8 Times Video Game Developers Publicly Insulted Their Players

Because there's an inherent disconnect between the people who make our entertainment and the people who consume it, we sometimes forget that game developers are actual human beings with actual emotions who might actually be hurt by the negative comments we make about their games.

That's not to say people aren't allowed to say negative things - when you make a game and share it with the world, you open that game up to criticism - but there are always a few bad eggs in the bunch who take things just a little too far.

But this is also true in reverse. Game development is an insanely high-pressure job with strict deadlines aplenty, and the possible threat of studio closure looming over you if your game doesn't perform. And with thousands of fans using the internet to tell them that their game sucks, it's no surprise that some developers hit back with insults of their own.

Whether an insult was actually warranted or whether it was way out of line, it's always best for someone who is representing a company to take the moral high ground, right?

Regardless... this lot took the opposite approach.

League of Legends is one of the most popular games streamed on Twitch, and one of its biggest streamers is Tyler Steinkamp, known primarily as tyler1.

Steinkamp made a name for himself due to his toxic in-game behaviour - including trolling teammates and aggressively insulting other players - which eventually led to him being banned. Developer Riot Games understandably didn't want their game to be associated with this type of behaviour, and they clearly wanted to make LoL as welcoming an environment as possible, for all players.

But it wasn't just the company as a whole that was unhappy with the way Steinkamp conducted himself - specific individuals who worked there were also mad at the streamer, too.

One of those individuals was Aaron Rutledge, who went as far as expressing his dislike of Steinkamp on a public Discord server. Rutledge called Steinkamp a "homunculus", likened him to a terrorist, and even said it would be "fine" if he died from an overdose, or testicular cancer.

Obviously, wishing death upon someone is never okay, even if they may be misbehaving in a game. As a result of his comments, Rutledge issued an apology, though that didn't stop him from being let go by Riot Games shortly after.