Cities Cities: Skylines 2, released in 2023, was not in very good shape. While the underlying game was quite good, it suffered from performance issues and lacked many features, especially an editor. This led to an immediate backlash on Steam and "mixed user reviews," but Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen said that "there is a trend of increasing toxicity in our community."

Hallikainen said that the level of toxic behavior that has followed Cities: Cities: Skylines 2 is "something we have never experienced before," and it is directed at players as well as developers. She warns that this could have a negative impact on the game in the long run, preventing interaction with other members of the community: "In the long run, this will not only undermine the mood and well-being of community members, it will discourage creativity and modding, and we see it is very sad"

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"We have always valued our developers' presence on different social platforms and their direct communication with the community. However, our primary responsibility has always been to protect our team and ensure they work in a safe environment. (Paradox Interactive is the publisher of Cities: Skylines 2.

Halikainen's caution is reminiscent of the situation at Destiny 2 studio Bungie, which in 2022 cut back on developer-player interaction as a result of ongoing harassment and "real threats" directed at its employees from community members.January 2023 In January, Bungie opened an anonymized "Destiny 2 Team" account on Twitter to "help move away from using the community manager's personal account as in the past," and Halikainen "mentioned this in an earlier entry, but the needle doesn't seem to be moving," and is currently looking for ways for Colossal Order to "improve the way we communicate with each other."

"Should there be more moderation, or is it just a retreat from involvement on our part?" how can the community become a safe place to share thoughts and wishes about the game?

The response to Halikainen's message on the Paradox forum has been generally positive, although the Steam comments have taken some heat. Many replies point to the state of the game as the real cause of the problem and accuse Halikainen of trying to blame players for the game's poor launch. However, in a follow-up message, Halikainen stated that "toxicity and criticism are two different things."

"Toxicity is threats, attacks, and outright meanness. It has nothing to do with explaining the problems you may be facing with the game or what you want the developer to fix or improve first. What we are looking for is not praise, but a community where we can discuss the game, what is working and what is not, with the players without facing abuse. [As for Cities: Cities: Skylines 2 itself, Hallikainen said the editor is expected to be ready to begin closed beta testing "in a few weeks," although there are persistent issues with importing assets that developers are still working on. Before the editor is released to the public, a patch will be rolled out that includes "simulation and visual bug fixes based on both internal findings and issues reported by you."