this is really weird because it feels like some early cyperpunk proxy information war. like, you had a lot of the gaming press and EA themselves starting to rev up the “HARASSMENT YOU CAN’T CRITICIZE US BECAUSE HARASSMENT” publicity thing that they were obviously starting up before Disney told EA to stop the microtransactions Or Else.
you’ve got one side/end that was benefiting from that fake EA employee that claimed he was getting death threats and personal attacks from it. this from someone on twitter who was being followed by numerous game journalists, industry insiders, and even actual EA employees. pointedly, EA never actually denied that this was an employee but they obviously didn’t confirm it either, and so they exploited useful idiots like Patrick Kleppek and the others trying to argue harassment, if they aren’t using them directly.
and then this other end that seems to have made Disney and the soccer moms into a cat’s paw to get what they want (the microtransactions to go away)
like, any time in a “nerd interest” if you complain directly to artists, writers, the management line, the game developers, what you’d usually get would be a snarky response from someone with bright pink hair, a shitty beard, or both, and you’d end up on some kind of block list. I think whoever did this KNOWS this and decided to attack the money with a pressure point that they specifically went after through a cat’s paw.
disney doesn’t really care about FPS players or Star Wars fan boys being Mad As Hell about this, but I think they did care about the negative mainstream attention on it from actual gambling commissions in european countries looking into this and angry moms.
this is teaching a pretty interesting lesson to people that don’t like corporate interests that control their comics, their nerd shit, whatever.
if you’re a Geek ™ type, no matter if you play video games or read comics, and you complain directly to people then you’ll be basically told “oh suck it up fanboy” with the unsaid part of this statement being “we know you’ll keep buying this no matter how shit it gets because you’re dumb collectors and slaves to this brand no matter what”
but if you use a mainstream proxy that is a demographic that makes the rights holders or controlling company a ton of money?
they might just do what they want as long as you frame it right.