In what can only be described as a whirlwind 24 hours for one indie game developer, we've witnessed the latest case of being held accountable for your words. Mike Maulbeck, one of the designers behind the title Paranautical Activity, (picture above) found himself in a whole heap of trouble yesterday after a mislabeling on their newly released title via Steam frustrated him to the point where he sent, and I quote, "I am going to kill gabe newell [sic]. He is going to die." This was just the tail end of a series of vicious and lewd tweets. As such, Steam quickly removed the title and was confirmed by one of Valves employee's to gaming publication site, Polygon, stating "Yes, we have removed the game's sales page and ceased relations with the developer after he threatened to kill one of our employees." As if things couldn't get worse, the now former Code Avarice employee has resigned at the company, listing a blog post on the official website as well as admitting that he often uses twitter to "vent," and "has been a consistent problem" since he became involved in gaming. While it was commendable that he stepped away from the company, selling his shares well, in order for the company to continue without a bad reputation behind it, this is another indication what what you say online, whether it's meant literally or not, will effect you. Death Threats are no joke and have been tied to numerous cases of people fearing for their lives, especially as of late. While his former partner deems the situation as "ludicrous," and feels that the entire thing is an over reaction, the result still stands as it is. Whether Steam will allow Paranautical Activity back on it's game market or if they'll ever work with Avarice Games again is yet to be seen but we can be sure about one thing, the moment you represent an I.P. or company and say anything threatening, racist, homophobic or sexist, there will always be consequences.
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