It's a bit of a waste of breath to go on about how little I understand those who go complaining to real world people over virtual world shenanigans- I mean I'll run my mouth about a toxic industry influence doing the absolute worst they possibly can- but I ain't gonna go hit up their Twitter threating to murder the man: who profits from that? But there I go again, explaining the intuitive- there's no putting your brainwave on the same level as evolutionary rejects though, is there? Misbegotten, yet resilient, lines of humanity untouched by the last 2 centuries of development who find themselves utterly incapable of conceptualising a world of action and consequence where they have any responsibility to the world around them. Truly wonderful case samples for why procreation doesn't always benefit society. Harsh, yes- but so very true.
I've talked before about this situation when it came to the actors of the recent Resident Evil products, particularly the new Ada Wong voice actress who was bullied off her own social media accounts for giving a bad performance in the latest remake game. And yeah, her performance stood out as a sore spot in an otherwise pristine game- but it takes a special kind of unhinged to take that as just cause to go stomping up to her virtual door in order to make the actress feel bad to her face. What does that achieve for literally anybody? That's not particularly rare, either- whenever a 'bad job' has been whittled down to a single scape-goat it's commonly accepted as totally fair game to attack that individual as directly and distastefully as one can muster- as though you're been personally wronged by the person in question.
And of course, it's not just individuals. Entire groups and teams can find themselves placed in hot water for any manner of infraction perceived big or small, from making a sweeping patch to the various damage outputs in Diablo 4 that ruins certain metas to simply not communicating enough on social media. Or heck, communicating too much but about the 'wrong' topic. There really isn't a way to exist on the internet within the gaming community without becoming the target of some sort of ire or idle internet threat. It's always easy to wish on someone's death for not agreeing with every single belief structure you've ever cobbled together and then hastily revised throughout your entire life. Afterall, life is about enforcing your will upon as much of the world as possible, right? That was sarcasm, obviously.
If there is any better indication that literally no one can find themselves spared from this more grim and inevitable part of the internet culture sphere- look no further than last year's biggest video game darling: Baldur's Gate 3. Oh yes, the undisputed Game of the Year- award sweeping, player base stacking, roleplaying excellence from a company who dedicated their entire decades long career to perfecting a very specific and complicated craft. There is no higher pedestal that Larian Studio could be propped up upon if they searched for one- surely if any video game company is beyond reproach it would be the literal poster boys and girls of everything the conscious gaming public has been yearning for! Who would attack the literal industry heroes?
Well according to the words of Larian themselves, in a recent address that announced the coming reality of mod support to the game- (whatever that entails) people who were waiting for that vague addition to the game's repertoire. I'll admit, 'official mod support' is a largely meaningless proposition to me because outside of the games cobbled together in the rusty and creaky anvil of the 'Creation Engine' there's rarely any huge status quo shift from these moments in a game's life cycle. The again, Baldur's Gate 3 is exceptionally popular already when it comes to it's community, and cobbled together mods already dot the usual sites, so perhaps a new age of modding will be sparked when real support drops later this year. But even then that is a maybe, it's a hope for a possibility- a bet on the ephemeral- nothing to get worked up over.
And yet community correspondents have confirmed their silence over the coming mod support as proven to be enough to warrant death threats- because of course. And I don't just mean the threats sent by other industry professionals absolutely terrified of being held to high standards. (That was a joke, of course.) These are people upset that the game cannot currently support theoretical complex mods that might be made in the future- which is like getting angry over not being supplied with truckloads of rock that might have some rare gems in there potentially if you're lucky. It's pointless and highlights the absurdity of this entire subculture of internet discourse. Because I don't believe these sorts of threats are coming from passions so inflamed that they can only be espoused through propositions of violence- I think it's dumber than that.
I think this kind of dialogue and discourse is what is considered 'normal' in the absolute shrivelled and underdeveloped walnuts these people house their 'higher functions' within. These aren't 'special and vehement' calls to violence, else they wouldn't be so common or, god forbid, actually more often be active threats instead of distasteful discourse. It's the same level of rhetoric you'll find on the plains of Pandemonium, better known as 4chan, for those self destructive enough to peek in on there. Modern day 4chan is just chuds spouting slurs from the early 2000s like they exist as the very cutting edge of edge- never realising how pathetic it is that they still rock around with a brain stuck in objectively the worst decade of entertainment ever.
The reason why I don't consider the death threat squads credible people, is because they always seem like that same sort of 4chan breed. Creeps who never mentally developed past their embarrassing prime totally oblivious to the world outside the box they type into. It's an inescapable reality of existing within a medium predicated on the idea of perpetual and unlimited preservation, of all the best and outdated of history. Arrested development clings to these kinds of 'internet weirdoes' like a plague, shocking and jarring those unfortunates who didn't realise behaviour like that made it past the 2010's. So long as the Internet exists, so will it's worms. But at least we can rest safe in the reality that as nature's least consequential cretin, such worms are easily ignored.
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