The developers of Dying Light 2 are pampering themselves with toxic players

As promised, Polish developer Techland today released a video that updates the world about the zombie thriller parkour Dying light 2. and it’s an extremely concise look at one of the most toxic cycles behind the video game industry.

In the first half of the year video of about three minutes, various Techland developers have read explosive comments from fans demanding the release of the game or at least proof that it still exists. “FUCK THIS BULLSHIT !!! Release the dying light 2 or give a damn demonstration YOUR GOD ”, reads one of the messages.

Then, the second half of the video begins with one of the developers calmly and seriously stating: “Okay everyone, I got the message. We understand that you are curious about the game because you want to Dying light 2 to be as good as you imagined. ”

The developers continue to explain this Dying light 2 it’s a big game, a complex game, the kind of game hard to make (note: they all are) and that the studio only needs a little more time to bring its ambitious creative viewing to life, especially after a challenging year and unique tragedies stemming from the ongoing pandemic. The second half of the video is defensive, limiting itself to apologetics, apparently in an attempt to reassure the most energetic and also virulent fans of the future game.

“Everyone here is putting their heart into offering a game you’ll be playing for months,” says one developer, as if filming a hostage video.

“We are proud to have fans as devoted as you, no matter how you express your feelings,” says Tymon Smektała, the game’s lead designer, nearing the end, completing the sick loop of co-dependence on video game marketing.

“Normalizing this crap or the game of laughter makes the industry worse for everyone,” he wrote GamesIndustry.biz editor Brendan Sinclair on Twitter today. He is right.

I’ve seen this game dozens of times before. A certain segment of game fans love a developer until they bombard them with death threats because a game was delayed or, God forbid, had a wrong ending. However, some of the largest studios and game publishers continue to serve these hyper-online, super-fickle “fans,” because they are also the ones who will spread the gospel of E3 marketing on social media and chat. private, denounce unbelievers, and be ready to launch a harassment campaign at some point, if the review scores do not go as expected.

Dying light 2 was unveiled for the first time at Microsoft’s press conference at E3 2018, three years after the launch of the first game. He looked neat. A hands-off demo that I saw I even teased an interesting world construction could take place beyond the standard survival hijinks. But the game never had a firm launch date and early last year Techland announced it would be indefinitely late. So some Dying light 2 It seems that fans have turned to the abuse of the game’s developers, and now Techland is trying to win them back, including a short new teaser to listen to them until the studio is finally ready to announce more.

I saw this scenario exactly playing out last year with 2077. Cyberpunk. After the game was postponed for the third time in late October, senior game designer Andrzej Zawadzki and others reported being harassed over the news. “I’ll burn you alive if you don’t launch the game,” read one of the death threats shared in a screenshot. This was a few weeks later Bloomberg first reported that the developers of CD Projekt Red were required to work mandatory overtime to finish the game and a few weeks before some 2077. Cyberpunk fans would be upset over the insufficiently positive reviews of the final game. The game quickly sold 13 million copies and was just as quickly removed from the PlayStation Store for performance issues. Despite years of marketing edgelord, decreased outside the NPD sales charts. Who did this whole messy cycle serve?

And yet we see her again with Dying light 2. Monday after the delay, Polish store PolskiGameDev.pl reported that development is not going welland that the studio was striving to fulfill its promise to create a dynamic and changing world. Last month, player reported that the project suffered from a lack of direction and cited a number of studio incidents that indicated a toxicity management model at Techland. Just last week, the studio posted on Twitter“I announced the game too early, but it’s far from a hell of a developer.” The Techland leadership sold a dream for what Dying light 2 It might be for fans a few years ago and now it’s a nightmare that fuels stupid commentators and potentially deeper issues in the studio.

Eventually, the game will come out (the new video says 2021) or not. It could be good or bad or even good. Whatever the outcome, we hope that the problems are very visible and obvious around 2077. Cyberpunk, Dying light 2, and games with similarly armed fan bases will persuade creators to stop relying on the circus hype for years to promote their games. Or at least stop accepting the worst parts of the fan base it tends to create.