8 Times Video Game Developers Publicly Insulted Their Players
5. Daniel Klein Calls Fans "Manbabies" Amidst Riot Games Sexism Allegations
Another Riot Games developer who took things a bit too far in a public forum is Daniel Klein, who used to work at the company as a Systems Designer.
In 2018, Riot was accused of having a toxic workplace - including, but not limited to, sexism allegations - and naturally, this led many people who worked at the company to voice their own opinions on the subject, and share their own stories.
Klein was one of the employees who did just that. In the aftermath of the accusations against Riot, the company decided to hold a panel at PAX West that was only open to women and non-binary attendees. This drew a lot of criticism from the League Of Legends community, so Klein stepped in to defend the decision in a lengthy Twitter thread. Unfortunately, he struggled to stay fully calm while doing so, and this led to him being fired for violating Riot's social media policy.
In a series of tweets, Klein referred to outspoken fans as "manbabies" and "overgrown toddlers", and urged them to grow up. In the replies to his thread, he also told another person to "f*** off".
While Klein was absolutely entitled to his own views on this sensitive subject, there was probably a nicer way for him to word things than simply resorting to insults.