Update 2: As of today, the videos have been removed and the Youtube channel is empty. Could this be a sign of regret? Also interesting is an open letter that has appeared on the game’s Steam Discussions page in which a university student calls for reason and dignity, since he feels that the flood of low quality games and embarrassing behavior from developers is hurting the indie scene. It’s worth a read and debunks a lot of the anti-journalist views that were expressed in the videos.
Update: the Youtube account has now uploaded a second video elaborating (in text) on why the developer started this argument. It’s evident this person has a severe hatred for journalists, referring to them as leeches who get rich off the backs of hard-working developers by using copyrighted video material. It’s clear he or she doesn’t really understand the finer details of copyright law, especially since the game’s own Greenlight page received a DMCA notice. If you wish to see the video, then click the link here.
The developer of the recently released first-person zombie shooter The Slaughtering Grounds proved today that some people never learn; mere days after the Paranautical Activity incident, one of the producers of the game started a new Youtube account with the intention of ridiculing critics. Their first target? Jim Sterling.
The journalist had uploaded a video earlier in which he showed his first impressions of the game. In response, the developer, using a Youtube account called “Review TheReviewers”, copied the video and added text to it mocking Jim’s commentary.
For those unaware, Jim Sterling has worked for Destructoid in the past and is now reviews editor for The Escapist. He is also third in the list of most popular Steam Curators and has a Youtube channel with about 70,000 subscribers, so making him their first target was not terribly smart. His fanbase quickly flooded the game’s store page and by the time I got around to researching what exactly happened, the video on the game’s page was taken down and the Greenlight page had a DMCA notice on it, so I assume people dug up some dirt on the game.
To be honest, the whole situation seems so ridiculous that I can hardly believe it’s real. It almost feels like marketing stunt, and even if it is, I would still wonder whether it has gone out of control or is going exactly as planned. I don’t like bullying developers, so I will leave it at this for now. Hopefully this situation can somehow be salvaged for the developers and publisher involved, but it seems unlikely.
[Source]
