this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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[–] supernight52@lemmy.world 117 points 2 days ago (8 children)

"These days, apparently anyone who doesn’t include five trans characters in their game and doesn’t let their products be influenced by political bullshit is a Nazi. What a world we live in."

And like that I will not buy anything by this studio ever. Mahler is a whiny bitch baby.

[–] 7112@lemmy.world 88 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This does more damage than the actual review bombs for me

[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

yea for real... like I didn't even know it /was/ being review bombed, but as an avid fan of the Ori series... this puts a real sour taste in my mouth

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 58 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

He had more of similar comments throughout the years so... yeah. He's also known for poor management and causing toxic work environment to the point Microsoft decided to cut ties with the studio.
Just in case someone thought these are just some out of context or one-time "jokes"/missteps.

Heck, here are some bonus links for good measure:

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yup.

I want to say we all found out he was a piece of shit in the lead up to Ori 2? Very much led to a lot of outlets doing the "The game is good but up to you if you want to support this kind of worker abuse". And he just got worse and worse since.

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I want to say we all found out he was a piece of shit in the lead up to Ori 2?

Eh, not necessarily? I'm sure there are plenty of people who just play the games and aren't in the know of any drama going on behind the scenes. Heck, I'm pretty tuned in into what's going on in the industry and while I remember hearing some of this stuff back in the day most of it faded away since I wasn't particularly interested in the series.

I think it's better to remind folks about these situations than assume everyone is familiar with what's going on.

[–] draconik@infosec.pub 10 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I personally love the games and had no clue this drama existed. Kind of regret buying these games now

[–] Oughtakyk@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Same here, if there's any plan to continue the series count me out

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

You already played the games, you enjoy them - it is what it is. There's no point in beating yourself over (not) doing something without knowledge about the circumstances. No one is omnipotent and can avoid supporting every single shitty person out there. Just have fun with what you like and don't support the guy in the future, that's the best one can do in such situation in my opinion.

[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

I don't regret buying them, they are good games, but I don't Condone shitty practices. If you restricted yourself to moral or ethic right companies only you would have nothing to buy sadly. You buying a game != you accepting the ideologies of the leadership of said game.

Just get games you know you enjoy, and ignore all the dramatics that are involved. Life's to short to lock yourself down with it all.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

So then I was correct to spot the plea for positive review bombing his game. Two shades for Machiavellianing your workers, three for us.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 35 points 2 days ago

And

The confusing rant then rather radically changed subject to talk about how he doesn’t want to take sides in the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine

And

In 2022, VentureBeat reported that staff working for Moon Studios had told the outlet about a culture of “casual racism, sexism and bullying,” describing it as “an oppressive workplace.”

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago

Oh shit, thanks for bringing this up. Will definitely never buy a game from this studio again!

[–] LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 17 points 2 days ago

Oof, yep this really does damage to my intention to buy his game more than 'review bombing' often you can tell if there is something fundamentally wrong with a game or not based on the actual content of reviews...Or if users are pushing for an adjustment. If there is a whisper of a trans or gay character in a game, there is so much pushback, so I don't know what the fuck he is on about; Mahler is such a whiny snowflake, that probably needs to take his medication because his post history is looking a little sus. Like he unplugged from reality for a few minutes.

[–] catalyst@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

Yeaaaah, I’m with you. What a wild comment to make. I was ready to give them the benefit of the doubt that the whole review bombing drama was just a case of having a bad day but this is something else.

[–] ChickenAndRice@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh damn. I was going to get the Ori games but will spend my money elsewhere. Thanks for the heads up.

[–] Nikls94@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

🏴‍☠️ them instead

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago

I assumed pretty immediately upon hearing him in a couple of interviews that he was exactly this right winger camoflaughing as a centralist. I gave the game the benefit of the doubt because I hadn't seen any hard evidence but I'll stop talking kindly about the game based on this info.

Politics is how we organize our society. Most of everything is political. When society starts organizing movements against groups of people, stripping away rights, and generally being Nazis you have to get more political to stop them. Taking no position is taking a position. Join the rebellion or support the empire, there is no in-between.

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Takes it all back because A. There was no review bombing, people who left mixed reviews had reasonable and valid complaints, and B. He reversed course as soon as people started pointing out how he was protesting quite a lot about exactly nobody calling him a Nazi.

[–] Cris16228@lemmy.today 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Awwww and I wanted to buy and play them :(

[–] Nikls94@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

👒 🏴‍☠️ 🌊 🚢 you can still play them Arrr

[–] Oughtakyk@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

This is the way 🦜

[–] Cris16228@lemmy.today 2 points 2 days ago

That's when I wear the pirate hat but still! I saw a bundle with the first game :(

[–] mohab@piefed.social 1 points 39 minutes ago

Is this a good time to say Ori is a shit metroidvania? I understand why people like the platforming and chase sequences, but it's a really bad metroidvania as far as everything else goes.