Mark Kern aka Grummz, the former World of Warcraft Team Lead, called for Arrowhead Game Studios to fire their community manager team after one of the company’s Discord moderators accused Kern of sexual assault.
A screenshot from Helldivers II (2024), Arrowhead Game Studios
First, Grummz shared to X screenshots of Helldivers 2 Discord moderator purple squidgeon (purplegi0n), who has since renamed his account to burd, accusing him of sexual assault.
In a post that appears to be deleted, purplegi0n wrote in the Helldivers 2 Discord, “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
However, 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
READ: ‘Stellar Blade’ Removes Kotaku Retweet After Getting Called Out By Grummz
Kern reacted to these posts writing, “Helldivers Moderator purple squidgeon falsely proclaims that I have “sexually assaulted” many people. Falsely claims I sent people to attack their CM’s and their families. Currently banning anyone who defends me or even likes a comment that defends me from this slander.”
He added, “Helldivers 2, Johan Pilestedt this is not okay and your community team is out of control and lying. Also, I am not far-right. I am actually left of center, but these radicals have pushed all sanity into a bucket and kicked it off a cliff.”
Helldivers Moderator purple squidgeon falsely proclaims that I have “sexually assaulted” many people.
Falsely claims I sent people to attack their CM’s and their families.
Currently banning anyone who defends me or even likes a comment that defends me from this slander.… pic.twitter.com/EKw3dhEuVN
— Grummz (@Grummz) May 5, 2024
Following this post, it appeared that the Helldivers 2 Discord moderation team began actively blocking the word “Grummz.”
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
Kern reacted, “Mention of my name is banned from the Helldivers Discord. They are blaming me for their own PR mess.”
“Hey, I wasn’t the one that required PSN accounts,” he added. “You can blame me all you want, but this one is on you.”
Mention of my name is banned from the Helldivers Discord.
They are blaming me for their own PR mess.
Hey, I wasn’t the one that required PSN accounts. You can blame me all you want, but this one is on you. https://t.co/mJnOom8w5u
— Grummz (@Grummz) May 6, 2024
He then called for the Community Manager to be fired.
Kern wrote, “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,” he declared.
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
This is just the latest in a growing track record of immoral and despicable behavior from the Helldivers 2 Community Manager team. Back at the beginning of April Community Manager Katherine Baskin declared Helldivers 2 as “pretty woke” and claimed the game was banning individuals she and the developer Arrowhead Game Studios deemed bigots, transphobes, homophobes, and racists.
As brought to public attention by Mark Kern aka Grummz on X, last month, 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
More recently, Community Manager Spitz claimed that negative feedback would not change Sony’s decision to require Steam players to connect their accounts to a PlayStation Network account.
Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz
This would be proven wrong as Sony did indeed reverse their decision. Nevertheless, Spitz would also mock gamers for not wanting to link their accounts.
Screenshot of Helldivers 2 Community Manager Spitz via SnowBallBoy777 on X
In another screenshot, 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
What do you make of Grummz calling for the Helldivers 2 Community Manager team to be fired?
NEXT: Sony Backs Down On PlayStation Network Account Linking Being Required To Play ‘Helldivers 2’
Being against Woke is now banned. “we only ban the bigots – transphobes, homophobes, racists, etc. are not welcome in our community.”