In the realm of video games, there has always been a “connection” between the developers and publishers of the titles that come out, and the gamers that play them. The former need the later in order to have good sales and see what they should do next, and the latter needs the former to do their best so that they can have incredible games to play. In the age of the internet, that “connection” between them has become even stronger, especially since things like Reddit, Twitter and so on can let them talk directly to the teams. But in some cases, it can get pretty ugly, like with Bungie and their game Destiny 2.
Fans in the community have been rather perplexed as of late due to why the team at Bungie haven’t been talking or replying to the community like they used to. As they were famous for their “replied threads” on Reddit. However, community manager DMG took to Reddit to reveal that major harassment and death threats by the community have caused the company to go silent:
“Here’s the thing, the harassment we’ve spoken to isn’t just rude replies on twitter or vague comments. There have been real threats towards our people and our studio. We’re taking them seriously, which is leading to an amount of reduced communications as the team plans future protections / strategies to help avoid these sorts of things.
I will be very clear in saying that I appreciate the studio in the amount that’s it’s helped me personally after some serious harassment towards me and my family. I’m taking time off in part because of this. Just because you can’t see it directly in a given tweet or forum reply doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen…”
If this sounds familiar, it’s because the team at Santa Monica Studios were getting their own harassment by fans due to the uncertainty at the time of the God of War Ragnarok release date. While Destiny 2 is out, that doesn’t make the harassment any less real, and it should indeed be called out when possible.
Source: Forbes