ResetEra and various Social Justice Warriors on Twitter attempted to review bomb the RPG Heartbeat after the significant other of the developer, going by the handle of Nikotine, took to Twitter to condemn the trans movement. The review bombing consisted of just over a dozen negative reviews, but it was quickly blotted out by others coming to the developer’s side to show their support.
It started with tweets by Nikotine on September 20th, 2019, where they published the following…
I have never been so ashamed to be born in this country until now. America,, a place where men believe they can mutilate their penis and dress in an “effeminate” manner to become “female”.
— Nikotine (@nikoteenie) September 20, 2019
You are not a lesbian. You are not female. Lesbians don’t like penis no matter how you chop it up. You can surgically mold your penis into the Eiffel Tower if you want. You’re not going to become France. You’re not impressing anyone.
— Nikotine (@nikoteenie) September 20, 2019
Tldr;
Transwomen aren’t women, “transbians” aren’t lesbians.— Nikotine (@nikoteenie) September 20, 2019
ResetEra types became enraged and decided to go on the offensive against the game Heartbeat, which is made by Nikotine’s partner.
The forum proceeded to label both Nikotine and the developer as “transphobic” and made an entire forum thread dedicated to railing on them.
Nikotine tried to deflect the hate directed at Heartbeat but it was already too late.
My personal views on gender ideology and the trans community have nothing to do with my girlfriend’s game. #HEARTBEATRPG has no attachment to this, but I guess once you share your opinion on something, they have to start a witch hunt on you and everything you know.
— Nikotine (@nikoteenie) September 22, 2019
The review scores briefly took a dip into the negative territory on September 23rd, 2019, but then quickly shot back up on the following day after Valve nullified the review bombing.
Gamers came out to support the developers, making threads to encourage them not to apologize.
StyxxnStones wrote…
“Advice to Devs: DONT APOLOGIZE
“Since this drama is really starting to ramp up now, I just wanted to encourage the Devs, if they are reading this, to calm down and let the dust settle before they go making broad apologies and releasing “statements”.
“If you need an example, look at the Ion Fury devs, who eventually ended up in the right but had to do a double-backtrack before they got there because they got caught up in the storm.
“My advice is to turn off social media and disconnect for at least a few days, possibly a week. Then come back to this and see if people are still mobbing around you, and then take an honest look to see if you did anything wrong. There’s a good chance people will have forgotten about it by then (and also that you didn’t do anything wrong), so it wouldn’t be a good idea to apologize and make these people feel justified and powerful.”
Others shared similar sentiments, making it known that they support Chumbosoft through the attacks against them.
Darvisjake wrote…
“To the folks at Twitter and ResetERA… Thank you for letting me know about this game and seeing the great gameplay being featured in an RPG maker game! I have not known about this game without all the Twitter buzz, especially from the wonderful folks at ResetERA! You have found yourselves a paying customer already and I will support these creators on other projects they are willing to create! I have already bought the game and I am really enjoying the gameplay and the art!”
On September 24th, 2019, Nikotine took to Twitter to clarify that there was no ill-will toward men, clarifying their stance.
[1/3]
I can’t entirely grasp what’s going on here. I was just some nobody artist. All I did was rant and share my opinion. I expected some hate from it, but that was about all.— Nikotine (@nikoteenie) September 24, 2019
[3/3]
I mention my followers, but I am aware that there is support on other sites! I’m not sure if I should mention the names of the sites, but you know who you are! I’ve been notified of and seen your posts and I love you all very much!— Nikotine (@nikoteenie) September 24, 2019
Oh, right, just to clarify, I don’t hate men. My dad is a man! I just hate the ones who’re posing as women and/ or lesbians.
Men can’t be women.
Men cannot be lesbians.
They will never know whaat it’s like to be a woman.(The same applies for women pretending to be gay men.)
— Nikotine (@nikoteenie) September 24, 2019
Not much has changed in terms of sales or active players, judging by Steam Spy and the Steam Charts, but as far as community support is concerned, gamers are showing up to encourage the developers to stand their ground, opposite of what happened with Void Interactive and 3D Realms when they were attacked by ResetEra for a simple joke in Ion Fury.
You can learn more about Heartbeat by visiting the Steam store page.
(Thanks for the news tip Lyle and AnEcchiFan)
Loading comments…