Destiny 2 devs cut back communication after harassment from players
BungieBungie has issued a response to the Destiny 2 community explaining that recent threats towards the devs, amongst other things, will see a huge reduction in feedback going forward.
In the modern age of social media, it’s become easier for players and fans to interact with their favorite game companies and developers.
This comes with several positives as it allows the team behind a game to receive praise for their hard work, and also capitalize on constructive criticism to help improve a game’s overall experience.
On the flip side, social media has also had a hugely negative bearing on gaming with unhappy players venting their frustration. This has been a frequent occurrence for Bungie’s devs as of late and they’ve let the Destiny 2 community know where they stand.
Bungie won’t tolerate “real threats” regarding Destiny 2
Destiny 2 has had a successful run with multiple expansions already in the bag and Lightfall and The Final Shape still to come.
Season of the Haunted introduced new content and shook up the game like the many seasons that came before it, but a couple of issues have cropped up as of late.
The PvP meta has purportedly been in need of balancing, leading to the Destiny 2 community showing no patience for the devs. Dylan Gafner, Bungie’s Senior Community Manager, eventually responded.
Things didn’t stop there though as a Destiny 2 streamer went overboard by threatening to “burn down” Bungie’s studio in Seattle and the company duly responded with a lawsuit.
Since all this has gone down, the mental toll has clearly taken it out of the devs who have stopped responding to posts on the game’s official Reddit forum – something that Gafner would frequently do to communicate feedback with the playerbase.
On July 27, 2022, a thread was posted called “I miss seeing so many “Bungie Replied” threads here” and the user said: “I know why there aren’t as many, but it still sucks. I hope they’re still checking out the subreddit daily and logging feedback in the background.”
One reply to the post clearly didn’t understand the magnitude of the situation and it garnered close to 2,000 downvotes, leading to Gafner clarifying some details.
“Here’s the thing, the harassment we’ve spoken about isn’t just rude replies on Twitter or vague comments. There have been real threats towards our people and our studio. We’re taking them seriously, which is leading to an amount of reduced communications as the team plans future protections/strategies to help avoid these sorts of things,” Gafner said.
He goes on to say that Bungie has given him time off due to harassment towards himself and his family and also commented that some of Destiny 2’s issues can take months to rectify and aren’t a quick fix.
He concludes: “I agree – it’s a bummer that we don’t have as much interaction here as of late. The team is planning ways in which to communicate with you all – some of these plans I’m really looking forward to when I get back in. I can assure you that many on the team are checking out threads each day and talking about your feedback.”
Hopefully, Gafner’s words resonate with the Destiny 2 community and some semblance of normality can return so that communications can resume between the devs and the players ahead of Season 18.
