The Last Content Space Marine

In my last article I expressed the shock and horror at the pond scum that sent death threats to Ninja Theory over the Devil May Cry reboot. Sadly it seems these same bottom feeders have been far more active in other fields too, targeting one of Bioware’s writers. Jenifer Hepler worked on the Dwarven commoner origin story in Dragon Age: Origins (which many regard as the best arc of the entire game), among other projects and characters.

In an interview back in 2006, she made the suggestion that maybe there should be an option to skip combat sequences in games, in much the same way you can skip cut scenes now. A few days ago, someone got hold of this and spread it around.

In the minds of these backward knuckle draggers (many of whom originated on the /r/gaming community of Reddit, a once excellent community now dominated by said Neanderthals who have turned it into a slightly prettier looking version of /v/) this simple suggestion marked her out as ‘the cancer that is killing gaming’. She ended up getting telephone calls on her home phone and other communications calling on her to kill herself, insults about her weight and more misogyny than you’d find in a turn of the centaury gentleman’s club.

These fucking slackjaws couldn’t even maintain a focus on why they were angry. She was just another target for them to slap around to make their balls (metaphorical or literal) feel big- like all cases of abuse. And make no mistake- this behaviour is abuse. If you participated in this ‘campaign’ I hold you in no better regard than I hold a domestic abuser. I know what I am talking about here. I doubt these people would target the individuals who have done the most damage to gaming such as... oh I don't know... each other?

The icing on this shit cake is that many people joined in the mass diatribe purely because they hated the fact she includes gay characters and women in prominent roles. This woman has been hounded and victimized by a community she has helped to enrich with some of the best writing and most entertaining characters of recent years.

Frankly, this is not acceptable. Even if you don’t like her work, I’m sure you can agree that this mob hate is totally uncalled for. If not then fuck off; I don’t want you and your kind here.

Allegra Hawksmoor whom I have previously mentioned on this blog has taken it on herself to put a petition together calling on Bioware to publicly support Hepler. If you have any decency in your soul, please spend the 30 seconds of your time it takes to sign it. Spread the word. Help to try and undo at least some of the damage that these degenerates have done.