Internal Injustice

Recently, a game called Highguard came out to...less than stellar reviews. The game is a hero shooter where you pick a character and use their abilities to fight other players on the battlefield. When it was announced, it came at the tailend of the Game Awards which is a spot usually reserved for the best of the best. Highguard was not that type of game. The market is flooded with live service games many of which are hero shooters. So this game had little to no chance of lasting too long in this crowded market. It was also compared to a previous live service game called Concord which was a four hundred million dollar flop. All this attention was given to Highguard and what do they do? They go radio silent online. And for good reason, the gaming world can be cruel to game designers. One developer in particular, named Josh, was singled out on Twitter for being autistic. For his own sanity he blocked everyone who was posting threats and comparing his work to the Concord flop. When Highguard did come out, it was met with overwhelming negative reviews. People got on for a few hours just so they could leave a scathing review online. The online lynching had begun and people were out for blood. Highguard already had a low chance but this was more of a stomping into the ground. The game died in less than two months and the company behind the game has fired many of their employees, including Josh, in order to recoup losses. The game is dead, the internet won. Even I joined in on the hate train even though I knew little about the game. What I did know is that I would not be playing it. Any game that is free to play is often a "must avoid" on my list. These types of games shut down easily and you don't really own them since they are live services and not single player games. But you have to ask "what were the developers thinking?" They must have known, somehow, that another live service game wasn't what the public wanted. These developers were told their game was good, by their internal reviewers, but internal and external reviewers are completely different things. It's called "possitive toxicity" where a developer or a creator isn't surrounded by criticism that can make them grow but only by support. But how is a developer supposed to get good criticism when their work has become the internet's new favorite pinata? In the aftermath, Josh came out and expressed his opinions on the matter. How his team worked hard on Highguard and how they came under fire. This could have been prevented but hindsight is twenty-twenty and now the focus needs to be on what happens next. For Josh, I wish him the best because he and his team didn't deserve the hate that was thrusted on them. The internet demands that developers take the criticism and ignore the attacks, but when a flurry of arrows come at you in the name of "criticism" it's almost impossible ot discern real critique from an attack. Being autistic myself I can understand where Josh is coming from and why he felt the need to speak out. There's this internal injustice inside of him that needed to be let out. Josh was butchered online and his response, after a long time of silence, was openly mocked. I watched as Youtubers, even ones I was fond of, bash and critique Josh's cry out from injustice and upload a video on it like a bunch of vultures picking off a dying animal. Josh has every right to say what he wants about the impact this has had on his life and he's right, the gaming industry is at fault. An indie studio made of veterans tried to make a safe bet on a game they hoped people would like and it blew up in their faces. It happens all the time. But why would they innovate when they are so criticized? Why take a risk if they're going to be shot down. This is coming from someone who defended Gamergate and now I finally see the toxicity in the gaming world. People would rather stomp something into the ground for fun than give real critique. Josh didn't deserve the hate that came his way and Highguard, while not the best idea, deserved better than to be labeled as "Concord 2.0." Mistakes were made by these developers but do you think anyone is going to come out with a radical idea when they know that snakes in the industry are waiting to strike? This is just a sad example of how life can go and dreams can die. I'll be praying for Josh.