Quoting: CyrilI particularly hate the issue about the publisher, like "faster = better"... this has to stop (but yeah it's capitalism isn't it?).

Why?
When I give someone money, agreeing to certain conditions, and then it becomes obvious that those conditions will not be met - and it seems increasingly unlikely that further investments would see any return... Well, then I just withdraw and cut my losses.
That's just common sense, which really could be a bit more common amongst some game developers.

Would you let yourself be screwed over?
This has nothing to do with demanding too much or "faster = better".

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... you are aware that key can be changed in the settings? First thing I always do...

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Quoting: NanobangI'd be surprised if this game got onto any OS. Ever.

It is being sold on Steam, so...

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Really one of the reasons that when I develop a game, I won't go for crowdfunding. At least not for basic funding.
You'll just end up with responsibilities you might not be able to fulfill if things go south.

If you only put your own money in, at least you won't be wasting other people's money in the case of failure.

Quoting: Whitewolfe80Well I had not heard of this game and maybe its just me but this game doesnt seem it should of taken longer that 2 years to make as it doesnt look that complex from a design point of view. So am guessing four years was taking the piss judging by the publisher dropping them. That is the problem with inde projects if the main dev has poor health there is no plan B and invetitably game funding goes on funding care to get back to work.

While a person health is ultimately way more important that a project,Project management is something indie studios either need to invest in or hire someone what will kick ass if its needed to get the project on track. The mark of sucessful indie team is delivering on time and ideally under budget.

Quite true.
Four years does seem off, even for a very small team.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyThe ironic part here is that, again, if your link is true this is a story of anti-SJW types screwing over other anti-SJW types (the developer/s) by exposing them, and still other anti-SJW types screwing over the anti-SJW developers by boycotting them for, um, doing the bidding of their corporate bosses like any sane person in this society would. And they're all blaming people who aren't transphobic for it. Hey, looks like y'all did this to yourselves.

No. Just no.
This is a - often repeated - story of SJWs causing a tempest in a teapot (stirred by a troll in this case, but that just puts even more blame on them, as they let themselves be trolled, blindly, easily and willingly), and a publisher and a developer caving in to them without any good reason whatsoever* and actual fans and supporters reacting to that with the only at least somewhat effective method available to them.
What "anti-SJWs" did was not screwing someone over after getting trolled, but screwing a publisher and developer over who caved in to the demands of a few people who aren't even their core fanbase. Quite justified.

I am not convinced the developer is innocent in this.
Did they really have to do everything the publisher told them, including mandatory brainwashings sensitivity trainings? I do hope some more light will be shed on what really happened behind the scenes there.
At the moment, them happily censoring themselves is just as likely as being forced to - which still begs the question wtf kind of contract they signed to force them to this level of obedience.

If anything good came from this whole debacle, it is that some charity received money. Can't see any downside in that.

*The situation here isn't new. These constantly offended people and their little media circle is factually irrelevant - again, as seen by review scores whenever something like this happens. They don't make a dent in sales or ratings (or a minimal one, at best). There are endless examples of this.
There's a reason these magazines die like flies (just very recently, GameInformer, a very "outspoken" and politically driven site), ad revenues and reader numbers dropping like crazy.
More and more gamers have moved on from these outlets in favor of YouTubers with less of an obviously driven agenda and more specialized outlets (like this one) that do not annoy their audience with a never-ending barrage of political propaganda and offended culture.

However, the people in power, often PR people that are closely connected to that circle, have not realized or do not care about this. Which is why we continue to see cases like this happening.
I do hope that publishers and developers at some point realize this and stop caving in to demands that don't even come from their core audience.

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Quoting: Samsai

Quoting: TheSHEEEP

Quoting: SamsaiNo, those two things are not necessarily anti-trans ("fagbag" probably still isn't nice though), but the whole anti-trans stuff happened on the Discord chat, not in in-game textures.

So what?
If people don't like what a developer has to say in their free time or don't agree with their opinion, they are free to not support this developer. I sure don't buy games from developers who I do not want to support.

But what happened here was the typical Twitter hatemob forming, demanding blood. And - even worse - the publisher/developer actually listened to that mob instead of listening to the people who bought their game and supported them.
It's quite a miracle no dev got fired over this as a pawn sacrifice - yet.

I mean, yeah, people can decide they don't want to support a developer because of their views. That's what happened, people decided they didn't want to support the game because of the comments some of the developers made, they just also happened to share with other people why they decided not to support the developers. All the things you've said here can easily be applied to the hatemob that formed when VoidPoint decided to apologize.

That is a completely twisted recap of what really happened.
Go to the forums on ResetEra, see how many people there (maybe somewhat less so on Twitter?) want people to be fired over disagreeing with their political views (and humor, obviously).
That's way more than just not buying something. And that's something that happens every single time something like this happens - and more than just a few people have lost their jobs because they dared to have an opinion.

Quoting: SamsaiAlso, you seem to be operating under the assumption that the people who expressed disappointment in the devs were some kind of outsiders who should be totally ignored when it comes to any complaints they might have.

Because that is the case.
The perpetually offended are offended by absolutely everything, always.
Nothing they say should be taken serious. Ever. They are the very embodiment of the boy that cried wolf.
I mean, sure, even a broken clock is right twice a day, but that can usually be seen by more than just the typical outlets of the "I-am-offended" culture (Polygon, Kotaku, ResetEra, etc.) making a fuss.
They are about as creditable as an article from OneAngryGamer claiming some dev tries to make people gay or some other homophobic nonsense.

Which, as I stated, was not the case - the game sat at a comfortable 94%+ (and very high even on metacritic) after the "controvery" appeared and nobody outside the usual suspects even mentioned this, because most people knew it was nothing to be upset about.

Quoting: SamsaiI was disappointed in how they handled things and I've owned a copy of Ion Fury pretty much since they released a Linux version in Early Access. Plenty of the people participating in the so-called hatemob had bought copies or at least had been considering buying it.

Definitely a false statement, see above. Yeah, you could see a handful of reviews saying they won't support the developer any more as they are homophobes or other similar nonsense. But those were so few as to be irrelevant, most people who were "offended" never planned to buy the game or never heard of it.
And I do not believe a single "I was thinking about buying this" statement when put in connection with "but now that I know these people are X", from either side. It is an easily told lie.

And, besides, just because you offended someone - even if legitimately so -, doesn't mean you have to take anything back or apologize. Someone being offended doesn't mean you did anything wrong. People need to learn to deal with things they do not agree with in ways that are not calling for censorship or firing squads (as in "getting fired", not literal death squads, though if you look at places like ResetEra or OneAngryGamer, we are not far away from that, either...).
Standing by your own work, opinions and team members is a virtue, giving in to a handful of people complaining (especially when it's the boy crying wolf) just a show of no backbone.

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The funniest thing about this all is how this was just a troll showcasing how easy it is to rile up the perpetually offended and cause some faux Twitter outrage. The same troll who did the exact same thing with another game.
Which in itself would have just been business as usual.

When you look at the game rating, it was also obvious that this was very much a storm in a teacup - before 3DR's "apology". The game sat at 94%+, pretty much as it had all the time, despite the "controversy".
The reason is simply that most peole don't care about conjured up imaginary issues. Someone is offended on behalf of other people by "ogay" and a "fagbag". The horror! Whatever will we do...

But people care very much about integrity, and 3DR & Voidpoint (not 100% sure if Voidpoint had a say in the matter, though) showed that they have absolutely 0 of that, as they changed their own game to appease a small group of people, who are permanently offended by everything anyway and wouldn't have cared about the game if there was no offense to be had from it. It is very much a "boy that cried wolf" situation.

I would have requested a refund, as I just don't want to support developers who cave in to some raging Twitter mob, but played too long already.
Now I have a game in my library that is actually pretty great, but even starting it leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth that I just can't. What a shame.

Quoting: SamsaiNo, those two things are not necessarily anti-trans ("fagbag" probably still isn't nice though), but the whole anti-trans stuff happened on the Discord chat, not in in-game textures.

So what?
If people don't like what a developer has to say in their free time or don't agree with their opinion, they are free to not support this developer. I sure don't buy games from developers who I do not want to support.

But what happened here was the typical Twitter hatemob forming, demanding blood. And - even worse - the publisher/developer actually listened to that mob instead of listening to the people who bought their game and supported them.
It's quite a miracle no dev got fired over this as a pawn sacrifice - yet.

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Awesome!
Though the game did get a bit stale after a while, before that it was a blast to play.
Might give it another go in a while.

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Quoting: Tiedemann

Quoting: heidi.wengerI heard there's now some kinda transgender issue with this game? Anyone knows more of this?

I highly doubt the game is the issue but I guess it's an "issue" from Discord:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/ion-fury-devs-show-signs-of-transphobia-among-other-issues-update-voidpoint-twitter-responds.135368/ [External Link]

I don't use Discord and don't care enough anyway...

Rofl... ResetEra, the most racist, sexist and delusional place on the internet.
Been banned from there for being a white male who doesn't feel like apologizing for being a white male and not agreeing with all the stunts being pulled there in the name of their ideology war and asking how infested their moderation is with thought policing (shortly after, I got my answer in the form of a ban, which I wear like a medal of honor :D).

You can safely ignore everything coming from that place, they'd find transphobia and racism on a white wallpaper. They are the laughing stock of the internet for a reason.

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I'm pretty sure that Liam has reserved half an hour each week to come up with new Wine puns.

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