A developer has revealed the torrent of death threats and racist insults they received just because their game is an Epic exclusive.
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Ooblets does not look like the sort of game to inspire death threats, racial abuse, and homophobic rants but thanks to the game now being an Epic Games Store exclusive thats exactly whats happened.
The game is influenced by the likes of Stardew Valley and Pokémon and has exactly the sort of laidback style of gameplay that the pastel-coloured art style suggests.
Husband and wife indie developer Glumberland were to have had their game published by Double Fine, but when they got bought by Microsoft it was decided that Gumberland would self-publish.
The financial strain of self-publishing made a deal with Epic Games all the more attractive but the annoucement that the game would be exclusive to their store brought an instant torrent of abuse.
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Thats been the same for most games that have gone exclusive but the reaction to Ooblets was so extreme, given the nature of the game and the developer, that it moved Epic Games to make a particularly assertive defensive of them.
And now Glumberland has described the situation from their perspective in a new blog that contains screenshots of a number of tweets and Discord messages that range from threats of death and rape to racial and homophobic abuse. So be careful if you click on the blog link as none of that is censored.
Ben Wasser, aka Perplamps admits that part of the problem was the tongue-in-cheek style of the blog announcing the deal, which he didnt realise would be taken the wrong way. There were also problems with people assuming Patreon is the same sort of crowdfunding platform as Kickstarter, and not realising that Pateron contributors were never due to receive a copy of the game anyway.
For the past three years, Ive been interacting with an audience that has always been understanding, friendly, and appreciative of our very open and transparent style, he says.
Thats why we were totally unprepared for the attention we got from the broader gaming/Internet community, which was fuelled by a deep misunderstanding of the tongue-in-cheek tone as condescending and patronising.
Wasser admits that trying to engage with the angry gamers only made things worse and that not only did he receive horrendously abusive replies but his messages were doctored to make him appear anti-Semitic.Read More – Source
