In responding to what is sadly becoming a regular occurrence these days, Respawn, the studio behind Apex Legends, has issued an official statement regarding the targeted harassment of its developers.
You may remember Sony's Santa Monica Studio making a very similar statement earlier in the year, when some "fans" took to social media in order to lash out at the people who were working on God of War Ragnarok. With a live service, online multiplayer title likes of Apex Legends, however, we imagine that the vitriol is much more consistent, which can't be healthy for Respawn employees.
"We welcome community input, however, the line between constructive feedback and the harassment of our dev team cannot be crossed," reads Respawn's post. Indeed, even if a studio makes a questionable decision with regards to its game — a decision that may well warrant criticism — it can't be forgotten that real people take the brunt of the feedback. And if that feedback turns into pointed harassment, then there's simply no defending it — not when, at the end of the day, it's just a video game.
Another studio that knows exactly what Respawn's having to deal with is Bungie. The Destiny developer offered support in the form of a reply, writing: "Standing against toxicity and harassment takes all of us working together to build healthier communities. We are with you in that effort Respawn."
It's a real shame that we have to be posting news like this at all, but clearly, things do have to change.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 30
I guess with live service games comes a never ending stream of harassment. Games like Apex seem to have attracted a certain crowd though.
It a sad state of how people all over the world think it is justified to go online and say these things just because their feelings get hurt over a game or anything in popular culture. Many people feel they see owed that right simply for liking something and can't see right from wrong in that situation.
just dont use twitter. its a stinking cesspit. would help to protect employees.
twitter and idiots wont change. and while people shouldnt receive abuse, so long as companies use platforms that allow it, it will sadly continue.
@stvevan I can only give this comment the 1 like, but it deserves 100.
It's quite simple. Social media is full of idiots. There's no need for companies to interact with these people. It's not cool, it's not constructive, if anything it's demoralising. So let's get back to where companies just made games and we bought and enjoyed them. There's absolutely no need for us to "converse". These companies need to stop using social media.
@shepherd_tallon surprisingly some companies understand idiots cant be stopped. the BBC here closed user comments after the queens death, as they knew some wouldnt be respectful (imo should be even if not a royalist), football stopped as minority of fans cant be trusted.
gaming and others should consider boycott/removal from social media. we survived without them using it and still got amazing games.
I think people here are oversimplifying the situation. Twitter and other social media are incredibly useful in terms of promoting a new game. The interactions, even the controversy, can have a tremendous impact on sales. So, for better or worse, they're here to stay.
@naruball yes they will stay unfortunately. however games sold perfectly well prior to social media. if you value your employees and their health, stances can be taken, and would be well supported
@stvevan they did. But that was in the past. Newspapers/magazines/music albums, etc also sold just fine without social media in the past, but they no longer do. Every business needs to evolve with times.
Bungie is apparently making a mobile game. Pretty much irrelevant in gaming if true
@naruball
It can be useful but in the grand scheme of things is it worth it? You won't get any constructive feedback. All you will see is a cesspit of a ultimately very small section of fans. For every vile hateful comment about something you worked on there is 10000 others who don't use social media and love your work. Hence why I roll my eyes when social media tries to boycott something and it still makes millions, yeah because the people who bought your product are the majority and not the vile cesspit.
Practically all gamers have 1 or more gaming sites they visit regularly. Studios don't need social media to advertise their games.
I guess developers need to take a view and consider how much they want to interact with the public. Obviously there are pros and cons. Nothing wrong with trying to encourage good behaviour like this, if you feel your particular game relies on consumer interaction. You’re never going to stamp it out, though, and to a degree you can’t have your cake and eat it.
@naruball in todays society people are more aware than ever on how employees are treated etc and change spending according (maybe not gaming yet, but i bet ABK took a hit)
some companies have a chance to do different and it would lead to support.
just saying abuse isnt ok, then carrying on using said platform isnt going to stop abuse
It's the whole Internet. Because people are hiding behind keyboards. Kinda like road rage too, people throw all kinds of insults because they're already in flight mode - moving car - and can escape any confrontation. I find it weak, I never use abusive words while driving or on the internet generally.
Social Medias seem to turn sane people into sociopaths behind their screens
@z0d15g0d I don't think that's the case. I know many people who found out about certain games thanks to a meme they saw somewhere, not websites. Also, being aware that a game exists and actually buying it are two different things. Our decisions to purchase something are influenced by a variety of factors, some of which we don't even realize.
Something tells me that people who do marketing and advertising for a living know better than us, hence why they keep using social media to promote their games.
@stvevan I think a solution to that would be to encourage developers to refrain from using social media to protect their mental health and instead assign a team to focus on that, just like companies do with customer service. That team can filter out all the attacks and focus on aspects that need to be improved.
@BeerIsAwesome well said. Criticism and abuse are too different things. Many people condemning the latter are guilty of it (perhaps myself as well, without realizing it).
@naruball id take a guess that most have some sort of team, but ideally twitter/social media needs to do more, but we all know they dont care. companies (users too) need to do things to make social media change.
at some stage there will be a tipping point for most, thankfully i avoid as i came off facebook early 09.
@naruball @stvevan Social media is excellent at promoting a game or anything else. Absolutely. There's no argument there.
But fanboys and trolls definitely generate a lot of clicks/ad revenue. Where no or insufficient action is taken by a platform to protect people from trolls or abusive posts there should be a reluctance to operate on that platform.
In a perfect world, of course. I deal with this muck every day in work and nothing ever changes.
Rather than oversimplify it, I would say that it's almost impossible to resolve without either losing exposure of your product, or without the platforms themselves losing a tonne of advertising revenue.
I've been working in CM for a while now, and short of non-starters like limiting the amount of posts a non-business account or a non-community manager account can make in a week, I don't have any solutions.
I always wonder if things like this are the evolution of the crazy letters people used to send complaining to newspapers and TV stations back in the pre-internet days. There have always been cranks out there, they just don’t need to use a stamp or a provide a return address anymore.
I'm honestly really tired of reading about this. Don't get me wrong, I'm not tired of studios supporting their teams and devs speaking out, I'm tired of how stupid some people have become and seemingly there's no way of fixing this.
Devs are people, people get affected by other people's words/opinion whether they want it or not. In turn, their mental health not only affects their physical health, it'll also negatively affect their work. How hard is this to understand? A little bit of sympathy goes a long way!
Bungie fires its own employees for criticism lol
@BeerIsAwesome Dim Ryan ruining an entire brand though
@naruball First sensible comment I've read here.
Disengage with social media, lose a huge swathe of sales and publicity.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but its not to disengage.
@Shepherd_Tallon I completely agree with you.
I’m willing to bet a percentage of this comments section are this kind of toxic gamer. The type of neckbeard Incels who hide behind anonymity to spew bile while never admitting it in real life.
The fact that the devs has to speak out about this is RIDICULOUS. And people wonder why more and more devs are disabling comments on social media. They are literally being forced to do cause of crap like this.
@rawzeku the funniest thing is when people complain that the developers hate "freedom of speech".
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