If you want a clear example of human beings fixating on the negative, then look no further than the recent news regarding No Man’s Sky . Hello Games founder Sean Murray announced via Twitter that the game is complete. “It’s happened,” he wrote. ” No Man’s Sky just went gold. I’m so incredibly proud of this tiny team. [Four] years of emotions.”
Some of those emotions were negative. On May 28, Murray tweeted, albeit with a good sense of humor, “I have received loads of death threats this week, but don’t worry, Hello Games now looks like the house from Home Alone #pillowfort.” He wasn’t alone. After Jason Schreier of Kotaku reported the rumor, he tweeted a picture of a DM he received that concludes, “Be afraid human, we are coming for you.” Seems like the vocal minority behind these threats care too much about No Man’s Sky , or they’re just opportunistic trolls/sociopaths.
I don’t have an answer for curbing death threats. I don’t even fully understand the psychology behind them, nor am I here to discuss that. Instead, I’m more interested in the ephemeral nature of death threats. They may exist permanently in someone’s inbox, but life goes on for both sides of the threat, for better or worse.
Hello Games’ only crime is that they delayed a game for behind-the-scenes reasons, and No Man’s Sky just happens to be a work of art that’s piqued the interest of gamers – enough to warrant joining Sony during its E3 2014 press conference. People have done far worse things than Hello Games and also received death threats. Ocean Marketing, or rather Paul Christoforo, was ridiculed and later sent death threats for bullying a customer – threats that were even directed towards his family. Why should Hello Games receive a similar response as Ocean Marketing, when all it’s trying to do is create art? Why should anybody, regardless of what they’ve done, receive death threats?
Two weeks ago I published an article about some reasons to feel concerned when a game was delayed, but I have not seen anything that elicits the same concerns backers had towards Keiji Inafune and Mighty No. 9. Hello Games hasn’t displayed any signs of shady business practices. It has suffered some development trouble, but such trouble includes losing their equipment in a goddamn flood . As far as we know, for better or worse, it appears Hello Games’ vision for No Man’s Sky remains intact. I can’t imagine what sort of drastic changes could have occurred to the game’s design for a month-long delay.
A quick anecdote: One time, for The Koalition , I wrote about the rumor of Kiefer Sutherland replacing David Hayter as the voice of Solid Snake, which happened to surface April Fools’ Day. A commenter told me I should be “ashamed” for reporting on a joke. Well, three years have passed, and guess who was right (for once) and has yet to receive an apology? Not that I want an apology, nor is that comment nearly as bad as receiving a “load of death threats.” But let’s apply this story to the issue at hand.
To whoever sent death threats to Hello Games: when you read the news of No Man’s Sky ‘s gold status, did you feel the slightest bit of shame? Did you read the news and decide to publicly or privately apologize to Hello Games for what you wrote, or did you just go on with your life? I don’t anticipate Sean Murray tweeting, “Oh, we’ve received loads of apologies now, so I guess we can take down the #pillowforts” anytime soon. Nor do I expect the person who made fun of me for writing about Keifer Sutherland as Solid Snake to admit he or she was wrong. The internet bombards us with information all of the time, so it’s not surprising if someone who leaves a comment or sends a message just quickly moves on without expecting consequences – especially because there are very few consequences for sending death threats. What incentive do they have for apologizing?
I can’t tell you what to do, so I’m not going to demand that you apologize to Hello Games. I would never dare to suggest all of CheatCC’s readers are the kind of people who send death threats. Hell, I’m not certain the people who sent Murray death threats would ever follow through, but I hope they realize that their words – especially the negative ones – affect their targets. My intention for writing this piece is to convince you think more calmly and rationally before responding to a game’s delay in such a disgusting manner.