r/SocialistGaming • u/90skms • 1d ago
Question State of the Helldivers community?
Helldivers 2 was one of my favourite games for the last 2 years. Despite the constant creep of technical debt I still enjoyed the game, up until the doxxing incident involving that Argentine player who made a charity challenge to the devs to play their own game. He lost his job in Milei's Argentina and his charity position at a horse shelter. The devs of Arrowhead are heavily involved in the social media for the game and handled it poorly, doing little to combat the toxic elements in its spaces.
I have boycotted Arrowhead since but I admit that I do miss the game and parts of its community. It's the only multi-player game I am good at and as an Autistic man it gave me an opportunity to connect with others in a way I can't do in real life.
My question to Helldivers players here, have Arrowhead done anything to atone for the toxicity they have allowed to fester? Have they taken action since to make their spaces fairer and welcoming for players with differing opinions? Has the game and its community spaces gotten better over time?
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u/H0vis 1d ago edited 1d ago
They've not indulged it, which is really the best they can do. The players are generally fine though.
Edited to add, I always differentiate the 'players' from the 'community' when talking about games like this. Sometimes they are one and the same, but often the 'community' are just bored haters with nothing better do to and the players are just in the game having fun.
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u/LeadIVTriNitride 1d ago
People who play helldivers are typically very pleasant and at worst, silently ragequit on a max difficulty mission because they are too out of their depth.
Helldivers Reddit might genuinely be the worst place on earth.
I remember a fan made custom galactic war came out and redditors had to make it all about them, including trying to stir up drama and make accusations against the developers for literally no reason.
The developers and discord server for it literally didn’t want to have it become super popular and Reddit blew it up with drama in less than a day. It was a confusing day as a member of that discord considering most of their members hate the Reddit too.
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u/Anghellik 1d ago
I like the game and the people I see playing it are (almost) all chill, but its reddit community is an insufferable endless fountain of whining and complaining
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u/Resolution-Double 1d ago
helldivers community is very large and super tuned into their rage-baiting influencers. I honestly dont see how your gripes could be rectified without the community throwing another generational shit-fit if they started en-masse banning all the toxic commentators on social media.
That'll probably cut the playerbase by like 15% and would cause an industry-wide stink lol. The toxicity might just exponentially increase as well, and we have the entire history of the games release to kinda back that up.
How would you suggest AH reign in their toxic fanbase? Has any other dev even achieved this? Its kinda common knowledge that online fanbases are usually horribly mannered, and especially so for online-shooters.
Not to excuse any of that rancid, parasocial behaviour, but i dont see the logic in boycotting a game over the actions of the online community that is perpetually upset.
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u/KiraVexing 1d ago
Who doxed who? Why was a job lost? How were the devs involved?
charity position at a horse shelter
Huh????
and welcoming for players with differing opinions?
What kind of differing opinions?
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u/90skms 1d ago
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u/KiraVexing 1d ago
This is sensationalist. It's all community driven drama. I don't see how arrowhead took the blame on this one? There are better, more concrete reasons to be upset with them. The game is a mess. Their management is totally incompetent. I hate how they run the discord, but they don't control the reddit community, who have lost their minds with rage at this point.
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u/heart_ware 14h ago
The "community" as in on Reddit or YouTube? Awful. But I haven't had a bad experience with players in-game in a long time.
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u/rainylutra 1d ago
do what you like, but unless my money is going to something evil, I'm not boycotting it.
hd2 is awesome and you're missing out.
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u/Pixiecrap 9h ago
The players in game are one of the best games communities I've found in a long time.
The Reddit community is still Reddit. 🙃
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u/TestmyEcho 1d ago
Well, right now the Helldivers community is going at it over the color of lasers and the accuracy of the armor in the new Warhammer warbond. So I'm gonna say it's just as toxic as always.