Elias Viglione, one of the developers for Panic Art Studios’ Hero Siege, came under fire from the Social Justice Warrior community for making comments on Twitter that they deemed “hurtful” and “sexist”. After dogpiling him and his coworkers via a tweet that Twitter allowed to gain traction, the harassment eventually compelled Viglione to apologize for the opinions he shared on Twitter.
It initially started on July 4th, 2018 when an indie developer Jennifer Scheurle tweeted about how disappointed she was that out of the 50 largest game companies in Germany, none of them had female CEOs.
Fucking wow, Germany.
Literally not a single female CEO within the 50 largest games studios in Germany.
Yikes. https://t.co/rGRBrZqhtT
— Jennifer Scheurle (@Gaohmee) July 4, 2018
Viglione responded in now deleted tweets by stating that…
“I’m not picking sides, [I’m] just being realistic. GTFO with that rainbow flag [waving] feminazism [please]. Try and think about these things from out of the box. I’m for sure not an idiot, I’m a self made millionaire in games.
“I think most women just either [don’t] have the interest or the capability, there are some but those are rare cases[,] but definitely not [because] of patriarchy.
“[…] I mean, get real. Video games is a male dominant industry, geek girls are a really new thing and most of these companies were formed back in the day. How you show the way and get into a CEO position?”
According to game sales and active player usage data, Viglione is correct in noting that majority of consumers in the hardcore enthusiast market are male. The only market where there’s a somewhat even split is in the casual mobile market, as noted in a 2017 survey report by eMarketer.
This angered Scheurle, which attracted the attention of the Social Justice Warrior community.
This prompted another indie developer, Christos Reid of Failnaut Games, to act on behalf of his umbrage toward Viglione’s comments. Reid decided to direct a mass of Twitter users at Viglione and the rest of the staff working on Hero Siege.
fuck this dude and fuck his game pic.twitter.com/yP0GN1YFka
— shameboy advance (@failnaut) July 5, 2018
The tweet was posted on July 4th, 2018 shortly after Scheurle and Viglione’s exchange. It garnered 11,000 retweets and 23,000 likes.
A morass of vitriol was directed at Viglione and the rest of the Hero Siege staff. Various people also began negatively interacting with the rest of the staff on Twitter, which prompted Viglione to profusely apologize on July 5th, 2018, issuing a statement on behalf of the studio to curb the attacks and harassment aimed at Panic Art Studios.
I apologize for my ignorant behavior. I went overboard an got heated and said some very stupid things. #gamedev pic.twitter.com/Rd4boaSm8o
— Elias Viglione (@eliaspixel) July 5, 2018
Viglione stated in the apology letter…
“I was recently in an argument about 50 game companies in Germany having no female CEO’s and I came out pretty wrong with my words which offended a lot of people. I also did get heated and angry as I do have some temperament issues. On top of that I was drunk which shouldn’t be an excuse for anything but it is what it is.
“I love making games and I embrace people of every gender, age and social status who also love it to do it. And I hope that everyone who believes in themselves have the equal chance of succeeding and being happy.
“I am cincerely sorry that my comments offended so many people, that was not my intention at all. Peace and love to all.” [sic]
The apology went unheeded by many within the Social Justice community.
Various individuals attempted to review-bomb Hero Siege with negative feedback, as evident on the Steam store page, leaving 28 negative reviews on July 5th, 2018.
This caused Viglione to kindly ask people to stop review-bombing Hero Siege.
… countless hours and love to make the game. If you were potentially killing the game’s sales, all you would’ve achieved was 3 people out of jobs.
— Elias Viglione (@eliaspixel) July 7, 2018
Not everyone was willing to accept apologies or refrain from trying to tank the development studio’s game.
No, you could’ve potentially killed your own business and made three innocent people lose their job. It’s all on you. Stop blaming someone for pointing out what an absolutt ass you’ve been.
— sǝusıʌ ɯıʞ (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ (@Visnes) July 8, 2018
Viglione also reached out to Christos Reid to request him to apologize to the rest of the team, following the massive amount of attention the team received from the retweet, but Reid wasn’t ready to concede.
I feel bad that your team have suffered. I feel bad that your team have been humiliated by your behavior. I do not feel bad for you, and the things you said werr sexist and homophobic. Your actions have consequences, and as a queer immigrant I don’t appreciate your sentiment.
— shameboy advance (@failnaut) July 7, 2018
Well you didnt ruin anyones career or business but you could’ve, with your viral twitter post… But guess if you think its fine then ok… You could’ve even tweeted me privately and ask me why I did what I did, not just send a mob after me…. I listen to reason you know..
— Elias Viglione (@eliaspixel) July 7, 2018
I didn’t contact you because you were saying horrible things to a friend of mine who was already talking to you. If you want to be approachable you can’t be hostile like that. It feels like a risk.
— shameboy advance (@failnaut) July 7, 2018
I’m totally okay with admitting how hostile it was. I was very angry and hurt by what you had said, and when I looked at your feed you didn’t seem to care at all. But my intention was never to bring consequences on your coworkers – who I saw were very uncomfortable and upset.
— shameboy advance (@failnaut) July 8, 2018
Viglione continued to spend the next couple of days after the initial tweet apologizing and asking for forgiveness. Many within the Social Justice Warrior community were not willing to let bygones be bygones.
i love how every single person telling you it’s perfectly fine are all male. have more respect for woman and maybe we’ll respect you back. being drunk, having “temperament issues”, or just getting heated are not excuses whatsoever.
— Josie Potter (@JosiePotter_) July 5, 2018
Despite all of the hostilities directed toward the developer and the game, Jennifer Scheurle attempted to ask for cooler heads among the Social Justice crowd.
I noticed many negative reviews on Hero Siege this morning and while I fully and wholeheartedly understand your feelings about this, I would urge you to not take this into reviews. We can find ways to handle this in a better way, as much as I’m here for consequences.
— Jennifer Scheurle (@Gaohmee) July 6, 2018
Because as bad as it was, I’d personally rather end up seeing growth and change instead of wasting more energy on this than we absolutely have to.
Y’all got this and I’m proud of you <3
— Jennifer Scheurle (@Gaohmee) July 6, 2018
We’ve seen similar kinds of mobs forming around developers sharing sociopolitical opinions that don’t align with the current Liberal orthodoxy. The French developer of The Last Night, Tim Soret, was also forced to apologize after having previously mentioned on Twitter that there were things he didn’t agree with that Anita Sarkeesian had said, and that he didn’t like the militant kind of feminism being used to dogmatically police people in the civil and social spaces.
Elias Viglione learned about that the hard way.
Hero Siege is currently available on Steam for $5.99.
(Thanks for the news tip Cinj)