Bungie recently won nearly $500,000 in damages from a Destiny 2 player who repeatedly racially harassed and threatened one of its community managers. The win was hailed by Bungie developers inside and outside the company as an important step forward in the effort to end abuse from "fans": paralegal Catherine Tewson, who worked on the case, said that the judgment in Bungie's favor "was a great victory for paved the way for those with the wherewithal to identify the stochastic terrorists and hold them accountable in court," she said. [Indeed, Bungie recently stated in a Destiny subreddit that developers, including those who are not community managers, are being harassed "just for working for Bungie."

The remarks were in response to a post in which the studio asked Bungie to make more use of the Destiny 2 Team social media accounts it established in January "to move away from using community managers' personal accounts."

Bungie said at the time that its goal was to "avoid the need to follow and tag multiple CMs," but the fact that this came just months after former community manager dmg04 said on Reddit that CMs were "reducing communication" with fans due to the relentless and serious abuse they faced The fact that the change was made cannot be overlooked.

"I'm not saying we should expose our employees to people who might actually do them harm," Redditor Cruggles 30 wrote in a request for further action from the studio.

"As someone who has been threatened (and indeed almost attacked) in the workplace, I completely understand where you guys are coming from.

"That said, sometimes actually responding to certain feedback tweets/posts, whether it's a response explaining why certain things aren't feasible (so you're less likely to get feedback you can't do anything about) or whatever, is more than what you're doing now with your account. It would be beneficial to everyone if you used it more. I think it would be better for everyone."

However, Bungie made it clear that it won't happen anytime soon. The player support team countered, "Using a CM account on Reddit would be a bigger target on the backs of all CMs."

"We completely understand the desire to go back to the way we always handled things here before, but that time has passed. Until everyone feels safe again, we won't see many responses here for the foreseeable future."

Bungie reassured fans that he still "listens" to feedback from fans and, while not always able to act on it, "I share it with the people involved every week." He also recommended using Bungie's help forums if there are problems or questions.

As if to illustrate the intransigence faced by developers, one Redditor (whose comments have since been removed by a moderator but not before being brought to the attention of GamesRadar) said that harassment is "part of life" and even if it is undeserved Even if it is, "it seems odd to me to base a PR strategy on the actions of the 0.1% worst offenders."

"I don't accept that being harassed is 'just part of life,'" Bungie replied.

"This kind of thinking is unhealthy, and we are not going to put ourselves at risk because of video games, much less Reddit."

This comment echoes a sentiment expressed by Don McGowan, Bungie's legal counsel in 2022, that "bad actors" are often tolerated because those with the power to do something against them simply choose not to. 'We don't think so,' he said. 'In our view, removing harassment and abuse from our community is not only the right thing to do, it is good business. "

Not so good for Destiny fans who want to be more in touch with the people who make the games they love, but as long as gamers insist on hurling racism, threats, and other abusive language at the people who make the games they supposedly love, This situation will never change.

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