Entertainment
Helldivers 2 community manager fired for encouraging refunds and review bombing-Kenneth Andersen-Entertainment – Metro
A community manager who said fans should tank Helldivers 2’s Steam review score and ask for refunds has been fired, but fans want them back.
Things have gone from bad to worse for this community manager (YouTube)
A community manager who said fans should tank Helldivers 2’s Steam review score and ask for refunds has been fired, but fans want them back.
Helldivers 2 has been one of the biggest video games of the year so far, but publisher Sony very much shot itself in the foot when it demanded fans link their Steam accounts to PlayStation Network (PSN).
This resulted in Sony temporarily pulling the game from 177 countries that don’t have easy access to PSN, and more than 200,000 fans tanking its Steam review score.
One of the biggest proponents of review bombing the game, and asking for refunds, was one of Helldivers 2’s own community managers, who has now been fired, but some fans are petitioning to get them back.
The community manager, nicknamed Spitz on Discord, initially said he was ‘almost’ fired, adding:
‘Turns out that telling people to review bomb and refund a game isn’t a popular decision with the publisher. But I’m still here and I’m glad that we all made a difference.’
More recently, however, Spitz has lost their moderator status in the Helldivers 2 Discord server, removed ‘community manager’ from their profile, and has implied that they’ve now been fired.
Spitz’s reason for encouraging fans to review bomb the game was to convince Sony not to demand players link accounts, saying:
‘Players making their displeasure known through reviews, refunds, etc. gives us more pull in the discussion with Sony.
‘It hurts to see the game’s popularity suffer in ratings, but discussions are ongoing and we are on the side of players in this fight,’ they said on Discord, according to PC Gamer.
Some Helldivers 2 fans appreciate Spitz’s honesty and have started a petition on Change.com asking to ‘Re-hire the legendary community manager general Spitz’, which has reached 1,488 signatures.
More Trending
Since its controversial decision to force players to link accounts, Sony has backtracked and will not now go ahead with the decision, after seeing just how unpopular the idea was with Helldivers 2 fans.
It’s not clear if it was Arrowhead or Sony who pushed Spitz out the door but, even with a petition going for them, their return is an unlikely one.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.
MORE : Helldivers 2 could come to Xbox as Sony begins ‘very early’ talks claims insider
MORE : Starship Trooper’s Casper Van Dien gives Helldivers 2 a 10 out of 10
MORE : Helldivers 2 fans launch ‘Operation Clean Up’ to reverse negative reviews
Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
Sign up to all the exclusive gaming content, latest releases before they’re seen on the site.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Entertainment – MetroRead More
