A person can be a well-rounded, contributing member of society while also learning Klingon and attending Star Trek cosplay events during the weekend. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, some people can become a little too passionate about the hobbies they love and quickly become ignorant to social norms. Stories about death threats being sent to game developers are popping up more and more frequently in the news. Social media sites like Twitter or Tumblr are also considered part of the problem as more and more people hide behind anonymity. These people seem to forget that they are speaking to a living, breathing person as they spew their rage thoughtlessly.
The most recent example of this abnormal behavior involves No Man’s Sky (http://www.no-mans-sky.com/). On May 25, 2016, Jason Schreier from Kotaku reported that No Man’s Sky was going to be delayed until July or August 2016. Six days after that post, Schreler posted once again and said he had received death threats against both himself and his family as a result of the delay announcement. He also went on to say that he wasn’t the only one receiving violent backlash. Sean Murray, the director of No Man’s Sky, had also received similar threats. What is absolutely mind blowing about the whole event is the fact that these fans had not even played the game yet. They were sending out these foul messages over a delay because they had fallen for the hype due to the game’s successful marketing.
When servers for the popular MMOs such as World of Warcraft or TERA Online go down for weekly maintenance, it’s very common for some players to go to the official forums to vent. The frustration is understandable when the games can be down for several hours on maintenance day if a serious technical issue is encountered. MMO players are often paying a subscription fee for the service and it can be irritating when one feels as if money is being thrown away during the downtime. However, no matter how long the maintenance may take, it’s never justifiable to create a new forum thread to curse, threaten, and behave childishly. A conversation should definitely take place when people should be compensated for their time and money when the servers are down for an extremely long time. Accountable action from a gaming company may not happen otherwise. But when blood starts to boil and clear thinking isn’t occurring, it’s time to take a step back and evaluate the behavior that is bordering on obsession.
Based on news reports and interviews, it would seem that threats of violence and rape are currently just part of being a gaming developer. I find it extremely unfortunate that this behavior has become so common. For the most part, there is no reason for the developers to actually be fearful. More often than not, these people are just venting their frustrations in an unhealthy way. Therefore, most of the offenders will never actually act on their threats. Also, thanks to modern technology, culprits who are more likely to act can be tracked down and arrested before they have a chance to attack. Still, receiving threats on a day-to-day basis over a video game is no way to live. It is a very difficult situation with currently no clear resolution.
