Destiny 2’s upcoming Into the Light update will bring free content to all players in just a few weeks, but that hasn’t stopped some bad actors within the community from abusing developers.
Into the Light will add a new co-op mode called Onslaught, revealed in a livestream on March 19, along with more free content that will be released on April 9 to hold players over until Destiny 2: The Final Shape expansion releases in June.
A March 19 Reddit thread called out Destiny 2 players for their behavior aimed at the people making the game, calling for an end to it altogether, regardless of decisions made that have affected the FPS title. The abuse was especially bad during the livestream reveal of Onslaught.
“During the live stream the chat was abhorrent, 99 percent negativity for a FREE content update,” the annoyed player said. “I know there are many that have the mindset of ‘they deserve it’ but the devs you’re directly attacking in stream don’t deserve it. They aren’t the people making decisions on the monetization and they aren’t the ones that decide [to lay off] workers. They are doing everything they can to make the game enjoyable for us. They are giving us a mode we’ve been asking for years for free and all you can do is complain, show a little appreciation because as bad as the state of the current game is it could be worse.”
The Redditor referenced an issue that happened on-stream when the developer playing Onslaught accidentally ALT-TAB’d out of the game and revealed their Steam ID. They were then flooded with friend requests, with many displaying harsh language, including racism and violence.
Many were quick to point out that the hate messages visibly affected activity designer Noah Lee, a Bungie developer who was showing off Onslaught with live gameplay, and were disgusted with the behavior of those involved.
“It’s been so long since we saw a real dev, not a coached bigwig or some comms person telling us about the game but a real, passionate, talented dev and someone just has to fuck it up,” another player said. “It’s past infuriating, it’s disgraceful.”
“It’s time for some of y’all to grow up, this is a video game, if you’re mad you didn’t get your money’s worth then leave, and [if] you can’t leave because you’re ‘addicted’ then go get some help,” the original poster concluded.
The ability to voice displeasure with the state of a game is a crucial part of the player-developer relationship. But doing so in a respectful manner is paramount and there’s no place for outright hatred, threats, or vile language.
