I'm sure I wasn't alone in my disappointment when Cyberpunk was pushed back to next month. It was nearly within my grasp, the thing that would make 2020 worth living through, to be snatched away 3 short weeks before release. A tad overdramatic a reaction perhaps, but not when you consider people have been sending death threats to CD Projekt Red's staff because of the delay.
Andrzej Zawadzki took to Twitter to comment.
Whereas I do understand the frustration and upset at the delays, I was pretty sad too when I heard, there is nothing that deserves death threats. Absolutely nothing. Not even Donald Trump. #ElectionHumour
It has long been an accepted monster in the closet in video games - for some reasons fans haven't quite grasped social nuances such as not sending death threats to devs OVER A VIDEO GAME DELAY. The gaming community as a whole can be incredibly quick to jump to personal attacks.
I myself have faced this when I dared to question the representation of plus size people in games. Both death and cancer were wished upon me and I nearly gave up journalism. What a day that was.
It is truly worrying to see this sort of behaviour persisting, and worse, people waving it off as if it's not a big deal. This isn't children we're talking about. This is grown adults who should know better. There's no behaviour that could justify this treatment.
But what can be done? The Internet is blessed and cursed by its ability to create anonymity. I fear that the only way to control this may be on the developers themselves, to limit or hide the ways they can be communicated with. The onus should not be on the injured party though to make sure they don't get such awful messages.
Something has to change, that much is apparent. But what? If you think of something, let me know?
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