A recent balancing patch for Helldivers 2 left many players disappointed with the current state of weapons and Stratagems. But several developers didn’t take the feedback lightly, and responded to players in a way that made the community angry and frustrated at Arrowhead Studios.
The March 6 patch nerfed several meta-defining items in Helldivers 2, including the SG-225 Breaker, Railgun, and Shield Generator Pack. The adjustments irked many players as dealing with enemies at higher difficulties became almost impossible. After reading feedback on Reddit and Discord, players were met with unprofessional developer responses that the community felt were “gaslighting and demeaning the playerbase.”
An Arrowhead Studios developer with the Reddit username AHGS_Frederik_E wrote: “I’m feeding the rage a little for my own entertainment here, just so you know,” explaining they haven’t nerfed everything to the ground. Instead, they made “two of the most brainless playstyles less viable,” bringing weapons in line with each other. According to the community, other developers made similar comments on the Discord server as well. “Man watching you all cry, amuses me so much,” another message from the development team said.
These developer responses left players very concerned for the game’s future. While it’s natural for developers to want weapons to be balanced, calling the playstyles “brainless,” making fun of players, and fueling rage just for fun is simply unprofessional.
“If you can’t handle player vitriol, then don’t talk,” one player pointed out, adding that game studios have community managers specifically to deal with players who don’t give constructive criticism and to maintain the goodwill established between the developers and the community.
Several hours later, AHGS_Fredrik_E made a statement regarding his message: “I went a little far with the trolling, but what I said is said.” The developer wrote that they won’t be interacting with the playerbase anymore, leaving it to the community team at Arrowhead Studios. “Maybe this isn’t going to mend anything with you, but at least I feel I should own up to it and apologize. I’m sorry.”
Luckily, these actions have already been acknowledged by the lead developers. On March 7, Helldivers 2 game director Johan Pilestedt made several responses to the community posts, agreeing the developer comments were inexcusable. “We are aware of this and have taken action internally to educate our developers on how to represent the organization,” he wrote, highlighting that this isn’t a message the studio stands behind.
