Bullying is a real problem that many experience, but this kind of thing isn't restricted to kids in high school. God of War creator David Jaffe revealed in a recent tweet that he was bullied for creating a failed multiplayer game, as he felt the full force of its negative reception.
For those unaware, Jaffe headed the project Drawn to Death which came out in 2017, one year before the extremely successful God of War. Unfortunately, this project did not share in the success nearly as much as God of War, and saw terrible reviews and quite a bit of backlash.
Until now, it wasn't entirely clear how this affected Jaffe, and his success just one year later with God of War made it seem as though the game's failure didn't bother him much. The tweet below begs to differ, however, as he reveals that he felt bullied by fans (or rather detractors) of the multiplayer game.
Jaffe responds to a tweet asking what people were bullied for since "bullying is a hot topic right now" stating that he was bullied for releasing Drawn to Death. While many knew that the game didn't go over well, it may come as a surprise that it was this bad for Jaffe. Although it seems that Jaffe is simply exaggerating here, this could be a hint that the creator might have received hate mail and the like for his game. This certainly wouldn't be the first time a developer received hate mail for a game.
That said, that is just speculation, and the tweet above is the only reference to this bullying available right now. In the comments, Jaffe's followers mostly speak positively about the game, and he responds to each with kind words. One comment asks if he was actually bullied for this game to which Jaffe responds that he is just messing around, but continues to say that critics and gamers alike were extremely harsh and that it did feel like bullying at times.
Though this is mostly a light-hearted tweet, it does serve as a reminder to fans to be forgiving and kind, especially to those creators that make the video games they love so much. Jaffe likely wasn't bothered much by this sort of thing, but other developers have had much worse stories that included things like death threats and had serious mental impacts. Kindness is always the better choice.
God of War is available now exclusively for PS4.