Helldivers 2, the smash hit multiplayer shooter game where players spread managed democracy by blasting bugs with a wide array of high-tech weaponry, has once again made it's way into the news cycle for all the wrong reasons.
Despite the games massive success, it has been mired in controversy for several months. Back in April, it was revealed that the Community Manager Katherine Baskin was a radical leftist who was abusing her power by banning people who she deemed to be bigots, transphobic, etc.
Upon further investigation, it was revealed that she had a long history of unhinged Twitter posts, complaining about gamers, men and white people.
If I don't report fairly, or omit facts, I would just be Kotaku. This REALLY sucks.
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 5, 2024
So we (everyone on my feed) are now looking into Helldivers Community Manager and I'm getting sent stuff.
I will present without comment. pic.twitter.com/upOOfOvou5
In May, it was announced that Steam players would be required to create a PSN account to continue playing Helldivers 2. This was met with massive pushback, as players took to the game's Steam page in an attempt to reverse the decision by review bombing the game. This ultimately worked, except for the regions around the world that Playstation decided to delist the game from.
Earlier this month, a Discord Moderator for the game began banning people from the server for criticizing furry art that was being uploaded to the server. She wrote, “if you wanna go ahead and vomit react to peoples art that they put hours, days, even weeks or months into im going to give you a 24 hour timeout. It’s so rude. It costs nothing to literally not be a jerk.”
Now the spotlight is back on Helldivers 2 again for all the wrong reasons. An unconfirmed Community Manager Handbook has leaked online, courtesy of Mark Kern on Twitter/X.
LEAK & RUMOR: Helldivers 2 Discord is not the politics neutral space you think it is. The mods think you are a bigot and should be banned on sight for saying you don't want identity politics in games.
— Grummz (@Grummz) June 26, 2024
This unconfirmed Helldivers 2 Community Manager Handbook seems overall… pic.twitter.com/pxFaatGqc5
Grummz wrote, "Helldivers 2 Discord is not the politics neutral space you think it is. The mods think you are a bigot and should be banned on sight for saying you don't want identity politics in games."
This Handbook makes it explicitly clear that using the phrase "identity politics" will result in an instant ban, as they feel that is a codeword for "minorities."
It's incredibly obvious at this point that Helldivers 2, like much of the gaming industry, is captured by woke activists who are antagonistic towards the gaming community and are using their positions of authority to push their ideological agendas.