Death Threat Regret

[Kiyeri]

Grey... if you're like this over dying to techies... oh god help you when they put Arc Warden in... god help you and god have mercy on who ever has to manage the forums after that... for they are beyond help.

Thing is...while it wasn't serious...it's a sad little thing when a dev would rather quit than say apologize for saying something they shouldn't have said in the first place. I have a feeling nothing is keeping him from going to Valve with an apology and getting the bridges rebuilt... except maybe stupid pride.

Just so you know, he did apologize. He wrote a post on the website of his (now former) company's website apologizing. He quit so the other developer on his team might have a chance in the future instead of being dragged down by him. I still think he was an idiot, but he's not as much of an asshole to not apologize at all.

Question is.. did he send a copy of that Apology letter to the folks at Valve? An apology isn't much if the folks who need to hear it don't hear it.

I would imagine so. He probably feels like shit that he fucked over his former partner by being an idiot in public. I'd be surprised if he didn't do anything he could to try to fix it (since leaving the company to try to make things right is a much more drastic step than apologizing to Valve).

 

[Varis]

To be fair, death threats as a headsman of a firm deserve to be punished severely, isn't this basically what's happening at Ferguson at the moment? Authority figures acting like twelve year olds and thinking it's alright?

Valve made the right call. And a big sack of shit to such foul-mouths.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

Am I a bad person for thinking that this was going to be another webcomic about Gamergate from looking at the title?

Yeah, I kinda thought that this was going to be a Felicia Day comic myself.

 

[ajr209]

So his company goes through all that trouble to get their game onto steam and this guy rather than going through the official channels to set things straight or using twitter to explain the mistakes that are being made to help put pressure on valve to solve things in a timely manner he goes and pisses away all his hard work by threatening to kill the head of the store he's fought to get his product on.

Sucks for us consumers and for anyone else who worked on the game but he forced valves hand. It would have set a very dangerous precedent for them to do business with a dev who pulls crap like that with them. And to anyone thinking they were too heavy handed what do you would happen if you did what he did to you your boss/coworker/business partner? I'll give you a hint- being out of a job might be the least of your worries. Oh, he didn't mean it? Well tough. That was not his dinner table or some stool at a bar where he hangs out with his friends after work. Most people Who work at some point or another say things like "one of these days,man..." in regards to someone they have to deal with at their jobs but there is a massive difference between venting in your home or when among a small group of friends and shouting in a public square for all to hear. People need to stop treating their public social media accounts that they use for professional purposes like it's a fucking confessional. If you wouldn't say it straight to someone's face for fear of the consequences of doing so DON"T FUCKING SAY IT ON A TWITTER ACCOUNT EVERYONE CAN SEE.

I really hate that internet culture has devolved in such a way that Fucking death threats are the norm. If this keeps up I don't doubt that internet users are going to wind up having a giant "this is why we can't have nice things" moment. Sure most people who send death threats on the internet don't carry them out but all it takes is a few psychos going through with it to fuck things up for all of us.

 

[mrbah]

NEWELL!!

Wouldn't that be
"ICEFRAUD!!"

 

[Haru17]

Fuck Valve and Steam, no one deserves to die obviously (and no one would ever have in this instance), but fuck Valve all the same. They can take all their meme-based popularity and shove it up their ass. They have too much power over too many PC games.

It is totally their right to take the game off steam and essentially kill the business. Rule 1 of business is you don't insult the people who are important to the survival of your business. You sure as fuck don't, serious or not, threaten to kill the owner. Sad story maybe for his artist who has had his life ruined, but Valve did exactly what they should have.

By not doing this, Valve would be setting the precedent that sending death threats or belittling their business when you release games on their system is somehow okay. If Origin, or GoG, or Green man gaming, or anything else didn't do the same thing, I'd be pissed at their inaction.

It's obviously their right to take the game down, but it was not morally right to do so. One member of a studio posts a tweet, a death threat to be sure, but one on the internet, twitter no less, with dubious credibility. It's obvious that Valve's shit treatment of indie studios just got to the guy, who was at his wit's end after having to deal with that and said something stupid on the internet, stupider than most 'stupid things said on the internet', granted. So naturally it's fair that his entire studio loses 90+ percent of the profits to years of their work, right? Bullshit, Steam is a bloated mess that too many people cede power to. I hope they can publish their game (which is good, let's remember) on a console online marketplace that doesn't pull half the bullshit steam does.

AND STEAM IS STILL SHIT REGARDLESS OF THIS MESS, have you watched Jimquisition, listened to PC youtubers, or just plain logged into Steam in the last year? It's the fucking McDonalds of video games! Stop protecting the rich and powerful, they have the money to do that themselves (and I'm not talking about literal, physical protection, no one should be harmed, obviously).

Hence fuck Valve, Gabe Newell, and everyone who defends their actions because they're a slave to steam / HALF LIFE 3 OMG.

 

[Haru17]

To be fair, death threats as a headsman of a firm deserve to be punished severely, isn't this basically what's happening at Ferguson at the moment? Authority figures acting like twelve year olds and thinking it's alright?

Valve made the right call. And a big sack of shit to such foul-mouths.

Someone actually died in Ferguson, at the hand of the police no less, how can you not see the difference there!?!

 

[Haru17]

Am I a bad person for thinking that this was going to be another webcomic about Gamergate from looking at the title?

That seems like a fairly logical initial assumption considering the sheer bulk of death threats in that clusterfuck.

 

[Varis]

Spoiler

To be fair, death threats as a headsman of a firm deserve to be punished severely, isn't this basically what's happening at Ferguson at the moment? Authority figures acting like twelve year olds and thinking it's alright?

Valve made the right call. And a big sack of shit to such foul-mouths.

Someone actually died in Ferguson, at the hand of the police no less, how can you not see the difference there!?!

Sure I do, doesn't change the fact that the basic line there was a person acting completely against what was expected of him. I.e shooting a person in cold blood, even though he was supposed to be the last possible person to do that as a policeman.

I'm not trying to diminish, or in any way make Ferguson sound trivial, but I still think people in positions of power, be it monetary or authoritative power, should act as they should by society's standards.

 

[IndieForever]

Or simply just don't deal with Steam. Whilst it started out as a fairly benevolent, perhaps encouraging, platform it has devolved into a scenario we have decided not to do business with. It seems to be the de-rigeur statement that indie studios live or fall by Steam sales but it just isn't true. One of the Jimquisition videos will point you towards what is really happening there in terms of quality control if you don't already have a handle on it.

If you have a good product, a good game, a good fanbase, you don't need Newell. If, though, you decide that you want to go into business with them, it seems fairly obvious to me, every commentator above, every person ever in business and my pet iguana that you don't issue teenage-esque death threats to the person controlling the platform.

My concern is that with this seemingly self-perpetuating round of social media professional indie suicides, the revenue streams we rely on that aren't Kickstarter et.al might dry up. We're 40% owned by someone we convinced to have faith in us and their return has been pretty good; it's not an issue for us. What I don't want to see is high profile cases like this making potential (angel) investors think twice about other companies or startups.. because if they're thinking twice you've lost them.

This guy, Phil Fish et.al - make us look like arses as a whole for the money people. It shouldn't be the case but it is easy for a whole investment segment to be tainted with the 'don't go there in case it happens again' brush.

I try not to swear as a rule but, Mike, you're a twat.

 

[Haru17]

Fuck Valve and Steam, no one deserves to die obviously (and no one would ever have in this instance), but fuck Valve all the same. They can take all their meme-based popularity and shove it up their ass. They have too much power over too many PC games.

It is totally their right to take the game off steam and essentially kill the business. Rule 1 of business is you don't insult the people who are important to the survival of your business. You sure as fuck don't, serious or not, threaten to kill the owner. Sad story maybe for his artist who has had his life ruined, but Valve did exactly what they should have.

By not doing this, Valve would be setting the precedent that sending death threats or belittling their business when you release games on their system is somehow okay. If Origin, or GoG, or Green man gaming, or anything else didn't do the same thing, I'd be pissed at their inaction.

It's obviously their right to take the game down, but it was not morally right to do so. One member of a studio posts a tweet, a death threat to be sure, but one on the internet, twitter no less, with dubious credibility. It's obvious that Valve's shit treatment of indie studios just got to the guy, who was at his wit's end after having to deal with that and said something stupid on the internet, stupider than most 'stupid things said on the internet', granted. So naturally it's fair that his entire studio loses 90+ percent of the profits to years of their work, right? Bullshit, Steam is a bloated mess that too many people cede power to. I hope they can publish their game (which is good, let's remember) on a console online marketplace that doesn't pull half the bullshit steam does.

AND STEAM IS STILL SHIT REGARDLESS OF THIS MESS, have you watched Jimquisition, listened to PC youtubers, or just plain logged into Steam in the last year? It's the fucking McDonalds of video games! Stop protecting the rich and powerful, they have the money to do that themselves (and I'm not talking about literal, physical protection, no one should be harmed, obviously).

Hence fuck Valve, Gabe Newell, and everyone who defends their actions because they're a slave to steam / HALF LIFE 3 OMG.

And I'll simply say the obvious once again.

It doesn't matter that steam is shit.

It doesn't matter that he struggled to get his game on Steam.

It doesn't matter that Valve doing this essentially killed his livelihood and company.

You do not insult business associates. Period. You sure as fuck do not threaten to kill the head of a company you are associated with. If Valve didn't do this, they'd be saying its ok to do so, which is a horrible precedent.

Valve is entirely in the right for doing this. Same as GoG, or EA with origin, or whoever owns Green Man Gaming would be entirely in the right for doing this.

This has always been the way since we started forming tribes. Do not threaten someone who can end you without effort, and if you threaten those that assist or help you, you teach people not to assist you.

You're confusing capability for moral high ground. Stop protecting the rich and powerful, it's disgusting. It's like watching people crush insects for the fun of it.

There are no precedents set here, how would a death threat precedent ever form? It's moronic to think that could ever come to pass. Stop with the slippery slope bullshit, there are no positive feedback loops here.

 

[Ishigami]

Once a death threat is issued, the act that led to it becomes irrelevant.

Not for me. The death threat is just the symptom, I want the cause cured.

Steam being a "shitty platform" isn't really the concern here.

It's the only thing affecting me and the only thing I care about so yes it is my only concern in the matter.

 

[Haru17]

Fuck Valve and Steam, no one deserves to die obviously (and no one would ever have in this instance), but fuck Valve all the same. They can take all their meme-based popularity and shove it up their ass. They have too much power over too many PC games.

It is totally their right to take the game off steam and essentially kill the business. Rule 1 of business is you don't insult the people who are important to the survival of your business. You sure as fuck don't, serious or not, threaten to kill the owner. Sad story maybe for his artist who has had his life ruined, but Valve did exactly what they should have.

By not doing this, Valve would be setting the precedent that sending death threats or belittling their business when you release games on their system is somehow okay. If Origin, or GoG, or Green man gaming, or anything else didn't do the same thing, I'd be pissed at their inaction.

It's obviously their right to take the game down, but it was not morally right to do so. One member of a studio posts a tweet, a death threat to be sure, but one on the internet, twitter no less, with dubious credibility. It's obvious that Valve's shit treatment of indie studios just got to the guy, who was at his wit's end after having to deal with that and said something stupid on the internet, stupider than most 'stupid things said on the internet', granted. So naturally it's fair that his entire studio loses 90+ percent of the profits to years of their work, right? Bullshit, Steam is a bloated mess that too many people cede power to. I hope they can publish their game (which is good, let's remember) on a console online marketplace that doesn't pull half the bullshit steam does.

AND STEAM IS STILL SHIT REGARDLESS OF THIS MESS, have you watched Jimquisition, listened to PC youtubers, or just plain logged into Steam in the last year? It's the fucking McDonalds of video games! Stop protecting the rich and powerful, they have the money to do that themselves (and I'm not talking about literal, physical protection, no one should be harmed, obviously).

Hence fuck Valve, Gabe Newell, and everyone who defends their actions because they're a slave to steam / HALF LIFE 3 OMG.

And I'll simply say the obvious once again.

It doesn't matter that steam is shit.

It doesn't matter that he struggled to get his game on Steam.

It doesn't matter that Valve doing this essentially killed his livelihood and company.

You do not insult business associates. Period. You sure as fuck do not threaten to kill the head of a company you are associated with. If Valve didn't do this, they'd be saying its ok to do so, which is a horrible precedent.

Valve is entirely in the right for doing this. Same as GoG, or EA with origin, or whoever owns Green Man Gaming would be entirely in the right for doing this.

This has always been the way since we started forming tribes. Do not threaten someone who can end you without effort, and if you threaten those that assist or help you, you teach people not to assist you.

You're confusing capability for moral high ground. Stop protecting the rich and powerful, it's disgusting. It's like watching people crush insects for the fun of it.

There are no precedents set here, how would a death threat precedent ever form? It's moronic to think that could ever come to pass. Stop with the slippery slope bullshit, there are no positive feedback loops here.

Its not setting a death threat precedent, its setting a precedent for insulting Valve when they are business associates. This is not acceptable, and they should not say its acceptable. This happens too much already, the people that can actually do things about it shouldn't god damn stand for it, and Valve hasn't. Its a good thing. You just have an insane hatred of companies, and automatically assume they are in the wrong just because they are a company.

This discussion has descended into unknowable levels of stupidity for which there are no words.

You don't understand my views on companies. Most companies are only concerned with profit, though I appreciate when companies act morally or pro-consumer / community, like Costco, Nintendo, etc have done in the past. To exempt companies from criticism, however, is folly. Like how Nintendo got lambasted for having an idiot PR rep insult gay people.

Companies aren't going to close and go cry in a corner just because someone said something mean on the internet. They'll keep raking it in regardless of what people think of them.

 

[Simonism451]

-snip-

You're right with your first sentence, although I think you might be mistaken on who is the offending party in this case.

Yes, it's true that Valve doesn't run into danger of encountering further serious disadvantages by ignoring Maulbeck's comments, that doesn't change the fact that he's been an asshole to a member of the company in a public space. It's certainly true that this specific member of the company has probably less reasons to be unhappy than other people, that still doesn't mean that he is morally obligated to continue to do business with people who are assholes to him.

Let's get hypothetical: Say, you walk into a Mac Donald's, order a burger, have to wait half an hour and the waiter is kind of unfriendly to you, so you decide the best way to deal with this is to threaten the staff. You'll probably get thrown out, regardless of whether or not you are actually carrying any weapons. Now, as far as evil corporations go, Mac Donalds is pretty bad. Far worse than Valve, I'd wager. It's consistently shitty to its employees, is atrociously unhealthy for its customers and has in the past employed outright criminal business methods. I am aware of that and if you would issue a complaint about any of those factors, I'd be one of the first people to support you. However, that doesn't diminish the manager's moral right not to do any business with people who are assholes to them. And so in this specific case, you'll be hard-pressed to get any sympathy from me.