Support NeoGAF

[Draugoth]

It's been revealed that Spitz have been fired following comments from the community manager on the official Helldivers 2 Discord channel.

What Did Spitz Say?​

When the PSN account linking announcement was made, the backlash was immediate, as many voiced their frustration across Reddit, Twitter, and Discord in viral posts that captured the sentiment across the entire community. But Spitz called on players to do more, arguing that speaking out wasn't enough to change Sony's mind.

"Players making their displeasure known through reviews, refunds, etc. gives us more pull in the discussion with Sony," Spitz said. "It hurts to see the game's popularity suffer in ratings, but discussions are ongoing and on the side of players in this fight."

The outpour of negative reviews led to the quick walkback of the update, so Spitz was right in the end. Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt even applauded the community for its response, tweeting, "I am impressed by the willpower of the Helldivers 2 community and your ability to collaborate."

Pilestedt said that he wants Helldivers 2 to "set a new standard for what a live game is," and in a way, it already has. Sony reversing a decision this big this fast is unheard of.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I have a feeling Spitz said more than that.

 

[Punished Miku]

Not surprising.

 

[lifa-cobex]

I have a feeling Spitz said more than that.

Yea. It's not the first time Spitz has had to have a privet word from the boss.

Also Spitz deleted his twatter account when shit blew up.
As a CM, That's literally your main job and you bailed.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

He was promoted from community manager to customer.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

She should of kept it shut.

 

[Mr Moose]

I have a feeling Spitz said more than that.

Aged well.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

I will give her that it was a very difficult situation to handle. One of the worst possible. But a reputational crisis is the perfect occasion for a good CM to make a difference. You can't antagonize fans, no matter how harsh they get. If you can't handle it, you escalate it to your manager, but never give snarky replies.

It's about time gaming companies hire CMs based on merit.

 

[Ovek]

Spitz has always antagonised the community since the first Helldivers on Discord and at times acted like a complete prick. He was always going to be on thin ice with a game a popular as HD2 and everything anyone associated with it will get reposted and scrutinised. It a bad look for ArrowHead and an even bigger bad look for Sony.

The posts he made on the official discord about using fake email addresses or a vpn to link your steam account to psn in a effort to down play the drama probably didn’t go down very well as they are clear violations of the psn terms of service.

 

[lifa-cobex]

TBF the guy is 20/21? Something around that age.
The guy acted like a nob throughout the months and was certainly not good for the job.
He had to apologise a hand full of times for shit stirring.

But I chalk this up to inexperience. I don't think anyone foresaw the popularity this game became.

 

[violence]

Wasn't steam giving refunds?

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I don't understand why these people can't make a point more tactfully. All it did was bring whatever kind of attention and how you want to word it to the game and it's not really how you handle yourself in a professional manner. Who's the one that encourages people to review bomb and negatively impact the game? The wrongdoing is understood hasn't been corrected but sometimes you have to let the adults do to talking.

 

[GHG]

A worthy sacrifice.

 

[lifa-cobex]

I don't understand why these people can't make a point more tactfully. All it did was bring whatever kind of attention and how you want to word it to the game and it's not really how you handle yourself in a professional manner. Who's the one that encourages people to review bomb and negatively impact the game? The wrongdoing is understood hasn't been corrected but sometimes you have to let the adults do to talking.

Sptitz. The guy who just got sacked.

Their are other CM's that aren't really up to snuff with the communication thing are Arrowhead either.

 

[Ribi]

So the community is gnna complain and get his job back right? Then cancel him when someone finds an old tweet. Isn't that how this works?

 

[Topher]

That sucks. Telling customers to get refunds so Arrowhead can use it for leverage.......not a smart thing to do.

So the community is gnna complain and get his job back right? Then cancel him when someone finds an old tweet. Isn't that how this works?

Pretty much not how it works

 

[lifa-cobex]

So the community is gnna complain and get his job back right? Then cancel him when someone finds an old tweet. Isn't that how this works?

I think this is counted as another win with the community tbh.

 

[Gaiff]

Aged well.

"But I’m still here."

Yeah, about that…

 

[FunkMiller]

DEMOCRATISED.

 

[Yoboman]

You might say he didn't manage the community very well

 

[BennyBlanco]

Gotta respect them for speaking so freely about a tough situation. I’m kinda surprised Arrowhead booted this person. Message is clear, if you want this kind of job you have to mindlessly tow the company line and if you don’t know what the company line is then be quiet.

 

[bender]

Don't make Sony work on Sundays.

 

[Bloobs]

 

[Yoboman]

Gotta respect them for speaking so freely about a tough situation. I’m kinda surprised Arrowhead booted this person. Message is clear, if you want this kind of job you have to mindlessly tow the company line and if you don’t know what the company line is then be quiet.

I mean that's literally the job. Community managers are there as an arm of PR and marketing

 

[ManaByte]

FAFO

 

[bitbydeath]

"But I’m still here."

Yeah, about that…

 

[lifa-cobex]

 

[Windom Earle]

Most community managers should be fired, they are about as useful as game journalists.

 

[ShakenG]

Id lose it if the next person to take his place is called swallows.

 

[tmlDan]

good, they acted out and proactively sabotaged the game.

Telling people to refund your game isn't the professional way of going about things.

Arrowhead and Sony were likely already discussing solutions and this person just made things worse for no reason.

 

[xrnzaaas]

The amount of non-professional community managers working for the big devs is mind-boggling.

And it's not like I want to defend Sony or anything, you simply should be doing things for the good of the company.

 

[Zheph]

the usual "talk shit" -> "find out"

 

[Killjoy-NL]

All I'm wondering is: is Spitz a he or a she?

 

[midnightAI]

All I'm wondering is: is Spitz a he or a she?

So you can find out if he/she Spitz or swallows? (Sorry)

 

[Killjoy-NL]

So you can find out if he/she Spitz or swallows? (Sorry)

I expect him/her to swallow regardless of gender.

 

[midnightAI]

I expect him/her to swallow regardless of gender.

That's fair

 

[Power Pro]

So you can find out if he/she Spitz or swallows? (Sorry)

Dammit, I was JUST about to make a "should have swallowed when she spitz" joke

 

[CuteFaceJay]

He said more than that because Bossman John sacked them off.

 

[crackajack]

While they might have been somewhat right, the snarky tone was unprofessional and considering that his answers sabotages his employer, put gas on an already burning pile of shit, getting rid of them is the bare minimum Sony and Arrowhead had to do. I would assume those actions qualify for proper instant firing which is not as easy as in America. I guess a more diplomatic language would have helped a whole lot, but instead of at least trying to protect their very own breadgiver that is not Arrowhead even though they employ them, just do their f-ing job like an actual pro and not like an unpaid entitled mod, they decide to solely side with the customer and inflame the "war" between good guy Arrowhead/customer vs bad guy Sony. Suicide move. Especially since the whole drama could have been avoided if the Arrwohead boss did what he was told and was probably contractually obliged to do. Arrowhead set a trap for Sony who stumbled gloriously into it. So protecting the imho actual culprit because disliking big guy Sony and their clunky but understandle actions is just weirdly dumb.
The internal discussion with Sony representatives and the Arrowhead CEO for not following through the timely announced PSN linking wish must be still ongoing and "funny". Sony must be pissed but certainly also don't want to just outright kill their partnership, it still is/was a massive hit.
Personally I am quite surprised at how many markets Sony is not really present at, and how their PSN linking wish is not necessarily a suicide move if the implementation is not implemented in such a poor way, but hurting themselves nevertheless, when forced and not only an opt in thing. Maybe they actually were not aware how big of a deal it would be, maybe it was their calculated decision, reversed by the unapproved actions of the Arrowhead boss.
That dude acting like a spoiled brat though, had to go. That seems easy, while equally avoidable, even without losing one's spine...

 

[RagnarokIV]

Should have said he's pissed off with the playerbase having too many white male gamers. He'd have job immunity that way.

 

[phant0m]

Id lose it if the next person to take his place is called swallows.

I still believe Nintendo hired a guy named Doug Bowser

 

[Pejo]

To be fair, they were extraordinarily bad at doing their job of "managing" the community.

"I'm sorry that this has been disruptive to you guys, let me check in with the team on Monday, please hang tight."

Hire me, Arrowhead.

 

[elbourreau]

I'm still surprised how many game companies don't understand the value of a solid community manager, and work with premium dumbasses.

 

[mitch1971]

All I'm wondering is: is Spitz a he or a she?

I will give her that it was a very difficult situation to handle.

He had to apologise a hand full of times for shit stirring.

Gotta respect them for speaking so freely about a tough situation.

 

[STARSBarry]

I for one am happy that they let two-spirit go.

 

[StueyDuck]

I mean... its a community manager, not a lead creative. It may not be nice to hear but it's not like they aren't replaceable.

Let's hope its not one "those" community managers like kotaku would get along with

 

[Fake]

So long.

 

[rofif]

Good. Biting a hand that feeds you... and all of that because of your incompetence to communicate. Arrowhead had a psn deal with sony. they failed to communicate it and reactivate psn

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

ahaha lol

 

[CoreyFlawless]

WTH, dude was for the players. Yet here we having some ppl like, yep that what happen. Dude legit help get this shit fix fast. Sony wouldn’t had turn this back around. It wasn’t for all the backlash