Rockstar Games Will Temporarily Shut Down GTA Online And Red Dead Online In Support Of Black Lives Matter

11 responses to “Rockstar Games Will Temporarily Shut Down GTA Online And Red Dead Online In Support Of Black Lives Matter”

1. 

   kasterix

   June 5, 2020 at 3:23 am

   This seems, oh I dunno, utterly pointless?

   Why not donate some money that could directly assist groups lobbying for change, etc?

   But I suppose then they’d ACTUALLY have to take a stance shown by their choice of who they donated to, which is something the vast majority of companies are avoiding like the fucking plague as they make completely hollow gestures.

   This reminds me of GameSpot’s pledge to stop using social media “For 8 minutes and 46 seconds” in tribute to George Floyd.

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   1. 

      agentofevil

      June 5, 2020 at 6:35 am

      Was probably going down for server maintenance anyway and this was a convenient way to jazz it up

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      1. 

         kasterix

         June 5, 2020 at 7:00 am

         God don’t give them ideas… Next we’ll see Blizzard telling everyone how their weekly downtime for WoW, etc, has been a tribute to black lives this whole time.

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         1. 

            john_stalvern

            June 5, 2020 at 10:32 am

            Beat me to it.

            Reply
   2. 

      dogman

      June 5, 2020 at 1:01 pm

      I’ll always roll my eyes at stuff like this but I think this actually does have a little value. The online gaming scene is a very safe space for racism because companies will tolerate it to remain neutral and avoid alienating potential customers. All this will do is make racists feel betrayed by Rockstar and that’s something. It’s a tiny step but even the tiny steps can help normalise companies speaking out against bigotry in the player bases.
      They can and should do more, even just increasing the window, and they can get stuffed if they want praise for it, but this is good.

      [Just to be clear I’m not a fanboy. I don’t particularly like Rockstar or their games.]

      Reply
      1. 

         nobully

         June 9, 2020 at 12:33 pm

         All this will do is make racists feel betrayed by Rockstar and that’s something.

         love how you paint anyone that disagrees with this completely useless virtue signal a racist, stunning and brave.

         The online gaming scene is a very safe space for racism

         complete horseshit, stop getting PTSD every time someone makes an edgy joke

         if people hadn’t jumped at the chance for a good virtue signal then the news might still be reporting about what those protesters had to say or moved on to how the police will be reformed, instead they are whining about military deployment and trying desperately to defend looting.

         When this all started there was no counter narrative everyone was in agreement that this was a murder and we needed change, then it all went to hell.

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         1. 

            dogman

            June 12, 2020 at 1:36 pm

            I wasn’t saying everyone who disagrees is racist, I was saying that racists will feel less comfortable on the platform. As for all that other stuff. I like a lot of people here at Kotaku but do you really think I care enough about their opinions of me that I’ll pretend to care about something to impress them? I don’t like Last of Us. It’s a decent movie delivered in via a shit game. Pretty sure that statement lost me more respect than I’d ever gain from pandering to their political beliefs.

            I’m pretty sure if any of us are virtue signaling it’s you. You have a bad take that you try and validate by pretending your concern is George Floyd’s murder. You’re lashing out because you feel personally attacked by accusations of racism in online gaming, I assume because you’ve made some edgy jokes online or you’re really defensive about gaming in general, and acting like it stems from the morally superior stance of wanting to keep laser focused on the actions that sparked the protest.

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2. 

   blakeavon

   June 5, 2020 at 6:39 am

   Nice sentiment but come on, two hours?! That is barely a patch window. Some sort of donation from their vast wealth from selling micro transactions, to a perfect charity, goes closer to doing something. Or better yet make a BLM item and sell it, so others can share in it as well.

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3. 

   D2

   June 5, 2020 at 8:42 am

   I don’t play any of the affected games, but I can’t help but feel this isn’t the right thing to do.

   I understand that it might act as a message that something more important is happening, but at the same time, I feel that many players will resent having their time interrupted as well, which is probably not what you want when trying to get people to back a cause – it could lead to resentment of the cause.

   Instead, I think these companies should run events that support the cause. They could run in game events that players will enjoy, linking the good cause to good feelings about it is probably a better way to handle things.

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4. 

   drumrbaxj

   June 5, 2020 at 10:17 am

   Tokenistic as fuck.
   Don’t tell us to donate. Do it yourself. Profits for a single day would be enough to pay bail for a thousand protesters.

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5. 

   zar

   June 6, 2020 at 10:54 am

   Just remove the cops from the game

   Reply