Let's not panic, guilt others, or spread fearmongering...
So, Eldelta, also known as Liam, has made a video on the complications he's faced when trying to create Epic: The Video Game that was supposed to happen and why it might not now. If you'd like to watch Liam's video, which I think you should for proper context and to support Liam, you can here:
My purpose here is not to majorly discuss what Liam has experienced, but to examine how we should go about our conduct moving forward.
I have stumbled upon a post talking about this situation, and I didn't agree with the way it went about things. Now, I AM NOT endorsing the spread of hate to this individual, which is why I'm not linking to their post or tagging them here. I simply want to say that what this person enforced was wrong and encourage going about it differently as the news of this situation spreads. If you do believe you've found the post I am talking about, DO NOT harass them. I didn't make this post to bash them, or because I hate them, but to explain why I think their conduct was wrong and to tell others not to repeat it. If you do harass them, you are deeply in the wrong.
This person in their post encouraged people to no longer support Epic, called Jorge and his team awful people, and claimed that anyone who did support Epic was an evil person. I'm paraphrasing a bit to make finding this person hopefully harder, but the words I'm using are very similar to what they said.
I think doing this is wrong. In Liam's video, he makes it clear that he still supports Epic. He drinks and endorses the official Epic-themed tea in a sponsorship, and doesn't say anything ill about Jorge as a person or Epic as a piece of media. He also says in the description of the video, in part, to "[...] Please be nice to everyone involved. Online hate is never helpful. I’m not trying to start anything, I just really needed to get this off my chest and update people on the state of this project."
Liam also liked a comment that continued to support Jorge and Epic while being transparent:
The post I'm discussing didn't uphold what Liam requested, despite claiming to support Liam. I think that anyone is allowed to feel however they please. They are even allowed to not like Jorge or not support Epic if they want, but using what's happened so far with Liam and the Epic game as a crutch is not how to do that because that's not what Liam's advocated for. If you want to support Liam, there are other methods to do that without playing a martyr, like supporting his Patreon.
Guilt-tripping others who do continue to support Epic as of right now is also not the way to go. Liam has not pushed for people to not support Epic—he does so himself—so guilting fans in his name is not doing what he wants, so you shouldn't act like it is. Liam's video is not an exposé, but him being transparent about the struggles he's had with the project.
I replied to the person's post, saying a lot of what I've stated here. Maybe that wasn't wise of me in hindsight, but I thought the person accidentally made an error, and I wanted to make sure misinformation wasn't spread. The person pretty much ignored my points and said I was making justifications for Jorge and that Jorge was often smiling in his content, which in their view was vile... somehow. I didn't understand what they meant by that. With their reply, it made me wonder if this person truly made their post purely in support of Liam, or if they jumped at a reason to not support Epic and Jorge, using Liam as an excuse, but I can't pretend I know what's in this stranger's heart. If this person is an Epic fan (it would, of course, be okay if they weren't), they might just be panicked and unaware of how to deal with this issue, but fearmongering and guilt-tripping is not the right approach.
All of this to say, I think we should go about this news with grace. We shouldn't scare people out of liking Epic, as if they are bad people for doing so. Liam said in his video that Epic is still his favorite musical, so that'd be very silly to do in his name. We shouldn't act like Jorge is personally a villain in all of this, as Liam does not. I say all this in support of Liam, not to rebuke or worship Jorge.
I think Liam deserves to have the loudest voice in talking about his experience, so it is wrong to speak over him with our own views and tout them as his.
