After threats to employees – developer studio has had enough and is suing streamers

Internet trolls are unfortunately not uncommon in the development studio community. But one company is now cracking down on toxic behavior.

Seattle, Washington – Unfortunately, development studios have to deal with toxic fans from time to time. The Internet trolls like to pounce on a game title or even on company employees. In some cases, there are even threats of violence against individual developers. Because of their anonymity online, many trolls feel safe in their activities. But the studio behind Destiny 2 has had enough of that. After a player threatened a Bungie employee, the company is now suing the troll.

Bungie sets an example against Internet trolls – Streamer is sued by the studio

That happened: Streamer and Destiny 2 player Luca Leone has long been a thorn in Bungie’s side. Because Luca has already violated the Destiny 2 guidelines several times. The studio banned him more than a dozen times for showing his followers cheats for the loot shooter in the live stream. In addition, Luca is said to have been involved in the sale of stolen Destiny 2 emblems.

As if that weren’t enough, Luca Leone threatened the Bungie Community Manager via his already-deleted Twitter account. Over several tweets, he threatened that the manager was no longer safe. Luca also indicated that he was stalking the community manager. Just a few weeks ago, Luca tweeted that Bungie should rather close its doors. He previously wrote about a possible arson attack at Bungie’s headquarters.

Here’s how Bungie is reacting: The developer studio is now drawing the line and would like to hold Luca Leone accountable. Bungie is suing the internet troll for $150,000. And demands from the court that Luca will be excluded from all things related to Bungie, its employees and the Destiny 2 community in the future. The company does not want Luca to ever have the chance to threaten or stalk Bungie employees again.

Bungie in dealing with the Destiny 2 community – Interaction with the players is essential

Bungie interacts with its community: Destiny 2 has many fans, most of whom are returning players as it is a live service game. In weekly blog posts, fans will receive updates on new content and features of the game. We always work closely with the community and there is a lively exchange. But unfortunately not all fans of the shooter behave objectively.

In May, sandbox design lead Kevin Yanes posted a critical post regarding a fan favorite in the game. This sparked a veritable wave of hatred. This went so far that the Bungie employee was forced to deactivate his account for some time. The community manager threatened by Luca Leon has now spoken out on the subject on Twitter.

The community manager wants developers to be able to discuss their games openly without attracting hatred from fans. The events within the Destiny 2 community have apparently made it difficult for Bungie to find the right way to deal with their fans.

Bungie as a role model – Other studios also affected by internet trolls

Not only Bungie fights with trolls: In the past, several development studios have had to deal with toxic fans. A producer of God of War: Ragnarök can also sing a song about it. Because Estelle Tigani was recently sexually harassed on her social media channels because trolls wanted to know the release date of the God of War sequel from her.