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Paranautical Activity pulled from Steam after dev threatens Gabe Newell
- Thread starter JaseC
- Start date
20 going on 6.
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Just slightly older than my daughter. Not yet legally allowed to drink in my state.
I can understand being frustrated, VERY frustrated if I put a ton of hard work into creating and distributing something. But this is a business and you need to be professional if you work with partners. Don't vent publicly like this. It is highly inappropriate, and making a death threat, even in jest, is crossing the line. Steam is not a monopoly. It is just the most successful distribution service available. If Steam didn't exist, indie devs would have an even tougher time getting noticed. Despite the frustrations devs may face publishing on it, it is a partner worth keeping.
SteveWinwood
Member
yeah but does she have a twitter
Still just a kid then. He obviously has trouble controlling his temper, and incredibly stupid, but people are definitely being too harsh on him. Sure, the game deserves to be taken off of Steam, but the Internet shouldn't be the Internet over it.
Granted, it was only 6 years ago, but I did plenty of dumb stuff when I was his age - this shouldn't hang over his head (or his partner get abuse). At the end of the day, he's obviously passionate about the game - the knowledge that his actions have taken years of work away from him should be punishment enough.
blankempathy
Member
Valve has said what they need to said. We dont like the way you do buisness and that you threatened someone at our company so we're done with you. Hell I'm surprised theyd actually accept patches for the game for the people who own it on steam. They're not these peoples guardians or something. They're not going to wipe their asses and fix their problems. They're all being harassed because they simply keep venting and acting stupid over twitter. If they had just left the issue alone after the threat and gotten off twitter then things wouldn't be as bad as they are now. I have no sympathy for these idiots. I mean they brought it on their selves.
Edit
Ok the personal insults are a bit too much but if you step in the line of fire expect to be shot at. Its just stuff that could of been totally avoided.
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
blankempathy
Member
(Today, 03:58 PM)
I decline to answer this question,
SteveWinwood
Sowing his wild patented oats
(Today, 03:54 PM)
ElectricKaibutsu
Member
He did the right thing in the end. Well, the only thing he could do. I give the apology a 4.3.
Yeah you did. I half think Maulbeck read your post and thought it was a good idea.
Stone Ocean
Member
Pretty much. What is Valve going to say on the matter, "look at how these assholes are acting torwards our decision"?
The patch support is more for the Steam user base and customers. Steam already cut off the cash flow, which is what really matters. Denying patches just hurts their own customers.
LurkerPrime
Member
Oh, I missed that somehow. Thanks.
I can't blame Valve for drawing a line in the sand.
SteveWinwood
Member
im a really nice guy
Sorry but at 20 you're not a kid. You can die for your country and you can die by lethal injection.
Most people at 20 are not this stupid and unprofessional because most people at 20 have had to hold a job. Of course this should hang over his head. It's up to him and him only to rebuild his reputation and prove again to people that he can be professional. Until that happens, his reputation follows him because that's how the real world works.
Newp even young people can't make death threats.
Circle Jerk
Member
I was 20 more recently than you. I never sent a death threat to anyone because I wasn't a complete and total idiot. Sending a death threat to someone who can take my game off the biggest game store on the PC? I don't think I was that stupid as a preteen let alone 20.
Also, it's great that despite his apologies he's now retweeting someone that's arguing it wasn't a real death threat, and that people against him are the ones lacking empathy. Dude has such an anger issue he sends death threats less than an hour after the game comes out, but he's commenting on other people's ability to use empathy. Insane.
Seriously if you're trying to apologize and kill the story, perhaps don't retweet "What Mike said was stupid and wrong, but it was only a death threat in the broadest, least serious sense of the word."
Completely agree. 20 years old is far too old to be saying he's still just a kid. 16 should be old enough to know you don't do the ish he pulled on twitter and his ignorance towards why he's in the predicament he's in.
I'm 20. I think he's an idiot.
Hellsing321
Member
Hey Internet, can we stop being the internet for like 24 hours and just lay off Mike's girlfriend who had nothing to do with this situation? Getting his game removed is just punishment. Lets not throw some unjust punishments on there just because.
Fatal Futanari
Member
#NotAll20YearOlds
When I was 20, I met tons of people like Mike. Heck, I still do. Lots of people make blind threats. Alot do it everyday.
I'm not saying what they did was not wrong. They bad mouthed a business partner and they got their result.
blankempathy
Member
While the personal insults are too much maybe they should just get off the internet for a while? I mean people seriously need to stop making excuses for these people. They seemingly haven't learned anything from what happened and as far as I'm concerned when you go online and start blasting someone and continue to do so when you're wrong expect people to notice. At the same time it can go far. Again if they'd get off the damn itnernet for a while this would of/will blow over. They don't need someone to ask them to go easy on them. They're big kids they should use some common sense.
Okay...? So what you're saying is that most 20-year olds are immature kids who go off the rail on Twitter, then? Making death threats to employers/business partners? Your stance is as much #NotAll20YearOlds as those you're trying to refute.
Doesn't mean they don't need to grow up....as does Mike.
You and Yatesl are both right, basically.
But the middle ground here is that this is a young person who is learning new lessons all the time. He's an adult by societal standards, but his brain is still developing. He lashed out in frustration, which is a very human thing to do, but he did it in the wrong place in front of the wrong audience.
I think he's definitely immature for making that comment, and I'm sure that in time he'll understand why it was such an inappropriate thing to do. But this boils down to immaturity and unprofessionalism but little else.
We can't speak in general "mosts", because most people aren't like most other people. As an individual, none of us know this guy. He doesn't deserve vitriol or scorn. He has had the appropriate action taken by Steam already. At this point it is definitely his responsibility to overcome this incident, yes, but our impulse to create clear cut heroes/villains in any situation leaves this guy at a disadvantage over a very silly mistake.
Yes, he's got to right his own wrongs, but people also have to be willing to forgive if he makes an honest effort to correct things.
With that said, I think his game should definitely remain pulled. Death threats, no matter how offhanded, should be taken very seriously, and this is the sort of hard lesson that reminds people that murdering another human is not a thing to talk about lightly. If this developer has to be the one to take the hit on this one, so be it. But let's leave it at that and not tear his whole life apart.
Fatal Futanari
Member
Yes at the bolded part. Mainly because most people that age are transitioning from college to the "real world". BLIND death threats? Yea I've seen a few do it, mostly about teachers though (again, blind threats like, "I'ma strangle Mrs. K if she doesnt give me an A on my essay"). You guys have to realize that a lot of people are stupid when it comes to social media edict. What you may thing is "common sense", isn't for most.
What I was trying to get at with #NotAll20YearOlds is that not all 20 year olds have common sense when it comes to social media and/or technology these days. No one should be surprised that someone his age did something stupid like this. Most don't understand the ramifications that a single tweet or Facebook post can have. I do agree that they and many others need to grow up.
Eppy Thatcher
God's had his chance.
Lol what an idiot.
If one of my coworkers got on Facebook and basically sent our boss a tirade of ridiculous shit and then threatened hI'm in basically any way I wouldn't be surprised at all if he wasn't there the next day.
If one of my coworkers got on Facebook and basically sent our boss a tirade of ridiculous shit and then threatened hI'm in basically any way I wouldn't be surprised at all if he wasn't there the next day.
CosmicQueso
Member
This is about one adult male, who did something that is wrong and that comes with repercussions.
You can't hashtag it.
You can't hashtag it.
spacemonkeynation
Member
I'm glad it was pulled. People need to understand that internet discourse isn't just an avenue for unfiltered vile garbage. I hope we continue to see more action taken against the hate speech that has become so prevalent online.
It's amazing to me that really intelligent people can make such incredibly poor, thoughtless decisions. This guy spent years working on a game and threw it all away in under 180 characters.
It's amazing to me that really intelligent people can make such incredibly poor, thoughtless decisions. This guy spent years working on a game and threw it all away in under 180 characters.
I think devs should expect things to work smoothly on Steam's part. Their livelihood depends on that. Let's not act like Valve doesn't make mistakes.
How did this evolve to people insulting his girlfriend? Man, the internet is a dumb place sometimes. I'm not really following this but fuck everyone attacking him or her.
This kid learnt one of life's hard lessons, but one that will stand him in much better stead in the future. The fact he has declared the end of his game development days shows his immaturity. I expect him to look upon this incident when his career is back on track as Valve doing him a favour. We all need a kick in the balls every now and again to help shape us into better people.
I do find the wording of Valve's severance email odd however. On one hand it seems to give a green light to disgruntled developers to slag the company off in the public domain, yet suddenly draws an arbitrary line on this so-called "threat to kill". For me this tweet was a self-aware and consciously dramatic statement of his frustration, designed to grab attention. A genuine, credible threat it most certainly wasn't. Valve could have simply stated that his unprofessional and insulting behaviour has breached the terms of his contract/agreement and left it at that.
I do find the wording of Valve's severance email odd however. On one hand it seems to give a green light to disgruntled developers to slag the company off in the public domain, yet suddenly draws an arbitrary line on this so-called "threat to kill". For me this tweet was a self-aware and consciously dramatic statement of his frustration, designed to grab attention. A genuine, credible threat it most certainly wasn't. Valve could have simply stated that his unprofessional and insulting behaviour has breached the terms of his contract/agreement and left it at that.
20 is young. 20 may be naive. 20 is a perfectly accountable and thus punishable age. At that age you can do stupid shit that "ruins your life" and you still have pretty much the entirety of your prime to work with anyway. Live and learn, etc.
Unless you end up dead because you're a moron who drunkenly crashed 200mph into a tree or something, then you're SOL.
My point being being younger isn't a get-out-of-jail free card you can wave around to excuse doing stupid shit. Some things, like the laws of physics, do not entertain discussion, nor do they dole out forgiveness.
spacemonkeynation
Member
I thought that was pretty admirable. It shows that they respect free speech until it turns toward hate speech (which is illegal).
What I'm getting at with the age thing, is there isn't a magical age hit that makes you gain common sense. If you don't have it at 20, you probably won't have it at 26 unless something that greatly affects you, like this for Mike, gives you a swift kick in the ass.
He's at an age where he should know...plain and simple. A 30 year old with no tact can make the same mistake...
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
They move on to insulting the girlfriend after they're done with the boyfriend because they're easy targets. Next they'll move to other close acquaintances. Because people are horrible. If anyone needs the instant internet karma it's the people who think they can hide behind their anonymity and fire insults and threats of their own.
Lanrutcon
Member
Pretty much.
Like they said: there's a pretty obvious line between 'I'm unhappy, you fuckers" and "I am going to kill you".
oh we're blaming the invention of twitter now for facilitating people to say stupid shit and not the people that choose to use it to say stupid shit?
tell me more about the logic class you took, totalbiscuit
edit: regarding mike leaving the company and selling his half... I wanna see the receipts.. I don't believe this guy for a second
tell me more about the logic class you took, totalbiscuit
edit: regarding mike leaving the company and selling his half... I wanna see the receipts.. I don't believe this guy for a second
Laurentius
Member
vIfJH
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CosmicQueso
Member
Sure, but you can't criticize god.
As if that URL is the only problem there...If this whole situation wasn't evidence enough that Mike is incapable of being professional, his business card includes a PornHub URL.
Crazy that having a porn url in your business card isnt even in the top 5 things wrong with your card.If this whole situation wasn't evidence enough that Mike is incapable of being professional, his business card includes a PornHub URL.
Christ. What a mess of a business card.
I feel like he's a real life joke character.If this whole situation wasn't evidence enough that Mike is incapable of being professional, his business card includes a PornHub URL.
Laurentius
Member
Dqyuo
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Wolfgunblood Garopa
Member
loooooool
It's funny, according to the other guy he just quit: https://twitter.com/Vallisca3x3x3/status/524680118518960128