10 Things I Learned Working In The Gaming Industry

I've written countless pieces on the growing animosity towards developers (which I assume to be facilitated by a mixture of ease of connection to them via social media, growing popularity of YouTubers who often don't actually know much about what they're criticising when they demonise devs, and increased transparency of the development process across the board).

Yet nothing really prepares you for the intensity of it.

I think the first time I got doxxed was during my time on Driver: San Francisco, when a fan got too close, got angry when I wouldn't reveal information, and sought out my information online (which resulted in him sending threats to my family). That was a scary time, and I thought it would be an isolated incident. Yet, as the passage of time often does, I was made a fool of by my own presumptions.

Things are infinitely worse now.

I have attended a seminar for "how to process online cruelty" which a studio I used to work for put on for all the developers (but especially for the juniors), in order to address the now-seemingly-inevitable attacks on our skill, privacy, and product. The fact that that was a real thing scares the trumpet from my trousers alone, and yet even on the quietest days I still get at least a couple of abhorrent comments in my DMs.

You'd think eventually you'd grow numb to it - but you never truly do.