![Developer Rejects Player Requesting Steam Key For Supporting LGBT Rights [UPDATED]](https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/02/glbxedvqq0xf4s6yclze.jpg?quality=75&w=640&h=360&crop=1)
Operation Caucasus developer Dream Games has given out a ton of early access keys for their shooter. But when this player asked for one, sporting a colourful avatar signalling support for LGBT rights, the developer responded with a simple message: “We’re not support lgbt. F**k you.”
This exchange was posted as part of a negative review for Operation Caucasus on Steam yesterday. (You need to own the game to post a review, but since the game hasn’t officially launched, the player nabbed a key from a friend who managed to get one from the developer, through a Facebook giveaway. That friend didn’t have a rainbow-themed avatar, obviously.)
“If you also think that the developer[‘s] homophobia must be clear to all,” wrote ||B.r.|| niveadc, “please check this review as helpful, to stay on top. thanks.”
A copy of the exchange with the developer.
Dream Games did not respond to my request for comment, but the player received a bunch of support in the comments of their review.
“Games are for all,” they said. “The pleasure of playing a game should not be restricted to people who are not gay, black, women, or any other group that suffers prejudice. And it is important that developers know this and respect the differences.”
Instead of walking their comment back, knowing something like this could easily spread much further than a comment thread, they doubled down.
Update (10:36am): The company has since apologised via Facebook. Full statement at the end of this article.
“We’ll never support ‘lgbt,” said a developer writing under an official Dream Games account. “We’re not a toy. This is our freewill.”
“We don’t need their and your money if you’re/they’re from ‘lgbt’,” the developer continued. “You don’t liked our this decide? You can flag this game. This is your freewill. And this decide [sic], our freewill.”
The developer kept writing, but it’s not worth sharing. It’s all garbage.
A bigger problem for Dream Games may be that Operation Caucasus doesn’t seem like a good game. Take a look:
This is actually the second time Dream Games has launched Operation Caucasus on Steam. The first time, it appeared as a full-priced game in late March for $US9 ($12), despite the game proclaiming it was actually a “demo”.
Image Credit: Jim Sterling
A few days after launch, according to Steam DB, the price dropped to $US1 ($1.38). The game was mysteriously removed from Steam; selling a demo as a full game is not exactly truth in advertising, whether it’s for $US9 ($12) or $US1 ($1.38).
In a post on Steam, the developers claimed this was all an accident.
“There was a button in Steam page,” the post reads. “It was ‘Share full project’. And our editor’ve [sic] pressed it. He said, ‘i tried to cancel, but it shared on Steam.(9.99$). After a few days we’ve set the demo price 0.99$ because, we couldn’t hide it. And, you know, it was our first experience. We were newly acquainting with Steam, and we saw there is a group for developers on Steam. We’ve wrote a message to them. And they helped us.”
Dream Games then announced the project had been postponed because “development is a lot of hard work”. It was now coming in early May. The official launch came a little later, on May 26, with the game adopting a seasonal model. That’s when Dream Games started giving away keys.
None of this explains why a developer would tell a player to “f**k off”, let alone for the crime of supporting LGBT rights through a Facebook picture.
2016! What a year for video games.
UPDATE: The company has since apologised via Facebook:
“At Dream Games we feel very sorry about current situation,” the company said in a statement. “We have fired both editor and managing director from team. We will make sure situations like this will never happen in the future.”
Comments
56 responses to “Developer Rejects Player Requesting Steam Key For Supporting LGBT Rights [UPDATED]”
and now look at all the free publicity they’re getting.
Trial by social media. Wonder how many death threats they will get?
yep, now i’ll make sure i never buy any of their games..
as opposed to not buying it because it’s never come into your sphere of influence. They’ve allegedly fired the guy responsible anyway.
Well fuck these homophobic idiots. If their attitude is anything to go by no wonder their game is shit.
They were.
“We have fired both editor and managing director from team”
I don’t see how the political/social leaning of one’s customers are of concern to someone runnin a business. Sure, they were offended someone was openly supporting LGBT matters, but they can’t very well screen every single customer to detrimine their position on the issue before doing business with them. For all they know they could be unknowingly servicing many LGBT supporters, which would be kinda hypocritical, right?
And also, how is getting a steam key considered ‘support’? Do LGBT people get some kind of benefit because a gamer with a rainbow DP got access to a game?
What am I thinking? Idiotic prejudice rarely makes sense.
Now that you mention it, it looks like they may have come up with a very effective way of making sure they don’t do any business with people who support LGBT rights.
Ha! Touché.
I don’t know, if I were running a Facebook promotion/competition and someone with very prominent links to groups that were aggressively anti-feminism, anti-immigration, homophobic, etc tried to enter I’d be pretty tempted to tell them to fuck off.
I don’t particularly care what my customers views are, they give me money and I give them stuff, but if I were ever faced with someone wearing a ‘kill boat people’ shirt I’d rather not do business with them. Normally it’s none of my business, I’m sure more than one of my customers has stupid views like that, but that shirt changes it from a personal opinion to a public statement and that crosses a line for me.
I’m not saying their views on LGBT issues are in any way justified, that aspect is ridiculous, but it’s reasonable enough for a business owner to draw a line. Running a business doesn’t make you a cold blooded mercenary. As a business owner I’m not a slave to profit. I don’t have to buy into the whole American corporate attitude that maximum profit is the only true priority. If I have to leave some money on the table to live up to my social responsibilities or personal standards then so be it.
I suppose it’s not as cut and dry and everybody has the right to draw the line where they choose. Well put.
That is absolutely true. From experience it’s quite empowering to say “You know, I don’t think we can do business”.
It doesn’t however mean their position shouldn’t be criticised strongly.
Yes, yes, yes, you can be all smug and say ‘gee, Steam’s going to Steam isn’t it? wowee’ but the right thing to do here is contact Valve for comment.
It’s their show.
The views of blahblah do not represent the views of blehbleh.
I dunno. They still have the right to sell their product, no matter how shitty it is and how shitty they are. Or am I wrong?
Personally I support lgbt rights. However I do understand there are people out there that dont and I accept this. If theyre a company or developer, I just dont support them. But this is their right, as it is mine to support lgbt rights. Naming and shaming I find personally a little on the nose sometimes (context dependent) as sometimes it oddly feels like we are stripping away peoples freedom of choice. Of course in this case its to be a douche but the point still stands.
Reading the title: Well, someone asked for a key for LGBT reasons and were told no. That’s the dev’s right, no one is entitled to free shit just because they support a cause.
Reading the article: Oh, they gave away a bunch of keys then specifically excluded this request because they’re actually actively anti-LGBT. Well, that’s their right, but their approach here isn’t doing them any favours.
Exactly. Theyre definitely not helping themselves and in the end will sink themselves.
That was basically my reaction. Headline? I laughed and thought, ‘Well, you tried buddy, but no dice.’ Quote from developers? Wow, dude. No.
If they just said “No”, that’d be one thing. But the person asking for the key was perfectly polite about it, and they turn around with a “F**k you”. Leaving aside the fact that it was related to somebody’s support for LGBT rights, interacting with the public that way for ANY reason is just a terrible way to run a business, and if you run your business that way you deserve and should expect to get publicly called out for it. If I went to some business, large or small, and they gave me a bunch of unwarranted verbal abuse, you can be damn sure that I’d be telling everybody about it, too.
That would be nice, if all it were about were ‘opinions’.
Thing is, not that long ago, gay people were treated like subhumans by most of society. It’s taken decades of naming and shaming untold numbers of awful people to get society to the point where someone can say they are gay and not get beaten up in an alleyway later on.
You’re a bit older than some here but clearly still young enough to have forgotten this. Most of the other younger people will have no idea, since they grew up after this point.
This is the problem here, and with other ‘SJW’ issues. While things have reached a point of relative comfort, it’s preferable for most people to take a relaxed attitude towards bigotry.
Problem is, this engenders a backslide for the awful sections of our society. We like to think that everyone in the world is like us – reality is that LGBT rights outside our society tend to be non existent. And within our society, there are huge numbers of people who would happily see gays stoned to death because Jesus or something.
This is an actual conflict, and one that sees LGBT people suffer in ways us straight folks can’t imagine.
Your idea is great, on paper. But this isn’t a paper issue, unfortunately. It’s a day to day struggle between progressive views moving humanity forward, and the inexorable weight of awful conservatives who want awful things to happen to others because something something.
Protecting freedom of choice is something people do when the choices of others don’t negatively affect them – it’s the favourite argument of the privileged.
When people start choosing to make you use a separate toilet or denying you the ability to marry, you may not feel so strongly about giving them that freedom.
As I stated, context dependent. If its merely a videogame dev not handing out a free key and being bigots then so be it, boycott but also dont expect them to change, but when it comes to genuine issues that harm people or cause real distress then of course further action is needed.
These things do not happen in a vacuum, and the problem is most people think they do.
That’s what allows them to flourish. That’s what turns a ‘fringe’ minority into the people kicking down your door in the middle of the night.
It’s your privilege that allows you to display complacency here – while that’s fully understandable, if you’re someone who cares about the world not becoming a worse place it’s important to move outside that perspective and examine the complex interactions that lead to the eventual things that WILL distress you.
Each bigot allowed to spout their hatred empowers another two.
And once you reach a critical mass, then the real world events follow.
That’s why unrestricted free speech is always championed by the last people to be affected by the consequences – but by gosh do they reverse direction when the battering rams hit their ivory towers of privilege.
There’s a difference between making a choice not to support a particular group or cause and being abusive to that group or cause.
However you boil it down, this was discrimination. They asked people to come to them for free keys and turned someone away (and abused them) because they support LGBT.
Now take into account who they are, where they from and the values they hold. I dont agree with their decision at all or particularly respect it but in context with who they are I can understand why it would happen. We rush to think these people will all hold our ideals, but simply they dont. The question I guess is do we have the right to impose these on them? Maybe. Maybe not. But we can sure as shit boycott their stuff at least.
Do we have the right to impose the value of treating everyone equally on them? Yeah. I think we do. Nobody was telling them they have to march in a gay pride parade or donate to their local LGBT club, but they damn well do have to treat everyone equally, no matter their gender, race, sexual preference, and so on.
If I encourage people to apply for a job at my company, do I have the right to tell a black guy to fuck off if my values were to not support black rights?
I mean the update is awesome, it’s great the company has spoken out like this, sacked the dickheads who did it. But ultimately, what are we going to do if they did turn around and say ‘fuck off’ to attempts to get them to?… furthermore how do we even *know* these people were really sacked? *dons tinfoil hat*… eh I don’t really care tbh.
Like I said, the more powerful option is to not buy their goods, it stops them being able to turn a profit. Stops them being able to produce. Drives them inevitably out of business hopefully.
Your example only *really* works when we consider their existing in a western society and being culturally subjected to the same ideals and standards, which they aren’t, they’re in Azerbaijan which again, has what I personally deem pretty backwards ideals leading to crap like this (from my own western perspective).
Oh, they’ve got freedom of choice – just as people have the right to react, when they opened their traps instead of just a “sorry, no key”. Getting foul-mouthed and abusive kills your right to refuse service pretty quick, unsurprisingly.
Very true. Guess Im just getting burnt out from all the idiots of the world lol.
They’ll do that to a person.
The thing is, is that homosexuality isn’t a choice, just like a persons race. If they said “We don’t support blacks, fuck off” would there be as much “well it’s their opinion, that’s okay”?
The question over someones sexuality was never a question. But as stated below taking into account who they are and where theyre from, to be honest I wouldnt like it as they wouldnt change their minds but I just wouldnt buy from them. Again, to reiterate most of their beliefs are likely culturally ingrained due to their point of origin.
Same could be said of racism or misogyny all over the world. If you ask me, whether their views are common in their culture or likely to change has little to do with whether they’re people you want to do business with.
Exactly.
There’s a difference between not supporting gay marriage / rights and being the actively discriminating based on sexual orientation. It’s not much of a difference, but the latter is much worse imho
As DEVO once said.
Freedom of choice
Is what you got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want
I personally don’t believe this even happened. Anyone can change a facebook message with a little knowledge
The article also links to a Steam comment from the developer on ||B.r.|| niveadc’s review (see page 16 of the comments) stating, “We’ll never support “lgbt”. We’re not a toy. This is our freewill.”
BOYCOTT,
I’m not sure what people were expecting from an indie studio in Azerbaijan (a country that borders on to Iran)?
LGBTIA rights are only really a first world concern, and people seem to forget that other countries have much more serious issues to contend with first; like getting murdered by religious extremists… And showing any form of support for things typically against religion can make you a target for violence in that area of the world.
Now to be clear, I’m not condoning their decision, or their handling of things, I’m just trying to explain WHY they will be making that decision.
Considering people are *at best* discriminated and legislated against, if not also murdered and put in jail because of their sexuality in many countries (the move toward being accepting is relatively recent in the West as well, and hasn’t carried across to everyone in our society…) “LGBTIA rights are only really a first world concern” is a bit disingenuous, don’t you think?
Also, Azerbaijan seems to share more with the Balkan states than it does with Iran; it’s formerly a Soviet state and is technically secular.
Looking at Russia’s attitude to LGBT matters, I don’t think you’d really expect them to be any more enlightened regardless of whether they take mainly after Russia or Iran.
Seems like a highly professional studio that can easily keep their own personal beliefs separate from their business. On the one hand, it’s a small indie developer who seems to be somewhat insignificant in the grander scheme of things, especially since it seems like it was an informal promotion with no terms and conditions. On the other hand excluding people from a promotion for no reason other than you just don’t like them or their belief, is the height of being unprofessional.
Oh look, an Azerbaijani opposed to LBGT rights. It’s part of the culture there. You just have to like, totally respect their culture, yknow.
Protecting freedom of choice is something people do when the choices of others don’t negatively affect them – it’s the favourite argument of the privileged.
Fucking lol. People can choose to do what they want, this has nothing to do with privilege. It’s not our business to force others to subscribe to our points of view, even if we believe our points of view are morally correct or otherwise ‘right’.
Wait, it’s not? But… *looks around internet*
i wasnt’ aware of this game before this story, and reading it just means that I will NEVER buy anything that this developer makes EVER.
Vote with your $$s, this kind of openly bigoted BS is just crazy. I hope there’s a whole heap of people requesting refunds.
If the game is as bad as you make out this is a stroke of genius marketing wise, now they have the homophobe market on board which is probably bigger than the market for awful steam games, add to this all of the LBGT supporters who buy the game to tank the reviews and they will probably make more money then they would have without the controversy.
https://www.facebook.com/operationcaucasus
*Faceplam* Why should they even care? Such a non-issue to them.
just a question, where are the devs based? i ask because if they are based in like eastern europe/russia or a islamic country like say saudi arabia then their response would make sense even more so with the what look likes broken english response
In what country is a company responding to customers with “fuck you” appropriate? 😛
Ok I gotta ask who the hell really cares?
Really the only people afected by this are people wanting to start shit (I’m looking at you SJW’s) and tmblrinas that have nothing better to do other then sit at home and be ‘socially just’ like the cucks they are.
Being offended is your right. Me not caring that I offended you is also my right. If he doesn’t want to give free keys to someone based on their sexual orientation, why should he be forced to? Why did they need to even mention lgbt in the request for a free key?
Political correctness and social media are destroying the fabric of society. It’s the whole ME generation and it’s pathetic.
RTFA. They didn’t even mention anything about LGBT anything, they just have a rainbow avatar.
Meanwhile, at least in Australia and many other western countries it is in fact illegal to not do business with someone because of their sexual orientation. It’s called discrimination and is no better than excluding someone for the colour of their skin.
And yeah…”Me, me, me” as in “Please don’t treat me as a subhuman because of something I have no control over.” How very selfish of them.
Just refuse politely and then there’s no problem (other than your 11th century views).
I’m normally neutral to the whole LGBT rights thing just like I’m neutral to most other things I have no personal interest in. But at the end of the day why are the same people proclaiming to fight for equal rights, denying others their right to an opinion?
If I could, just f*ck myself it would make things a lot simpler.