Bungie Reduces Communication With Destiny 2 Community After Threats
Bungie has confirmed that it has been intentionally reducing its communication with the Destiny 2 community after excessive harassment and threats directed at the studio. Bungie has always been a very transparent studio, even going back to its days on the Halo series. Not only would it actively engage with the community via special in-game events and content, but it would also release things like the vidocs, which were behind-the-scenes videos that highlighted the development of its games. They were incredibly well received and a breath of fresh air for a notoriously secretive industry that largely has to keep things airtight due to the ever-changing nature of game development.
Nonetheless, Bungie has been less engaged with its community in recent weeks and months. Bungie community manager Dylan Gafner, also known as DMG in the community, took to Reddit to talk about why the studio has pulled back on its normal means of communication. Gafner noted that he is on personal leave from the company at the moment following threats that were specifically directed at him and his family. Bungie recently filed a lawsuit against a Destiny player named Luca Leone after he told Gafner that he wouldn't be "safe", amongst many other things. Gafner noted in the aforementioned Reddit post that the team is planning "future protections / strategies" to avoid incidents like this in the future. He also stated this isn't meant to be a punishment to the well behaved members of the community and that the team is actively planning ways to communicate with the community once everything is straightened out.
No timeline was provided, but Gafner did note that it could take weeks or months. The situation highlights an ongoing issue in the industry with regards to harassment. Just weeks ago, developers on God of War Ragnarok noted how they had been harassed about the game's then-unannounced release date. Shortly after this incident, the game's release date was officially announced, though it wasn't as a result of the harassment.
What do you think of Bungie's communication? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
[H/T Forbes]