Destiny 2 developer Bungie is scaling back on directly communicating with fans on social media and websites like Reddit, citing an increase in harassment and “real threats towards our people and our studio.” Bungie’s community manager said he and his family have experienced “serious harassment” in recent months.
On Tuesday, a Reddit user named TheMediocreThor posted on the Destiny subreddit saying they missed how frequently Bungie developers used to comment on threads and engage with player feedback. After another user claimed it was due to recent harassment — like when Destiny 2 fans ran a developer off of Twitter for revealing a beloved Exotic won’t be returning — and another fan disagreed, Destiny community manager Dylan “dmg04” Gafner chimed in to set the record straight.
“The harassment we’ve spoken to isn’t just rude replies on Twitter or vague comments,” said Gafner. “There have been real threats towards our people and our studio. We’re taking them seriously, which is leading to an amount of reduced communications as the team plans future protections/strategies to help avoid these sorts of things.”
Gafner is currently taking time off from the studio, which he revealed is partially due to the harassment fans have directed toward him and his family. Gafner went on to say that well-behaved fans shouldn’t see this as a punishment, and that the studio is working to ensure the safety of its workers. The team is planning new ways to communicate with players in the future, Gafner said, assuring fans that his fellow Bungie developers are still reading and reacting to feedback on forums and the subreddit — they’re just not openly responding to it online.
This comment from Gafner comes only a few weeks after Bungie filed a lawsuit against a streamer that threatened to burn down Bungie’s headquarters after receiving multiple bans for cheating.
With Gafner on leave, we’ve reached out to Bungie for an official statement on the studio’s reduction in communication due to player threats, and we’ll update this article when the company responds.
