As unpleasant as it must be to have your game criticised, few would say it's reasonable to tell someone to harm and/or take their own lives because they dared to leave a bad review.
Yet, one Steam developer decided all’s fair in video game creation and left the toxic comment for all to see.
Unsurprisingly, their actions have received a wall of backlash, so much so that they’ve since reportedly been fired from their position.
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This all started when Coin Pusher Casino launched. As you can likely gather from the title, this was never going to be a AAA title; it’s a casual gaming experience at best.
Yet, when Redditor Koentjuh_ left their “honest” review, things got out of hand extremely quickly.
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Throughout their review, Koentjuh is highly critical of Coin Pusher Casino. However, while their review is, by their own admission, “bad”, it spoke only of their experience.
But that was enough for one of the developers to reply saying, “Kill yoursells.”
The comment has since been deleted, and so the only proof it ever existed is from the Reddit OP themselves; they had the foresight to screenshot the interaction before it could disappear.
Many remarked on how the dev in question needed banning. One user said, “Reported the dev, we don’t need scum like that on Steam.”
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Whether it’s the collective reporting that took place, or the publicity of the comment, the result is the same: the developer has been punished.
In an official statement on Valve’s forums, the studio behind the game had this to say, “To our valued Steam users and the entire Steam community, we deeply regret the recent incident involving an inappropriate post made by one of our developers.”
“We sincerely apologise to the affected user and to the entire community for this unacceptable behaviour. We recognise the gravity of the situation and have taken immediate and decisive action. The developer responsible has been terminated and removed from the team,” the post continues.
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Not everyone accepts this, though, with some gamers arguing that the apology only came because the studio got “called out”.
Regardless, the whole affair further highlights the toxicity that (unfortunately) bubbles under the surface of the video games community.