'Primitive islanders' iPhone game causes stir

Members of the Pacific Island community are protesting the iPhone app Pocket God.

An iPhone game in which users act as an "all-powerful god that rules over the primitive islanders" has caused a stir.

Members of the Pacific Island community are protesting the game, Pocket God, and urging people to complain to the iPhone's manufacturer Apple, The Press reported.

The game shows grass-skirted people next to an Easter Island statue. At the player's whim they can be tossed through the air, fed to sharks or set on fire.

The game's designers said the islanders were not meant to represent any nationality.

Canterbury University Lecturer Malakai Koloamatangi took issue with the game.

"You can't say this is anywhere but a Pacific island.

"If this was an African or a Jew or someone, people would be jumping up and down; but because Pacific Islanders are inconsequential, as it were, people are allowed to do it."

- NZPA