Facepunch wanted to reward fans for their support by hosting a meet and greet in a relaxed atmosphere. His plans were thwarted by disturbing news.
From the start, Rust, for some reason, seemed to draw the toxic cream of the gaming community like a magnet. Cheaters, hackers, frustrated people who indulge their aggression on other players and developers – they have always been present in this world. This time, however, they went too far. They all felt the consequences.
Creators cave in to pressure from toxic gamers
Rust is a sandbox survival game that has remained popular since its early access release in 2013. The developers’ attention to the project, which continues to receive monthly updates, has always kept old players and in attracted new ones.
So far, Facepunch members have not allowed hostile fans to affect their game development and their desire to integrate with players.
For this year’s Game Developers Conference, the developers wanted to hold an informal, almost private meeting in a cafe to present their projects.
To the surprise of the community, the so-called meeting was suddenly canceled. What was the reason? Concern for the lives of studio employees.
Daily Developer Challenges
Faced with the surprising turn of events, PC Gamer demanded an explanation from the members of Facepunch. Rust producer Alistair McFarlane replied that:
- staff members who deal with the community are threatened daily;
- members of the “chat community” go out of their way to attack individual staff members;
- staff members and their families had to “change personal information” due to doxxing (i.e. making personal information public), which “often affects their mental health”.
- the location of the canceled event was made public, and after “assassination threats”, the studio decided it would pose too great a security risk and cause too much anxiety for staff;
- the threats are very concerning and the studio plans to take them seriously.
Despite rather trivial reasons (according to McFarlane, most of them stem from dissatisfaction with the changes made to the game), the developers didn’t want to take any risks and canceled the meeting.
Internet reactions to study warning
Following the announcement of the decision to cancel the meeting at a cafe in San Francisco, most commentators showed great patience and support.
However, the saddest thing is the fact that after years of running the game, the behavior of potentially dangerous fanatics comes as no surprise. “It’s Rust”, “The most toxic fan community in gaming has struck yet”, are the comments that appear on Reddit or Bloodin staggering numbers.
Even more desensitization was shown by people openly admitting that the security of the developers didn’t matter to them and taking advantage of the situation to try to force them to remove the controversial rollback.
Source: Twitter
There’s a reason the Rust fan community has become famous as one of the most toxic in the world. This is the first time that the game’s developers have reacted so decisively to the dangerous behavior of its members. Do you think this is the start of a crackdown on toxic gamers?
- Face Punch – Official Site