Bungie has reduced communication with Destiny 2 community due to "real threats toward our people and studio"

[StarsAreStuff]

just wish people could move on if they didn't like a game, instead they choose to be miserable and shit on the game. hell, just look at d2 threads on this very site. gets really old seeing so much negativity. bummer to lose communication but bungie chose right, protect your employees.

 

[Tactical Tumbler]

Been there. Not really talking to anyone about Battlefield anymore. Much happier and peaceful that way.

Fun fact: there used to be "people" (maybe bots, I don't even know what to think of anymore), that would send DMs to some of us when we were traveling to the US for E3 / EA Play, that they would find us and do things that are not really mentionable in a public space. Never took those things seriously, but just imagine being the person that would write that to someone else. :)

Can't imagine how worse it must be for women and people of colour.

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Yep same. I don't talk to anyone about the current title I'm working on unless the person is a close friend, but sometimes I have to cut them off if it becomes a conversation where they start to vent about issues on production.

I don't have the time or energy to deal with assholes. It sucks that you and your coworkers had to deal with nonsense like that - people are nuts.

 

[Wyze]

Internet anonymity gave far too much power to the assholes.

Also the hot takes clickbait videos on youtube also kind of fuel this behavior from certain people. Seen it far too much in live service games.

 

[Hikari]

Fucking idiots ruining it for everyone else as usual. What else is new? This shite is deplorable and fuck anyone doing it.

 

[Kenai]

I really wish death threats and the like were taken seriously by law enforcement. I hope these people face criminal charges because it will only get worse and worse unless people have to take responsibility for their actions. I'm sure many would respond by saying "it's just a joke" but this is so tiring.

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This

There really needs to be a world wide effort to take online threats as seriously as offline ones. Prosecute the fuck out of these idiots, hand out some fines or some prison time, make an example. There is no real consequence to being a shithead who can ruin someone's life for the lulz. Maybe if a few had their own lives ruined, others would hesitate.

Nobody is really anonymous on the internet and most people who do these threats are really not savvy enough to even try to hide.

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And this.

It needs to be treated seriously and these people need accountability for their actions. Until that is done and there is a genuine fear of being held responsible with repercussions, it is going to continue.

 

[Palette Swap]

just wish people could move on if they didn't like a game, instead they choose to be miserable and shit on the game. hell, just look at d2 threads on this very site. gets really old seeing so much negativity. bummer to lose communication but bungie chose right, protect your employees.

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Yeah, there's something to be said of obsessive negativity, in the sense that it's okay to dislike a game, but at some point you've gotta move on instead of running in circles with likeminded people.

Internet anonymity gave far too much power to the assholes.

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Seeing the absolutely heinous shit that can be posted by people under their real names, anonymity is at best only part of the equation.
If anything, I find Internet anonymity protects me from assholes.

 

[jmsebastian]

Feels like "fan" communities are the worst across the board.

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These "fans" deserve absolutely nothing. They should sue more people for the threats.

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I don't think you need to put "fan" in quotes. It's short for fanatic, which does not have positive connotations.

 

[AntiMacro]

Maybe I'm off-base here, but I feel like this is the logical result of stuff like the Snyder Cut or Rise of Skywalker being a result of fan pressure.

Now nerds aren't just entitled, they've been catered to and there's no turning back.

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In gaming it's more been incited by the 'win' over Mass Effect changes - the first large instance I can think of where consumers decided they should be in charge of how the story should go and the ensuing harassment of devs and CMs got them what they wanted.

 

[Brinbe]

insanity, what the fucking hell

 

[Bobbyleejones]

343 should take the same approach

 

[Mayjur]

Feels like there's been a massive uptick in toxicity and harassment towards video game developers in general. People are too quick to judge and not give them the benefit of the doubt. We really forget that these are still people with real feelings, they're not robots.

 

[uuddrlrl]

Something needs to be done. Ban the fuckers from games/social media.

 

[entremet]

fandoms looking bad all the time these days.

 

[Three Seagrass]

gamers

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It's social media, not gamers.

 

[Paroni]

I will never understand how so many people dissatisfied with games don't just support and play something they actually enjoy instead. It feels like hate-engaging with things is just becoming more and more common with nerd media in general, these people just refuse to move on after disappointments.

 

[GameDev]

Yeah, it feels like there's been a big uptick in people doing horrible stuff to devs

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Not really.

I remember the first time a studio called in a last minute all hands meeting (which is not a good sign) to tell us to be careful because threats have been called into the studio.

My coworkers who had been in the industry for more than 3 years were just relieved that they weren't telling us that the studio was being shutdown. When I asked them weren't they shocked at the threats they just went:

For every time you hear something awful happening in the industry, there's 99 times it happened but you didn't hear it.

 

[Deleted member 70788]

Feels like there's been a massive uptick in toxicity and harassment towards video game developers in general. People are too quick to judge and not give them the benefit of the doubt. We really forget that these are still people with real feelings, they're not robots.

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It's not just games. It's movies, politics, sports, investing, and almost any other sub community you can think of. It's pervasive culturally throughout a wide range.

I think video games are an easy one due to the digital overlap of both mediums.

 

[Gentlemen]

As someone who frequents this board (and the one before), depending on the thread, we can be just as bad. Physical threats are obviously not tolerated here, but we sure do love to shit on developers, artists, animators, marketing, or customer support whenever we're not happy. We assume the worst, and project it on to entire teams or companies. We set up straw men and rip them to shreds. And they're here, reading a lot of it. And it sucks.

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This this this this this this this this this.

 

[Yerffej]

More like adults who never developed past childhood.

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Yeah that's what I was implying.

 

[ArtemisLunar]

The internet has been very toxic since the concept of "you being behind an anonymous avatar" has been established, people really like to be dick head and talk whatever bullshit they believe in order to spread chaos, but I agree that recently that toxicity has been so much worse. And that's sad to hear from Bungie, the interactions with the community were one of their main points of why their games felt more like a community, and it's sad that they need to halt this because some bunch of child doesn't know how to behave

 

[CBZ]

As someone who frequents this board (and the one before), depending on the thread, we can be just as bad. Physical threats are obviously not tolerated here, but we sure do love to shit on developers, artists, animators, marketing, or customer support whenever we're not happy. We assume the worst, and project it on to entire teams or companies. We set up straw men and rip them to shreds. And they're here, reading a lot of it. And it sucks.

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Facts right here. My opinions are second to those of the people making a product at the end of the day; I might not be into it but as long as I respect their decisions, I understand I have a far lower platform than they do. No amount of "hot takes" will change that, nor should they.

 

[FusedAtoms]

Glad to see bungie taking serious action against this nonsense.

And I hope all these upcoming Playstation live service games will be following similar new protocols and rules that the community manager in that post mentioned they're working on. It sucks that it needs to happen but there def needs to be more action to protect these people

 

[MidnightEquinox]

I'm embarassed that my main hobby seems to host the most immature group of people, and it feels I can do little about it. Bleh.

Good for bungie not putting up with this shit.

 

[platocplx]

This is why I like companies just being silent And only talk when they have Mamoré milestones or developments. People need to be weaned off their addictions of 24-7 news esp when it comes to games where like it was said with the community manager can take weeks or months for update can't imagine some of the abuses that happen. And I get so annoyed even on here when people are continually clamoring for communication or news about projects. I hope more and more devs form better boundaries for engaging fan bases because honestly way too many are entitled assholes.

 

[Kyrios]

This is why I like companies just being silent. People need to be weaned off their addictions of 24-7 news esp when it comes to games where like it was said with the community manager can take weeks or months for update can't imagine some of the abuses that happen. And I get so annoyed even on here when people are continually clamoring for communication or news about projects. I hope more and more devs form better boundaries for engaging fan bases because honestly way too many are entitled assholes.

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Yeah either that or any update post or whatever needs to disable comments.

 

[platocplx]

Yeah either that or any update post or whatever needs to disable comments.

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Yep and if anything they just have small engagements or collect feedback that can filter all the unproductive filth Commentary that happen.

 

[Kraken3dfx]

They need to go after a percentage of these assho...individuals that are threatening people and show them some criminal charges, that would go a long way to shutting down the rest of them. If they know there are real repercussions to their bullshit, they would at least think twice.

 

[Skyscourge]

I really don't think anonymity affects a person's level of toxicity, there are people happily attaching their name and faces to the shit they say. There just haven't been any consequences, and any effort to enforce them has been buried under cries of "free speech" or "corporate bootlicking".

 

[Bold One]

The Destiny community has taken a real turn over the last year or so

Tetchy, mean, short-tempered, elitist and downright gatekeepey.

Glad they're taking a stand - they only really replied to "content" creators anyway.

 

[Grips]

Wonder if more crazy idiots came out to threaten the devs because of Bungie's very reasonable point on view in being a reasonable human being.

 

[SomePlayer]

People need to behave better.

 

[PhillyPaw]

When MGS2 said Twitter or social media in general would give the everyday person too much power/influence, it was not kidding

 

[John Rabbit]

As someone who plays Destiny, the majority of the community is pretty chill, but the toxicity levels are through the stratosphere if you only consider the shittiest of shitlords. Sucks that Bungie has to do this but I don't blame them at all.

The Destiny community has taken a real turn over the last year or so

Tetchy, many, short-tempered, elitist and downright gatekeepey.

Glad they're taking a stand - they only really replied to "content" creators anyway.

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Honestly feels like it took a turn around DSC release and all the top 1%ers whining about how easy it was.

 

[Falk]

As someone who frequents this board (and the one before), depending on the thread, we can be just as bad. Physical threats are obviously not tolerated here, but we sure do love to shit on developers, artists, animators, marketing, or customer support whenever we're not happy. We assume the worst, and project it on to entire teams or companies. We set up straw men and rip them to shreds. And they're here, reading a lot of it. And it sucks.

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i do have to comment on this as well

there's a lot of superficial lip service in support of "those poor devs" by the exact same posters who will put 1-2 publicly known names working on whatever game they're unhappy with for verbal target practice

devs talking about things often get posters literally mansplaining how they know better about how to make a game work and how things should be, and it happens so often that the site is completely intolerable on a professional basis as an aggregate

even the ONE THREAD in recent memory where there generally was a great vibe with a lot of great discussion would have one or two posters a page coming in with an incredibly snarky "oh yeah? why did XYZ end up ABC then? lmao!" post to... i don't know? own game developers because the poster is way smarter and is god's gift to mankind spotting problems with a shipped game?

 

[Captain Tuttle]

As someone who frequents this board (and the one before), depending on the thread, we can be just as bad. Physical threats are obviously not tolerated here, but we sure do love to shit on developers, artists, animators, marketing, or customer support whenever we're not happy. We assume the worst, and project it on to entire teams or companies. We set up straw men and rip them to shreds. And they're here, reading a lot of it. And it sucks.

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Totally agree and if the moderation wasn't as strict as it is it would descend into the sewer. Not all people on here but definitely some would be doing it

 

[Necromanti]

It's crazy that it takes Bungie suing the person harassing and threatening their staff to try to get them to stop. How is it not criminal at that point?

 

[ghibli99]

As someone who frequents this board (and the one before), depending on the thread, we can be just as bad. Physical threats are obviously not tolerated here, but we sure do love to shit on developers, artists, animators, marketing, or customer support whenever we're not happy. We assume the worst, and project it on to entire teams or companies. We set up straw men and rip them to shreds. And they're here, reading a lot of it. And it sucks.

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Yeah, and worse yet to me is the "we're allowed to have opinions and criticize things" excuse for said toxic/unproductive responses and behavior. Some threads are worse than others, and I somehow manage to avoid a lot of them, but man, it bums me out that we can be like this.

 

[Dog]

Oh yes we had a thread about a certain fan Bungie is suing due to their continued harassment

I

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hope they fuckin body this kid, send a msg

 

[Wolf]

This isn't limited to just Bungie, either, or even to just the gaming industry. Social media fanatics are doing this for everything. It's awful.

 

[Yeona]

This is what happens when a medium of entertainment builds its entire business strategy on becoming their customer's entire personality. People like this pop up right away. There is literally no excuse to send a death threat to anyone, let alone a videogame developer. Honestly, the older I get, the less empathy I have for people who do this kind of stuff.

 

[Thera]

What a fucking shame.

 

[Splader]

As someone who frequents this board (and the one before), depending on the thread, we can be just as bad. Physical threats are obviously not tolerated here, but we sure do love to shit on developers, artists, animators, marketing, or customer support whenever we're not happy. We assume the worst, and project it on to entire teams or companies. We set up straw men and rip them to shreds. And they're here, reading a lot of it. And it sucks.

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Naa, calling devs "F***ing clowns" is perfectly okay and not toxic at all!

Spoiler

/s

 

[404LinkNotFound]

This is what happens when a medium of entertainment builds its entire business strategy on becoming their customer's entire personality. People like this pop up right away. There is literally no excuse to send a death threat to anyone, let alone a videogame developer. Honestly, the older I get, the less empathy I have for people who do this kind of stuff.

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Yup
This is a (sub) cultural issue rooted in gaming and stems from how insular the gaming community can be and how entitled they can be too.
And ofc its double exacerbated that at its core game development is software development/IT and ANYONE in those industries can tell you that NO ONE who isnt in that sphere truly understands how hard to is to actually do computer work. Developers are a victim of their own success. Applications are made to be super easy to do tasks and get instant results and its led to the general population thinking computer work is an easy thing to do with a few button presses.
And game development is a huge victim of that. People think that game development is easy and that devs just arent working hard enough when something goes wrong, ignoring the behind the scenes events and struggles that lead to X feature not beng implemented or X bug not being fixed

And It wont help alot of the gaming community are nerdy man children (a product of how the gamin subculture was cultivated) who whine about everything and act like its a crime agasint humanity if X issue isnt fixed in 2 seconds and "they can do it better".

 

[Bold One]

This is why I like companies just being silent And only talk when they have Mamoré milestones or developments. People need to be weaned off their addictions of 24-7 news esp when it comes to games where like it was said with the community manager can take weeks or months for update can't imagine some of the abuses that happen. And I get so annoyed even on here when people are continually clamoring for communication or news about projects. I hope more and more devs form better boundaries for engaging fan bases because honestly way too many are entitled assholes.

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Boy, you ain't kidding - this very site feeds on that though if want an example of this - pop into the PS OT thread.

 

[St. Elmo's Fire]

It's getting worse and worse. That's the reality.
I wouldn't communicate at all anymore. Just official blogs and tweets from the company account.

 

[Bold One]

just wish people could move on if they didn't like a game, instead they choose to be miserable and shit on the game. hell, just look at d2 threads on this very site. gets really old seeing so much negativity. bummer to lose communication but bungie chose right, protect your employees.

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Every
Single
thread

 

[Lydecker]

Why does everything have to become so toxic these days? I'm constantly hearing the Britney Spears song in my head in a loop.

 

[platocplx]

Boy, you ain't kidding - this very site feeds on that though if want an example of this - pop into the PS OT thread.

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Oh I'm well aware Lol im. Like touch grass. When they got stuff they got you. Lol.

 

[TripleBee]

I feel like swapping back to developer controlled communication channels - where games are tied to your posts - so getting banned in a forum means a ban in the game - is the only way to deal with this.

I realize that sourcing your community chat to Reddit/discord etc.. is cheaper, but losing the strong moderation oversight will always lead to this.

 

[Yeona]

Yup
This is a (sub) cultural issue rooted in gaming and stems from how insular the gaming community can be and how entitled they can be too.
And ofc its double exacerbated that at its core game development is software development/IT and ANYONE in those industries can tell you that NO ONE who isnt in that sphere truly understands how hard to is to actually do computer work. Developers are a victim of their own success. Applications are made to be super easy to do tasks and get instant results and its led to the general population thinking computer work is an easy thing to do with a few button presses.
And game development is a huge victim of that. People think that game development is easy and that devs just arent working hard enough when something goes wrong, ignoring the behind the scenes events and struggles that lead to X feature not beng implemented or X bug not being fixed

And It wont help alot of the gaming community are nerdy man children (a product of how the gamin subculture was cultivated) who whine about everything and act like its a crime agasint humanity if X issue isnt fixed in 2 seconds and "they can do it better".

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I completely agree. I'm not a developer myself, but I work as a GM for a big MMORPG and the level of expectation players have about what you (or the devs!) can just do, just on demand and sight-unseen, is actually unbelievable. We usually convey popular trends in in-game issues or otherwise to dev so they have a good grip of what's going on, but a lot of the harsher things we get, we either rephrase on slack or we just write down and kinda paraphrase during weeklies -- but the vast majority of things we get on the "aggressive" side is so unbelievably hostile we just can't convey it without that fundamental nastiness and so we just discard.

It's incredible the kind of things players will say when they think they can get away with it or when they feel they have nothing else to lose. Those players do not see us, or devs, like people whatsoever.