Quit Hate Speech, Request Developers in an Open Letter to Gamers

Stop the hate, says the gaming industry. Hundreds of developers have come together to put a stop to hate speech among community


Lately, we have been seeing a growth in the number of harassment and hate speech incidents across the gaming community; for instance when Anita Sarkeesian a gaming essayist was harassed so much that she vacated her home.

The developers, representing the whole industry have decided to take a stand against it and requested us to do the same in an open letter.

The open letter has been written by Andreas Zecher and signed by a couple of hundreds of developers including veterans from studios like Rockstar North, Naughty Dog, Blizzard Entertainment, Bungie, 343 Industries and Epic Games.

We believe that everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or religion has the right to play games, criticize games and make games without getting harassed or threatened.

It is the diversity of our community that allows games to flourish. If you see threats of violence or harm in comments on Steam, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook or reddit, please take a minute to report them on the respective sites.

That is not all, the open letter goes on to request the gaming community at large to take a stand against any form of harassment and hate speech if and when they counter it. After all, we are members of this community for our enjoyment and not all the lowly remarks.

While the letter has been signed by famous developers from a variety of studios, they have done so in their personal capacity and not as an official representation of the studios that they work for. Though I strongly doubt any company would endorse such unethical behavior.

I guess being members of the community we all have the duty to do our part in making it a more enjoyable experience for ourselves and others. Hate speech doesn’t get you anywhere does it?

Sarmad is our Senior Editor, and is also one of the more refined and cultured among us. He's 25, a finance major, and having the time of his life writing about videogames.