Mordau devs official response after PC Gamer interview

Iori Fuyusaka · Jul 3, 2019

There's a guy on their forums named "Donald Trump" and he has the tag "God Emperor." Is that a mod appointed tag?

EDIT: Apparently he pledged $10,000 on the kickstarter for the "God Emperor" tag.

Yeah, not hard to tell which way these devs lean.

hikarutilmitt · Jul 3, 2019

P-Bo said:
Never even heard of Mordhau or these guys until this whole shitshow blew up--so much for first impressions.

Pretty much.

NervousXtian · Jul 3, 2019

As long as that thread is still titled the way it is and they allow the stuff that is said on their forums.. then they are full of shit.

Fisty · Jul 3, 2019

Avalon said:
There's a guy on their forums named "Donald Trump" and he has the tag "God Emperor." Is that a mod appointed tag? If it is, it's not hard to tell what's going on here.

EDIT: Apparently he pledged $10,000 on the kickstarter for the "God Emperor" tag.

Yeah, not hard to tell which way these devs lean.

aesync · Jul 3, 2019

Can we finally stop talking about this now? That was a solid response that pretty much puts a bow on everything.

OrdinaryPrime · Jul 3, 2019

Wok said:
Valve offers free moderation done by their own moderators.

Valve has shown no interest in curbing the huge amount of white supremacist, Nazi type shit posted on their forums. Offering this as a solution for Mordhau does not make sense to me.

aesync said:
Can we finally stop talking about this now? That was a solid response that pretty much puts a bow on everything.

No it wasn't.

Aeron · Jul 3, 2019

Lump said:
The controversial thread is still live and active with its original title

That forum is trash.
It's sadly not all that uncommon in official game forums.

aesync · Jul 3, 2019

OrdinaryPrime said:
No it wasn't.

Except it was? Okay.

OnionPowder · Jul 3, 2019

aesync said:
Except it was? Okay.

Except it doesn't address anything regarding racism or their largest thread on the steam forums having a racial slur in the fucking title, but yeah bow on everything we're all good.

OrdinaryPrime · Jul 3, 2019

aesync said:
Except it was? Okay.

I recommend you go to the official Mordhau forums and see if that racist post is still there.

devSin · Jul 3, 2019

OrdinaryPrime said:
I recommend you go to the official Mordhau forums and see if that racist post is still there.

Don't forget the blatant racism and homophobia within the thread itself. It's not just the title.

There was no ambiguity in their support for that garbage.

aesync · Jul 3, 2019

OnionPowder said:
Except it doesn't address anything regarding racism or their largest thread on the steam forums having a racial slur in the fucking title, but yeah bow on everything we're all good.

In regards to community toxicity, we do not have prior experience managing communities of this size, nor the manpower or resources that established studious can leverage. Our team consists of 11 first-time developers working remotely and volunteer moderators who try their best to curb this toxicity and behavior across all platforms, including in-game. At the moment we are stretched thin with major important content additions and unfortunately we do not have the staff nor systems in-place to moderate everything to our intended level of standards. We plan on improving in this regard.

It does address it. I agree that the post should be down by now, but sometimes things take time. I'd like to not blindly damn the devs, it can be very tough to manage a community. They should do a better job, and sounds like they are working on it.

L Thammy · Jul 3, 2019

So while it seems that they were misrepresented and I understand how they might be upset by that, I feel that "we weren't going to let players remove non-white people, we were going to let them remove women" is not the type of point you want to drag out to any length in your public statement.

OnionPowder · Jul 3, 2019

aesync said:
In regards to community toxicity, we do not have prior experience managing communities of this size, nor the manpower or resources that established studious can leverage. Our team consists of 11 first-time developers working remotely and volunteer moderators who try their best to curb this toxicity and behavior across all platforms, including in-game. At the moment we are stretched thin with major important content additions and unfortunately we do not have the staff nor systems in-place to moderate everything to our intended level of standards. We plan on improving in this regard.

It does address it. I agree that the post should be down by now, but sometimes things take time. I'd like to not blindly damn the devs, it can be very tough to manage a community. They should do a better job, and sounds like they are working on it.

Are you saying changing a thread title requires a full dedicated team?

The thread was started in 2017 during the alpha.

pswii60 · Jul 3, 2019

TheRulingRing said:
Who the hell knew about this game prior to the outrage?

Seriously?

I've no doubt this will have given the game some more exposure, for better or worse, but it was already by far one of Steam's biggest selling games of 2019 before any of this blew up.

THRILLHO · Jul 3, 2019

aesync said:
Can we finally stop talking about this now? That was a solid response that pretty much puts a bow on everything.

thread policing is up to the mods. If you have an issue, report it.

Prophane33 · Jul 3, 2019

Yeaaah...I'll just be waiting for Chivalry 2.

OrdinaryPrime · Jul 3, 2019

aesync said:
In regards to community toxicity, we do not have prior experience managing communities of this size, nor the manpower or resources that established studious can leverage. Our team consists of 11 first-time developers working remotely and volunteer moderators who try their best to curb this toxicity and behavior across all platforms, including in-game. At the moment we are stretched thin with major important content additions and unfortunately we do not have the staff nor systems in-place to moderate everything to our intended level of standards. We plan on improving in this regard.

It does address it. I agree that the post should be down by now, but sometimes things take time. I'd like to not blindly damn the devs, it can be very tough to manage a community. They should do a better job, and sounds like they are working on it.

The racist post should have been removed BEFORE they issued this response. It would indicate an effort to combat this shit.

If they need help with a query:

SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0;
DELETE FROM thread WHERE id = racistshitforumpostid;
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1;
Prove they want this shit to change.

devSin said:
Don't forget the blatant racism and homophobia within the thread itself. It's not just the title.

There was no ambiguity in their support for that garbage.

Agreed.

Scuffed · Jul 3, 2019

As long as that thread stays up on their Forum they are full of shit.

z1ggy · Jul 3, 2019

Fuck off, this wasnt a missunderstanding.

Dyle · Jul 3, 2019

You wouldn't think that it would be difficult to keep a team of 11 in sync on future update contents

And for the moderation stuff, actions speak louder than words

OnionPowder · Jul 3, 2019

Double 0 · Jul 3, 2019

aesync said:
Can we finally stop talking about this now? That was a solid response that pretty much puts a bow on everything.

Not when their own comm forum completely contradicts the statement.

When you do a response like this, it's always good to have proof that you mean what you say. They have the complete opposite of that right now.

SpoonyGundam · Jul 3, 2019

CountAntonius said:
Shortly after launch and in internal discussions, the concept of a gender option toggle was dismissed as it would undermine the customization players work hard to create.

It's pretty telling that even in their bullshit PR excuse they completely failed to comprehend what was actually wrong with the gender toggle.

TheRulingRing · Jul 3, 2019

Nappael said:
Got to love the Era bubble effect.

This game is one of the biggest launches of the year on PC and is already a million seller.

Ok I admit as a currently non-PC gamer I hadn't paid attention to it.

Rune Walsh · Jul 3, 2019

I was going to buy this game whenever it went on sale, but now? Nah.

Dr. Monkey · Jul 3, 2019

aesync said:
Except it was? Okay.

It's not hard to say "in my opinion" rather than stating something as fact. Because it's not fact. It's an opinion, yours, regarding the statement. Repeating something in an even snarkier fashion doesn't make it true.

Thewonandonly · Jul 3, 2019

Stygr said:
Wait, so PCGamer spoke to some artists and not Triterion PR or someone in charge of communication?

Yyyesh, 11 developers? Welp, that's extremely low when your game is a million seller, i don't want to be in their position.

Ya I couldn't imagine only 11 people for a multiplayer only smash hit. Hopefully they hire on some more PR and community managers stat. How many poeple were on the pupg team when that blew up do we know??

z1ggy · Jul 3, 2019

Hiring a PR wont make you less rascist, just to hide it better

fossen · Jul 3, 2019

Sunny said:
dog. one of the oldest threads is "Post your kniggas" it doesn't take a team to pull that shit down. fuck these guys.

Boom. That's it. This doesn't require that much. If your volunteer moderators can't notice the biggest thread on the forums ... get new moderators.

Unless, of course, you have ended up with exactly the community you and your mods have grown.

Deleted member 3058 · Jul 3, 2019

Lump said:
As you can guess, it's a meme post that is "just turn chat off if you're offended lol". Truly a wonderful community.

Yeah, was just about to post that.

Also, gonna report the OP to hopefully get a thread title rewrite to add some context for the folks just tuning in.

Isilia · Jul 3, 2019

I thought they did have a PR guy though. JaxPC on twitch.

So either huge mishandling of their stance, or they are just backtracking.

I'm cynical so I'm going for the latter.

A Grizzly Bear · Jul 3, 2019

I regret buying this game when it released.

fossen said:
Boom. That's it. This doesn't require that much. If your volunteer moderators can't notice the biggest thread on the forums ... get new moderators.

Unless, of course, you have ended up with exactly the community you and your mods have grown.

I don't think this is a case of them not noticing...

GhostBanana · Jul 3, 2019

This makes me sad. These guys worked their butts off making a great game. I imagine coordinating message in a loosely defined company is very hard. The rabid racism in the forums is disgusting and to be expected with no mods. They should fix that, it's going to define the brand very fast. The neo-nazis love anything medieval.

But honest question, does disliking the idea of playable female characters in a hack-and-slash battlefield game make someone a sexist pig? I'm not so sure. There are real battles to fight over gender equality and representation. Confuses me when I see commenters go all in on playable characters. The Battlefield V nonsense felt different from this. I could sympathize with someone who thought female characters in Mordhau would be weird. Have you played the game? How would they do the voice emotes?

derFeef · Jul 3, 2019

blumen_dieb said:
This makes me sad. These guys worked their butts off making a great game. I imagine coordinating message in a loosely defined company is very hard. The rabid racism in the forums is disgusting and to be expected with no mods. They should fix that, it's going to define the brand very fast. The neo-nazis love anything medieval.

But honest question, does disliking the idea of playable female characters in a hack-and-slash battlefield game make someone a sexist pig? I'm not so sure. There are real battles to fight over gender equality and representation. Confuses me when I see commenters go all in on playable characters. The Battlefield V nonsense felt different from this. I could sympathize with someone who thought female characters in Mordhau would be weird. Have you played the game? How would they do the voice emotes?

Is this a "can someone think of the poor women" post? Because fuck that noise.

GhostBanana · Jul 3, 2019

derFeef said:
Is this a "can someone think of the poor women" post? Because fuck that noise.

Please use more words. I don't understand, Sire. But I take it you think female characters in Mordhau would make perfect sense and dislike of the idea is sexist. Your opinion has been counted.

spman2099 · Jul 3, 2019

You know... if I was developing a game and the player base was aggressively racist and misogynistic, I would make it a pretty big fucking priority to get that shit sorted. The fact that they haven't done the bare minimum is pretty telling. The truth is, they don't want to lose their sizable, racist playerbase. Which, functionally, means that their official position is to tolerate racism. Which is tantamount to having a pro racism policy.

Deleted member 42472 · Jul 3, 2019

Evil journalists don't understand and are fast to attack us: Check
Naive peons who should never have talked to anyone: Check
We are as mall team and don't want to crunch. Don't make us crunch: Half a check
Absolutely no change on some of the highest profile problems: Check

About what I expected

And as this site is a complete echo chamber on topics like this, I checked reddit: The previous /r/games thread on the topic was surprisingly positive in the sense of "What the fucking shit is wrong with these devs?"

The new one on the statement is young, but a lot closer to what I expected. People asking for change downvoted until they are hidden. And the top post basically saying "Just hide the chat. I don't get why people are angry"

So it is early hour, but sounds like a Mission Accomplished for Triterion. Ugh.

MancombSeepgood · Jul 3, 2019

This is the sort of person that's allowed to post on their forums with no moderation:

MickeyKnox · Jul 3, 2019

What a fucking shitshow.

Incredibly disappointing.

Isilia · Jul 3, 2019

MancombSeepgood said:
This is the sort of person that's allowed to post on their forums with no moderation:

Sweet mercy...

Definitely adding more to my cynicism from above.

Phellps · Jul 3, 2019

In regards to community toxicity, we do not have prior experience managing communities of this size, nor the manpower or resources that established studious can leverage.

Fuck them. It doesn't take a village to forbid bigotry in their community and it certainly doesn't take one to edit that fucking awful thread title.

Deleted member 50374 · Jul 3, 2019

Their aggressively defensive statements really scream "I'm not a racist and not a misogynist"

If their forum is a cesspool, just close the forum until they behave. How hard is that? You don't need a forum outside of technical discussions anyway. There's already a lot of communities.

derFeef · Jul 3, 2019

Phellps said:
Fuck them. It doesn't take a village to forbid bigotry in their community and it certainly doesn't take one to edit that fucking awful thread title.

Yup. It's very quick to lock and rename a thread, what nonsense...
It's also easy to ban people. Take 10 minutes, go through some posts and hit that button.
But that requires them to have stance against racism and sexism, but that does not seem to be the case.

Azar · Jul 3, 2019

blumen_dieb said:
But honest question, does disliking the idea of playable female characters in a hack-and-slash battlefield game make someone a sexist pig? I'm not so sure. There are real battles to fight over gender equality and representation. Confuses me when I see commenters go all in on playable characters. The Battlefield V nonsense felt different from this. I could sympathize with someone who thought female characters in Mordhau would be weird. Have you played the game? How would they do the voice emotes?

Every third screenshot on the Steam forums is of someone making Mario in the character creator. Protestations of realism and historical accuracy have always been and always will be just cover.

Mobyduck · Jul 3, 2019

That explains why so many people got warned today on the Discord server. From how their mods act there, it seems they are begrudgingly trying to curb racism.

airbagged_ · Jul 3, 2019

Put a chat filter.
Don't remove the ability to play with women/non-white characters.
Set a goddamn standard that this shit won't be tolerated.

It didn't kill Rainbow 6. And it won't destroy the community... if anything it will BRING PEOPLE BACK.

Prototype Viktor · Jul 3, 2019

Wok said:
Why not rely on Steam?

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/1696058394205125837

a fate worse than death

Alucrid · Jul 3, 2019

i guess it was just a small indie dev slip up when they said that the author for pc gamer was lying

Prototype Viktor · Jul 3, 2019

OnionPowder said:
Except it doesn't address anything regarding racism or their largest thread on the steam forums having a racial slur in the fucking title, but yeah bow on everything we're all good.

click their name and choose if the reply is worth

Mordau devs official response after PC Gamer interview

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