A reddit ass thread in which Apex Legends developer Respawn admitted that its rather expensive, complicated Iron Crown Collection event had “missed the mark” has gotten into accusations and more debate over the relationship between developers and fans.
The thread announcing changes to the way players would receive legendary skins during the event was commented on by individual Respawn developers, including executive producer Drew McCoy. As the discussion progressed, McCoy called the players “ass hats” and “dicks” and lamented the toxicity in the community.
“I’ve been in the industry long enough to remember that gamers weren’t complete ass hats to developers and it was pretty neat. I’ve built a number of long-standing relationships from then,” he said in a comment. “It would be great to go back there and not bother with toxic people or ask how high it is when a mob yells ‘leap’ is hopefully a start.”
Greedy Fucks
In response to a user who called the developers “greedy fucks,” McCoy said, “Hey everyone – found the dick I was talking about.” Later in the discussion he said, “I think technically I was calling gamer dicks? I don’t know. I had a spicy lunch, felt it.”
McCoy also joked that most of the gamers are “freeloaders”: “The number of people spending money is insane low, most of you are freeloaders (and we love that!) And a change in price doesn’t move the needle.”
Community manager Jay Frechette came to McCoy’s defense when fans jumped on the comments, pointing out that the players had committed personal insults on the team. “So it’s okay for all of you to call us liars, full of shit and other personal attacks, when we deliver an apology and update the event, but we’re ‘immature’ in bringing it to people’s attention. Got it,” said he said.
The subreddit’s immediate response was anger and outrage. This morning, the top-rated post on the subreddit claimed that Respawn “alienated the player base.”
“You committed the ultimate main sin, you got personal. You got personal as a team of professionals trying to make money. You got personal and decided to offend your gaming base by calling us ‘ass hats’ and ‘freeloaders’ . Not a smart move, “it said. “We won’t forget that. You have set a new tone for the type of interaction we’ll have with you. It’s cold.”
McCoy
Another popular post highlighted the comment in which McCoy called another user a dick and asked, “How is that acceptable?”
However, the current top post on the subreddit urged the community to “be civil and not resort to toxicity”.
“While we have a right to be upset, we can’t let a few bad apples (answers) justify chopping the whole tree down,” the post said. “What I’m saying is that we can be polite and NOT have to resort to toxicity, the store and its prices. 100% needs editing and tweaking, but let’s not pretend Respawn is evil here.”
The thread highlighted a comment from another respawn developer, user RaymeCV (presumably engineer Rayme Vinson), who said McCoy and Frechette are “good people” who are “honest with you”.
RaymeCV
“I would suggest dealing with them in good faith in these Q&A if you have any concerns or questions about any of this. I mean, argue and be sure of your opinion, but the conspiracy and personal attack material is disheartening “said RaymeCV comment, which received strong positive reviews.
“I understand that you don’t know anyone in the studio personally, that we might as well be evil robots or trained murder pigeons or whatever, as far as you know. But if your takeaway from the last six months of Apex ‘these diabolical geniuses is with you Lie money know exactly what they’re doing to surgically extract our soul money, ”then oh buddy.
“Personal opinion here, from a grunt in the trenches: The last project this team put out was a $ 60 boxed product (which I love!). I assumed we weren’t until the heat death of the universe.” but lo and behold see: Apex. I’m super proud of the leadership and business teams that got us playing from the $ 60 sales model at the door or to $ 0 at GTFO nerds, no P2W , no cosmetics and no battle pass turn the lights on. Obviously we are I don’t have everything for a science yet, but I have to work on gameplay stuff today that everyone will be playing for free in X weeks / months and that’s cool. “
