Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: The Bombshell from Ion Fury’s Developers (Update: There’s Another Bombshell)

The developers behind Duke Nukem 3D spiritual successor Ion Fury likely had some idea of what the post-release period would be like for them. But it’s clear that expectation didn’t pan out.

The team at Voidpoint put their best into making a faithful spiritual successor to one of the most well-known first-person shooters of the 90s. Ion Fury is a title that channels the old school FPS sensibilities (a focus on offense instead of a constant need to take cover, non-linear levels, etc.), though with the level of polish the intended audience would expect with a more modern shooter. The team even wanted the game to be so authentic to its inspiration and the era they paid homage to that they built it on the same engine DM3D ran on: The Build engine.

Reviews from critics and fans (before the bombing, but I’ll get to that) suggest they did a good job with it. The game isn’t quite as crude as the more popular Duke Nukem games were, which contained themes and a main character that were relics of the “xtreme” and edgy 1990s era. But that’s not to say it doesn’t inherit some of that crudeness; it includes jokes reminiscent of those from the Duke Nukem games regardless of whether they’ve aged well.

As it turns out, the game simply didn’t seem as crude on the surface. The worst parts were simply hidden from normal view, both outside and inside the game.

It was shortly after the release that s chat logs from the developer’s Discord were leaked after a user posted them on the ResetEra video game forum, several of which contained disgusting comments. It would have been one issue if these were simply from users who hung around in their Discord, but a number were actually from the development team members themselves. One lead developer who goes by the name “Terminx” who made comments about how “SJWs” (Social Justice Warriors — like fighting for social justice is bad) were “fucking nuts.” The same developer also made sure to inform users that the game didn’t contain a “feminist slant” despite starring a female character (Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison, in this case), always an extremely chill warning sign.

He wasn’t the only one. Another member of the development team known as “Daedolon” posted blatantly transphobic comments by implying that “mutilating a perfectly healthy body while you have depression and other big issues” can lead to suicide. This swell material provided insight as to what the developers were really like, and what kind of audience they wanted to attract.

When first asked about the comments on Twitter, Voidpoint commented that the conversations lacked context, a nonsense point. There was no way any of these comments would look good unless they were being quoted from other sources, something further screencaps of the comment threads revealed.

The argument to separate the art from the artist surfaced in no time, the desire to experience good creative works despite the creators sometimes being assholes — or worse. But that’s not easy for everyone to do, meaning there’s no point in insulting anyone who disagrees with that line of thought. But doing that went out the window when hidden homophobic comments were discovered in the game itself. For instance, the in-game shampoo was branded “OGAY” instead of Olay. Pork sausage packages were also labeled “pork faggots,” while the word “fagbag” was found on a wall. It seemed like the development team wanted to channel the 90s in some of the worst ways.

After a weekend of providing pitiful damage control, Voidpoint released a genuine apology for their actions to Eurogamer, far beyond one that implied they were sorry for anyone who was offended. In it, they acknowledged how the language found on the Discord and in the game was “insensitive, unacceptable, and counterproductive to causes of equality.” In the future, they promise to implement a “zero-tolerance policy” that includes “mandatory sensitivity training,” and will patch out the homophobic in-game content. They also plan on donating $10,000 to the Trevor Project, an organization dedicated to reducing the suicide rate among LGBTQ youth.

This was a good way to do damage control, and the always-classy “Anti-SJW” nimrods online are assuredly throwing tantrums about it — including through user reviews. But it’s not completely comforting that the developers who made these terrible comments are still there with possibly the same attitudes. It’s unlikely that they’ve changed their thoughts this quickly, as people who tend to be confronted about this kind of behavior typically double down and blame a “leftist mob” or something similar. There’s also no telling how effective these sensitivity training sessions will be, either. The apology was good, but you can’t blame anyone for still being skeptical.

The apology could be enough for everyone else to enjoy the game after the homophobic crap is patched out, and hopefully Voidpoint has successfully put a lid on this. It’s always a shame when a good game is brought down by the inanity of the developers who made it, but in this case, it could be picked back up.

Update: In a twist, though hardly a surprise, developer and publisher team Voidpoint and 3D Realms have walked back their apology and will leave the homophobia and transphobia untouched. Their statement initially suggested that they caved to pressure after the game was review bombed by the internet’s worst gamers, and are catering to them; but by inserting this kind of content in the first place and tolerating the aforementioned examples of behavior on their Discord channel, they’re also just being their dipshit selves. Either way, it’s one of the most spineless moves in the gaming world in recent memory, and the statement is laden with several bullhorns for the internet’s worst people, which they heard loud and clear judging by the comments. Smooth moves all around.