MachineGames had just released a lovely behind-the-scenes look at their Indiana Jones game talking about the process of making these new puzzles that the World’s Most Adventurous Archaeologist would have to solve. Great stuff in theory and something to excite any gamer, but oh boy, the Internet responded to it? Total dumpster fire. And this response is much worse than when you set off the smoke alarm by microwaving your burrito for 10 minutes.
Bethesda made an attempt at tweeting with the hashtag #IndianaJones linking to some dev diary, most likely assuming the reaction would have been something like: “Wow, awesome, I can’t wait to play this!” Instead, the word that comes to mind is “flooded” with angry replies demanding boycotts and firings. It is really messy. Truly messy.
What is going on there? I’ve heard something about a controversy concerning a Bethesda producer allegedly celebrating violence occurring somewhere in the real world? The responses were filled with gamers expressing their disgust, promising not to support the company anymore. I’m agreeing with a fellow commenter: “It’s no hardship boycotting this company and their games. It is a disappointment though.” And that is actually one of the nicer ones.
That employee conduct matter seems to have gotten the populace all riled up. Responses to the post are rife with accusations about some employee celebrating a school shooting. And then an actual user states that it’s not some low-level employee but rather a producer: “This isn’t just some low-level worker, this is a producer. Who feels fine saying all this, probably surrounded by others so full of hate.”
Yikes. That’s… bad. Very bad indeed.
The gaming community gave an overwhelmingly negative response to Bethesda’s conduct. Like, people are genuinely angry. One commenter flat-out said, “You can take anything you ever make again and shove it straight up your ass.” And it is dangerously graphic, but that’s as far as I suppose one can go.
What really blows my mind is the number of people associating this workplace culture issue with whether they’ll buy the Indiana Jones game. Like, “I was going to buy this game this month.. it’s sad to have to turn it down thanks to the fucking Monsters you hire!” That is an extraordinarily direct linkage between employee behavior and consumer conduct.
And we’re not talking about just a couple of people either-thirty or so others are all chiming in with similar sentiments after pledging to boycott Bethesda products until something is done. One other gamer said: “If you decide to employ people who celebrate the murder of those who they don’t agree with, I cannot in good conscious support your company and buy your products.”
What was I saying about…? Oh yeah, the actual Indiana Jones game: Those behind it are MachineGames, having done the reasonably well-received Wolfenstein games. So you would think that they would be a good fit for an Indiana Jones adventure. But the glass of controversy sure is overshadowing actual game development.
Some of them do not touch on the controversy at all; they are merely thinly disguised anti-game comments. One commenter said, “Completely unrelated to current events, this game genuinely sucks ass and as a huge Indiana Jones fan, I’m deeply perturbed by how much people praised it.” Another one said: “No one cares lmao, this game boring af.”
But the vast majority of chatter is about Bethesda’s workplace culture. People are upset; really upset. There is talk of an organized boycott, even with a post sharing what looks like a boycott logo that reads, “The boycott is happening.”
In a bizarre way, there’s even one good comment made about the game itself: “I would love to play through the classic movies. The start of the game is awesome.” So there is at least one person who can concentrate on the game instead of the drama.
But yes, it’s quickly turning into a PR nightmare for Bethesda and MachineGames. When a chorus of people comes forward declaring they will boycott your products because of what employees have done, that is not something you take with a grain of salt-not even for a big franchise like Indiana Jones, which should be a mass seller.
And this is terrible timing too-just as they were laying all of it on for hype for their new game.
The backlash has now come to stride, ending discussions of puzzle mechanics and adventures for now. So what do you do? Should we support the very company that has the audacity to make this game?
Now, that is one of those instances where the community talk has completely derailed the developers’ original intent. The devs hoped to take up game design talk, but the very same crowd has the spotlight on ethics and workplace culture. And that genuinely means something in today’s gaming community.
We’ll have to wait and see how Bethesda responds to all this-almost might be a better question to say if they respond at all. Companies usually go silent hoping that it will just blow over, but above this level of outrage? Might not be their brightest idea. This is setting a dark shadow upon what should have been a very bright new Indiana Jones game announcement.
The whole thing is just… messy. Really messy. Now, with that said, that’s got gamers slowly picking sides and diving passionately into something that has nothing to do with gameplay but everything to do with the people who make the games. And sadly, that is becoming common.
At the end of the day, MachineGames might have conjured up some neat new puzzles for Indy to tackle, but the much bigger puzzle they’ve got to solve first is how they will deal with the backlash currently engulfing the community and try to remediate the whole situation with their workplace culture. Because at the present, that’s all anyone’s talking about.
