computer and Videogames highlights some excerpts from an interview with Jean-Maxime Moris, the co-founder of Paris studio Dontnod. Dontnod is the studio behind Capcom's upcoming action title Remember Me, which features a mixed-race female star as its protagonist.

Following up on yesterday's accusation by an employee that social game developer Kixeye engaged in "institutional racism," four employees have been fired today. The accusations were made by an unnamed contractor who wrote a blog post under the name of Qu33riousity. He claimed yesterday that he was the victim of racial discrimination and has also seen it directed at others.