Warning: The following content may be unsuitable for some readers. Some of which includes racial and homophobic language, as well as threats of violence and references to suicide.

Yesterday, before we had published the piece about the backlash received by Ooblets developer, Glumberland; Ben Wasser who was the center of the controversy published a lengthy post on Medium describing what had followed online since the announcement. To make this very clear, this entire controversy was as a result of one blog post poking fun at how people get angry when a game becomes an Epic Games store exclusive. As a result of this, many were angry because of the Epic announcement. Monkey see monkey do I guess.

In the post, Wasser tells the community surrounding his and his wife’s game, Ooblets, that they are lovely and he wouldn’t expect them to get angry about this sort of thing. What proceeded was several directed comments at Wasser for the said post, calling it “condescending.” Some, however, have taken to creating to what Wasser claimed to be a faked screenshot and then a video of him stating gamers would be “Better off in gas chambers.” This was followed by Wasser stating that he himself is of Jewish descent and this was harmful, rightfully so.

However, this seemed to be the tip of the iceberg as Wasser in his Medium post shares screenshots of messages via Discord, tweets, Private messages through Twitter, and Reddit. One such comment seemingly coming through Discord was, “Have fun cutting yourself, kike.” The K-word in reference being a slur against Jewish people and was in reference to Wasser himself being of Jewish descent.

Another comment from a Discord user, shared by Wasser states, “I heard Y’all niggers took Tencent pesos after stating you wouldn’t[,] is it true that you kikes did[?]” Not only using what we’ve referred to as “the K-word,” but also using the N-word. However, this is not the only message with such language, as a Reddit user says, “I hope a wild pack of nigs rape [you] and your whore.” May I remind you this is all in response to what Wasser has confirmed as a timed-exclusive. A wholeheartedly unacceptable response by anyone.

However, Wasser accepts his responsibility in engaging and riling up the anger once the announcement was made. Wasser said, “I very foolishly engaged with these people, sometimes just answering them, sometimes making jokes, and often saying things in exasperation.” This was followed by, “It was obviously a mistake to engage in that way.” Wasser also goes on to state his innocence when calling specific sections of those sending messages “entitled,” which some are.

I don’t disagree with Wasser’s more measured response, however, it does still pour fuel on the already mobilizing mob that grew from forums reading some things out of context. On a personal level, I still believe some of what was said by Wasser was only done so in the heat of the moment. This does not excuse anything said by Wasser, but does not excuse the racially charged and downright horrible comments by Reddit, Discord, 4Chan, Twitter, and users of other social media platforms either.

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