Kotaku Senior Editor Alyssa Mercante continued to attack Mark Kern while also sharing her disdain for gamers pushing back against corporations.
Alyssa Mercante via Blerd Without Fear! YouTUbe
Mercante took to X on May 6th in the wake of Sony reversing their policy to require gamers to connect their Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account in order to play Helldivers 2.
Sony announced the policy change via their PlayStation account on X, “Helldivers fans — we’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward.”
PlayStation added, “We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans.”
PlayStation on X
READ: Sony Backs Down On PlayStation Network Account Linking Being Required To Play ‘Helldivers 2’
Mercante wrote on X, “Really don’t love the recent collection of events in this industry that are emboldening its worst-behaved actors! If companies were actually considering/talking about the hate movement bubbling right now it’d be a lot harder for them to co-opt everything!”
She then attacked Kern aka Grummz, “Mork Korn really gonna tell you him sending harassment towards community managers is why Helldivers is fixed and you should give him more money so he can goon to women who he could have technically fathered but what do I know.”
Alyssa Mercante on X
Mercante continued, “I spoke about this on Super Deluxe Games Cast, but it’s as simple as releasing a joint letter signed by the big wigs that denounces harassment of CMs and devs and confirms diversity is a natural component of modern gaming and here to stay.”
She then took a shot at Madam Savvy writing, “Don’t love to see the Arrowhead CEO replying to the same woman who thinks the United Nations is making your games woke and is making Pepe Silvia boards about it!! If more people were full-throated talking about these chuds maybe that would not happen!”
Mercante concluded, “If you loudly defended your CMs, asylum Barbie would ‘know where you stand’ and would probably not be politely pinging you.”
Alyssa Mercante on X
As expected, Mercante attempts to spin her own narrative by omitting crucial details. Specifically, that the Helldivers 2 Community Management team employs a Discord moderator that accused Kern of sexual assault.
Helldivers 2 Discord moderator purplegi0n made the accusation in the Helldivers 2 Discord writing, “someone who sexually assaulted many people he worked with, lost his position as ceo. now is a far-right influencer who had people attack more than 1 of our cms & their families.”
Helldivers 2 Discord moderator purplegi0n
In another post he wrote, “anyone here who is a grummz fan please out yourself so I can help you out the door.”
Helldivers 2 Discord moderator purplegi0n
When confronted on his accusations, purplegi0n doubled down writing, “slander implies it was a lie.”
Helldivers 2 Discord moderator purplegi0n
Not only did the Community Management team employ this individual as a moderator, but they also were banning the term “Grummz” from their Discord.
X user EveryEquineInch attempted to post a message reading, “Is that one mod still freaking out about Grummz?” and received a message, “This content is blocked by the server. From server moderators: ‘This message was prevented by a AutoMod rule created by ProBot.’”
EveryEquineInch on X
Not only did one of the Discord moderators accuse Kern of sexual assault and the moderator team banned the term “Grummz,” but the Community Management team has also repeatedly derided gamers.
Back in March, Community Manager Katherine Baskin declared Helldivers 2 was “pretty woke” and claimed the game was banning individuals she and the developer Arrowhead Game Studios deemed bigots, transphobes, homophobes, and racists.
Baskin replied to a Steam curator list that recommended Helldivers 2 and claimed the game was not woke. She initially just wrote, “lmao.”
However, in a response later in the thread she wrote, “plus helldivers is pretty woke dog. game was made by a lot of lgbtq and brown people and black people and women and it’s a big satire of jingoism.”
She added, “it amuses me they don’t know that super earth is bad! it also explains a lot about the world at present.”
Katherine Baskin on X
In the same thread, Baskin revealed she and developer Arrowhead Game Studios were banning individuals from the game’s discord that they deemed as bigots.
She wrote, “we only ban the bigots – transphobes, homophobes, racists, etc. are not welcome in our community.”
“We had to restrict the topics in the HD2 general chats for a while because it was triggering massive waves of hatespeech which our staff was struggling with emotionally,” she added.
Katherine Baskin on X
Following Sony’s announcement that players would need a PlayStation Network account linked to their Steam account in order to play Helldivers 2 — a policy that has since been reversed due to player outrage and feedback — Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz belittled gamers sharing their concern about this new policy.
He wrote, “It’s not like this is the first or even the fourteenth mainstream game to require a third-party account that takes a couple minutes to create, but if it’s a dealbreaker to have to take 120 seconds out of your day to enter an email and password and then forget about it, change your Steam review and make your displeasure known on a platform where it matters.”
Screenshot of Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz via SnowBallBoy777 on X
In another post, Spitz responded to a player that said, “This will kill helldivers 2 on steam. Backpedal or lose your playerbase.” Spitz replied, “I thought you were refunding and leaving.”
Screenshot of Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz via SnowBallBoy777 on X
Following all of this Kern called for the Community Management to be fired. He wrote on X, “Jokes aside, this is a dangerous precedent. If you become *too* effective a critic of Sony and Arrowhead Game Studios, and stand up for gamers, they will ban your name from the Helldivers Discord server and personally attack you. This is blatant abuse of Community Manager power. Worst CM team in history. Fire them.”
Jokes aside, this is a dangerous precedent.
If you become *too* effective a critic of Sony and @ArrowheadGS, and stand up for gamers, they will ban your name from the Helldivers Discord server and personally attack you.
This is blatant abuse of Community Manager power.
Worst… pic.twitter.com/xmIc54ofkr
— Grummz (@Grummz) May 6, 2024
While he called for the team to be fired he has since praised Twinbeard writing, “Props to Twinbeard, the ONLY good Community Manager for Helldivers who helped keep everyone calm and informed during the PR crisis, and never made it about himself. He should be LEAD.”
Props to Twinbeard, the ONLY good Community Manager for Helldivers who helped keep everyone calm and informed during the PR crisis, and never made it about himself.
He should be LEAD.
— Grummz (@Grummz) May 7, 2024
As for Mercante’s shot at Madam Savvy, it’s in response to her asking a number of questions regarding the PlayStation Network account connection requirement.
She asked on X, “There’s something I don’t understand and would appreciate clarification on if possible. You said you knew about the PSN requirement 6 months before launch. Was that not a discussion at the time of signing the contract? Why did it change? Are they able to make changes like that on the fly with anyone? Would you have said no if possible? I am assuming your contracts with them were signed years prior to launch?
There’s something I don’t understand and would appreciate clarification on if possible.
You said you knew about the PSN requirement 6 months before launch.
Was that not a discussion at the time of signing the contract?
Why did it change?
Are they able to make changes like…
— Savvy | Artist (@MadamSavvy) May 5, 2024
Pilestedt responded, “Thank you for the civil questions. We signed HD2 8 years ago. It doesn’t specify details such as account linking. There are always requirements from Publishers during development. This was one of them. We did discuss it and it was deemed as important for PS to have it for an online title. And it was implemented a couple of months before release.”
He continued, “When servers exploded on launch, quick decisions had to be made, such as turning off linking and Galactic war stats to be able to take the load off servers. We couldn’t enable it again because of the risk to explode the servers again (and remember the negative feedback around that) And now, finally, the requirement to reenable came from PS (to help with moderation) – and we had to comply even though there were concerns there would be backlash. There was backlash. And now we’re talking about it again.”
Thank you for the civil questions.
We signed HD2 8 years ago. It doesn’t specify details such as account linking.
There are always requirements from Publishers during development. This was one of them.
We did discuss it and it was deemed as important for PS to have it for an…
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 5, 2024
Savvy reacted to Mercante’s shot, “For the record, she has an issue with a CEO saying thank you to me for the civil questions. If you’d recall, her own questions towards a different CEO were met with said CEO saying she misrepresented him this weekend. ”
She added, “I’m not sure what full throated means and I honestly don’t know what chuds are but if you’re a “writer” with such a limited vocabulary where all you can do is hurl insults, I’m really not concerned about your opinion.”
“Are you calling for harassment for me all because I ask questions? Why would “full throated” talking about “these chuds” stop someone from speaking to me? Doesn’t sound very inclusive,” she concluded.
For the record, she has an issue with a CEO saying thank you to me for the civil questions.
If you’d recall, her own questions towards a different CEO were met with said CEO saying she misrepresented him this weekend.
I’m not sure what full throated means and I honestly don’t… pic.twitter.com/1Cng5GIrbR
— Savvy | Artist (@MadamSavvy) May 6, 2024
Mercante omitting these details is not surprising and its a tactic that The Verge writer Ash Parrish used while covering Sweet Baby Inc. Parrish shared this tactic in DMs that were publicly shared by user YourReadThisWr1.
Parrish explained, ““i’ll share the conversation i had with my editors about this because in preparation for my piece i struggled with this particular bit and the conversation i had really helped me understand kabrutus and his ilk have a grievance against sweet baby inc that is rooted in racism and misogyny and has no basis in the reality of how video game development works. that’s it period.”
“And when you get into the nitty gritty of who did what when, (not, obviously the whos and whats that are necessary to explaining the story) that central premise gets lost,” Parrish elaborated. “and me personally, i have to remember what my piece is ultimately about.”
Harley Quinn about to execute Batman in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024), Rocksteady
She continued, “and it’s not about providing a timeline of events, its bigger than that, its about explaining that the reason you’re hearing about this company called sweet baby and ‘gamergate 2.0’ getting thrown around is because there’s a group of people who decided they hate ‘woke’ video games and found a convenient scapegoat to target and a larger conspiracy to underpin it.”
“with that big picture thesis, those smaller details (even the ones considered important to the players involved!!) become largely immaterial to the story,” she justified.
— YourReadThisWrong (@YourReadThisWr1) March 18, 2024
What do you make of Mercante’s narrative spin that omits details in order to push her narrative against Kern and Madam Savvy?
Alyssa Mercante so needs to be exiled to Venezuela.
Toilet with the lid open.