Takes it all back because A. There was no review bombing, people who left mixed reviews had reasonable and valid complaints, and B. He reversed course as soon as people started pointing out how he was protesting quite a lot about exactly nobody calling him a Nazi.
"These days, apparently anyone who doesn’t include five trans characters in their game and doesn’t let their products be influenced by political bullshit is a Nazi. What a world we live in."
And like that I will not buy anything by this studio ever. Mahler is a whiny bitch baby.
This does more damage than the actual review bombs for me
yea for real... like I didn't even know it /was/ being review bombed, but as an avid fan of the Ori series... this puts a real sour taste in my mouth
And
The confusing rant then rather radically changed subject to talk about how he doesn’t want to take sides in the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine
And
In 2022, VentureBeat reported that staff working for Moon Studios had told the outlet about a culture of “casual racism, sexism and bullying,” describing it as “an oppressive workplace.”
He had more of similar comments throughout the years so... yeah. He's also known for poor management and causing toxic work environment to the point Microsoft decided to cut ties with the studio.
Just in case someone thought these are just some out of context or one-time "jokes"/missteps.
Heck, here are some bonus links for good measure:
Yup.
I want to say we all found out he was a piece of shit in the lead up to Ori 2? Very much led to a lot of outlets doing the "The game is good but up to you if you want to support this kind of worker abuse". And he just got worse and worse since.
I want to say we all found out he was a piece of shit in the lead up to Ori 2?
Eh, not necessarily? I'm sure there are plenty of people who just play the games and aren't in the know of any drama going on behind the scenes. Heck, I'm pretty tuned in into what's going on in the industry and while I remember hearing some of this stuff back in the day most of it faded away since I wasn't particularly interested in the series.
I think it's better to remind folks about these situations than assume everyone is familiar with what's going on.
I personally love the games and had no clue this drama existed. Kind of regret buying these games now
I don't regret buying them, they are good games, but I don't Condone shitty practices. If you restricted yourself to moral or ethic right companies only you would have nothing to buy sadly. You buying a game != you accepting the ideologies of the leadership of said game.
Just get games you know you enjoy, and ignore all the dramatics that are involved. Life's to short to lock yourself down with it all.
You already played the games, you enjoy them - it is what it is. There's no point in beating yourself over (not) doing something without knowledge about the circumstances. No one is omnipotent and can avoid supporting every single shitty person out there. Just have fun with what you like and don't support the guy in the future, that's the best one can do in such situation in my opinion.
Same here, if there's any plan to continue the series count me out
So then I was correct to spot the plea for positive review bombing his game. Two shades for Machiavellianing your workers, three for us.
Oh shit, thanks for bringing this up. Will definitely never buy a game from this studio again!
Oh damn. I was going to get the Ori games but will spend my money elsewhere. Thanks for the heads up.
Yeaaaah, I’m with you. What a wild comment to make. I was ready to give them the benefit of the doubt that the whole review bombing drama was just a case of having a bad day but this is something else.
Oh ffs is this really what he said? I assumed the review bombing came from right wingers
There was no review bombing.
It's a quote from the article about his response to this situation.
the statement was more incredulous than actually inquiring about the contents of the article.
I assumed pretty immediately upon hearing him in a couple of interviews that he was exactly this right winger camoflaughing as a centralist. I gave the game the benefit of the doubt because I hadn't seen any hard evidence but I'll stop talking kindly about the game based on this info.
Politics is how we organize our society. Most of everything is political. When society starts organizing movements against groups of people, stripping away rights, and generally being Nazis you have to get more political to stop them. Taking no position is taking a position. Join the rebellion or support the empire, there is no in-between.
Awwww and I wanted to buy and play them :(
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