Dedicated communities always react to changes to their favorite games, itâs normal. But threatening someoneâs life over a small tweak to a game? Thatâs a whole other level of ridiculous.
Still, thatâs exactly whatâs happening to David Vonderhaar, design director for Call of Duty: Black Ops II according to One of Swords.
Earlier today, a patch hit Black Ops II. It was full of typical things you might find in a patch: changes, tweaks and fixes. A few tweaks in particular involved reduced damage on the AN-94, and reduced rate of fire on the DSR as well as the Ballista weapons. Not to belittle how much of a difference these things actually makes for players, but in the big picture, weâre talking about a difference of fractions of a second. In a video game. Still, if you take a look at Vonderhaarâs replies on Twitter, where he linked to the patch notes, just in the last hour heâs received a number of death threats over the patch.
âEnd your fucking life you cancer cunt i will fuck your daughter,â one Tweeter writes. âI hope u die,â writes another. âHaha screw @DavidVonderhaar fuk*n up the DSR and Ballista cant fuk*n hit quad feeds now #KillYourself Vonderhaar!!! SERIOUSLY!!â rages yet another player. Thatâs a small sample. Even if all of the response arenât death threats, Vonderhaar is still being inundated with negativity. Responding to the reactions, Vonderhaar Tweeted the following:
https://twitter.com/embed/status/359662272500609026
https://twitter.com/embed/status/359662407498469376
This type of response might not be surprising. Last year, Robert Bowling resigned as the âcreative strategistâ of Infinity Ward, the lead Call of Duty development studio. The move was met with much hostility. Not that Call of Duty developers are alone in experiencing death threats over video games, of course.
https://lastchance.cc/the-nasty-twitter-hate-sent-to-the-former-face-of-call-5897154%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Although ugly and uncomfortable, the death threats often seem to be empty threats, thankfully.
