KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
There's been a lot of discussions about online death threats and harassment as of late, most of the evidence of which is swirling around the dunce cap wearing tempest in the corner called GamerGate. However it turns out that threatening to kill the founder of Valve, Game Newell isn't a particularly smart plan either, as the developer of Paranautical Activity, Mike Maulbeck found out after a Twitter rant, when Valve pulled his game from Steam.
Maulbeck's social media attack against Valve didn't last for long, but has quite a bit of history. As Polygon points out, Paranautical Activity would have been on Steam last year, but due to it being in the Greenlight process, Valve didn't want anyone queue jumping, even if they could get a publishing deal with Adult Swim. Understandably, Maulbeck wasn't best pleased.
That resentment boiled over this week, when the developer – having changed his name to a Halloween themed, “Murderbeck” – found after finally making it out of early access, he couldn't publish on weekends. On top of that, it seems Valve continued to advertise the game in that state, even when it was finally given the go ahead.
And then that led to this tweet:
Source: Facepunch Forum
Valve's near immediate response was to pull the man's game from Steam, leaving Maulbeck to go through several stages of grief, most of it on Twitter. However he has received some support from people stating that it was clearly not an actual death threat and that Valve didn't remove the game from Steam because it would help prevent a murder, it did it as a punishment, something that some have questioned if Valve should be allowed to do.
While Maulbeck has now said that he's unlikely to continue game development, due to needing the Steam sales platform to make a decent living. However he did say that if he ever made another game, he hopes “steam doesn't have this awful f***ing monopoly anymore.”
If you'd still like to buy Paranautical Activity, an FPS roguelike, with a Minecraft like aesthetic, you can buy it from the official site or through the humble store.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: This is the danger of one dominant sales platform – you live or you die by it as a developer. Granted it seems smart to avoid death threats, real or sarcastic on any social media these days. Especially if you live in the UK.
You don’t threaten your publisher. What did he think would happen? Did he expect them to say how sorry they were and kiss him on the cheek for being a vile human being?
Don’t bite the hand that feeds.
Quite simple really
He deserves getting his game pulled, Steam is a reputable company and so should gave developers give the company the respect they deserve. Any disputes should be in private allowing consumers to have trust in the games steam publishes and its platform. Giving death threats is against the law anywhere and should never be taken lightly.
Any business has the right to not deal with a customer regardless of how they feel about it. While some may say valve should have the power to do so dont have a leg to stand on.
Think before you speak dumbass.
What the fuck?
A dev is mad because his game was named still named “Early Access” in the feaured page a couple of hours after he told valve that it is not an early access game anymore.
He’s so pissed off that he threatened to kill Gabe… Dumb move.
I mean c’mon, Steam is giving him a chance to publish and feature his game in the most popular digital game distributor, who would dare to threaten them? (this guy obviously lol)
Respect your publishers if you want your game to be published, don’t bitch and moan just cause they messed up a bit of information.
Big corporations like Valve don’t have time to look at death threats and think “Hmm.. is this a joke or wat” , They take everything seriously since death threats ARE to be taken seriously.
And now he’s constantly saying on twitter that “omg steam pls i cant make a living without chu” (not actual quote)
He deserves this punishment. I think he even deserves to be banned from Steam and if he is then lets see if he would respect Valve and Steam now.
Kids need to be properly conducted.
I honestly think that this was sarcasm. I mean that would be the kind of thing I’d say if I was pissed. of course I wouldn’t really mean to kill him. things said on twitter should only be taken with a hint of irony, sarcasm and exageration. Though I wouldve probably removed the second sentence and added a “xD”
yeah lets fire you because you said you hated your boss on Facebook and THEN make sure that you’re never taken in any other well known company. Seems like a great idea.
Valve has every right to pull a product from THEIR service if a dev is going to act like a complete child, seriously this guy sounds like a twat.
Your reasoning is infantile. “I mean that would be the kind of thing I’d say if I was slightly pissed” since when is threatening to end someones life a reasonable thing to say because you’re “slightly pissed”. Moreso than that, why do YOU honestly believe it is? NOBODY takes death threats lightly. Lemme enlighten you as to why, since you’re so very appallingly in the dark and since it’s quite so very obvious. While YOU “wouldn’t really mean to kill him” others have made the very same threats and–ooooh guess what? THEY ACTUALLY FUCKING KILLED SOMEONE. There’s no “awh, jk, bro, jk. lol y u so sensitive” in reality.
The dumb shit threatened to end someones life AND PUBLICALLY, ergo its WELL within Steams right to pull this tards game and not associate themselves with someone who finds threatening to violate universal principle to be a thing to say when one is “slightly pissed”.
again your reasoning is infantile “I’m gonna kill my boss” doesn’t magically only mean “golly gee, I sure do have a dislike of my superiors”. Grow up.
Yeah, you’re right. Take everything written on TWITTER seriously.
Next time I kill someone, I’ll be sure to go tell it to the police and the media first. Will probably make the job easier.