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It's not like every fan was acting like that. "We've received death threats" has become a tool to try and change the topic from whatever made people upset.

by dx87 6y ago

detaro 6y ago
That not everybody does it doesn't make it any more acceptable, or makes rightfully complaining about it any more unacceptable.
- ekianjo 6y ago
  > That not everybody does it doesn't make it any more acceptable, who said to accept it? Above poster said that death threats are easy to get these days for virtually anything and can hardly be used as an excuse.
  - detaro 6y ago
    Who is using it to excuse anything? Saying that objecting to death threats is used as a distraction technique or "as an excuse" is pretty much suggesting you shouldn't object to it, because doing so is trying to distract or make excuses instead of objecting to unacceptable behavior.
    - mlyle 6y ago
      A) death threats aren't acceptable. They're not really fun to receive. I remember a span when I received several and while I was fairly sure they weren't serious, it's still not too fun to think about. B) whinging about inevitable death threats to deflect attention from your gaffes isn't really great, either. The public complaint, if anything, further normalizes the death threats with people inclined to make them. Secondarily, it generates sympathy and distraction, which is probably the effect one wanted when one chose to whinge. If one wants to object to death threats in a way that improves our culture and makes them less likely, it's probably best done out of band from the actual coverage of one's failing. Do it retrospectively, and in contemplative channels, not ones that are already polemic and filled with attention to the failing that caused the original outrage.
      - pmoriarty 6y ago
        "If one wants to object to death threats in a way that improves our culture and makes them less likely, it's probably best done out of band from the actual coverage of one's failing. Do it retrospectively, and in contemplative channels, not ones that are already polemic and filled with attention to the failing that caused the original outrage." Violent extremists are often operate under the mistaken belief that they represent the "silent majority", and that most people secretly agree with what they do. This is one reason that when a political party that tacitly or explicitly approves of extremist violence gets in to power more terrorist acts are committed. It's also why, for example, racists terrorists believe the murders they commit will spark a "race war". They believe that most people are secretly racist, and all it'll take for such a war to start is for their murders to encourage people's secret hatred to come to the surface. To counteract this, it's important for the real majority to not be silent, and instead condemn violence, hatred, and terrorism (which includes death threats) in the strongest possible terms. When terrorists see evidence that the majority actually opposes them it'll require a lot more cognitive dissonance on their part to continue to believe that they represent the majority. This is not a panacea, and I don't imagine for a moment that it will end all violence, especially as some people will never believe the evidence of their lying eyes, but many people speaking out in public against violence is one of the most effective tools we have for combating violent extremism.
        mlyle 6y ago
        Sure. I think it's only useful out of band, though, in these cases. Because if you're pissed off about Cyberpunk 2077, and think death threats are OK... seeing an article with more news about '2077 being late, and an aside of them saying "these death threats are upsetting us" A) reinforces your belief death threats for situations like this are normal, and B) provides you with some validation/happies. I'd wager that the kind of people who issue death threats over video game delays has a pretty big overlap with 4chan. 4chan peeps know their behavior is not normative, and having a bunch of outcry has never stopped their pursuit of the luls... and the kind of article mentioning the threats you're talking about is pretty much winning from their standpoint.
- DuskStar 6y ago
  What it does, is make "but we received death threats for this, we couldn't have done more" irrelevant as you'll get death threats for whatever you do.
  - detaro 6y ago
    Where does that suddenly come from?
- dx87 6y ago
  I never said it's acceptable, but when twitter has close to 200 million daily users, you're going to get some death threats when you do something that makes people upset. And it's blatant PR when the company is forcing the devs to do even more crunch time, then tweet about "death threats" and you see the conversation immediately switch from critical to supportive. It's also not like tweeting "Death threats are NOT OKAY" is going to change the mind of the kind of people who send death threats.
- ramblerman 6y ago
  Nobody said it was right, but it still derails from discussion by offering essentially an insignificant datapoint. At this point on the internet, if the topic touches more than 100,000 people and its controversial. You can probably find a few truly heinous comments. And giving them attention, is kind of what they are after.
ntsplnkv2 6y ago
Death threats happen so much to everyone now online it's hard to take them seriously. Which is really rather sad, isn't it?
stjohnswarts 6y ago
I think it's fairly pertinent that you're getting death threats to you and your family from potential psychos. 99% are probably just peeved man-boys, but it only takes that 1% to kill you or someone you care about. I would say it especially if you get a few hundred a day and you're working 16 hours a day for months on end to push out a game.
- FruityCoconut 6y ago
  It's not 1% of them though. It's 0%. None of them are getting off the couch to kill anyone because their video game release is delayed. It's an expression of frustration, and we all know that. Unfortunately in today's world, feeling threatened is socially valuable so they're simply playing on that. It says more to me about the disingenuity and/or weakness of the "victim" than anything else. We need to laugh at people more.
me_me_me 6y ago
Yes couple of teenagers and mental children sent some. That doesn't mean that the whole player base want them dead over delivery date. Its just very vocal fringe minority.
- koheripbal 6y ago
  You are right, but social media has a tendency of amplifying the voices of its most dysfunctional members.

It's not like every fan was acting like that. "We've received death threats" has become a tool to try and change the topic from whatever made people upset.

by dx87 6y ago

It's not like every fan was acting like that. "We've received death threats" has become a tool to try and change the topic from whatever made people upset.

detaro 6y ago

That not everybody does it doesn't make it any more acceptable, or makes rightfully complaining about it any more unacceptable.

ekianjo 6y ago
> That not everybody does it doesn't make it any more acceptable, who said to accept it? Above poster said that death threats are easy to get these days for virtually anything and can hardly be used as an excuse.
- detaro 6y ago
  Who is using it to excuse anything? Saying that objecting to death threats is used as a distraction technique or "as an excuse" is pretty much suggesting you shouldn't object to it, because doing so is trying to distract or make excuses instead of objecting to unacceptable behavior.
  - mlyle 6y ago
    A) death threats aren't acceptable. They're not really fun to receive. I remember a span when I received several and while I was fairly sure they weren't serious, it's still not too fun to think about. B) whinging about inevitable death threats to deflect attention from your gaffes isn't really great, either. The public complaint, if anything, further normalizes the death threats with people inclined to make them. Secondarily, it generates sympathy and distraction, which is probably the effect one wanted when one chose to whinge. If one wants to object to death threats in a way that improves our culture and makes them less likely, it's probably best done out of band from the actual coverage of one's failing. Do it retrospectively, and in contemplative channels, not ones that are already polemic and filled with attention to the failing that caused the original outrage.
    - pmoriarty 6y ago
      "If one wants to object to death threats in a way that improves our culture and makes them less likely, it's probably best done out of band from the actual coverage of one's failing. Do it retrospectively, and in contemplative channels, not ones that are already polemic and filled with attention to the failing that caused the original outrage." Violent extremists are often operate under the mistaken belief that they represent the "silent majority", and that most people secretly agree with what they do. This is one reason that when a political party that tacitly or explicitly approves of extremist violence gets in to power more terrorist acts are committed. It's also why, for example, racists terrorists believe the murders they commit will spark a "race war". They believe that most people are secretly racist, and all it'll take for such a war to start is for their murders to encourage people's secret hatred to come to the surface. To counteract this, it's important for the real majority to not be silent, and instead condemn violence, hatred, and terrorism (which includes death threats) in the strongest possible terms. When terrorists see evidence that the majority actually opposes them it'll require a lot more cognitive dissonance on their part to continue to believe that they represent the majority. This is not a panacea, and I don't imagine for a moment that it will end all violence, especially as some people will never believe the evidence of their lying eyes, but many people speaking out in public against violence is one of the most effective tools we have for combating violent extremism.
      - mlyle 6y ago
        Sure. I think it's only useful out of band, though, in these cases. Because if you're pissed off about Cyberpunk 2077, and think death threats are OK... seeing an article with more news about '2077 being late, and an aside of them saying "these death threats are upsetting us" A) reinforces your belief death threats for situations like this are normal, and B) provides you with some validation/happies. I'd wager that the kind of people who issue death threats over video game delays has a pretty big overlap with 4chan. 4chan peeps know their behavior is not normative, and having a bunch of outcry has never stopped their pursuit of the luls... and the kind of article mentioning the threats you're talking about is pretty much winning from their standpoint.
DuskStar 6y ago
What it does, is make "but we received death threats for this, we couldn't have done more" irrelevant as you'll get death threats for whatever you do.
- detaro 6y ago
  Where does that suddenly come from?
dx87 6y ago
I never said it's acceptable, but when twitter has close to 200 million daily users, you're going to get some death threats when you do something that makes people upset. And it's blatant PR when the company is forcing the devs to do even more crunch time, then tweet about "death threats" and you see the conversation immediately switch from critical to supportive. It's also not like tweeting "Death threats are NOT OKAY" is going to change the mind of the kind of people who send death threats.
ramblerman 6y ago
Nobody said it was right, but it still derails from discussion by offering essentially an insignificant datapoint. At this point on the internet, if the topic touches more than 100,000 people and its controversial. You can probably find a few truly heinous comments. And giving them attention, is kind of what they are after.

ntsplnkv2 6y ago

Death threats happen so much to everyone now online it's hard to take them seriously. Which is really rather sad, isn't it?

stjohnswarts 6y ago

I think it's fairly pertinent that you're getting death threats to you and your family from potential psychos. 99% are probably just peeved man-boys, but it only takes that 1% to kill you or someone you care about. I would say it especially if you get a few hundred a day and you're working 16 hours a day for months on end to push out a game.

FruityCoconut 6y ago
It's not 1% of them though. It's 0%. None of them are getting off the couch to kill anyone because their video game release is delayed. It's an expression of frustration, and we all know that. Unfortunately in today's world, feeling threatened is socially valuable so they're simply playing on that. It says more to me about the disingenuity and/or weakness of the "victim" than anything else. We need to laugh at people more.

me_me_me 6y ago

Yes couple of teenagers and mental children sent some. That doesn't mean that the whole player base want them dead over delivery date. Its just very vocal fringe minority.

koheripbal 6y ago
You are right, but social media has a tendency of amplifying the voices of its most dysfunctional members.