'Please stop that': In the run-up to Baldur's Gate 3 modding support, Larian's head of publishing speaks out against 'threats and toxicity against our devs and community teams' - eviltoast

“We need people to understand that these conversations take time.”

  • Nima@leminal.space
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    8 months ago

    I feel terrible that these devs have to address a bunch of crybabies who are sending death threats for the most insane and entitled reason ever.

    • Hairyblue@kbin.socialOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      8 months ago

      And mods are not officially supported. Installing mods has risks that they will break with patches.

      • Nima@leminal.space
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        8 months ago

        The whole situation has been absolutely absurd, honestly. I can’t believe that the entire community hasn’t shunned every single modder who actually put their name to that insane “petition”.

        It reads like an immature attempt at authority. Here’s hoping it’s forgotten swiftly, and those who signed are made to feel silly for even supporting such a childish view.

        • QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          8 months ago

          What petition? The article didn’t mention any, and I haven’t seen anything about a petition posted in here…

          A quick Google search doesn’t reveal anything either.

          Shunning modders simply for signing a petition seems like a major overreaction. Most people signing a petition don’t really read the contents. They usually just go for the quick explanation which was probably sold to them as something like, “sign this petition to ask Larian Studios to better support mods/Script Extender”.

          I do feel that modders need to chill out and accept that major changes to the codebase are still happening and that will cause conflicts with mods. It’s great that Larian Studios has expressed their willingness to support mods in the future. I think that’s certainly enough for me.

  • Yer Ma@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    31
    ·
    8 months ago

    They should also realize that only a tiny fringe minority would send threats and it isn’t representing their use or fan base, the fact that they are even brothered by this means they are misunderstanding what is happening

    • Rusty_Red@lemm.eeM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      38
      ·
      8 months ago

      They do address that in the article though.

      Dowse adds that “99.9% of our community are the absolute best and it’s because of them— thankfully—that my community team perseveres. But I suppose it was inevitable that when you have a city, a few bad eggs will start a fire.”

      “It’s a double-edged sword that comes with this kind of approach—especially with a game that’s this popular. Developers gain a lot by listening closely to feedback, talking with their players, and putting a face to their names on social media. On the other hand, they also open themselves up to the masses at large. While only a small portion of said masses are nasty, the law of large numbers kicks in very quickly: 0.5% of a million people is still 5,000 angry strangers yelling at you.”

      Even if 99.99% of the community is amazing, that still leaves at least 1,000 people who are still willing to do/say terrible things to the developers.

      • Yer Ma@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        37
        ·
        8 months ago

        Right… 0.1%… So ignore them instead of letting them trigger the whole company

        Making announcements just gives those idiots a voice they would not otherwise have

        • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          21
          ·
          8 months ago

          That’s like 10 people per dev harrassing the team. It’s a huge number. You can’t really “ignore” them.

        • papalonian@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          16
          ·
          8 months ago

          Or we could just not normalize sending death threats over the Internet? Don’t really get why there’s an issue with that

        • Konraddo@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          8 months ago

          There’s always a fine line between acknowledging the threat or ignoring it. In online situations, I do agree that ignoring the threat is the best cause of action because it’s difficult for anybody to take real action.

          If a person gives a death threat on a forum, for example, then ban the account. If you feel that it has real life consequences, then report it to the police when needed. But would you really want to make a post talking about how you feel about the death threat and why you ban the account?

          But then, I believe this is a PR move to show that they care about the employee, and to encourage good customers to show their gratitude to the devs. Perhaps the devs are really on the brink of collapse, mentally, so a little support would be helpful.