Earlier today, one of the largest No Man’s Sky community hubs temporarily shut down, causing a small communal panic before the subreddit was reopened under new moderation. Though brief, this incident was the latest episode in an ongoing saga of fan drama surrounding the title.
According to a post by moderator R0ugeW0lf, the No Man’s Sky subreddit had become “a hate filled wastehole of no actual discussion,” so he made the unilateral decision to close the subreddit.
“The other moderators tried to sway my opinion but cynicism got the best of me as usual,” R0ugeW0lf explained. The claim seems at odds with another post describing what occurred:
The temporary shutdown may not sound surprising to some of you, considering that the wider No Man’s Sky community has been riled since the game’s launch. Infamously, one of the most popular posts in the NMS subreddit listed countless features that appeared to be missing from the game’s final release. That post became the rallying call for those who felt that the game fell short of what the developers promised. The negative attention garnered by that thread caused the original poster to delete it, which is a perfect microcosm for some of the toxicity cited by the mod who shut down the subreddit. New moderators were instated after he stepped down. The subreddit is currently vetting additional moderators.
The subreddit boasts over 146,000 subscribers. Another subreddit r/no_mans_sky is vying to become the new main gathering place for fans but only has 7,109 subscribed readers at this time. According to a post on r/no_mans_sky, mentions smaller subreddits are currently censored on /r/NoMansSkyTheGame, making it difficult for members to communicate and migrate to the competing subreddit.
Update: Automod conditions censoring mention of r/no_mans_sky have been removed.
No Man’s Sky community has earned a reputation for overreactions and drama. After our own Jason Schreier accurately reported on the game’s delay, he received numerous death threats. Developer Sean Murray also received threats. As a result of vocal fan complaints game’s marketing is currently under investigation in the United Kingdom.
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31 responses to “No Man’s Sky Community Temporarily Shuts Down Due To Toxicity”
In more important news, has anyone heard anything from Sean Murray?
imagine if in your job you received this much toxicity? you wouldnt feel like talking either. no matter his (apparent) sins, this whole cluster- is thoroughly appalling and has crossed into an event horizon. Any high ground gamers did have is now lost in the noise and mehness.
“matter his sins”
Fixed it for you.
oh dear, fixing things that arent broken again? oh well if it keeps you entertained thats all that matters
Is Sean Murray a Pokemon from the new Sun and Moon games? I am guessing a psychic Pokemon that uses hypnosis, Confusion, Overhype and Bullshit.
imagine if gamers showed this much passion torwards real world issues. Social change could happen for the better, but no, this is just peter and the wolf times a thousand. Any possible good point gamers COULD have made is lost in a sea of noise and hate and ridiculousness.
Even if Sean came out of hiding nothing he could say or do now would satisfy this pathetic bloodlust. It would be best if the devs as a company just came out with updates on DLC and expansion plans, but more than likely all this hate has just killed the game dead. Well done gamers.
Agree 100%. It’s nice to see that some gamers still have the ability to show common sense.
A lot of the toxic pre-release mouth foaming stuff was coming from forums known for gamergating and stuff. Largely the community just seems like it was always an angry, vapid shithole.
Yeah, it was all the fault of the evil “gamers”
No responsibility on the developer at all, not when we have the faceless designation of gamer to blame everything on.
You make your bed, you lie in it, pure and simple.
I wasnt referring to the game at all. Merely the hysteria surrounding it. In fact this whole mess is like saying gamergate was about ethics in journalism. Sure that is how it started (some of the points some gamers bought up were decent) then somewhere, somehow what became of it was way out of proportion to the original issue or sin.
I dont think the devs are innocent as such but come on. Sure they made their bed and they should lie in it, but the gamers involved in all this crap want to set fire to it while they still in it. A disproportional and rubbish response. Like gamergate, any good points that could have been made are lost in the hot air, entitlement and self-righteousness
Passion..
That’s what it is, people stay because they want things to get better, they become frustrated because the ones who should be communicating have gone off the grid.
You get the community you create, Hello games is no exception.
I should add, I know where you are coming from.
I’m just tired of people constantly using the wounded animal act to defend all manner of dirty deed.
It’s not just gaming, I’ve watched a few people in various industries caught out in lies recently (Mostly US election)
Rather than face the music, they use the backlash of their purposeful deceit as a shield.
It has nothing to do with deserving, only that every action has a reaction.
When you purposely lie to people who put their trust in you, people will react, from practically through to extremely.
The straight answer is, don’t knowingly screw with people’s trust in the first place.
What annoys me most, is I came in to the whole NMS with a level head, had my complaints and was gonna leave it there. The hate I got for just having a bad experience was insane.
“Gamers” come in in all flavours, it’s not just good vs evil.
I have big problems with No Man’s Sky but I’ve had to abandon a few threads online as they are disproportionately populated by people who haven’t played the game that are revelling in telling everyone how bad it is and patting themselves on the back for not buying it. Hardly just a No Man’s Sky problem but one of the better current examples of this kind of dogpiling.
It just goes to show the sad sad world of obnoxious gamers. Why can’t they just fuck off and let people enjoy the game. Wow, you people are so clever and oh so funny, you’ve jumped on the ‘let’s hate No Man’s Sky’ bandwagon and had your say, now fuck off.
It’s embarrassing to call yourself a gamer as you’re always surrounded by these absolute twats. We’re in the age of social media and entitlement, people just like shouting out louder than everyone else. Oh dear.
Nobody is stopping you….
Strangely though, you feel justified in attacking people with genuine complaints and lumping them in to a faceless group of enemies you created.
whos stopping you from playing the game? People are entitled to complain about the many lies Hello games and Seany Boy Murray perpetuated before the release of the game.
You are an embarrassment of a gamer for getting so salty.
You keep saying gamers its some gamers not all ov us
On one hand there is no reason to be a bunch of whiny little bitches. On the other hand there is no reason the Devs and Sean Murray have kept so bloody silent. Man up and accept responsibility for the fact that a lot of what was shown did not make it into the game. Give us updates, tell us why, and tell us when, if at all, what was shown is coming.
I like the game but have not loaded it up in awhile. Great base for stuff to be added but tell us what is coming dammit..
To be honest, if I’d received as much vitriol as the devs have received, I’d justcwrap it all up and go home. The gaming community has acted disproportionately bad over this. Sure the game has issues, but no one deserves death threats over a game.
As for shutting down the subreddit, if the guy created it, he has the right to shut it down. If people want to whine and bitch about the game, they can create their own subreddit.
I dont disagree with the shutting down of the reddit thread at all. I am a regular over at Whirlpool and no way do we tolerate that nonsense. I find reddit in general allows itself to be more toxic than most places. But most go to reddit already knowing that.
And you are right, no one deserves death threats over a game. Just ridiculous people acting like little kids. Would be ncie to hear some good from Sean and the Devs though.
+1 Whirlpool. Great community over there.
but why would he bother? he have been demonised personally to such a point beyond reason or respect, is anything he says or does going to be able to counter what the lynch mob want?! Hint to some game readers out there: you dont have to like peoples actions to be able to respect them or understand their side.
Personally all this crap from gamers has put me more off the game than anything the devs might have done, although it breaks my heart that becomes of this rabble any longevity and pride the devs might of had for this game is now being held to ransom by all this bollocks. The only thing I want from the games is huge DLC plans, but with a community like this why would they bother? Sigh
If they announced tomorrow they were adding in larger ships, base building, and a ton more massive features as a paid DLC. I would buy it. Did they game release as it should have? No. Did they still do pretty well with what they gave us? Imo yes and I dont regret my purchase.
Dunno why ‘base building’ shows up so often when it really has no place in a game about constantly moving towards the centre of the galaxy. I think it exemplifies how the community stretched a lot of statements into ‘promised features’ and perpetuated the hype they accused Sean of creating. Sure, a lot of things they mentioned didn’t make it in and they never said they were cut, but the community went batshit over small snippets of interviews or pre release footage and inferring things that may not have been.
Fully agree. The game was clearly identified as being about exploration, and being constantly on the move as you wandered through the galaxy. I’m not sure they could have made that any clearer.
Instead, all the whingers have focused on stuff that would be totally opposite to that. Its insane.
If the complaints were mostly about the similarity its a different argument, but they arent. They keep coming back to base building, epic space battles, and not being able to see other players when they are on the same spot at the same time.
I thought this story was over now and just another lesson to developers to not over sell and for gamers to still have some skepticism.
scepticism, I would use the term ‘realistic expectations based on fact not hopeful ambition’ heh
More like NO GUY BUY hehehehehehh
The actual reddit story is a little more interesting than this article makes out.
One moderator ( The_Music ) made a pisstake of a shitpost and stickied it while unstickying the others, of course this post took off, with the trolls taking it seriously and the regulars having a laugh and recognising it for what it was – A tongue in cheek if you cant beat em join em. Then the main mod ( R0ugeWolf – (possibly meant to be rogue rather than cosmetics?)) Basically had a tanty and tried to delete the whole subreddit. ( http://imgur.com/a/2AmT3 ) Then the Reddit greybeards got involved and things get a little sketchy.
But this post
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/5608a5/because_the_mods_are_failing_let_me_explain_what/?st=itxqb6jk&sh=ba2eec0a
has a recording of a moderator discord discussion which is a bit of a shitstorm.
From an entertainment perspective it’s more engaging than the game itself. A huge number of people over-invested in opposing points of view with almost religious fervour. Basically a dumpster fire with a whole bunch of spectators enjoying the spectacle while one team tips it over and the other keeps throwing fuel on. Basically the haters are winning, which sorta makes sense when you look at the steam review stats (you cant argue for the existence a viral hate train when the statistics from another site are so overwhelming – it’s genuinely bad.) . Having a mod throw a molotov cocktail on the cesspit was priceless. Disappointing the red wolf guy took his ball and tried to go home rather than walk away and let the world burn.
Lol
@Blakeavon – “Well done gamers” – Not quite, the gamers wish for a place to discuss the game without all of the crap associated with reddit currently, the toxicity is coming from bands of shitposters who cross polinate between Trump / Porn / NoMansSky ( just check the profiles of a few of the most frequent cancerous posters ) – For those people reddit is a sport of downvoting the truth to oblivion through mass response, dissuading weaker members from posting again because the targetted people know their post will be hidden within seconds .. Stronger opposition to the toxicity get death threats. They never let the truth get in the way of a good sub they have dominated for verbal sport. Probably the same nasty bunch who became prevalent when Skyrim modding was a hot topic, and suddenly hobbyist mod authors were flung into the press for defending their intellectual property. Reddit = crowd of the worst people on the planet, and a admin / moderation team who support the behaviour.