Playtonic to ditch JonTron from Yooka-Laylee following anti-immigrant comments

[TEHPALLYTANK]

What is getting censored isn't jon, but their forums. Great read tho.

It isn't a public place, it is a forum with rules that you agree to prior to being given any posting permissions. Removing content that violates the ToU is well within their rights, and any individual that has registered and account with them has agreed to those terms.

By accessing “Playtonic Forums” (hereinafter “we”, “us”, “our”, “Playtonic Forums”, “http://forums.playtonicgames.com”), you agree to be legally bound by the following terms. If you do not agree to be legally bound by all of the following terms then please do not access and/or use “Playtonic Forums”. We may change these at any time and we’ll do our utmost in informing you, though it would be prudent to review this regularly yourself as your continued usage of “Playtonic Forums” after changes mean you agree to be legally bound by these terms as they are updated and/or amended. ...

... You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “Playtonic Forums” is hosted or International Law. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned, with notification of your Internet Service Provider if deemed required by us. The IP address of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that “Playtonic Forums” have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should we see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent, neither “Playtonic Forums” nor phpBB shall be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

That is most of the text of the ToU you agree to when registering for the Playtonic forums. (The paragraph I cut out was just relating to phpBB being the software that forum is run on).

[sarahtasher]

The good old ''it's not racist because it's true''....Yeah. It was true too when British scientists proved that the Irish were an evolutionary step between the Anglo-Saxon and the ape

Or when French and American ''scientific studies'' repeatedly pointed out that the Indochinese people were weak and unfit to war.

And back on topic, I'm sure Playtronic or whatever was going to sell a lot of a stealth remake of a N64 game to the gun-toting alt-rght demographic.

Why you don't threaten, usual suspects, Jane Austen Online and flood their forums with your prose ? I would die to see you threatening the developers with execution if they don't give Darcy a gun and don't put the Bennet sisters in bikinis, all this while threatening to cancel your pre-order

[Jester Joe]

That's the problem, people have been banned and their threads locked or deleted for simply asking about refunds...

http://imgur.com/4dy4uUo

That's not against their forum rules, but yes, it's their forums and they are free to ban you for whatever reason, just like they are free to make the business decision to remove whoever they fucking want from the game, but all that comes at a price ~ if it’s worth or not it’s not for me to say.

The fact that they also started mocking people who complained about Jons removal over tweeter also didn’t help.

You agree that “Playtonic Forums” have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should we see fit.

It's a catch all. It's not against the rules, sure, but I don't think you ask for a refund through the forums like that anyway. It's probably similar to how Blizzard will shut down multiple threads on the same topic.

[Renedric]

When stating statistics automatically makes you racist.


Please post productively and on-topic. Infracted. -Edge

[sarahtasher]

When stating statistics automatically makes you racist.


Please post productively and on-topic. Infracted. -Edge

You mean doctored statistics, like that good old ''Sweden will be third world by 2030''' canard.

[draykorinee]

That's the problem, people have been banned and their threads locked or deleted for simply asking about refunds...

http://imgur.com/4dy4uUo

That's not against their forum rules, but yes, it's their forums and they are free to ban you for whatever reason, just like they are free to make the business decision to remove whoever they fucking want from the game, but all that comes at a price ~ if it’s worth or not it’s not for me to say.

The fact that they also started mocking people who complained about Jons removal over tweeter also didn’t help.

Thats one image that shows absolutely NOTHING, surely he could have posted more stuff in the steam forums. Considering on his profile page he has "The only good muslim is a dead one" I don't hold out much hope that this guy had a very tasteful argument one way or the other.

Locking threads asking for a refund sounds like a pretty damn effecient way of stopping a ton of threads being formed especially when they have a thread specifically for this. Also asking for a refund on Steam is stupid seeing as its steam and not the developer who offers the refund.

[Irian]

I hate the fact that Playtonic's going to get so much shit for this. Regardless of side, if you watch the video Jontron says a lot of completely pants-on-head stupid shit and states a lot of incorrect info, and practically devolves into whining, mudslinging and name-calling. He was not in the right regardless of your personal beliefs simply because of how much factually wrong shit he spewed with no real way to back up his claims.

Jon has made his entire career on being a likable, enjoyable guy. Sure he can try to say shit like that he was "trapped" or "didn't expect it to go the way it did" in his apology video but that doesn't make his statements any less stupid. If you can't defend your opinion then don't try to, just avoid the debate and deflect the topic to begin with. The fact that he didn't do that tells me he had absolute faith in what he was saying until he was challenged on it, which tells me that he really doesn't understand the topic to begin with.

I'm sure a lot of people are going to crucify Playtonic for this but in all honesty it's a sensible decision to try and sever ties with him in a situation like this. People are going to side with Jon because they feel like they know him almost like an old friend because they watch the caricature of himself on his videos or in his past stuff like GG, and it's going to harm a potentially good Kickstarter. And if you actually support JonTron for his "opinions" then you're supporting something backed up by bad info and faulty and senseless logic, so good job on that. Support someone who can properly form an argument.

[Toppy]

Gotta love the proffesional victims getting mad at nothing.

Jontron said offensive things. Doesnt matter if there was any truth to them. They were purchasing an image when they used his voice work. He tainted his image, and they have every right to remove the work he did with them.

[Strangebrew]

That goes to both sides, as both are equally as guilty of having their own "whiny cunts" who can't handle one thing or another and proceed to complain loudly about it while claiming it's the "other sides" fault.

Or are we pretended that Playtonic's decision was entirely because of said "whiny cunts" and not because they themselves, as independent developers, made a decision that you and others disagree with?



BUT HAVE YOU SEEN HOW MANY SHITPOSTING THREADS THERE ARE?!

But no, no proof of anything one way or another.

No but we can stop pretending that this entire debacle isn't because of an witch hunt started by sjw's/gaffer twats based on straight up bullshit and taking what jontron said and twisting it entirely, especially considering his video clarifying his views.

Playtonic actually listening to this false narrative and booting jontron when he was that gigantic fanboy is what pisses people off.
Banning people for speaking out against it and shutting people down for supporting jontron is pouring alcohol and salt into the wound.

Especially when this was a huge nostalgia project for many, until playtonic decided to listen to idiots and started politicizing the entire project when they could have just released a simple statement.

I sure as hell aren't willing to support a company like that.
You say both sides have whiny cunts, and while that is true there are some fundamental differences.
One side started a witch hunt based on someone having the wrong opinions, the other side is a natural reaction to people seeing something/someone they are very hyped for brought down like this.

How do you feel about boogie getting harrassed and targetted now for having moderate opinions on jontron, by the same people who went after jontron?
Will you say the same when people react and start fighting back against them?


It's might no.9 all over again.
Hope people get their refunds, know there have been a fair amount of refunds on steam atleast according to trackers.

[draykorinee]

Let's just face facts this isn't a witch hunt, its a company standing up for their own principles. The reaction after of downvoting and spamming forums, wishing failure etc is a clearer witch hunt against a company purely for standing up for themselves.

[Strangebrew]

Let's just face facts this isn't a witch hunt, its a company standing up for their own principles. The reaction after of downvoting and spamming forums, wishing failure etc is a clearer witch hunt against a company purely for standing up for themselves.

Weird timeline we live in where a witch hunt against a person is deemed okay, while customers of a business voicing their views, regardless of how crude it is, is deemed a witch hunt against an company and thats somehow a bad thing.

I'm just waiting for the gamers should stop being entitled comment now.

[draykorinee]

Weird timeline we live in where a witch hunt against a person is deemed okay, while customers of a business voicing their views, regardless of how crude it is, is deemed a witch hunt against an company and thats somehow a bad thing.

I'm just waiting for the gamers should stop being entitled comment now.

Its not a witch hunt by Playtonics, sure, there was a 'witch hunt' on JonTron, he said stuff he got a lot of abuse that was unnwaranted, much like Boogie. Playtonics themselves have done no witch hunting yet are now facing the exact thing these 'anti-SJWs' are crying foul of, a witch hunt.

[Strangebrew]

People wanting refunds and giving playtonic criticism for listening to the narrative and lies is a witch hunt now?

Holy shit lmao, im done.

[Ichifails]

Its not a witch hunt by Playtonics, sure, there was a 'witch hunt' on JonTron, he said stuff he got a lot of abuse that was unnwaranted, much like Boogie. Playtonics themselves have done no witch hunting yet are now facing the exact thing these 'anti-SJWs' are crying foul of, a witch hunt.

They did something based on twisted narrative and they try to fuck with people wanting refunds. It's not a "witch hunt" it's a reap what you sow kind of deal.

We need more devs/studios like these guys that don't cave to the sjw twisted view of the world




Also just a PSA, the retard that thinks there were POC in 15th century northern Europe is a review editor at Poligon. :^)

[Kolvarg]

You mean doctored statistics, like that good old ''Sweden will be third world by 2030''' canard.

That is a prediction, not statistic data.

Either way, the point is that saying negative things about black people doesn't mean you hate or dislike black people or that you think they are inferior or something like that.

Especially in cases where it's painfully obvious that skin color is mentioned simply to refer to a certain group of people or community, and not imply any negativity resulting of or inherently associated with the skin color, as was the case.

- - - Updated - - -

It sounds pretty backwards because that's kind of how you framed it to sound. There's no oubliette into which we throw racists or any other ists. People just don't want to associate with those kinds of guys, and they're generally welcomed back into the fold once they quit that life. None of this is arbitrary, collectively the public has a pretty solid and obvious list of things you can't say or joke about without getting disapproval. None of it's random and it is grounded primarily in a desire for people to be seen as equals as well as in an understanding of what is offensive to different groups.

Companies will drop people who start going against this norm. They're highly risk averse, and so they have no interest in even the possibility of losing revenue due to bad PR from someone spouting ignorant shit. Especially some minor internet persona. They aren't there for the politics or anything like that, so there's no reason for them not to bail if they think the costs outweigh the benefits of their business relationships. This is even more important with Millennials than it has been in recent decades because Millennials seem to have long memories on this kind of stuff and will avoid your products based on shit like this.

I can't really disagree with most of that. I do believe people are and should be free to associate or avoid association with whoever they want. I'm not saying Playtonics shouldn't be "allowed" to do that, simply that they're putting themselves in a situation they wouldn't be in if they simply did nothing.

Maybe it will even be benefitial, I mean "there is no bad publicity", and all =P

But in the end, in any reasonable and logic world (which I'm not claiming ours is, but I believe that's what we should aspire for) doing nothing would mean no political involvement; if someone called them out for "associating" with JonTron, they could simply say his personal views do not reflec the game's or the company's views and opinions, Playtonic cherishes and promotes diversity blabla. On the other side, by removing his lines that were already in the game before any of this "controversy", they're picking a side, and making a political statement. A lot more risky than doing nothing, that's all I'm saying.

And I suppose what I really dislike is that considering their behaviour after the whole ordeal (especially handling people talking about it in their forums, and/or asking for refunds) I don't believe they did it because of "risk", but simply because they are themselves on the JonTron hate bandwagon. Which again, that's their right, I just think it's painfully stupid, unprofessional, immature, and puts them on a fairly vulnerable "reap what you sow" position.

[sarahtasher]

No but we can stop pretending that this entire debacle isn't because of an witch hunt started by sjw's/gaffer twats based on straight up bullshit and taking what jontron said and twisting it entirely, especially considering his video clarifying his views.

Playtonic actually listening to this false narrative and booting jontron when he was that gigantic fanboy is what pisses people off.
Banning people for speaking out against it and shutting people down for supporting jontron is pouring alcohol and salt into the wound.

Especially when this was a huge nostalgia project for many, until playtonic decided to listen to idiots and started politicizing the entire project when they could have just released a simple statement.

I sure as hell aren't willing to support a company like that.
You say both sides have whiny cunts, and while that is true there are some fundamental differences.
One side started a witch hunt based on someone having the wrong opinions, the other side is a natural reaction to people seeing something/someone they are very hyped for brought down like this.

How do you feel about boogie getting harrassed and targetted now for having moderate opinions on jontron, by the same people who went after jontron?
Will you say the same when people react and start fighting back against them?


It's might no.9 all over again.
Hope people get their refunds, know there have been a fair amount of refunds on steam atleast according to trackers.

Those damn SJW mind controlled Jontron and forced him to say stuff that people in 1930 would have found repulsive.

[barackopala]

Those damn SJW mind controlled Jontron and forced him to say stuff that people in 1930 would have found repulsive.

Those damn people that think data is inherently racist despite not knowing or learning about data!111 or even reaching to different conclussions!

[Polarthief]

Talks about another race that he isn't?! MUST BE A FILTHY FUCKING RACIST CIS WHITE HETEROSEXUAL CHRISTIAN MALE!

In all seriousness, when caught on the spot in an interview and unable to think of anything, like can you blame the guy? Jon's also been known to dance around controversial topics and has done quite a few times in his 1+ year on Game Grumps. He also posted an update video on the topic, though it wasn't on his channel for some reason:

[Barnabas]

How are they playing thought police? Seems like quite the hyperbolic claim, and supremely silly given that literally all the did was pull one guys random sounds from the game.

He expressed a thought. They are policing it by dropping him from their game. How on earth is that any form of hyperbole?

[Toppy]

People wanting refunds and giving playtonic criticism for listening to the narrative and lies is a witch hunt now?

Holy shit lmao, im done.

Playtonic is only obligated to give a refund if they did not follow on their promises. It was a kickstarter, not a preorder.

Just because you could get a copy of the game for supporting the kickstarter, does not mean it was a preorder. Those funds were for the development of the game. People cant just suddenly decide they want their money back after the fact, unless of course they failed to follow through, which Playtonic did not.