The guy deserves credit for doing the right thing and accepting that he has a problem at least. It would be a nice gesture on Valve's part to reinstate the game in a couple of weeks after this has died down a bit. The remaining devs at the company probably don't deserve to be ruined just because their (ex) colleague said some dumb things on twitter.

@istareatthesun: That was well said. It's hard to take into account how Valve would react if someone from a AAA dev did the same thing. I don't think it's unlikely that their game would be take down.

But we also don't have any evidence to state either way. So, it's hard to say if Code Avarice is possibly being treated differently because their smaller for this particular situation.

@istareatthesun: That was a great post. Is the stuff about Greenlight and Adult Swim true that you mentioned at the beginning? Where did you see that?

I personally have felt more pain and embarrassment looking back at life at the moments I chose not to speak up about something I was passionate about and kept it buried in me. I guess I'm equating defiant passion to being a dick. The two aren't mutually exclusive but they are, in my estimation, the paragon and renegade sides to the whole problem. But your right in that everyone should be respectful of each other.

@rethla: LOL I was just about to say the exact same thing

@2headedninja: I agree with you in the most part, but these situations are tricky. GamerGate (Which I find profoundly insulting, and angering that they just put gate to make it seem like a scandal, because I doubt anybody involved knows what Watergate is. This probably just applies to me though.) and the death and rape threats along with the disgusting misogynistic attitudes it has brought out, is totally different than this. I have looked barely into Gamergate, since I first heard about it, and at first I thought it was about reviews for games where the reviewer paid for that game on kickstarter, but did not disclose that. I am for changing that, it doesn't mean the reviewer is bias, but disclosure is important for any perceived possible conflict of interest. Whatever weird problems this faceless leaderless group felt they had with ethics in journalism was washed away in death and rape threats and publishing personal information on those who got the threats. Along with countless articles on sites talking about the gaming industry and games in general as by men and for men. That since games were made for men (THEY ABSOLUTELY ARE NOT JUST MADE FOR MEN) that women have no place in the community or criticizing games at all. This situation is different and it fits 12 angry men perfectly, he obviously did not mean it, but I also agree it was unacceptable and he should apologize to Newell even after he left the company and I think Valve should put the game back up, because it hurts others with no involvement in the controversy. The business argument goes both ways, and while Steam has the power to do whatever it wants I find it semi gross, that at a whim Games can be removed on the imperative of one person. Like when Apps in the app store are games disguised as criticism of Apple Policies, this kind of thing, not the steam situation is essentially censorship. Death threats are never okay, and social media makes it worst because that spark of anger in real life is directed at probably one person in front of you, where on the internet, your saying this so the whole world can see.

The problem with "this person obviously didn't mean it" is that it's true, until one day it's not. We can't afford to take death threats as a joke. The price might be too high.

@spraynardtatum:

First off, happy birthday Spray, I'm disappointed in you.

Now I can address your questions. I couldn't find where I saw that tidbit about Greenlight before, but I did find this polygon article that covers what happened. I may have been misinformed before or slightly misinterpreted the events, because it sounds like they were able to revive the Greenlight campaign eventually, but Valve denied them the right to distribute on Steam through a publisher because they had already submitted their game through Greenlight.

To me personally defiant passion is not being a dick. Not at all. That's being a hero. We all have a right to our own sense of integrity and we all should work to uphold that. I think where the line gets crossed is when a person indulges their destructive tendencies in the process. Entitlement, meanness, violence, and slander are not constructive ways to affect change when voicing dissent. As this whole "Murderbeck" fiasco illustrates, it can not only destroy you but also the people around you.

Anger is fuel. It is an undeniable part of human experience. Many great things have happened that began in anger (the civil rights movement for instance), but without temperance and, dare I say it, humility anger can become a devastating plague.

You think after something like this happened you'd stay low and maybe stay away from twitter a bit...nope he keeps tweeting.

@istareatthesun: Oh he absolutely shouldn't have said what he did where he did. He was wielding the power of the darkside and that's not okay. Still feel horrible for him and all the harassment he's faced since.

@mooseymcman: Where in the rules does it say that word is banned? I looked and all I could see was reference to cursing in thread titles?

Not cool to threat Lord Gaben. Not cool at all.

Ladies and gentlemen, THE INTERNET!

*applause.mp3*

I propose that Twitter support the Comic Sans font. When users wish to make a humorous or sarcastic death threat, they shall be obligated by the EULA to put it in Comic Sans.

the tidal wave of dumbass gamers screaming "A BLOO BLOO BLOO WHY CAN'T I ACT LIKE A TOTAL SHITHEAD ON THE INTERNET, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO BE AN ADULT" rolls on :]

getting your game pulled off of steam isn't the worst thing to happen, considering a death threat is still a "terrorist threat" and could easily get the Law Enforcement sent on him. Again he's lucky but shows how irresponsible people can be today.

"....If I do continue to work in games it’ll be as an anonymous 1 of 1000 at some shitty corporation."

Well, that statement is one he might want to take back as well. Who wants to hire a guy who thinks working for someone else is a waste of his time or means he has lowered himself. I really think this person needs to step back and work out his own issues. I've been there, it hard when you are angry/enthused to hold back.

In the past two months I'm been a bit hotheaded myself, but after a few 'dings' I really had to stepped back. This fellow sees a problem, but I think his solution is a bit defeatist. Moreover, that is not dealing with the problem; it is saying "Well that's me...I can't change."

This is why it's important to keep cool and maintain control of ones emotions. You shoot yourself in the foot every time.

Adding another reason to the list of "Why i will never have a Twitter account."

I'm seeing this a lot in the thread "he did not deserve it he was just blowing off some anger." That's not the world we live in. Again we are also talking about the world of business, You need to be professional. The opposite of that is going onto twitter (or other social media) and having some childish tantrums. For some reason it's almost seen as an injustice that he got the game removed for being a complete idiot and especially for being a complete idiot to a company WHO IS DOING A FAVOR for you by adding you to there service and marketing you on their front page. People really need to find ways of coping with anger, seriously if you resort to just yell at people you need a better way. Here I'll provide you with a list of ideas on anger management and control, Go on a walk in the woods or a park (Nature is healing yo), Take a nice drive around your favorite areas, play video games, talk to someone else you are close to about the problem, watch TV, play sports, practice sports, talk to your therapist (therapy is awesome duders) just do something you enjoy. Seriously it's not that hard.

I have to agree. Sometimes it can depends on the corporate culture with some inter-employee relationships, but when one employee from one company making at threat or merely insults someone at another company then a huge line has been crossed in most cases.

In my job communications is so important, we stress not screwing up business interactions so much that we have seminars twice a year just about how to talk to people who our our customers or peers. We are trained to use word judo like 'reflective listening'. But, it flows the other way too, we literally had three police officers in our building today removing a 'messed up' patron from our library. People get a lot of leeway to be angry with us and we are trained to keep our cool, but they cannot threaten us. And, we can't threaten each other - ever.

But, again, they threaten us: they get frog marched out by a cop and maybe can't come back. We threatens a patron/customer or each other, game over...we have no job - which is much worse if you ask me. We are paid to take heat and take insults without getting angry or lashing back...that's is very much a part of our job...that is a part being called a professional.

The game actually looked really fun.

You know all those muppets who go on twitter and use it to say any horrible shit they want?

He's one of them and consequences are fantastic. Pity he chose to take his team down with him.

Twitter is the last place you should go when you are extremely angry or overcome with emotion. The likelihood of posting something you will be proud of hours later, is very low.