(Rambly wall O text warning)
Since I use Godot as my primary game engine, I felt that my thoughts on the matter should be posted on a public forum.
Many moons ago I started on my game dev journey. I began with Unity because it met most of the criteria I was looking for in a game engine.
Shortly after I purchased a Unity 5 license, they decided that things were going too good for them, so they hired an EX CEO of Electronic Arts to ‘improve’ things…. (I know I’m being hyperbolic, but I don’t care)
Unity then changed from a pay once per version license to a subscription. I very much dislike subscriptions as I feel it’s very much like ‘ask big brother if you can use the tools to make your game when he allows you to’. Also subscriptions are a lot like that scene in Star Wars when Vader said ‘pray I don’t alter them further’.
I saw the writing on the wall and decided it was time to part ways from Unity, which was kind of hard as I had just started to become competent in its use. But I figured that it they changed the way people would pay to use Unity commercially, then there was nothing stopping the new CEO from making more ‘changes’. (And yes, I called it!)
So my journey to find a new game engine began. My first obvious option was Game Maker. But dropped that idea when I found out that I would have to connect to the internet to ‘validate’ my license constantly. Freedom of use is very important to me and I want to be able to use my tools without checking in with the ‘parole officer’.
I don’t remember if I tried other game engines, but one sort of just popped out from the rest. The blue robot looked a little tacky but the interface felt decent and there were several tutorials to help me start.
The engine was a good match and it was open source. Which gave me confidence that I wouldn't see another EA sabotage.
As the saying goes, if there is a will, there is a way. And the disturbed, mentally and emotionally unstable, always find a way to make life uncomfortable for those that just want to be left alone.
Last week my feed on YouTube was getting folded with news of a ‘community manager’ flexing their authority to ban and silence those that they deem below them.
So to summarize what I learned:
-The ‘community manager’ for the official Godot Twitter account posted a politically ‘Left’ leaning comment as a reply to a totally unrelated post on another Twitter account.
-The ‘community manager’ started a banning spree, not only banning members for ‘hateful comments’, but also banning members for simple criticism such as request to stop bringing up wedge political issues on a game engine forum.
-An unofficial account for Godot on Discord had problems too as a moderator partook in similar activity for similar criticism.
-This kind of ‘over moderation’ has been going on for quite some time, and current events just happen to be the straw that broke the camels back.
The Godot ‘spokesman’ would then respond to the controversy with a non-apology, apology.
So basically a hateful and spiteful individual that enjoys hiding behind the ‘rainbow shield’ kept their job and the victimized have to go through a somewhat time consuming and arguably invasive process to get themselves un-banned. Assuming they are even allowed to be un-banned….
As a full supporter of free speech I find the official statement to be disheartening. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone really supports obvious bad policies in the name of social justice, or they are just too much a coward to stand up to the bully (yes this is bullying, I don’t care if it’s in the name of goodness and justness). Having lived through the bullshit p(l)andemic I’m leaning on the latter. People become stupid and cowardly when they face potential ostracization from the collective.
I learned a long time ago that you don’t win arguments by banning people you don’t agree with. You put forth your best argument in the most coherent and simple to understand way. A lot of times I can tell when I can’t change the mind of the person I’m arguing with, but that doesn't stop me from putting forth my best arguments and supporting facts. If anything it lets anyone else that is ‘listening’ in on the conversation to hear my take on things and understand where I am coming from.
Squelching and banning have become far too common method of silencing rational people. It’s hilarious that these people that get offended so easily in the online sphere somehow manage to find the ignore button when they are the ones in power, but complain that they are powerless to personalty silence people the don’t want to hear. Most social media allow the end user to personally block a user that they do not want to listen to.
It’s very obvious that these people are just using the protected status of the various ‘minority’ groups to get their jolly’s by harassing the people they don’t like. They quickly check off all the boxes, arise to power and then bully others. They enter spaces of hobbies and activities that they obviously don’t care for and once they get in, start forcing change through coercion and intimidation. If they actually cared for the hobbies and activities they become a part of, their mindset would be very different. Game doesn't have enough ‘representation’? Make your own game (and I’m not saying this to be an ass. I really mean it). Personally I think that 99 percent of these people just want the attention. They don’t care what kind it is.
I believe that these people are not only, not helping the minority groups they claim to be a part of, but they are actually causing more damage long term. The type of behavior that is being allowed to pass is outright antagonistic, at some point the dam is going to break. Public opinion will shift and it will likely shift very quickly. No one if going to remember the quiet gay couple that just wanted to be left alone. Instead they are going to remember the abuse they suffered at the hands of the multi color haired, emotionally unstable crazy person that claimed to be a part of that group and all the supporters that enabled these people to enact this abuse. Their real opponents will take full advantage of the situation to push their own agenda.
One thing is for sure, the Godot dev team needlessly tarnished their reputation for the sake of the colorful haired, emotionally unstable power tripper.
If it were me, I would have let the community manager go, apologized
for the senseless and hurtful banning’s, then un-ban everyone and pick
up the pieces later.
For the time being I will continue to use Godot. The reasons for this is:
-It is very difficult to just change engines on the fly. The next engine I pick up will probably be easier to use as I’m getting more proficient in general, but I still don’t feel like starting from square one right now.
-The problems seem to be isolated to their social media for the time
being. I don’t overly care for Twitter in general, and as long as I can
ask question and get help, this wont effect me directly. (Also I'm
banned on Twitter...)
-There will always be bad days. Not one company exists that has had a
clean run with no issues. No matter where you run, problems will
always find you. If you lose your cool every time something happens,
you will be running forever.
A fork of Godot called Redot gained a fair amount of renown during
all of this. I won’t jump on it right away for the above reasons. But I
will follow its development with interest.
I won’t comment on the unofficial Discord and the other unhinged crazy over there. Even though the Discord was used somewhat officially at one point, it has been let loose and replaced with an official outlet to the best of my knowledge. But I imagine you will probably know how I feel on the topic regardless the lack of commentary.…
Anyway that’s all I got to say on that.
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